FIRE...But Who Knows When or Where

This is very repairable, this was either caused by a bad wire on the thermostat or a metal foreign object fell through the drum seal above and caused a short. MT later added a metal shield above the thermostats to stop these shorts and resulting fires from happening so often.

If this is a gas dryer you may want to check the circuit breaker for the outlet where the dryer is plugged in, as this is a lot of damage from a short, usually we only see this type of damage on electric dryers as they are on 30 Amp breakers where you can get lots of fire works when something goes wrong. Ideally a vintage [ or really any ] gas dryer should only be on a 15 Amp circuit for greatest safety.

This dryer like most dryers of this vintage were a much greater fire hazard than dryers in the 80s where manufactures started adding thermal safety fuses. These early MT SOH dryers were more dangerous than most other dryer of this time period because of all the plastic parts used, and worst of all the blower wheel loved to strip loose from the motors shaft leaving you with a dryer running with a gas flame or a 5400 watt heater heating away with no air movement, never a good situation.


Forum Topics & Rules Manuals & Literature	New users Click-here to sign-up

Post# 722735 12/23/2013 at 15:50 (3,774 days old) by rberryiii3 (Palm Springs, California)
Checkrate/Likes Hi all: I decided to change the high heat thermostat in the Maytag DG 808 , which I assumed was bad because the dryer was taking way to lone to dry a load. I knew I was in trouble when I first saw this. Not only are the wires to the Thermos melted, the Thermos has melted into the exhaust housing and the felt band(far left) that connects the blower to the vent housing is fried, So the project after x-mas is to part out the gold DE 808 (purchased for parts, assuming I cannot buy parts for these beauties) and try and fix the DG 808, suggestions ,repair manuals and any cheerful words for a real repair novice would be greatly appreciated. Hope everyone has a wonderful Christmas and a blessed New Year. I forgot to mentioned that my partner of 20 years and I were married during our Thanksgiving Trip to Baltimore. Rob PS If anyone needs parts from the DE806 let me know.

Post# 722739 , Reply# 1 12/23/2013 at 16:06 (3,774 days old) by stchuck (Winfield, il.)
Checkrate/Likes *congrats* On getting married!

Post# 722782 , Reply# 2 12/23/2013 at 19:30 (3,773 days old) by combo52 (50 Year Repair Tech Beltsville,Md)
Checkrate/Likes *Burned Up Thermostat* This is very repairable, this was either caused by a bad wire on the thermostat or a metal foreign object fell through the drum seal above and caused a short. MT later added a metal shield above the thermostats to stop these shorts and resulting fires from happening so often. If this is a gas dryer you may want to check the circuit breaker for the outlet where the dryer is plugged in, as this is a lot of damage from a short, usually we only see this type of damage on electric dryers as they are on 30 Amp breakers where you can get lots of fire works when something goes wrong. Ideally a vintage [ or really any ] gas dryer should only be on a 15 Amp circuit for greatest safety. This dryer like most dryers of this vintage were a much greater fire hazard than dryers in the 80s where manufactures started adding thermal safety fuses. These early MT SOH dryers were more dangerous than most other dryer of this time period because of all the plastic parts used, and worst of all the blower wheel loved to strip loose from the motors shaft leaving you with a dryer running with a gas flame or a 5400 watt heater heating away with no air movement, never a good situation.

Post# 722839 , Reply# 3 12/24/2013 at 03:43 (3,773 days old) by arbilab (Ft Worth TX (Ridglea))
Checkrate/Likes Yeah you were in trouble alright. Not the marriage, but dryers are not supposed to melt themselves. I've never seen one do it but it definitely happens.