BDE7500 Maytag Dryer - Instructions

The dryer would run, but not heat up, so nothing was getting dry. I ended up replacing the heating element, and that did the trick. I’ll speak to the repair later, which is not hard. But, it may be more helpful if I share what I did to troubleshoot. Hopefully that saves you from ordering the wrong parts.

First, I verified voltage (240V) at the outlet, then tested each of the thermostats for continuity using my multimeter. They were fine, but when I tested the heating coil it showed open (no continuity). When I removed the coil, I found it was broken about 1/2 way back. So that was all verification I needed.

I made the repair following the video on this site, and they do a great job of walking you through everything. The trickiest part was just taking the slack out of the heating element enough to put the shroud back together. It was cumbersome, but doable. Just gotta work the coil through each insulator to keep it from hanging up as you go. And keep tension on it, without pulling so hard that you stretch the wire. Definitely a good DIY job with only basic tools required.

Advice: start by watching the excellent video on the PartSelect webpage re this heating element, not the way I started. My start: after pulling the dryer out into the room & removing the two access panels w/ nut drivers, I used an multimeter to (with difficulty) trace wiring and test the "accessible" thermostat mounted on the heater
shroud, and finally managed to get at the heater element terminals.
The heater element itself was open-circuit - what I had considered the least-likely point of failure. I went on PartSelect, found the heater assembly & element pages, and watched the video. Finally
pulled the front off the dryer, getting full access - how I should have started. Ordered the heating element (spring-coil of Nichrome wire)
rather than the entire heater assembly for two reasons: I could see that getting the thin sheet metal, two-part housing back into the distant punched-hole in the back plate would be the hard part, made very hard by any distortion of the cylinder, and anyway, lower cost.
I used a long extension bar on a socket to reach the single self-tapping screw holding a tab extending from the far end of the housing, and a nut driver to remove the self-tapping screw holding the front. I disconnected the wire to the thermostat, the wire directly to the heating element, and pulled out the heater assembly. Removed the screws holding the two halves of the housing together, opened it up, and photographed it with my cellphone. Decided to use the technique in the video which meant removing all the ceramic stand-off's supporting the heater wire. This required using pliers to make a slight twist of the part of each stand-off that sticks through to the outside of the housing. Also had to flatten the spring-tab that is intended to lock the stand-off in place. Used a very small flat screwdriver the tabs back out before reinstalling the stand-off's. Slid the loose stand-off's on the new heating element and started at one of the ceramic power terminals, looping the element and inserting the stand-off's as I went, stopping short of the end and starting the other side from the ceramic power terminal on that end. As expected, I had to do a lot of adjusting of the loops to get enough slack to insert the stand-off's at the far end and get the housing closed and screwed together without distorting it. Finally fit the heater assembly housing back in that distant punched hole, the hardest step, as expected. Slip the two power wires back on the terminals, test the two previously-inaccessible thermostats for continuity, the resistance of the heating element for something plausible, and reinstall the door switch wire to the slip-on terminals.
Reinstall the front of the dryer by hanging it back up at the top,
swinging it down, and replacing the two screws angled-up from the bottom corners of the front. Put something wet in the drum, plug it in, and "smoke test" the dryer. Worked great for me - but do watch the PartSelect videos.

Replaced the heating element and both thermostats. Hope that takes care of problem! You tube was a tremendous help through video's.h

remove door screws on both sides of door opening. remove front panel. replace thermostat

watched the u-tube video provided by you Part Select, very easy to follow, removed the thermostat and heating element as instructed, determined it was the thermostat and replaced it. The dryer works great. We saved alot of money thanks to Part Select.

We bought this dryer one month before we were married 29 years ago. Rather than pay $500 or more for a new one, I replaced the heating element for a little more than $50 and it took about an hour. Pretty easy stuff all things considered. Part arrived in two days after ordering. Great service and my wife and dryer are good for another 29 years.

I have repaired the old element for several years by twisting the element wire together because two local parts stores kept telling me there was no part available. After the last repair, I did a search on the internet and found PartSelect. Put in the model # and you had the parts I needed. I ordered, you shipped, dryer fixed! Should have looked sooner. 1. Unplug unit 2. remove the front of dryer (2 screws at bottom)(pull bottom of panel toward you and top will come right out) 3. un-hook wires from door switch 4. unhook wires from heating element holder (bottom right) 5. remove 3 screws with a nut driver that holds the heat element holder. 6. remove the insulators by twisting slightly with pliers. 7. loosen nuts that hold the element wire 8. remove the insulators from old element wire 9. re-install insulators on new element wire and re-install into holder 10. put all back in place, re-hook wires, put front back on, plig back in, turn on and make sure you have heat. Job done.

Replaced Heater Assembly, Thermal Fuse, and Defective High Limit Thermostat.

I reviewed the dryer construction provided on this website and examined the heating coil. The coil was severed and needed replacement. The appliance repair company had over a 2 week waiting list so I decided to attempt the element replacement myself. Overall it took about 2 hours. The tricky part was reattaching the retaining screw on the back wall of the dryer. Currently the dryer works like new and I saved $$$! Note that it is important not to overtighten the nuts securing the element to the insulators because the insulator can crack. While the front panel was removed, I took the opportunity to clean out all of the lint that had accumulated inside the machine.

After we changed the heater assembly it works great.

Removed the 2 phillips screws to remove the front panel.Removed the black wire from the heat chamber, removed the resistor (1 screw) on the right side of the heat chamber. There are 4 screws holding the heat chamber in place(2 screws on the front cover). Remove the heat chamber and remove 3 screws and it opens in half, heating element is right there. Put the new one in as you remove the old one.