Natural gas about 18 months old. Used to dry a load of towels in about 45 minutes, now it takes two - 60 minutes cycles. We clean out the "trap" after each load. I polled the vent off the back of the dryer and vacuumed it out. I checked if there is any blockage to the vent on the outside of the house. When it is running...there is a strong steam of hot air making it all the way to the outside.

Have any ideas???

A few things can cause that problem with a gas dryer.

Could be a bad solenoid, a bad flame sensor or one of the thermal fuse's, could even be the timer or the gas control valve could be faulty.

I would do a search on your model dryer for problems and check one of the appliance forums..

Maybe this will help...

What brand dryer. My parents had a GE dryer that would fill up inside with lint despite always cleaning the trap. Somehow it found a way to get around the filter and clog up the unit. They finally gave up and got new machines.

We had one of the two solenoids go bad on ours. They're wrapped with hair-thin wire that can break and be a little hard to diagnose.

Any fix yet Doggg?

Ahhhhh...no. It is a GE. Probably need to have someone come out and look at it unfortunately. Thanks for all the insight and ideas guys.

Open up the blower unit. Mine did the same thing and it ended up being a ball of lint on the inside of the squirrel cage fan. The rest of the ductwork was clean.

Dave...not knowing a lot about dryers. Where would the blower unit be located...on the back somewhere?

It's been a while since I've worked on them but I found GE appliances to be very modular and easy to work on (disassemble and replace parts) versus some other brands. I used to deal mostly w/ dishwashers and refrigerators though.

Try this diagram: http://www.repairclinic.com/0100_19.asp

Here is an appliance forum: http://www.appliance411.com/forum/

Let us know what it turns out to be, sounds like you've checked the normal stuff.

Usually right up front. The drum and blower are driven by the same motor so look for the drum drive belt and you'll find the motor. The front of the blower usually comes off with a few screws

Had the same happen to my Kenmore which was made by GE. I was told that it was the "thermistor" which was the most common part. It senses the temp and humidity in the dryer. It cost me about $30 and solved the problem.

I was told they are difficult to test but are usually the problem.

Sounds like the part that senses wetness - or the thermistor - as nautidog points out.

Since you're getting good airflow, it's probably not the pipe, but we had a family of birds that figured out how to get the vent flap open and built a nest way back in there. I had to use the entire length of a coathanger to pull that stuff out - about 4 feet. They rebuilt the nest. I pulled it out again, and put some wire mesh on the outlet.

Maybe part of your problem is the washing machine (spin cycle isn't as fast?) and your dryer is trying to dry wetter towels...
(just a thought)