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Symptom guide / dryer
dryer: the clothes come out damp after a full cycle
The part that gets replaced is rarely the part that failed: on this fault the vent line and the heating element cost the same to fix, and the vent is the cause far more often. Most of the bill on a dryer is access labour rather than parts — the diagnostic alone runs $80–$130 [S1], and the cheapest item on the list needs no part at all [S1]. The complaint — the clothes come out damp after a full cycle — narrows to a handful of causes, and whether the machine has to come apart separates them. It arrives in these words: clothes come out damp after a full cycle, everything takes two or three cycles now, the dryer shuts off early with the load still wet, only the heavy items stay damp or the drum is warm but nothing dries. Start with blocked vent run, packed with lint — $350 installed, about 90 minutes [S1].
high likelihoodmoderate$350 installedabout 90 minn=43 completed jobs[S1]
everything takes two or three cycles nowclothes come out damp after a full cyclethe drum is warm but nothing dries
The source's headline finding, and the reason this page exists: the vent is the cause far more often than the part that gets blamed for it. A dryer dries by moving heated air through the load, picking up the moisture and carrying that air out of the house, so a duct narrowed by months of lint removes nothing and the drum still gets hot. The free test takes five minutes and no tools: run the dryer, then go outside and hold a hand at the vent hood. Weak airflow, or a hood flap that is stuck shut with lint, answers the question before anyone arrives. Vents do not block overnight; drying time creeps up until people run a second cycle and stop registering it as a fault.
S1 publishes medians of completed jobs rather than part-only prices: clearing a blocked vent ran a $350 median across 43 jobs, and the source's point is that the visit and the labour dominate the price, not the part
medium likelihoodadvanced$220–$362 installedabout 60 min
the drum is warm but nothing driesthe dryer shuts off early with the load still wet
The part everybody suspects first, and the one the source's arithmetic is aimed at: clearing the blocked vent costs almost exactly what the element does, so a household that replaces the element without checking the duct pays the same money and keeps the fault. On an electric machine the tell is a drum that gets warm but never hot, or no heat at all; the element itself is inexpensive and the labour is what makes the job $220-360. Time basis: no published duration, book estimate.
S2 prices the element as an installed job at $220-360 with parts at $60-150; S1 puts the same repair at $362, which it uses as the comparison for a vent clearing at $350
medium likelihoodadvanced$130–$240 installedabout 45 min
the drum is warm but not hotclothes come out damp after a full cycle
The cheapest part on this page and the one that most often means something else is wrong. A thermal fuse is one-way: it opens once the machine has overheated, and it overheats because the airflow is restricted. Replacing a blown fuse without finding out why it blew is the most common way to pay twice for this symptom, so the source's rule applies here more than anywhere: read the fuse as a message about the vent, not as the fault.
S2 prices fuse and thermostat jobs as installed work at $130-240; it does not publish a part-only figure
gas igniter or valve coils not lighting the burner [S2]
medium likelihoodpro$150–$350 installedabout 60 min
the drum is warm but not hotclothes come out damp after a full cycle
Gas models fail differently from electric ones, and this is the piece that only exists on a gas machine: an igniter that glows without lighting the burner, or valve coils that quit once they are warm. It belongs in the professional column regardless of price, because the work is inside a gas appliance. The useful symptom split is the one the source uses: a drum that is warm but not hot can be either this or an electric element, and a drum that never warms at all is the element or the fuse.
S2 prices the repair at $150-350 installed and lists it under the gas-specific failures; no part-only figure is published
medium likelihoodadvanced$368 installedabout 90 minn=22 completed jobs[S1]
only the heavy items stay dampeverything takes two or three cycles now
The blower is what actually moves the air, and a wheel whose fins are matted with lint moves less of it while sounding completely normal. A wheel that has lost fins does the same thing loudly. On the source's numbers this is the second airflow repair after the vent line itself, at a $368 median across 22 jobs, and it is invisible from the outside: the machine heats, the drum turns, and the load stays damp.
S1 prices a blower wheel replacement as a completed job at a $368 median across 22 jobs; no part-only figure is published
Repair or replace?
The verdict
Do the free airflow checks first, in this order: the five-minute hood test, then the duct behind the machine, then the drum and the sensor behaviour. If the vent is clear and the fault stays, a part is worth replacing on any dryer under ten years old, because the airflow work and the element work cost about the same and the machine has years left. Past thirteen years, with a blower or a motor behind the failed part, replace it: the repair approaches the price of a new machine and the next fault is already queued. [S1]
The headline band is a span the publisher's own rows define rather than one row's middle half: its symptom row for this complaint is a $365 median across 226 logged visits, and the two repairs that resolve it are a blocked vent cleared at $350 across 43 jobs and a blower wheel at $368 across 22 - which is why the band spans those two medians. Both rows are printed above as labelled bands, each with its own count and with no middle half published for either, and they are the same rows the two airflow causes carry. The same page's wider table prices the other parts behind this symptom - a heating element at $362 across 360 jobs, a thermostat at $350 across 144, a thermal fuse at $332 across 84, drum rollers or an idler pulley at $349 across 218, a drive belt at $322 across 259 and a door switch at $321 across 54 - and those are left in the source's own table rather than re-pointed at causes on this page, because each belongs to a different fault. Nothing here is added together or averaged.
