Appliance Repair Wisdom for the Ages

Friday, April 29, 2005

Hillstomping Update: Mt. Flume and Mt. Sunapee

Looking at Mt. Kearsarge from the Ledges on Mt. Sunapee.

Church on Mt. Flume

More stunning photos from the Mt. Flume hike on 4/15/2005.

Samurai Appliance Repair Man cast these pearls at 11:40 ET.  [permalink]

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Fisher & Paykel GW608 Slow Filling

Sometimes, the solution to this problem can be something really simple.

Samurai Appliance Repair Man cast these pearls at 08:24 ET.  [permalink]

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GE Triton XL tripped breaker

GE is getting sloppy with the documentation on its sorry-ass appliances. In this case, it's a GE Triton XL dishwasher that tripped the circuit breaker (model number GSD6600G00BB). This is one of those abortion-that-lived dishwashers with the over-priced, unreliable electronic control boards. Turns out the problem was that an undocumented surge suppressor in the water inlet valve circuit had shorted-- this surge suppressor was not shown on the wiring diagram! How sloppy is that? Well, that's GE fer ya.

And, here's a tip: putting electronic controls in wet appliances is a great recipe for selling lots of replacement control boards.

Samurai Appliance Repair Man cast these pearls at 08:20 ET.  [permalink]

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KitchenAid oven disaster

I have never seen the inside oven lining on a KitchenAid wall oven self-destruct. This happened on a KitchenAid model KEBS207DBL8.

Samurai Appliance Repair Man cast these pearls at 08:07 ET.  [permalink]

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Tuesday, April 26, 2005

A Day in the Life of the Samurai

Although the Samurai does virtual service calls all over the world through his award-winning website, Fixitnow.com, and through the world-famous Samurai School of Appliantology, he also does service calls in real life!

Many grasshoppers have emailed wondering what a day in the life of the Samurai is like. Presented below is a never-before-seen series of actual photographs of the Samurai during a typical day of service calls. You can click each photo for a larger view.

I trust this will satisfy your venal voyeuristic impulses.

The phone rings at Samurai International Headquarters: another appliance in distress!

The Samurai arrives at the house in the Fixite Do service van and prepares to do battle with a broken appliance.

The customer balks at the Samurai's bill and dishonors him. The Samurai prepares to deal harshly with the customer's insolence. No callbacks on this job!

Back at Samurai International Headquarters, the Samurai awaits another service call.

Samurai Appliance Repair Man cast these pearls at 21:23 ET.  [permalink]

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Monday, April 25, 2005

Save the Salamanders!

I love amphibians of all flavors, like frogs and salamanders, because they eat evil blood suckers like mosquitoes and black flies. Katie Feldman, of Vermont, started a website, www.SaveTheSalamanders.org that explains their plight and what we can do to help our amphibious friends.

And in this related story...

Visitors to Hamburg parks are being warned to watch out for exploding toads. Several thousand toads in the city's parks have so far mysteriously spontaneously exploded, sending entrails and toad body parts over a wide area. Vets and animal welfare workers said the mystery has decimated the city's toad population as well as the unpleasant problem of leaving toad parts scattered around parks and open spaces. Eyewitnesses say the toads swell up to three and a half times their normal size before suddenly exploding -- sending entrails flying metres into the air. ... 'It's a real puzzle,' agreed Janne Kloepper from the Hamburg Institute for Hygiene and the Environment, adding: 'If this keeps up, there will be no toads left in Hamburg. [original story]

Samurai Appliance Repair Man cast these pearls at 16:24 ET.  [permalink]

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Panasonic Inverter Microwaves - Advanced or retrograde?

What's the real scoop behind those Panasonic Inverter Microwave ovens? The Iceman gives us his engineering analysis, check it out.

Samurai Appliance Repair Man cast these pearls at 14:43 ET.  [permalink]

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Saturday, April 23, 2005

Mayday, Mayday! RepairClinic Down!

Don't know what's been going on at RepairClinic but they've been down going on two days now. You could not reach their site all day yesterday and, as of this posting, still can't. So if you can't get through to buy parts, that's why.

Samurai Appliance Repair Man cast these pearls at 11:33 ET.  [permalink]

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Friday, April 22, 2005

Whirlpool Refrigerator Getting Warm

Ice cream mushy? Milk spoiling? Throwing out food? Stop! Come to the Samurai School of Appliantology and chill out.

Samurai Appliance Repair Man cast these pearls at 14:58 ET.  [permalink]

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Frigidaire FWX445RF Washer - Won't Drain

Read the exciting saga of one grasshopper's struggle with washer drainology.

Samurai Appliance Repair Man cast these pearls at 14:46 ET.  [permalink]

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Maytag Range F1 Error Code

Is it the ERC? Is it the touch pad? Find out.

Samurai Appliance Repair Man cast these pearls at 14:39 ET.  [permalink]

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Kenmore Refrigerator - bottom of door collapsed?

Heads up on an emerging problem in Kenmore side by side refrigerators.

Samurai Appliance Repair Man cast these pearls at 14:36 ET.  [permalink]

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Saturday, April 16, 2005

Hott Stuff

Keisuke wrote:

I love your site. It is, how you say, hott.

_______________________________
Message sent from IP: 70.20.207.113

Samurai Appliance Repair Man cast these pearls at 16:39 ET.  [permalink]

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Mailbag: Initiating the Harvest Cycle on a Modular Icemaker

Frank wrote:

Most honorable Samurai,

Somewhere on this site was an instruction to jump a Whirlpool new style modular icemaker motor to make it cycle so that you can check the voltage hit at the water inlet valve. Can't find it now. I suspect the inlet valve, although it is making a noise when I put voltage directly to the terminals. What holes in the module do you jumper to cycle the blamed thing along.

