Whirlpool made dryers come with a high limit thermostat and a thermal fuse that are either on or close to the dryer element housing. More than one housefire has been caused by an overheating dryer full of lint. In fact, a man who works here had his house burn down because the dryer had too much lint (and had clothes piled around it) when the dryer overheated. Dryers generate a lot of heat to push the moisture out of clothes as quickly as possible and they can be downright dangerous. In fact, most dryers have a high limit thermostat that shuts the power off to the element if the dryer gets too hot with a safety backup thermal fuse just behind the thermostat AND another thermal fuse at a different spot in the dryer in case both of those fail!
Many Whirlpool made Duet style dryers used thermal fuse and thermostat kit # 240148 and it was only available from Whirlpool because they threw the aftermarket industry off by using a 50 ohm thermistor on the thermostat. That is not true anymore, however, because Choice Manufacturing came to market with a replacement kit and Exact Replacement Parts soon followed suite.
This kit has a high temperature thermostat (8557403) that cuts power to the element at 295°F. In line with this thermostat is a safety fuse that blows at 352°F. The thermostat will reset when it cools down a bit but the thermal fuse is trash once it blows.
If the thermal fuse blows, it’s always advisable to replace the high limit thermostat that didn’t do its job. That’s why the fuse is only available as part of a kit. If the dryer won’t run at all, there’s another thermal fuse in the back of the dryer that may have blown (if the door switch is ok) and it’s part # W10909685. It looks just like Whirlpool’s more popular WP3392519 fuse except it has bent terminals. The W10909685 blows at 91°C or 196°F (whichever comes first lol).