My experience has been that its almost as expensive to get a repair man to come out and fix a tumble dryer as it is to buy a good used one. BUT, if you feel that you are handy with tools AND the dryer has a wiring diagram in the Users Guide which you still have, or on the back of the cabinetry, which is a bit harder to lose, you can at least check some of the suggestions that have been made here.

   If you're stranded between a plugged vent or a burned out/broken heater element, try removing the far end of the vent tubing from the wall fixture, and see if air is flowing out of the tubing. If there's a lot of lint in the tubing, you can place a couple of long stockings inside one another, and tie the open end of these stockings over the end of the tubing, to catch any more lint. If air, and even more so warm air is blowing out of the tube, the problem is probably in the venting kit from the wall to the outside. Additionally you can frequently see the reflected glow of the heater elements by looking through the odd hole in the rear of the dryer.

   If you've decided that it is a defective heater wire, these can be purchased inexpensively from a store that sells and repairs your brand of dryer, at least in the US. Britain has some odd safety laws regarding folks doing repairs such as this, especially on gas driers, and many shops won't, by law, sell you the repair bits that you may need to get the thing working properly again. It isn't difficult work restringing a heater wire, but it does require you disassemble the dryer a bit, after disconnecting if from the power source.   

   Of course, it you decide to buy a used dryer, perhaps your local shop will give you some off on the next dryer, for the old one, against the newer one. At least this way you won't have to haul it to the dump or landfill. Many shops take older stuff in on trade, fix them up during slack periods, and resell them to someone else with similar problems.

   Good luck,


   Dave