Dryer is broke...AGAIN!

Yesterday while I was trying to do our laundry we noticed that the heating element in the dryer has gone out again.  I had noticed back when we replaced it that it wasn't working as well as the previous element.  And the previous element hadn't lasted as long as the first element.

See we bought this dryer in October of 1992.
We replaced the first heating element in June of 2006 (we kept the receipts!)
We replaced the second heating element in April of 2008

When we replaced the element in 2006 - the heat was awesome!  The clothes got dry really fast and I was luvin this machine and my wonderful DH who figured out how to replace the heating element all by himself!

However, when that element went kaput in 2008 I was highly disappointed with it's replacement.  The new element didn't get as hot as the previous one...DH said I was overloading the dryer...but I could tell it just wasn't putting out as much heat.

So when it went out again last night I was very upset.  So much so that when DH suggested getting a new dryer I jumped online to go shopping.  But as I was waiting for the website to come up...I remembered that it's Christmas shopping season... So I hollered at DH that a new dryer would NOT be my Christmas gift!!!

(we have a standing rule that he is NOT allowed to buy me anything with a power cord and consider it a gift!!!)

We found some really good deals, but realized quickly that had this dryer gone out a few weeks ago...we could have gotten an even better deal with our Veteran's day discount. 

Then I did some math...  The first replacement element cost us $20 and about half a day in man hours.  The second element cost us $21 and another half day in man hours.  Even if we have to replace the elements every 6 months, that's only $40 per year to keep this one running.  That is much cheaper than a new dryer.

So we decided to get another heating element...oh and DH is going to mention to the guy at the parts place that this one only lasted 6 months... perhaps he'll cut us a deal.  At the very least we would like some sort of answer as to why the original element lasted over 10 years and the replacements haven't made it all that long.

And if it looks as if this element isn't cutting it...we'll hope it lasts until the next Veteran's day sale and get a new dryer then.