there is no heat in the whirlpool dryer awz121. One of the connecting switches and thin cable had burnt out. I have replaced these and took the heating element out, to clean. the heating element looks brand new. I put it back together and it is still blowing out cold air.

carl, October 2004

This is really useful - I'm trying to fix the same problem.

Which of the contacts should I be testing the resistance across?

There are 2 brown (power?) wires that enter two relay/switch like devices. These exit the relay/switches as black wires, which lead to the two pencil-like connections to the heater element.

I get infinite resistance between both the brown input wires, and also infinite across the two pencil-like connections.

I assume one of these is the correct test, is it??

Cheers, this has been really useful.

Paul G

Paul Greenhalgh, April 2007

As a follow-up to my previous answer (see below), I have replaced the heater element this weekend, and voila, the dryer is working again! :-)
(I measured the resistance of the new heater element before installation, it was about 22 Ohm, which, by the way, nicely corresponds to the estimate obtained from Ohm's law.)

David, November 2005

This is interesting, we have exactly the same Whirlpool dryer (AWZ121) and also ours is only blowing cold air. I checked the the heater element, it has 'infinite' resistance, so I am now ordering a new heater element. I will post the outcome as soon as I know more.

David, November 2005

Continuity check the heater element. If open line replace it.

Dave, November 2005

Did you fix this - exactly the same has happened on ours

Ian Hutchinson, May 2005