Gas Dryer's Electric Heater discovered

Hi Everyone,

My Sense recently discovered “Heat 2” with very little additional info. It would only be on for short periods of time, 5 or 10 seconds, and multiple times within a 75 minutes range. A couple of days later I realized it was my gas clothes dryer. The weirdest part was that the dryer runs for 2-2.5 hours, and this “heat 2” comes on in the last half of the dryer run. Since Sense labels devices based on their characteristics, what in a gas dryer was a heating element?

I looked up the manual for my specific model (ALLIANCE LAUNDRY SYSTEMS AES17AWF SERVICE Pdf Download | ManualsLib) and still didn’t see any heat element. I did know that 522 watts were used when on, so doing some simple math, that told me the element would be ~4 amps. I searched the manual for “heater” and didn’t get anything, but “heat” did. Eventually, I found that the natural gas wasn’t ignited by a spark lighter like I expected, but a “Silicon Carbide Igniter”.

I figured this was my mystery “heat 2”, but I wanted to be sure. I searched the web for that, but while numerous sites sold the device, none told me it’s amperage. Finally, I found this site (Hot Surface Igniter Operation and Troublehooting | ACHR News) about troubleshooting hot surface igniters. There was one line that led me to calling this mystery solved: “Check the amp draw of the igniter; amperage should not exceed 4.75 A.” If the igniter should not exceed 4.75 amps, then it should be significantly less than that to allow for some headroom without exceeding its operational range. If that means the igniter should operate at 4 oms, that fits perfectly.

My new question is how long until the tumbler motor is discovered. :wink:

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