Kitchen Large Electric Appliances - Our gas dryers keep dying!

Hi,

We moved into our 100-year-old house in January of 2008. In the basement we had an old 1990's Kenmore washer/gas dryer set. Back in December the dryer broke -- it would spin but would not heat up.

We decided to replace the washer/dryer with a Bosch set (model Next 300). They were great for a few months, then suddenly the same thing happened to the dryer -- it would spin but would not heat up. The repair guy had to make a few trips to get it to work (he said it was the igniter). Two weeks later, same thing again. Spun but wouldn't heat up.

At this point we were fed up and got Lowe's to replace the dryer with a new one. The delivery guy hooked up the new dryer, turned it on -- same thing. Spun but wouldn't heat up. (He brought in the new dryer before taking out the old one so it was definitely not the same dryer.)

Now we were REALLY fed up and got Lowe's to replace the Bosch set with a new Whirlpool set. It's been a few days and everything's fine so far... so, my question: Are we just incredibly unlucky, or could there be external factors that would cause the dryer to not heat up / not ignite the gas?

We have two water heaters and a new GE range hooked up to the new gas line and they're fine. There are definitely no closed valves etc. The second delivery guy even turned on the gas with the dryer disconnected to make sure gas was flowing.

I don't want the same thing to happen to the new Whirlpool dryer... is there something about our basement / gas line / etc that could be killing these dryers? I read through the sticky posts but couldn't find anything.

Thanks!

Might not be killing the driers per se, but you need to have the Gas company check the gas pressure in the house when all the appliances are working. In relation to the other appliances, where is the dryer on the line? Is it last? Does the gas line come into the house and reduce then reduce size as it goes along? Or is it the same size all the way? I would be suspicious if you have 1/2" piping throughout the house. How old is the piping? Over a long time the piping could rust internally. I'm assuming this is black iron pipe, right? How is the house heated? Gas?

could be poor air flow leaving the home blowing the thermal fuses

Sorry, I just realized I started this thread in the "electric" forum instead of "gas".

I can call the poco and have them check the pressure. This weekend I can also try to clean out the dryer vent hose.

The gas piping is definitely old. It's black iron, 3/4" throughout.
It feeds two water heaters, a new high-efficiency gas furnace, the dryer, and a new gas range. The piping to the dryer is somewhere in the middle of the run. The range is at the end of the run, and it's been totally fine. Only the dryers have had problems.

It could be that you've had some bad luck. How long is the dryer vent run? How many turns does it make? If you have a long run you might need this:

Clothes Dryer Vent Booster (http://www.acmemiami.com/dryerjet.html)

The run is about 20'. None of it is the "flexible" hose, it's all rigid metal. It has a couple of 45 degree bends down by the dryer and then a 90 degree bend at the ceiling, then it goes straight across the basement ceiling to the outside.

(Our HVAC guy actually fixed this when we moved in... previously there were 7 different 90-degree bends plus the flexible tubing).

Even if the exhaust vent was the problem, would this break the dryer's igniter/heating/etc?

It shouldn't; maybe you've just received several roughly handled dryers in a row. I would have been very unhappy with your former vent piping. Did the failures occur before or after the vent was reconfigured?

Even if the exhaust vent was the problem, would this break the dryer's igniter/heating/etc?

yes. it could blow the thermal fuse and then it wouldnt heat