Modern dryers don't count minutes on sensor cycles — they listen to the load through two slim metal bars inside the drum, reading electrical conductivity every time damp fabric brushes past. It's a clever system with a single point of failure: those bars only tell the truth when they're clean and connected. When they lie, you get one of two opposite complaints — and both have the same first fix.
Lie number one: "done" in fifteen minutes
Dryer sheets and liquid softener leave an invisible waxy film, and after a few years of it the bars read "dry" the moment tumbling towels stop making good contact. The cycle ends politely with a drum full of damp laundry. The same early-quit happens innocently with tiny loads — two shirts can tumble past the bars without ever touching them; add a couple of towels and the sensor has something to read.
Lie number two: it never says done
Corroded, scratched or disconnected bars can read "wet" forever, so the auto cycle runs to its maximum, every time, cooking your clothes and your power bill. Around the South Sound there's a subplot: homes on iron-rich well water sometimes see mineral residue from washed loads settle onto the bars, speeding the corrosion story that dry-climate laundries never meet.
The two-minute fix that closes half these calls
Find the bars — two parallel metal strips, usually on the lint-filter housing or the drum's front lip — and scrub them with rubbing alcohol on a cloth until the swab comes back clean. No abrasives, no dryer running. Then test with a medium load, no dryer sheet. If sensor cycles come back honest, you're done, and a monthly wipe keeps them that way.
When it's not the bars
Clean bars plus clothes still damp at "done" points past the sensor: a choked vent making the machine hit its time cap before the load dries (feel the outside flap mid-cycle — a limp lukewarm breeze convicts the duct), a weak heating circuit drying too slowly to finish, or a control fault misreading a healthy sensor. Those are meter-and-airflow territory, and around Olympia's damp-lint reality, the vent is the odds-on favorite. One visit, sensor circuit metered, airflow measured at the hood, written fixed price — and auto-dry goes back to meaning what it says.
