Common Reasons Why Your Kenmore Dryer Won't Turn On (& How To Fix It)

Failures should be proportional to whatever's not working. When a digital wristwatch stops working, you don't really expect any fanfare. A desk lamp owes us at least an electric bzzzzrrt when it leaves us in darkness. And a dryer should be obliged to announce its treachery with a tile-shattering thunk... but more often, a dryer fails to cooperate by simply doing nothing whatsoever, or worse, presenting the faint humming sound of an electric dryer motor that's gone bad. 

This sort of thing always happens an hour before your job interview, of course. Without evidence that the dryer has fully surrendered, intuition tells you it's not really dead. Did you close the door all the way? Push the right buttons? Perhaps a knob is stuck between settings? This simply can't be the way it fails, you think — a dryer should quit with the sound of asteroids striking a hull, or bricks being tumbled with windowpanes and metal pipes. Instead, you get this unsettling quiet. If you're not an expert, it's hard to deduce what the quiet might mean. 

That's why Hunker spoke exclusively to Garret Bergstrom, Virtual Appliance Expert at Frontdoor, about the various problems that could cause a Kenmore dryer to not turn on, and what you can do about it. He described some common issues: "Depending on the model, a bad door switch, thermal fuse, belt switch, bad belt, control board, motor, tripped breaker or even bad house wiring could prevent a Kenmore dryer from turning on," Bergstrom said. That might sound intimidating, but he added a hopeful note, explaining that, "Many of these parts can be diagnosed and replaced with some basic tools found in your home."

So, given all those possibilities, where do you start? With your senses, it turns out, and with power. As Frontdoor Virtual Appliance Expert Garret Bergstrom told Hunker, "Always try to verify that the dryer or any appliance that is having this issue has power. You could cycle power at the circuit breaker panel in your home, look for the light in the drum when the door is opened (if applicable) or check that the lights on the display illuminate." 

These are all clues, but it usually takes a few clues to diagnose the actual problem. The drum light not illuminating could be a power problem, but it could also be a problem with the light itself or, most likely of all, with the switch that operates the light when you open and close the door. In fact, that's one of the most common points of failure for dryers. Other common causes include timers in older models and items of clothing (perhaps some adventurous sock errant) gumming up the works. As Bergstrom puts it, "In some cases, some smaller articles of clothing may get into the blower section and prevent the motor from rotating. This is generally associated with a humming noise; however, the drum will not rotate when trying to start a cycle. Using an inspection mirror, homeowners can investigate the blower section and determine if something is stuck in the blower."

Bergstrom also noted that when the timer on older Kenmore models goes out, it can make it so the machine won't even start. "Luckily, timers can be replaced after troubleshooting fairly quickly," Bergstrom said.

During his exclusive interview with Hunker, Garret Bergstrom said that appliance owners shouldn't hesitate to ask for help with any stage of the repair process, from Kenmore dryer troubleshooting, to finding parts, to advice on the repair itself. "If possible, I would recommend calling for service into your home," he said, "as it allows the appliance to still be in the state of failure in its normal environment and helps servicers identify where the problem may be coming from outside the appliance itself. I would always suggest using the Frontdoor app, as it is the safest, most certain and cost-effective way to decide whether further professional service is needed."

Even if you're not going to become an appliance repair expert, you can certainly become an expert user and avoid some of the problems that create the need for repair in the first place. For example, keeping your dryer clean, especially its exhaust vent, reduces common airflow problems for dryers. "A lack of airflow as a result increases dry times, prevents heat from circulating properly within the dryer, and causes premature part failure and added wear on moving parts," Bergstrom said. 

And remember that sound of failure we said you feel like you should get from your dryer? Maybe you did get it, after all. "Sometimes, a dryer may start making noise or thump, which homeowners tend to ignore," Bergstrom said. "Ignoring anything like this that may signify a problem often leads to even more issues outside the original one you're trying to fix."