Whirlpool 279827 Dryer Drive Motor

The good news is that this is a great replacement for the motor in our Kenmore dryer at half the price for of an American made motor. This motor is made in China and the frame is less rugged than the American version. It also is slightly louder but well within the acceptable range especially if you have a door on your laundry room. (We always keep our door closed anyway.) The bad news is that the first motor I received made such a loud noise that my wife thought it was the buzzer that sounds when your close are dry. When I reported this to the seller they sent me an RMA along with a UPS mailing label that did not include home pickup but the local UPS office was nearby so not big deal. Installing the motor requires that the dryer drum be removed and that the impeller fan be removed from the motor shaft. Taking the impeller off the shaft presented a little problem because it is not obvious how it is attached. I waited until the new motor arrived and found that the impeller is screwed onto the shaft in such a direction that it tends to tighten as the motor turns. If you are at the back of the dryer you can unscrew the impeller by turning it clockwise. The other end of the shaft can be held by placing a wrench on the hexagonal shaped wheel to which the drive belt attaches. I first tried to remove the impeller by using a wrench on the square end of the impeller that attaches to the shaft. I do not recommend this method as it could damage the impeller which is exactly what I did but I realized my mistake soon enough to prevent serious damage. I finally was able to remove the impeller by immobilizing the impeller and by turning the shaft (hex end) clockwise (as seen from that end of the motor). When you install the new motor, make sure you align the little protrusion on the plastic collar with the notch in the motor bracket. I used a large screwdriver and a hammer to put the spring brackets brackets back on. I lined up the bracket, put the screwdriver in the curved end of the spring bracket and gave is a sharp tap with the hammer and it popped right in to place. Reinstalling the drive belt can be a little tricky if you didn't notice how it was installed before you took it apart. I suggest you use a digital camera before you disassemble it and take a picture if you don't think you will remember how it was connected. If you already removed it and didn't take a picture you can find parts diagrams on-line that illustrate how it should be connected. You may need a helper to hold up the drum while you put the drive belt back on the motor. Finally I think I could have avoided replacing the whole motor if I could have found a replacement capacitor. I'm going to hang onto the old motor and keep looking for a new capacitor. If I find one I'll fix the motor and keep it for future use or sell it on-line. Revised Update: I previously reported that this motor failed after 18 months. I was wrong, the motor did not fail. Read on and you'll be shaking your head by the end. I originally reported the "failed" motor to the vendor who kindly sent me a replacement even though it was out of warranty. When I installed the replacement it also did not work. Voltages were fine but the original motor only turned slowly while the replacement only buzzed. I contacted the vendor who now was a little suspicious. Nonetheless he asked me to send the two "bad" motors back for testing. If he finds they are both faulty he will reimburse my shipping costs and send me a new motor. Fine, I did as he asked. We had already been without a dryer for over a week and I realized that it would probably be two weeks before we would get a replacement motor. I decided to buy a used dryer that we could use in the interim. When I picked up the used dryer it was running so I knew it was working but when I got it home and plugged it in, it didn't work. It only made a little hum. I knew I was in trouble and decided that there must be something wrong with the electric even though the voltages on both hot wires of the 220 volt line were fine. I thought it might be a bad circuit breaker so I shut off the power and took the breaker out. It seemed fine, no signs of arcing, no corrosion, no bad smell, it was fine. I stepped back and took a look around the rest of the circuit box and discovered a wire at the bottom that had melted in two. Further investigation showed that the wire had connected the ground bus to the common bus something that is not uncommon in older homes. When I removed the wire I was dumfounded by what I found. It wasn't a wire at all. It was a section of coat hanger!!!! It still had the little curly part that is left when you untwist a hanger. I have no idea who the idiot was who did this but he could have burned the whole house down. We bought this house in 1985 so it has been that way for a long time. This still did not explain why the motor didn't work but I soon discovered that the common line from the dryer circuit had been connected to the ground bus and not to the common bus as it should have been. I moved it over. I turned the power on and when I tested the dryer it worked. There was some corrosion on the aluminum ground-bus. Although aluminum is a good conductor, aluminum oxide is not. As the ground bus corroded it became less and less conductive and more and more of the electricity was flowing over to the common bus through the "coat hanger wire" which also was corroding. Finally as the current increased it got so hot that it melted and the dryer failed because the electricity could no longer flow through the circuit. I will soon be replacing the whole electric box but just to make sure there is a good ground until I install the new circuit box, I connected the ground and common buses together using a heavy gauge copper wire. Today I received my original motor back from the vender and installed it in the dryer. It works great and I was not charged for the return shipping. I had previously downgraded my first rating from 4 stars to 3 stars. I am now changing it to 5 stars. The motor works great. It may be slightly louder than the original but the service I received from Seneca River Trading, Inc. was outstanding. They had good reason to suspect that I was trying to get a free motor but they never accused me of that and they continued to work with me until my problem was solved. They spent a lot of time and even paid for the return shipping. Now that is outstanding service and I will never ever hesitate to order from that company in the future. I highly recommend this motor and Seneca River Trading, Inc.

