Is it really the motor, Part 3 1/2?

Wow, you sure have picked up a lot of knowledge for a layman. Hard to figure out how someone could stay with the frustration long enough to figure so much out! You MUST like it! This could bode well for an "after retirement" career... it's what this guy I am dealing with did. I think he is raking it in now (comparatively speaking). He only does washers, dryers and stoves because that is all he knows how to fix. And those, he taught himself. He worked in manufacturing all his life. And in this small town, just having someone who will fix something reasonably, not to mention being able to buy decent used appliances (this is a poor rural area), well it was a hugely winning idea for him. Well that's OFF TOPIC...

So far I have only used the auto cycles because I wanted to test the sensors and yes, the timer does advance fine. I did take some alcohol and wiped the sensors off for the last load I just did tonight, and this load did get dry! The sensors did feel somewhat sticky or something, to my touch. But this load was an all-synthetics load and I dried it on cotton cycle, regular heat. The other loads were mixed and I dried them on perma press medium heat, which I generally always use for everything, not trusting high heat with some synthetics. In those loads, everything came out DAMP!! Two cycles of drying dried them.

I did not have time to call the guy today but I think I do need new sensors (or something).

By the way, I have a last question for you! This is something I have wondered about for about 20 years, and I bet you will know something about it. When I had my old Whirlpool washer and dryer (that lasted over 20 years) that dryer had a sticker inside the door saying not to use fabric softener sheets in that dryer. I always wondered WHY NOT?? I have never read anything about that and no repair person has ever seemed to know. I reasoned, though, that maybe fabric softener might coat the electronic parts of a dryer the way it coats the fibers of fabric. But heavens, you can't tell someone not to use fabric softener!! That's like telling them not to use detergent!! It would make no sense at all to invent a product to be used solely inside a dryer, when just using it will harm the dryer and prevent it from working properly!! I wondered, if that is the case, how did those sheets get to be such a huge success?? I am old enough to remember when they were not invented yet (nor was liquid softener, which came first). Those sheets were a HUGE SUCCESS. And I never heard a word uttered that they will harm the dryer or anything. The Whirlpool dryer I got after that first one did not have any such sticker and I have never really seen another dryer that had one. I bet you know something about this!!

I really, really appreciate all your moral support and information through this my latest wrinkles in malfunctioning stuff and getting it straightened out. When you are a single old woman you sometimes suspect people are trying to take advantage of your ignorance if you know what I mean. They could really tell you anything and you wouldn't know the difference.