The comparison is not the part against the machine, it is the visit against the machine: a $350 airflow clearing and a $368 blower are both labour-dominated, and S2 prices new machines from $550 for a basic top-loader, so on an old dryer two visits decide it. That is why the free checks are worth an hour of your own time rather than a booking.
S1's replacement line works from a 10-13 year dryer life, and the source's professional judgement is that a machine at the top of that range with a second fault behind the first is where repair stops paying
Have a quote?
Put your quote and the age of the unit into the calculator — the same half-of-new-price rule, with your own numbers.
clothes come out damp after a full cyclethe dryer shuts off early with the load still wet
The foil flex duct behind the machine is the part of the run people move and crush when the dryer is pushed back against the wall. A duct flattened at one point does what a lint-packed one does: it throttles the airflow while every part in the machine tests good. Straightening or shortening the run, and keeping the machine an inch further from the wall, costs nothing and is the one airflow fix a household can complete without pulling the duct out. Free.
moisture sensor reading a dry load, or an overloaded drum [S1]
medium likelihoodeasyno part neededabout 15 minn=16 completed jobs[S1]
the dryer shuts off early with the load still wetonly the heavy items stay damp
The free cause behind a machine that stops with the load still wet: on sensor cycles the drum's metal strips read the moisture in what touches them, and a sheet wrapped around the sensor reads dry while the towels behind it are soaked. The source's own split is exactly this: everything taking two or three cycles is a vent closing down over months, while shutting off early on the first cycle with wet clothes is the sensor being fooled or the load packed too tightly to move. Redistribute the load and run it again before pricing anything.
What each fix costs
Cause
Cost
Time
DIY?
crushed or kinked transition duct
no part needed
20 min
easy
moisture sensor reading a dry load, or an overloaded drum
no part needed
15 min
easy
failed thermal fuse or cycling thermostat
$130–$240 installed
45 min
advanced
gas igniter or valve coils not lighting the burner
$150–$350 installed
60 min
pro
failed heating element
$220–$362 installed
60 min
advanced
blocked vent run, packed with lint
$350 installed
90 min
moderate
lint-packed or failed blower wheel
$368 installed
90 min
advanced
A technician visit starts with a diagnostic fee of $80–$130 [S1]. Completed repairs run $350–$368 [S1].
Sources
[S1]Bozmanfix (medians from completed work orders with sample sizes; page updated September 2026) (2026-09). the $365 median across 226 visits for damp clothes after a full cycle, the finding that the vent is the cause more often than the part, the vent clearing at a $350 median across 43 jobs and the blower wheel at $368 across 22 jobs, the heating element at $362, the free five-minute hood test and the stuck flap, the ten-minute self check, the symptom-to-cause mapping (hot but damp, two or three cycles, early shutoff, warm drum, only heavy items damp), gas and electric differences, stackable and combo units, and the repair-or-replace judgement
[S2]FlexFul Appliance Repair (Chicagoland) (2026). 2026 installed ranges (fuse and thermostats $130-240, element $220-360 with parts at $60-150, belts and rollers $180-380, motor and board $300-650, gas igniter or valve $150-350), the $80-130 diagnostic with credit toward the repair, $110-175/hour labour, the ten-year and $400 replacement thresholds, and new machine prices from $550 to $1,400
[S3]Bozmanfix (first-party records from 4,223 completed dryer jobs; page published 2026) (2026). the 4,223 completed dryer jobs behind the dataset and the per-part medians with their samples: a heating element at $360 across 342 jobs (middle half $312-431), a thermostat at $350 across 169 ($305-404), a drive belt at $322 across 259, a control board at $478 across 71, a drive motor at $394 across 55, a door switch at $321 across 40 and a thermal fuse at $327 across 29. Also the overall dataset median of $352 with the middle half between $294 and $437, and the publisher's own note that most dryer components sit behind the front or rear panel, so a fifteen-dollar fuse requires the same disassembly time as an expensive part
Last verified: 2026-09-29. Prices are US market figures from the sources above; your quote may differ.
Built from a fact record, not from a template: every number above is tied to one of the sources and the record is re-checked against them. Editorial choices (which symptom leads, which cause is the single tell) are kept in a separate block so the facts stay auditable.
Quick answers
How much does it cost to fix a dryer with this problem?
Completed repairs run $350–$368 according to the sources cited on this page, after a diagnostic fee of $80–$130.
How long does a dryer last?
The decision rule used on this page works from a planning life of 13 years.
Repair or replace?
Do the free airflow checks first, in this order: the five-minute hood test, then the duct behind the machine, then the drum and the sensor behaviour. If the vent is clear and the fault stays, a part is worth replacing on any dryer under ten years old, because the airflow work and the element work cost about the same and the machine has years left. Past thirteen years, with a blower or a motor behind the failed part, replace it: the repair approaches the price of a new machine and the next fault is already queued.
