I picked this Amana dryer up from one of the scrappers I work with — twenty dollars. It was in rough shape cosmetically, but rough shape on the outside doesn’t tell you much about what’s going on inside. I’ve bought machines that looked like they’d been left in a hurricane and had nothing wrong except a five-dollar part. So you don’t pass on a twenty-dollar dryer because it’s ugly.
This particular morning it was 29 degrees when I started. By the time I finished diagnosing it had warmed up to the high 50s. That’s Louisiana winter for you — you start the day in a coat and by afternoon you’ve got the shop door open.
Watch the Full Teardown and Rebuild
The Business Side of Flipping Machines
Once you’re established in this business, machines come to you. Scrappers bring them by. Customers who just bought a new set need the old one hauled off. People call because they know you’ll give them twenty bucks and they don’t have to deal with it. You put a few hours and a few dollars into a fixable machine and you sell it for what the market will bear. On a dryer like this Amana, that’s typically $150 to $225 depending on what you put into it. That’s a solid return for an afternoon of work. You have to be able to tell the difference between a machine worth flipping and a machine worth parting out — not every twenty-dollar dryer deserves four hours of labor.
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Diagnosing the Amana Dryer Thermal Fuse Failure
The complaint on this dryer was no heat. On a Whirlpool-style electric dryer — and Amana dryers are built on the Whirlpool platform — the no-heat list starts with the thermal fuse and works from there. The thermal fuse is a one-shot safety device that blows when the exhaust temperature gets too high. Once it blows, it’s open circuit and the dryer won’t heat again until you replace it. It does not reset. The important thing when testing these components: probe directly across the terminals of the part, not through the wires. If you probe through the wire and the wire has continuity, you’ll get a good reading even if the component is open. Lift one wire off the component you’re testing, probe across it bare, and you know exactly what you’re dealing with. On this Amana, the thermal cutoff fuse had blown. Everything else in the circuit checked out — one of the cheapest fixes on a dryer.
What You Need
For Whirlpool and Amana dryers, the 279973 or the 279769 thermal cut-off kit is what you want. It includes the thermal fuse and the high-limit thermostat, the cycling thermostat, and low-end fuse — replace all when one goes, because the thermostat’s job is to protect the fuse, and if the fuse blew, one of the thermostats may be weakened:
- BlueStars 279973 Thermal Cut-Off Kit (Fuse + Thermostat) — Buy on Amazon
- 279769 Thermal Cut-Off Kit (Fuse + Thermostat) — Search on Amazon
- 279838 Heating Element with Thermal Fuse and Thermostat Kit — Buy on Amazon
- Klein Tools MM300 Digital Multimeter — Buy on Amazon
After the Thermal Fuse Fix
Replace the fuse, clear the exhaust duct before you button it back up — a plugged duct is usually why the fuse blew in the first place — and run the machine through a full heat cycle. If it heats consistently, you’ve got yourself a dryer to sell. Clean it up, paint if needed, and put it out there.
Before you spend money on a service call, check my repair guides on Gumroad. Step-by-step diagnostic manuals for the most common washer and dryer problems. harperknowles.gumroad.com
Rather have a pro do it? If you’re anywhere in central Louisiana — Oakdale, Oberlin, Elizabeth, Pitkin, Pine Prairie, and Glenmora — Harper & Knowles handles this all the time. Call (337) 831-6757 or visit harperandknowles.com to schedule a service call.
About the Author: Chip Knowles owns Harper & Knowles Washing Machine and Dryer Repair LLC in Oakdale, Louisiana. He took over the shop in 2019 from his late friend and mentor Donald Harper Sr. New video every Sunday at 2 PM Central on YouTube.