Dryer motor 279827. From PARTSHOUSE. Mexican made FSP-Whirlpool part, works great. NOT a cheap Chinese copy. This is a new part, not rebuilt. Ordered Feb. 2013 through Amazon 8pm Friday night on long weekend, therefore no Monday mail. Arrived in Boston Wed. AM using standard shipping (USMail). Shipped from PARTSHOUSE in PA. Also bought belt 341241 which appears generic even though photo shows an FSP-Whirlpool packaging. Saved old belt for a spare, just in case. This motor is so quiet I can now hear the air going up and out the exhaust. The old motor must have been junk for a very long time. Eventually it started overheating and shutting down, and would make a buzzing sound at start-up. Motor bearings were squeaking too. While I had it apart, changed the drum rear rollers, cleaned it all up, and scraped every bit of the noise-generating caked-on gunk out of the rear roller track on the drum, and I am waiting for front and rear drum seals and front drum glides from another vendor, who is not as quick as Amazon's Partshouse. New appliances seem to have a very high failure rate and a short lifespan, so for less than $150 I changed out the guts on this old Whirlpool and it's better than new. There are online appliance repair clinic videos on other sites which also sell parts. If you're a little bit handy, these appliances are fairly easy to fix. When ordering this motor, be sure the bearing color is the same as your old motor (blue or orange). The part numbers are similar for similar-looking motors, so be careful. Also, the fan has REVERSE THREADS on the motor shaft, so "right is loose, left is tight" in this application, instead of normal left-is-loose-right-is-tight. I hope this helps someone get their stuff going again.

This is a good replacement OEM motor for my 30 + years old dryer. The instructions were reasonably clear. Note that this motor will retrofit many models so it may require some minor customizations (instructions include them all in a brief manner). The metals slotted bands which hold the motor in place are tricky to remove and you could get hurt from their sharp edges. Using a screw driver to stretch the bands to remove or secure them on their place can cause the screw driver to slip and cause serious cuts. A nut driver with a small socket to hold the curled edge of the metal bands worked better since it will not easily slip off the metals band ends. But, be careful in this step. I made one wiring error which gave me a lot of grief. The instructions asked to remove and discard a short blue jumper wire between the 'overload switch' and the 'motor switch' (which has multiple male spade terminals). I realized that I had mistakenly connected the 4A blue main harness wire (from the dryer) to the terminal 4 on the motor switch side (a 1/8" spade connector) where the rest of the dryer harness connections were made to connect. The right thing to do is to connect the 4A blue main harness wire (from the dryer) to the overload switch side which has a wider spade (1/4") connector. (The dryer harness had a female 1/4" spade connector - which mated perfectly). Once having fixed the connection, it worked perfectly. (I wish the FSP instructions were a bit more clear). To check correct connections, do the following at your own risk and only if you understand how to wire and understand electrical connections. Do not put in the drum and belt. Disconnect main plug of the dryer. Complete all dryer harness to motor connections, secure motor with its bands. Do either Step A or B: Step A: Bypass the door switch (Note: One side of the door switch wire has a single wire running to a single spade terminal. This is the hot wire. The other side of the door switch has two spade terminals and two wires. Depressing the door switch (when dryer door is closed) allows the motor to turn and shuts off the drum light. On opening the dryer door, the non-depressed switch shuts the motor and turns on the dryer light). With door switch disconnected from all three wires, find which of the two spade connectors shows continuity to the single spade connector on the other side of the door switch when the door switch in its depressed position (This will be the terminal whose wire allows power to the motor). Short the door switch hot wire to this wire. OR, skip Step A and do Step B: Step B: You can remove the door switch from the dryer panel and make the connections normally. Ensure insulation of the door switch terminals from everything else. Leave nothing exposed to making grounding shorts to dryer body. Check all connections carefully and out in the dryer plug. If you did Step A, then the motor should run only upon hitting the 'Start' button and stay on. If you did Step B, then you will need to additionally depress the door switch while making sure that the door switch terminals do not touch you or anything else. Again,ensure insulation of the door switch terminals from all else. Motor should run only upon hitting the 'Start' button and stay on. Releasing the door switch button should turn it off. The motor tends to have a bit of a howl when warm.

