When a dryer used to finish a load in one cycle and now takes two, the instinct is to suspect the heater. More often the heat is fine and the moisture has nowhere to go. A dryer works by heating air, passing it through the clothes and pushing the damp air outside. Choke that path and the drum sits hot and humid while the clothes stay wet.
Work Along the Whole Path
- Lint screen. Clean it every load. If water poured onto the screen beads up and sits, fabric-softener residue has sealed the mesh; wash it with warm soapy water and a soft brush and dry it before refitting.
- Lint housing. Vacuum the slot the screen drops into. Lint accumulates below where the screen cannot catch it.
- The duct behind the dryer. Pull the machine out and look. Flexible foil or plastic ducting crushed flat behind the cabinet is extremely common, and plastic ducting should be replaced with rigid or semi-rigid metal.
- The run to outside. The shorter and straighter, the better. Every elbow costs airflow, and long runs through an attic or crawl space collect lint at every bend.
- The exterior hood. Go outside with the dryer running and feel for strong warm air. A weak breeze means a restriction. Check the flap is not painted shut, blocked with lint, or occupied by a bird nest.
Things That Are Not Faults
- Overloading. A packed drum cannot tumble, and clothes that do not move do not dry.
- Mixing heavy towels with light shirts, so the cycle ends when the sensor finds the light items dry.
- A washer that is not spinning properly, which delivers laundry far wetter than it should. If your washer has also been struggling, fix that first.
- A dryer in a cold garage, which takes longer than the same machine in a warm laundry room.
When to Call
If the vent is genuinely clear end to end and loads still need two cycles, then a heating element working at part capacity, a failing thermostat or a moisture sensor reading wrong become likely. Book a Whirlpool dryer repair visit, and mention when the vent was last cleaned, since that is the first thing we would otherwise ask.