Well, the dryer has been disassembled and vacuumed, the dead coil removed, the new coil swapped in, ready to reassemble as soon as the new belt arrives. I was surprised how much of the brown shmutz in the heater was just ash from the coils - it dusted off quite shiny after I replaced the coil.

Before

busted heating element before

After

repaired heating element

I’m a little worried about the visibly duller part of the heater assembly, hopefully that won’t absorb too much heat - I tried to cluster the coils a bit looser there to compensate.

It’s even visible on the reverse side.

dull area where burn happened

Either way, I’m reassembling tomorrow when the new belt arrives.

dryer interior

  • Oh, regarding the burned spot, if the coil failed because it picked up lint, that burned on, insulated/heated up more from the lint catching fire/whatever, bending the coil outwards could actually make it more likely to catch lint/whatever. No idea with your dryer if that chance is better or worse than the possible benefits of spreading, just a thought.