Home appliances like dryers make our modern lives so much better. Rather than waiting hours or days for clothing to air dry on a line outside—assuming the weather isn’t wet—you can pull out a set of warm clothes ready to wear within an hour of throwing them in.
Yet for all the convenience dryers bring, they can also cause a lot of headaches. This is especially so when the heating your dryer relies on to dry clothes isn’t working. Whether heating too much or not enough, it can be frustrating.
While many dryers come with a reset button, KitchenAid dryers don’t. Because of this, you’ll want to look into other fixes first—such as holding the start button, testing and replacing heating components, or cleaning out dryer vents.
Given this information, this post will detail what you can do to fix your dryer instead.
KitchenAid Dryer Reset Button Location
Countless dryers come with convenient reset switches or buttons for the thermostats. These switches work by returning the components to default settings—for the high-limit thermostat, that means resetting the maximum temperature it will let the dryer reach.
Unfortunately, KitchenAid dryers don’t have a thermostat reset button or switch. You’ll need to try other DIY tricks to save money on a technician or appliance replacement.
Read through the section below for guidance on what else you can do to fix your dryer’s under- or overheating problem.
What to Do Instead of Pressing the Reset Button
Without a reset button to press, you may feel like you’re out of luck when fixing your dryer—now you’ll surely have to hand out some serious cash to get it repaired or replaced. Right?
Luckily, there’s more you can do to get your appliance in working order. The following fixes are much quicker than waiting for a technician—and a lot cheaper.
Hold Down the Start Button or Unplug the Dryer
And wait. While there isn’t a reset button on the thermostat, holding down the start button for a few seconds should send it into a hard reset.
If holding down the start button and waiting a few minutes doesn’t work, try unplugging the dryer and leaving it be for a while—anywhere from 10 minutes to an hour.
Clean Out the Appliance
Lint can escape the dryer drum and screen and gather in a bunch of different places within your dryer, affecting airflow and heating.
The exhaust duct is one of the first places you’ll want to check. If heated air can’t efficiently escape the dryer to the outside because the duct is obstructed, it will overheat. All you need to do is unplug the dryer from its power supply, grab a flashlight, and pull out whatever you find.
You’ll also want to look at the lint filter or filters within the dryer that are supposed to catch excess lint. They won’t be able to capture more lint if they’re already full—full filters should be replaced.
Finally, inspect the blower housing or blower wheel and other components within the dryer and around the panels for blockages. Clean them out if there’s any buildup.
This is a maintenance step that you’ll want to perform regularly since lint buildup can increase the risk of a fire from your machine.
Change Up Your Laundry
At times, it’s not the components in our dryer but the way we use our dryer that causes problems.
If you’re stuffing lots of clothing into the drum—or perhaps lots of bulky, heavy items—air won’t be able to circulate around the drum as efficiently. Without this hot air to dry your laundry, it will stay wet.
Additionally, throwing in laundry that’s still so saturated with water that it’s dripping will also make it take longer to dry because of all the excess moisture.
Test the Heating Components (Heating Element, Thermal Fuse + Thermostat)
Getting to these components is pretty straightforward: All you need to do is unscrew the 9 screws holding the rear access panel in place and pull it off. Underneath, you’ll find the heating assembly box on the right side. The thermostat and fuse will be on the side of that box toward the bottom.
One of the components you’ll want to look at is the heating element, which takes heat from the ignitor (in a gas dryer) and sends it over to the drum. If it’s misshapen or a multimeter reveals that it doesn’t have continuity, replace it.
Similarly, replace the thermostat or thermal fuse if either component shows no continuity.
Plug your dryer back into its power source and run a standard dry cycle to verify whether your fixes have worked.
It is certainly disappointing that KitchenAid dryers don’t come with thermostat reset buttons as other dryer models do. But luckily, pressing a reset button isn’t the only fix for your appliance.
On top of the fixes listed above, you can consider investigating the moisture sensor or ignition assembly, though these might be more intensive.
Additionally, you can run a diagnostics cycle from the control panel and consult the user manual or another resource with the error codes you receive. These error codes on the display panel can guide you to the source of your heating problem.
