Laundry is an everyday event at most homes across the nation. Thanks to automated washers and dryers, we not only have machines to wash the clothes, but also to dry them. Electric dryers are a convenient way to dry clothes and to do this, they use an electric heating element to dry the clothes. Although electric coils come in many different shapes and sizes, depending on the manufacturer of the electric dryer, the same techniques are applied to dry your clothes.

Each electric heating element consists of coils of wire that heat up as electricity flows through them.

If you've ever looked into a toaster when it was toasting your bread you'll know what I'm talking about. The coils turn bright orange when they are heated up. These coils are fed with 240 volts in most cases, but some compact units implement 120-volt elements.

Electric dryers blow air across the heated coils and into the dryer drum area, often called the tumbler, (where your clothes are located) in order to dry the clothes. The electric coils are shielded by a voided space in the rear of the tumbler complete with holes to allow the air to flow into the tumbler inner area. To complete the air flow, exhaust air is vented either through the front or rear of the unit that implements a lint screen to catch lint and fibers from your clothes.

Electric dryer heating elements are located inside the back wall of the dryer in some models. These elements clip into insulators mounted on the unit. Others bolt on to the outer side of the back of the dryer and come in an enclosed metal housing that simply bolts on.

If you have no heat inside your dryer, it may very well be a bad element.