Sunday, October 13, 2013

Whirlpool Part Number 279838: ELEMENT



Cheap or OEM, that is the question
ORIGINAL REVIEW 5/22/13
Our Kenmore Estate dryer stopped heating last week. I took it apart and found the heating element was broken in one spot. The decision I had to make was should I buy this cheap replacement one for $20 shipped or the OEM one from the Kenmore website for $80+. Since it's such an easy part to replace I decided to try my luck with this cheaper element. It arrived today, I installed it and the dryer is heating just fine. I'm giving it a 4-star rating because 'I like it' and so far (1 day) it's been working fine. I'll be sure to update this review as time goes by to help give potential buyers a better feel for whether this heating element is the right choice for them. So far so good!

UPDATES
5/29/13 - It's been a week and we've probably used our dryer 5-10 times. Still drying great...
6/17/13 - It's been almost 4wks and the dryer is still going strong. At this point I'm still happy I bought the cheap-o over the OEM.
7/27/13 - Just over...

Seems to e as good as OEM
We picked up a broken used dryer for my daughter from a neighbor that was throwing them away. The only thing wrong was the heater core had broken. It is easy to test for this with a Ohm meter. If you don't have continuity across the 2 connections of the element then it has a break in it somewhere and can't heat up. It has to be replaced and this replacement appears to be a quality piece.

# 3 and still buying more.
I don't understand why ours keep going out. The first one went out after a week, the 2nd one just recently went out over the weekend after 3 months. I have a house full of people so it is just as cheap for me to keep buying them versus going to a laundry mat. I'm hoping this one will hold me over another month until I can buy a new set. I hear some good reviews then some bad. The item does show up in a timely manor and they did replace the one after a week. I'm not going to pursue it this time. I guess with all parts though, you either get a descent one or the one made on "Friday" lol.

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