Fixed: dryer not heating up (Hoover vision hd 381)
Just fixed a hoover vision hd 381 tumble dryer. Thanks to the help on this site and others. Thought I would share my experience here. Problem was tumbledryer not getting hot. Traced it fairly quickly to a blown heating element. Took the back heater cover off (bulging silver panel), unscrewed heater, peered inside and it was somewhat charred (tested the thermostats which were fine). Dryer works now.
The really tricky thing was unplugging the heating element to replace it. The plugs are located inside the main housing.
However, the advice found on much of the internet to how to do this is incorrect. In particular the advice to remove the drum is not correct.
The way you access the plugs is by pulling the main heating wire through the hole in the unit, and feeding the plugs through one by one.
Then you can simply unplug the old one, plug in the new one.
Two things are necessary for this:
i) Remove the rubber collar keeping the main wire secure in the hole into the main unit.
ii) Pushing the plastic grommet through the small hole in the main unit. This grommet immobilises the main wire - you won't feed it through without it being released. You'll see quickly what this looks like on the replacement heater you should already have. The white plastic grommet protrudes a little out of the back of the unit close to where the heating wire enters the unit. Pinch it with a pair of pliers and push it back into the unit. The wire will then be free to pull through, and one plug at a time will fit through till you have all four. Then just pull the plugs off (pushing the new ones on requires quite alot of force).
In fact it is not necessary to strip down the unit at all to do this, apart from one thing: putting the grommet back for the new heater. It needs to be pushed from the inside. This probably isn't strictly necessary (I say probably), but I did it anyway. I suspect the grommet is there so that if the heater hangs free, it doesn't pull the wire up and stress the plugs. But I wanted to put the thing back exactly like I found it.
However, you still don't need to take the drum out to do this. You do however need to take the plastic mounting off that supports the drum. Then you can reach in with your hand and manouver the grommet into place.
So the repair ideally should be firstly to replace the heater in the way described above. Then put the cover back on as you'll need the unit on its back later.
Briefly, instructions for stripping down the unit:
i) Unscrew the 3 top screws located on the back of the unit holding the top of the unit on. Slide the top back and lift it off.
ii) Disconnect the door by undoing the allen key screws. Once these are off, lift the door off.
iii) Unscrew the plastic faceplate from the top (2 screws), to reveal two of 8 screws holding the metal front in place. I wired the plastic faceplate (with control knobs) onto the unit so I could still access these 2 screws, without the faceplate hanging free and risking disconnecting something.
iv) Unscrew the remaining 6 screws (4 near the rubber seal, 2 at the very bottom). Remove the rubber seal carefully.
v) Lift the metal front off, and disconnect the wires (keep track of which goes where!) Place the machine on its back (support it with blocks where the bulging heating element is).
vi) Unscrew the four nuts holding the plastic mounting which supports the drum.
vii) Slide the plastic mounting up by about 10mm and hinge it out from the bottom. This lifts the felt seal off the drum. The machine needs to be on its back so the drum which is now only held on to the back plate doesn't stress itself under its own weight. Make sure you know where the wires need to be fed. I took videos and pictures on my phone at each step.
viii) It should now be possible to reach in past the drum and click the grommet back in place.
cheers
Mat
(
[email protected] if anyone wants to ask questions).
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