Appliance Repair Wisdom for the Ages

Monday, September 29, 2003

Working on a your microwave oven? Stop banging your head on the wall! .

Use this microwave oven repair manual from Sharp and whup-up on that bad boy!

Wednesday, September 24, 2003

Konichiwa, Julie.

Each day I begin my life anew. Zen mind, beginner's mind.

General appliance rule of thumb: Avoid GE like the West Nile Virus. If you read Consumer Reports and they recommend a GE product, crumple up that page and use it for toilet paper 'cause that's all it's worth. Despite horrendous quality problems, outrageous markups on repair parts, and a damn-near universal agreement among appliance servicers that today's GE appliances SUCK out loud, people keep buying GE and so the freak show continues. Ok, with that out the way...

Refrigerators: Stick with Whirlpool products, this includes Kitchenaid. More information on who makes what here.

Dryers: Either Whirlpool or Maytag. Period.

Washers: You lucked out and picked what is, in my opinion, the best front loader out there. We've had our Gibson front loader (a Frigidaire brand, same guts as yours) for about six years, used every day, sometimes twice a day, and not a single problem. A workhorse!

Dishwashers: The Frigidaire Gallery is ultra quiet but pricey (about $900). For a lot less money and just little more noise you can get a Maytag. Avoid electronic controls--these have not worked out well with wet appliances. Also avoid the furrin' brands: Asko, Miele, and Bosch--they break down just as often, if not more, and repairs are at least twice as expensive.

Ranges/Ovens/Stoves: Avoid the once-venerable Jenn-Air range (a Maytag brand). Way too many electronic problems. We have a Jenn-Air and if I weren't a practitioner of the repairing arts, we would have declared bankruptcy long ago due to all the repairs I've done to it. Also avoid Thermadore--way too over-engineered and unnecessarily complicated to work on. There's a reason their sales are in a tailspin. Beyond these caveats, you have a bewildering array of choices.

Happy Shopping!

Monday, September 22, 2003

Do you live in the New London, NH, area and need to find a trustworthy and reliable appliance repair company? Your quest is at an end. Call Mr. Appliance!

Friday, September 19, 2003

Now this is just too handy for words. Sometimes, you don't need to mess with a meter and test leads just to see whether or not voltage is present at a part of the circuit you're troubleshooting. You just need to know if there's voltage there or not. This non-contact voltage light stick gives a quick way of telling that. All's you do is touch it to the outside of the wire. If there's voltage there, it lights up! Quick, easy, and safe. You still need your meter, but this just makes it real fast and easy to trace out circuits.

Let's take a ezzample. Your gas dryer ain't firing up. You pull off the bottom access panel and notice that the ignitor isn't glowing. The question immediately pops into your steel trap-like mind: is the ignitor bad or is the ignitor, in fact, good but not getting voltage? Using your handy non-contact voltage light stick, you quickly confirm that the ignitor isn't getting its necessary operating voltage so the problem lies elsewhere in the circuit. Further investigation leads you to a bad thermal fuse. You just saved yourself a bundle of moola by not replacing a part that was good! Now go buy yourself a beer with all that money you saved.

Sunday, September 14, 2003

Wanna save money on your do-it-yourself appliance repairs? Check out the latest hot deals in appliance parts on sale now!

It was a fine August day for a hike on the famously picturesque Welch and Dickey loop in New Hampshire's White Mountains. I was hiking up Mt. Dickey, soaking up the sun, enjoying the superlative views and minding my own bidness, when this German Shepherd appeared out of nowhere and took a big bite out of a my little Mt. Dickey. I discovered another use for duct tape that day.

Saturday, September 13, 2003

Friday, September 12, 2003

Get appliance parts for every brand that matters through the links below:

Monday, September 08, 2003

Minnesooooota! My daughter was born there (St. Paul). Nice place. Kinda like a flat New Hampshire filled with tax-and-spend Democrats handing out hot, wet, stinky cash to people of color who took a train ride up from inner city Chicago. On second thought, it's not really like New Hampshire at all. Don't get me wrong: we liked living there. We liked leaving it better, though. And, really, is there any other state that can even come close to the endearingly cranky character of the "Live Free or Die" state? My fellow Ameedicans, I present to you the great state of New Hampster, USA!

But I digress. Let's talk about your dryer. Referring first to my excellent tome on the subject, the much bally-hooed, Gas Dryer Problem Solver, you'll read that one of the first recommended diagnostic actions is to run the dryer with the vent completely disconnected.

However, based on your description, and bearing in the mind the principle of "garbage in, garbage out," my vast experience as a certified appliance guru leads me to suspect your valve coils. Oui, oui, come git you some.