We have a 28 year old KitchenAid dryer that stopped working. The motor would simply buzz when we pushed the start button. When I could get it running it would stop before the drying cycle completed. I ordered this new motor, and with the help of several videos on the internet learned how to install it. It turned out to be easy job requiring just a few basic tools. If you are replacing an old motor you will need to cut off and replace a couple of the connectors on the wires from the dryer, so you will need a wire stripping and crimping tool. The motor comes with clear instructions and the required replacement connectors if you need them. If you need to replace a motor on an old dryer then you should also examine the seals on the front and rear of the drum for wear, and also remove and clean out all the accumulated lint inside the lint duct to ensure that the blower wheel can turn without resistance. You would be surprised at the amount of lint that accumulates inside the lint duct even if you clean the lint screen after every load of wash. I wound up replacing the rear drum seal, front drum bearing, and the two foam seals between the lint duct and rear wall of the dryer. After doing all that, the dryer runs like new, all for much less than buying a new dryer. If your old dryer is not starting and you are somewhat handy with tools, this motor is good quality and will get your dryer up and running again.

New motor is on the left in the photo. Fit my dryer. Was less cost than local (which would have been a two hour round trip drive as well). Not overly difficult to swap out, hardest part is getting the fan blade off the back, I used two channel lock pliers - large and small, with the small opened wide and the handles then lodged into opposing sides of the fan between blades. Then used the larger set to turn it clockwise. I first put vice-grips on the pulley on the opposite side, but all that did was ruin/strip the pulley, so I snapped them onto the shaft behind the pulley and that worked. The best news, is the dryer dries way better now that it did before. My old motor just died - quit 100%. When pressing the on button, there was a surge sound but no spin. I could hand spin the motor easily but it sounded a little rough but not too bad. Glad to have my dryer back up and running, hopefully it lasts another 17 or 18 years!

My old motor quit working on my Whirlpool dryer, and I replaced it with this one. I have had no problems with the replacement motor, it all went together well enough, the part replaced the OEM part with no modifications or issues. If you are looking at this same motor for your broken dryer, just get that plastic fan that is attached to one end of this part. I had to destroy my OEM fan to get it off, due to age, though sometimes you get lucky with it. That meant waiting a week without a dryer, waiting for the replacement. The new fan is also on Amazon and cheap, save yourself some grief and order it too. You may as well also replace the pulleys and the drive belt, you'll have to take all of it apart to do this job. Also cheap. If you want to pinch pennies, though, I could have skipped the pulleys and belts without issues and just used the old stuff.

