Based on the following info, would you say I need a new thermostat or a new sensor for my dryer?

Question

My dryer is supposed to sense when clothes are wet, damp and so on and adjust dry time accordingly. However, for the last couple months, none of my loads are getting totally dry. I end up having to do a "time dry" of 20 or 30 more minutes. This makes me think the humidity sensor is bad. BUT I have noticed that when I try and manually set the dryer to "air dry" which is supposed to not have any heat at all, it is definitely putting out heat. This makes me feel that I've got a bad thermostat. I always clean the lint screen with each load and there is lots of air coming out the exhaust outside. What would your first guess be? Could it be both the thermostat AND the sensor?

Answer 1

Look inside the drum and you will see the sensors. A black bulge on the back wall with 2 streaks of stainless steel in the housing. The clothes rub against these and the moisture sensing board detirmines the dryness of the clothes. When no more dampness is detected then the board powers the timer motor and it moves over to the end of the cycle and shuts down. On AUTO the clothes should be dry when the dryer shuts down. So that tells me you have lint issues. The vent pipe and hose needs cleaning as well as the inside of the dryer. Jusy taking it apart and blowing it out most times will fix the problem. Sometimes that board(mounted beside the timer in a card slot)can be yanked out an it's copper contacts cleaned of corrosion then reinstalled.