I have a Frigidaire Gallery Series electric dryer model #GLEQ942CS0 that has a persistent problem or multiple problems.

A month ago, the dryer seemed to be stuck on pause. Wouldn’t go at all. Strange looking error messages. I took out the main electronic control board, popped off its cover, and found a black melted spot the size of a dime in the middle of the circuit board – fried board. Looked like a 110V short.

I replaced the board for $130 or so. Within a few days, I noticed that some LEDs on the front panel were flickering and some were non-functioning. A couple of weeks later, the dryer stopped heating. It would go through a cycle in the normal way, but no heat.

Near one end of the control board, there's a black plastic box, about 1" x 1" x 1.5". It's soldered onto the board, and it has two leads (110V?) connected to it. Well, I found that the plastic housing around one of the leads was completely melted and the insulation on the lead wire had started to melt off. So I ordered yet another control board - $130 - which arrives tomorrow.

While I'm waiting for the shipment, I checked other things. I found that the thermistor (Part 1156925) down near the blower at the front of the machine was blown. I've replaced that.

Then, I discovered that one of the 110V wires leading across the top of the machine from the control board back to the thermal limiter (Part 916824) had loosened from the bundle of wires and was rubbing on the drum. In fact, the rubbing of the revolving drum had completely removed a part of the insulation. And that bare wire was the one that connected to the melted part of the control board. So there was the cause of at least one problem.

Here are the questions. After reinsulating the shorted wire, rebundling it so it can't touch the drum again, replacing the blown thermistor (Part 1156925), and replacing the melted main control board (Part 1037951) do you think I'll be done?

Or do you think I'll also have to replace the thermal limiter (Part 916824) or the high limit safety thermostat (Part 508516)? Would either of them have blown or burned up, too? Is there a way to test everything without risking burning up another control board?

Thanks in advance for your good advice!

Diggadee

Hi Diggadee,

Sounds like you've replaced everything that controls the heating element and motor, the new control you'll be getting should get you back in business again.

To test the thermostats and thermal limiter, you unplug your dryer and get an ohm meter to test them for continuity.

To test the thermistor, you use this chart to check for the proper resistance per the temperature:


Jake

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Thanks, Jake.

I put it back together and it seems to be working (fingers crossed). I didn’t replace the thermal limiter (Part 916824) or the high limit safety thermostat (Part 508516).


Still the LEDs aren’t displaying right. Some work fine, some are dead, some flicker. I can live with that, if it’s nothing serious.


My questions:

• Were the LEDs damaged by the short?
• Are malfunctioning LEDs evidence of something else that needs to be repaired?
• Were malfunctioning LEDs part of the cause of the other problems?

If the LED damage resulted from the earlier problems and won’t cause further damage to expensive electronics, I can live with it. What do you think?

Diggadee



> >

Those are good questions, but I don't have the answers, if I did answer them, it would be speculation on the LED issue.

Now in your first post you said you ordered another control board assembly, did you get it yesterday and install it? If so did it work, but the LED's still aren't displaying correctly?

Jake

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Thanks for the quick response, Jake. Yes, I replaced the control board (Part 1037951) and the thermistor (Part 1156925).

The dryer seems to be working properly, but the LEDs are not.

Maybe this is a clue -- the first time the control board burnt up, the burned spot was inside the white plastic enclosure, in the middle of the printed circuit board. The second time, it melted outside of the white plastic enclosure where the 110v wire is connected to the little black box (transformer?) near one end of the control board.

I wonder if the heat from the first short-out in the middle of the control board could have melted part of the LED circuit -- they're pretty close together on the top front of the dryer. But I'm not even sure how to get the LED circuit out to look at it. It seems to be between layers of metal cabinet and plastic trim that are snapped together, not screwed.

I just wish I knew whether messed up LED circuits now could cause the control board to short out aagin. I'm using the dryer, hoping that the latest repair will last...

Diggadee

Are you talking about the LED that came with the new control board#1 or #29 here:


Jake

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Jake's Appliance Repair Nov. 2005-present

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Dang, and I was trying to be so precise! Sorry!

I'm talking about the little round LEDs that are supposed to light up when you choose various options. (The ones that seem to be permanently attached to part 29, in the diagram.) About half of them light up as they should, about a quarter of them stay black even when selected, and about a quarter of them flicker when they're supposed to be lit. We can live with those LEDs not working properly if it's not causing damage to something else.

The LED panel that shows time, the one that came with the control boards (both times) has worked OK, even after the control boards were partially melted and the dryer wouldn't work.

Diggadee

Hi Jake,

Sorry to be so obsessive about this, but I've invested about $300 in parts for this machine now...

Since I didn’t replace the thermal limiter (Part 916824) or the high limit safety thermostat (Part 508516)...if they were damaged somehow by the shorts, could they cause damage to the control board if I keep using them -- the dryer seems to be heating and turning and all -- or could some kind of unknown damage to the thermal limiter (Part 916824) or the high limit safety thermostat (Part 508516) be causing the LEDs not to work correctly?

Diggadee

I doubt that anything caused the control panel LED'S to go bad, but its possible, just I've never seen anything blow out some of the control panel lights.

I'd say you would need a new control panel assembly#29.

Here's the one for your model, its the cheapest one I found:
Manufacturer's Number: 134208360


Jake

__________________
Appliance Repair School 1987-1988
Star Appliance Tech. 2 yrs. 1988-1990
Wards Appliance Tech. 11 yrs. 1990-2001
Sears Appliance Tech. 4 yrs. 2001-Oct. 2005
Jake's Appliance Repair Nov. 2005-present

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Hi Jake

I think we'll just live with the busted LEDs. Since some of them light up as they should, if you count beeps while pushing the buttons, it's not too hard to imagine which broken LEDs would be lighted if they were working properly.

Diggadee