--- title: "Dryer takes two or three cycles" description: "Maytag dryer takes two or three cycles — this is the complaint that costs the most money and gets reported the latest, because it creeps." url: "https://maytagmiami.support/symptoms/dryer-takes-too-long/" date_modified: "2026-09-07" Appliance type: "Dryers" --- # Maytag dryer takes two or three cycles ### Time it, then look outside Run one normal load on a timed setting rather than an automatic one and note how long it genuinely takes. Then go outside and watch the hood while it runs. The flap should be pushed firmly open with warm air you can feel from a foot away. If it is barely moving, you have your answer and it is the duct. Pull the lint screen and look into the slot underneath it with a light — that slot is not the screen, it almost never gets cleaned, and on a machine that is eight years old it is often packed. ### What it usually means, by the kind of machine One complaint, several machines. This maker still sells a top-load washer with an agitator alongside one without, a front-loader, and a stacked pair, and it sells the same oven as a range and as a wall unit in gas and in electric. The behavior you can describe is identical on all of them; the first hour of the repair is not. A front-load washer has a drain filter the owner can open and a top-loader has nothing to reach from the front, and that single difference decides how the same afternoon goes. - **Electric** — Heat is plentiful and slow drying is nearly always the duct. An electric machine will keep making heat happily while the moisture sits in the drum with nowhere to go. - **Gas** — Same story, with the extra note that a gas machine cycling its burner on and off constantly through a load is describing a restriction rather than a burner problem. - **Stacked laundry center** — The tightest ducting in the house and the hardest to reach. If a stacked unit has slowed down, the duct is the first and usually the last thing to look at. ### The cost of putting it off A dryer running two cycles instead of one is drawing roughly twice the energy for the same laundry, every load, every week. That is the argument for treating slow drying as a repair rather than a habit — the duct cleaning generally pays for itself inside a year, and it also removes the fire risk that comes with a duct full of lint. Neither of those is a sales line; they are the two reasons this particular complaint should not wait. ### Sensor against airflow There is one clean test that separates the two. Run the same load on a timed cycle. If it dries properly in a timed hour but stops damp on automatic, the machine can dry and cannot tell when it has — that is the sensor. If it is still damp after a timed hour, the machine cannot dry, and that is air. The duct run to the outside Lint, a crushed section behind the machine, or a hood with a screen on it that should never have had one. This is the answer most of the time. The lint screen slot Distinct from the screen and nobody cleans it. Years of fine lint pack the housing and choke the machine before the air even reaches the duct. The moisture sensor Two metal strips inside the drum. Scaled or coated with softener residue, they read a wet load as dry and stop the cycle early. The vent hood outside Painted shut, screened, or blocked by a nest. It is the end of the duct nobody thinks of as part of the appliance. Weak heat rather than weak airflow Less common but real, particularly on an electric machine with an element that is partly through. It is what is left after the airflow is proved good. Time a real load Numbers rather than impressions. Compare it against what the machine used to do. Watch the outside hood The flap should be pushed well open. Weak air there is the whole diagnosis. Light up the screen slot Behind and below the screen. If you cannot see clean metal, that is the restriction. Try a timed cycle If a timed cycle dries fine and an automatic one stops early, the sensor is the suspect rather than the airflow. Everything comes out damp and the load goes round again What it usually means Almost always airflow — the duct, the screen, or the slot the screen sits in A moisture sensor that has scaled over will end cycles early on an automatic setting The running cost of this doubles quietly, which is why it is worth fixing rather than living with Time it, then look outside Run one normal load on a timed setting rather than an automatic one and note how long it genuinely takes. Then go outside and watch the hood while it runs. The flap should be pushed firmly open with warm air you can feel from a foot away. If it is barely moving, you have your answer and it is the duct. Pull the lint screen and look into the slot underneath it with a light — that slot is not the screen, it almost never gets cleaned, and on a machine that is eight years old it is often packed. What it usually means, by the kind of machine One complaint, several machines. This maker still sells a top-load washer with an agitator alongside one without, a front-loader, and a stacked pair, and it sells the same oven as a range and as a wall unit in gas and in electric. The behavior you can describe is identical on all of them; the first hour of the repair is not. A front-load washer has a drain filter the owner can open and a top-loader has nothing to reach from the front, and that single difference decides how the same afternoon goes. Electric — Heat is plentiful and slow drying is nearly always the duct. An electric machine will keep making heat happily while the moisture sits in the drum with nowhere to go. Gas — Same story, with the extra note that a gas machine cycling its burner on and off constantly through a load is describing a restriction rather than a burner problem. Stacked laundry center — The tightest ducting in the house and the hardest to reach. If a stacked unit has slowed down, the duct is the first and usually the last thing to look at. The cost of putting it off A dryer running two cycles instead of one is drawing roughly twice the energy for the same laundry, every load, every week. That is the argument for treating slow drying as a repair rather than a habit — the duct cleaning generally pays for itself inside a year, and it also removes the fire risk that comes with a duct full of lint. Neither of those is a sales line; they are the two reasons this particular complaint should not wait. Sensor against airflow There is one clean test that separates the two. Run the same load on a timed cycle. If it dries properly in a timed hour but stops damp on automatic, the machine can dry and cannot tell when it has — that is the sensor. If it is still damp after a timed hour, the machine cannot dry, and that is air. ### It got worse gradually. That is the signature of a duct filling up rather than a part giving out. Parts tend to change things overnight. ### The lint screen is always clean. Good — but the housing the screen slides into is a separate space, and it is the one that packs solid. Look into it with a flashlight before ruling out lint. ### Does the softener sheet matter? It can. The residue coats the moisture sensor strips and it is one of the two reasons an automatic cycle ends early. Wiping the strips with rubbing alcohol is a reasonable thing to try first. --- **[Read full article: Dryer takes two or three cycles](https://maytagmiami.support/symptoms/dryer-takes-too-long/)**