The Samurai's wildly popular Live Appliance Repair Help program just keeps getting better and better. Now, in addition to live online chat, you can get help via telephone, too. Either way, you're getting expert, personal help directly from me, Samurai Appliance Repair Man.

To learn more about Live Help and getting your appliance fixed NOW, click here.

Check out this website from the one and only Certified Appliance Guru. Too cool for words, yo.

Saturday, September 06, 2003

This sounds like the classic symptoms of a motor overheating and kicking out on thermal overload. You can confirm by measuring the continuity across the motor's run winding next time it quits on you. If it reads open, then you know the motor's internal thermal overload protector is open, which means the motor is overheating...

or just replace the motor.

Thursday, September 04, 2003

This is one of the most common dryer complaints. The cause is so simple that most grasshoppers don't believe me when I tell them. Oh, how I valiantly try to explain to them that the problem isn't the dryer at all, it's the vent. "But I checked the vent and it's clear," they reply, incredulously. The Samurai has the cure for your ignorance in his famous dryer venting primer. Knowledge is power!

Tuesday, September 02, 2003

Ahh, grasshoppers, all is revealed in the oracle of gas dryer repair.

First thing is to make sure you're using genuine copper tubing for your water supply to the icemaker. Next, refer to this page to help you with the finer points of icemaker water line installation.

This is a common symptom of using too much cheap detergent. Yes, Tide is a cheap detergent because it, like all other store-brands, uses inert fillers to bulk up the product.

There are many brands of commercially available detergents out there and they all SUCK. Why do they suck? Because they all contain fillers--inert, abrasive crap added to the detergent mix simply to take up space and to help clean your clothes or dishes by the abrasive action of the added silicates (sand). These fillers actually harm your dishwasher, washing machine, and clothes! Fillers in commercial detergents cause a whole host of problems including: clogging washing machine and dishwasher drain hoses, binding washing machine pumps, gunking up dishwasher impellers, creating foul odors in washing machines by providing nice homes for bacteria, creating leaks in dishwashers by working in between the tub gaskets and surfaces.

In addition to fillers, all commercially available detergents contain fragrances which give many people rashes, especially in sensitive nether regions, and other more subtle forms of allergic reactions, such as headaches and fatigue.

Many commercial detergents also add phosphates. For those customers on septic systems, phosphates are some of the worst things to put into your septic system. This is because phosphates are not readily biodegradeable and can accumulate in your septic tank creating nasty problems like overflowing and backing up.

Unless you enjoy adding these extra afflictions to your life, stop using those polluted detergents you buy at Piggly-Wiggly, SafeWay, or Wal-mart and start using real detergents that don't have all that extra crap in 'em. "Ok, wise-guy Samurai, got any suggestions?" Sure do, thanks for asking.

Laundry Detergents

Power Formula Basic-L® cleans clothes their whitest and brightest - especially when used with Nature Bright™ All-Fabric Laundry Brightener. Yet it's easy on fabrics and gentle on sensitive skin. Basic-L also helps to guard against color transfer, so whites stay whiter and colors stay truer. Performs in all temperatures - even in hard water. If you have allergies and sensitivity to fragrances, Power Formula Basic-L® Free, with no fragrance, dyes, or masking agents, is the product for you. Has the same powerful cleansing formula as Basic-L. Since it is sold as a concentrate, Basic-L saves you money, too. When used as directed, one nine pound box of Basic-L does the same number of loads as about 3.8 boxes of Arm & Hammer® detergent.

Dishwasher Detergents

Use Basic-D® Automatic Dishwashing Concentrate for sparkling clean dishes without all the added fillers. Cuts grease and baked-on food without chlorine. Top cleaning performance and phosphate free! Effective even in hard water. Again, this product is a concentrate and so saves you money. When used as directed, one 50-oz. box of Basic-D does the same number of dishwasher loads as 4, 45-oz. boxes of Cascade®.

Try these products risk-free because they're all backed by a 100% money-back guarantee! Best of all, your purchase helps support this free appliance repair website. Domo arigato!

I went out on a service call for this dishwasher yesterday. The complaint was that the door latch was broken and the child lock light was lit. I temporarily rigged the latch to work until the replacement part came in but that left me with the problem of the child lock still engaged. The mini-manual for this dishwasher is located behind the kick plate. The mini-manual revealed that the child lock (called a control lock in the manual) can be disengaged by pressing and holding the air dry button for four seconds. So now the customer can run the dishwasher with the rigged door latch until I can properly repair it later this week.