11096195820 Kenmore Dryer - Overview

Received your parts, Popped them both right into place, Even though only one side needed to be replaced, I wanted them to match up. It was amazing how easy this was. My husband was quite impressed I had ordered these rather then look for either a new or used dryer from some other source.

Remove the kick plate from the bottom of the dryer by sliding a putty knife along the top edge to release the plastic clamps, one on each side about 4" in from the edges. The kick plate folds out and down. You will see the heat shield on the right, held in by one hex head screw. Remove screw and heat shield. The element is positioned in a ... Read more n open-front housing and is fastened to the left side of the housing by two hex head screws, located on the "rail" of the element and right near the two wires. Remove the hex-head screws that hold the element in place and disconnected the two wires by pulling them out by hand or with needle nose pliers. The only difficulty here is the cramped working area...I recommend a stubby socket driver for these two screws. Most of this I had to do by feel because I could not see the screw heads. Once the screws are out and the wires have been disconnected, slide the old element straight out toward you. You may need to disconnect a small plastic hose located to the left front of the element, but this hose just pulls right off. Vacume the dust & lint build-up out of the whole area, wipe out the element housing and clean up the whole underside of the dryer prior to installing the new element. Installation is reverse of removal. It also might be a good opportunity to clean out your exhaust duct and the vent to the outside. (Never use the aluminum foil-accordian-type duct.) If the exterior dryer vent has any kind of screen over it, remove it and get rid of it. Screens collect lint, lint builds up and burns out elements.

Our dryer is 8 years old and had been slowly taking longer and longer to dry clothes, to the point that I was ready to purchase a new one. When the dryer stopped heating completely, I removed the bottom panel and found that the heating element was no longer working. I checked online and found this website. The top two recommended fixes f ... Read more or this issue was to replace the heating element and/or thermal cut-off kit (two sensors). I chose to purchase both, delivered to me very quickly (two days). I figured for $80 you can't go wrong. Here's the procedure I followed:

On my particular model, the back does NOT come off and all of my repairs had to be made via the front, bottom panel.

(1) disconnected 6 wires (3 pairs) from the heating element and two thermal sensors
(2) removed entire heating element 'sleeve" which contained both the heating element AND the two sensors. The space is way too tight to try and do this any other way (and I highly recommend this method to save a ton of time and frustration.)
(3) vaccummed out the entire inside of the dryer, clearing all lint and debris, including tons of lint creating a blockage, thus slowing the ability to dry over the years
(4) replaced sensors and heating element
(5) installed heating element & Thermal sensors back inside and reconnected all wires
(6) tested dryer to ensure that heating element lit up and produced heat - it worked beautifully!

Besides fixing the heating issue, cleaning out the clogged lint pipe at the back of the dryer and wall have made the old dryer new again. It's working better than ever!