The short answer
A dryer on the FDE line that tumbles but leaves the load damp has either lost its heat or lost its airflow, and the two feel different: no heat at all means an electrical or gas-side fault, while warm-but-damp means the moisture cannot leave. On this page the vent comes first: a dryer that heats and cannot exhaust is the commonest version of this complaint. Establish which of the two you have before touching anything, because they share almost no causes.
What you are seeing on the FDE line
- The load is hot but still damp at the end — Heat without airflow. The moisture has nowhere to go and the cycle ends on time.
- Drying takes several cycles where it used to take one — Gradual restriction: the duct has been filling with lint for months.
- NEAR MISS — no heat and the drum will not turn either — Then this is a power or belt fault rather than a heating one, and it starts at the breaker and the drive.
Causes, most likely first on the FDE line
- The vent run or lint screen is restricted — Ranked first on the FDE line because it is the most common reason a working dryer stops drying, because it is free to fix, and because the same restriction is what later opens the cut-outs and starts fires.
- The cycle selected runs cool by design — Selection faults rank above hardware because they are instant to rule out and cost nothing when they are the answer.
- Half the electrical supply, or the gas, is missing — A double-pole breaker can lose one side, and a gas shut-off can be closed after unrelated work. Both leave a machine that behaves normally apart from the heat.
- A thermal fuse or cut-out has opened — Last as a part, first as an explanation: it is why the heat stopped, but never why it overheated.
Check in this order, and why that order
- First — clean the lint screen, then disconnect the duct at the machine and run it — Strong warm air at the outlet with the duct off, and weak air at the hood with it on, names the duct as the fault.
- Then — check which cycle is selected — Air-fluff and delicate options run cool by design. Select a normal or high-heat cycle before judging the machine.
- Only then — switch the breaker fully off and on, and check the gas shut-off if fitted — An electric dryer with one supply leg missing tumbles and never heats. Re-seating the breaker is the free test for it.
- STOP here if the next check needs a panel off or a meter on live terminals — Everything above can be done with nothing dismantled; past it the checks need test equipment.
Before you open anything
Safety
Unplug the dryer or switch off its breaker before any panel comes off — a capacitor can hold a charge after the power is off, and the heater terminals stay live whenever the machine is connected. If yours is a gas model and you smell gas: do not switch anything on or off, leave the building, and call the gas utility or emergency services from outside; do not look for the leak yourself. Never run the machine with the vent disconnected into the room, and never bypass a thermal cut-out to get a load finished.
Where the owner job ends
Call once the vent is clear, the cycle is right and the supply is proven, because the next steps mean a meter on the thermostats, the fuse and the element — or, on a gas machine, on the igniter and valve coils. On the FDE line, call rather than continue if the rear panel has to come off. Gas work is licensed work: if yours is a gas dryer, nothing beyond the shut-off and the cycle selection is an owner job.
Other faults covered for the FDE line
Lead Appliance Repair Technician · 12 years experience
Experienced technician with 12 years specializing in washing machine and dryer repairs across all major brands.
