--- title: "Dryer takes far longer than it used to" description: "Nothing has failed and everything takes twice as long — the most gradual complaint on this machine and the one people put down to age. It is almost never age." url: "https://askomiami.support/symptoms/dryer-takes-too-long/" date_modified: "2026-09-13" Appliance type: "Commercial installations, Dryers" --- # Asko dryer takes far longer than it used to ### What to do in the next ten minutes Time one standard load, door shut, from start to finish, and write the number down. Then do the three filters — door lint, condenser block washed until clear, container emptied — and time the same kind of load again. The difference between those two numbers is the whole diagnosis, and it costs you nothing but an afternoon. ### Why the two-hundred-minute limit exists Every dryer platform on this badge stops a program that has run past two hundred minutes, and each revision names that differently — L3 on one board, F29 on the next, S2 on the next, J1 on the one after, and ERROR_5 on the heat pump machines. It is not five problems. It is one safety limit with five labels, and hitting it is a symptom of airflow rather than a problem in itself. ### The check nobody does and everybody should Write the cycle time down twice a year. It is the earliest warning these machines give and it only means anything if somebody recorded the previous number. A machine drifting from ninety minutes to a hundred and twenty is telling you the condenser wants washing, months before it starts leaving loads damp. The air path is partly blocked Filters, condenser, and the ducting inside the machine. Partly blocked is worse than fully blocked because nothing errors and the machine simply grinds on. Lint has collected inside the cabinet What gets past a filter over years settles around the fan and against the heat exchanger, where no owner-level check reaches. It lengthens every cycle and raises the running temperature. The sensing is wrong rather than the airflow A machine that cannot tell how wet the load is will run to its time limit every time. Filmed sensor bars produce this as readily as they produce cycles that end too early. How long is a standard load now? A number, not an impression. Without it there is nothing to compare after the filters are cleared. Is the room hot? A closet at thirty-plus degrees gives the condenser far less to work with. It is not a defect and it is worth knowing before parts are discussed. Are you overloading it? A drum packed tight tumbles badly and dries slowly. Half to two-thirds full dries faster in real time than one big load. It still dries, but the cycle has doubled What it usually means Cycle length is the measurement — write down what a standard load takes now Every platform here stops at two hundred minutes and reports it differently Lint past the filter collects inside the cabinet, where no owner check reaches What to do in the next ten minutes Time one standard load, door shut, from start to finish, and write the number down. Then do the three filters — door lint, condenser block washed until clear, container emptied — and time the same kind of load again. The difference between those two numbers is the whole diagnosis, and it costs you nothing but an afternoon. Why the two-hundred-minute limit exists Every dryer platform on this badge stops a program that has run past two hundred minutes, and each revision names that differently — L3 on one board, F29 on the next, S2 on the next, J1 on the one after, and ERROR_5 on the heat pump machines. It is not five problems. It is one safety limit with five labels, and hitting it is a symptom of airflow rather than a problem in itself. The check nobody does and everybody should Write the cycle time down twice a year. It is the earliest warning these machines give and it only means anything if somebody recorded the previous number. A machine drifting from ninety minutes to a hundred and twenty is telling you the condenser wants washing, months before it starts leaving loads damp. ### Does an eco program take longer on purpose? Yes, substantially — lower temperature, longer time, less energy. Compare like with like when you time it. ### It got worse after we moved it. Check what is behind and beneath it. A machine pushed tight into a closet or standing on a folded hose loses airflow immediately. --- **[Read full article: Dryer takes far longer than it used to](https://askomiami.support/symptoms/dryer-takes-too-long/)**