Takes 4 or 5 cycles to dry clothes. - Dryers

Most of the time this problem is attributed to a blocked or more precisely, a partially blocked dryer vent system. When a dryer vent is blocked it stops the air flow and the heat backs up into the dryer turning the heat sensors on and off prematurely taking longer for the clothes to dry. Over time this may cause the heat overload fuse to blow and you will have no heat at all.
First take a look at the dryers ducting between the dryer and the wall to make sure the vent duct (normally a flexible style) has not been crushed or kinked.
If the dryer duct to the wall is in good shape then in most cases there is a blockage some where between the wall where the ducting connects to the vent and where it exhausts outside.
The major cause of a blocked dryer duct occurs when the water in the clothes is heated to a high temperature and turned into steam, which is then exhausted out the back of the dryer to outside. As the steam cools on its journey and gets closer to the outside of the house, it tends to get cooler and turns back into water droplets. This is going to be the point where the dried lint, as it escapes past the lint filter, sticks to the newly formed water drops and starts a gradual chocking down of the 4" diameter vent to 3",2",1" and finally stops all flow of air.
Remember, the dryer is designed to exhaust so many cfm's and the more choked the vent the more heat is backed up into the dryer.
If you cannot access the dryer ducting, because it is in the wall or ceiling, to look for the obstruction, then look in the yellow pages or contact the local appliance repair service company and get the name for a good duct cleaning company.