I purchased this motor through "Amazon.com LLC". There are several providers of this part and unless you knowingly select a specific provider, you get which ever is the default seller out of multiples. The part I recieved appeared to be a genuine Whirlpool part, as it came in Whirlpool packaging. I was replacing an motor in a Kenmore dryer and this was the part specified by Sears, but theirs was significantly more expensive. The part I recieved was manufactured, or at least assembled in Mexico. This is not the Asian motor that others seem to be having so many problems with. Like others noted, the wiring is different from my original motor and required the the replacement of two wiring connectors on the dryer (a fairly simple fix, but could be tricky for someone who hasn't done anything like that before). Like others have noted in their reviews, the instructions provided for installation were poorly printed pages that were legible, but slightly difficult to read. The instructions do not explain how to remove the old motor, so you are best off finding one of the many videos on YouTube that show you how. Probably the most difficult part in the whole process of removing the motor was getting the motor separated from the plastic blower part at the back of the dryer. The best suggestion I found was to use vice grips to clamp on the nylon square nut, because using pliers and wrenches will almost always result in stripping the edges. The other trick is knowing that to remove that motor from the blower fan, you have to turn the motor in the direction opposite to normal (turn to the right). Once the motor is out, it is fairly simple to reinstall the new one. I suggest replacing the leads first and wiring up the motor before reinstalling it. On my dryer, once the motor is installed, it is rotated counter-clockwise until it seats. At that point the male wiring leads were facing downward and would be nearly impossible to wire up because you can't see the numbering of the pins. The one issue that I ran into that wasn't included in the instructions was the replacement of the grounding wire. I had a green wire on my old dryer and the instructions didn't include a step for the replacement of that wire. On the motor I received, there is a T20 (star head) screw that is clearly marked as the ground on the motor. I had no difficulty connecting it, but if someone didn't have a T20 driver, that might prove more difficult. In the past, I've used a small flat head screwdriver and was able to remove star headed screws. Installation was pretty easy, originally I messed up and installed the motor before wiring it and had one of the wires on the grounding lead, so nothing worked, one I figured out what I did wrong I quickly corrected it and everything worked beautifully. I know some people noted that their motors sounded louder than the original, I couldn't tell any difference between the two, personally. I am very happy with the motor and I hope it lasts the test of time. I will update my review if I have any problems with the motor in the future. ONE THOUGHT: Go ahead and get a replacement belt when you buy your motor, they are fairly inexpensive and since you have the belt off to replace the motor, you may as well put a new one on.

The motor in my Whirlpool dryer (model LGV7858AW0 purchased in 1993) stopped working. It was taking longer to start the drum turning, especially with heavy loads, and eventually would just hum loudly then shut off. There seemed to be a lot of negative comments on almost any source of a new motor, but I finally decided on this one, although there are cheaper prices elsewhere, because I trust Amazon to stand behind products sold on their site. The new motor looked virtually identical to the old one, and appears to be of equal quality. I had a little trouble unscrewing the blower fan, but this procedure worked well: 1) leave motor mounts attached 2) use a large adjustable wrench tightened on the flat of the motor shaft in front of the motor (~7/16") and turn the motor CCW so the end of the wrench is resting against the bottom of the dryer. 3) put a 13/16" open end wrench on the blower fan nut making sure it is fully seated, and position the end of the wrench to the left of the motor. 4) rap down hard on the open end wrench and it should pop loose. Note that a sharp impact on the end of the wrench works much better than just pushing against the wrench, and that the blower fan is a left-handed thread. I had to rewire things because the new motor was slightly different, but directions were included, although they were a poor copy and a little hard to read. I needed to change the crimp on terminals on two wires; the new terminals were included, but you also need a crimping tool, which would be annoying if you don't have one. It would have been nice if they just included some adapters, which is what I made in case I ever need to put in an old-style motor. I put in a new belt along with the new motor and it works great. I do not notice any difference at all in performance or noise, but I will post an update if things change. Update 10/27/18 - 21 months and around 300 loads later it is still working perfectly. Update 8/20/20 - still going strong - working perfectly update 7/14/22 - still working perfectly - about 4-6 loads per week

Worked on this 25-year-old dryer.

This motor worked well so far. Amazon.ca was cheaper than local part stores' prices and the delivery was quick (the amazon.ca price has gone up). It is important that you know what you are getting into: watch online videos about dryer repairs. Make sure that you are getting the right part. Diagnosis is sometimes tricky. I first tried one of these but it didn't solve the problems https://www.amazon.ca/Factory-Original-Whirlpool-4392065-Rollers/dp/B00DQCK0EU/ The motor is connected to a blower wheel. Ours was impossible to separate without destroying it so we needed a new blower wheel too. If you check before you order, you could order both at once which would cut down waiting time. I'm impressed that parts were still available for a 30+ year old dryer. I had to do a bit of wire stripping and connector crimping since the connections have changed (but the bits were included and so were the terse instructions). With an old dryer, consider replacing the whole thing.

Exact fit, great price, whoo hoo the kenmore dryer is running like it was brand new!

Easy to install. Works perfectly. The price was quite good.

Perfect fit. Needed small rewire as per instructions include