[westtown]

The dryer is 20 yrs old, still runs but will not heat. Tested electric connections to heating element. When dryer off, one side is charged. When dryer is on, both sides are charged or "hot", but dryer is not heating. Not sure how to get to the fuses in the dryer, but have checked the electric box and that is OK. Heating element not heating, but electric is running through it.

[Perito]

When you say that one side is charged and then the other side is charged, that doesn't mean that electricity is flowing through the heating element. The heating element may be open. Unplug the machine. Remove the wire from one side of the heating element. Use an ohmmeter (a multimeter set to the "OHM" scale) to see if the heating element is continuous or not. The resistance should be around 20 ohms if the heating element is OK. Otherwise, it will show a very large resistance (in the hundreds or kilo-ohms or mega-ohms). In that case the element is shot.

If the element is OK, then there are other possibilities. One possibility is that the clothes are not getting dry because there's not enough air moving through the dryer. Suspect a vent line that is clogged with lint.

If it isn't a lint problem, there may be a problem with the thermostat -- a bimetallic sensor usually mounted in the vent line. If it's "open", it cuts off electricity to the heating element while the dryer is too cold.