_______________________________
Message sent from IP: 68.62.133.161

Ah, Grasshoppah, ask and ye shall receive.

Samurai Appliance Repair Man cast these pearls at 08:42 ET.  [permalink]

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Mailbag: Kenmore Dishwasher Not Cleaning Well in the Upper Rack

Mike Gh wrote:

I have a 2year old Kenmore dishwasher that seems to be working fine except it does not clean the dishes on the top rack. What could be causing this? Thanks!

Mike

_______________________________
Message sent from IP: 207.193.126.66

The most common cause for this in any dishwasher is insufficent water fill in the basin. More details and lots more info on this at this page.

Samurai Appliance Repair Man cast these pearls at 08:29 ET.  [permalink]

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Mailbag: GE Dishwashers Flooding

Bernard wrote:

Over the past year, at least 3 GE Model ZBD4800 dishwashers in our condo complex failed to cycle properly and stuck on water. Water flowed from the dishwasher onto the floor and from there down the inside of walls to apartments underneath. We seldom use our dishwasher and after 5 months of non-use the timer control on our own dishwasher stuck on wash (water re-cycling inside the chamber). What are your thoughts on cause? preventive maintenance?

Thanks,

Bernard

_______________________________
Message sent from IP: 152.163.100.5

I think this is happening because they're cheap GE dishwashers. When these condos were built, the contractor installed the cheapest appliances he could get. This is always GE because GE has a contractor's discount program. Let's face it: the builder doesn't give a rat's hairy hind end about the quality of the appliance, he just wants to get the damn thing built and sold at a tidy profit. And anything that costs extra cuts into his profit.

Enter GE appliances.

So that's what you're dealing with: cheap GE junk. Oops! Saying GE and junk is redundant, pardon me for repeating myself.

Samurai Appliance Repair Man cast these pearls at 08:01 ET.  [permalink]

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Thursday, April 14, 2005

The Karaoke Lounge

Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, we sing about it all in The Karaoke Lounge. Always some fresh new tidbits of news and commentary to check out and you can post your own knowledge nuggets, too.

Samurai Appliance Repair Man cast these pearls at 03:12 ET.  [permalink]

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Tuesday, April 12, 2005

Jenn Air Fridge Warm, Adaptive Defrost Control Board

If your Jenn Air or Maytag refigerator is warming up, this is usually a defrost system failure. Hey, ain't no thang. You probably just need a new adaptive defrost control board. Had a pretty good discussion about this in the repair forum, check it out.

Samurai Appliance Repair Man cast these pearls at 22:38 ET.  [permalink]

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Maytag Dryer Motor Stops After 15 Seconds of Turning

This is almost always a sign of a bad motor. This forum thread has some good information for determining if this is the case as well as background information on how electric motors work.

Samurai Appliance Repair Man cast these pearls at 22:21 ET.  [permalink]

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Fisher & Paykel GWL10 Washer Not Draining

A good discussion and technical information on this problem.

Samurai Appliance Repair Man cast these pearls at 22:16 ET.  [permalink]

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Washer Eating Bra Wires

At last, a permanent solution to the vexing problem.

Samurai Appliance Repair Man cast these pearls at 22:14 ET.  [permalink]

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Sunday, April 10, 2005

The Samurai School of Appliantology

In case you're wondering why I haven't been posting much lately, it's because I've been busy setting up the new dojo for the repair forum, also known as the Samurai School of Appliantology.

Until recently, the forum was hosted at MSN Groups. I was becoming increasingly disgusted with MSN's crude forum features: no search for the forum, couldn't edit your own posts, and couldn't tell who was the last to reply in a thread. Consequently, many followup questions in a thread would go unanswered as they got pushed down the list by the avalanche of new questions.

I finally got so fed up with the crude forum features and glitches at MSN Groups that I sat down on my duff and did something about it. I installed the WoWBB software on my server and have been busy setting up the new school. The new forum has been online for just over a week and it already has critical mass.

Among some of the many nice features available at the new forum are:

• As a registered user, you can edit your own posts.
• You can send private messages to other members of the board.
• You can keep track of the topics you are interested in, and receive e-mail notifications when someone posts to one of those topics.
• You can receive daily e-mail digests of posts in forums you are interested in.
• You can have avatars (small pictures to represent yourself on the board).

To take advantage of all the features of the new forum, you'll need to register. But this process is much less intrusive and byzantine that the Microslop .NET crap. It's a much more pleasant place in which to hold class for do-it-yourself appliance repair. Come on, check it out.

www.applianceguru.com

Samurai Appliance Repair Man cast these pearls at 02:59 ET.  [permalink]

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Saturday, April 09, 2005

What's All the Fuss About Power Quality?

If you're repeatedly replacing electronic control boards in your appliances, you might be a victim of dirty power. Samurai's 17th Law of Appliance Repair states that, "Raw power is dirty power." Power comes to us on the power lines with surges, spikes, and swells and then we crap it up further with harmonic distortion from computers and other home office equipment like copiers. The whole issue of power quality will increasingly come to the forefront of everyone's attention as we deal with an aging power infrastructure and the additional stress placed on it by the proliferation of home office equipment. You can read an excellent primer on power quality, it's causes, identification, and mitigation, here: A Power Quality Primer.

Samurai Appliance Repair Man cast these pearls at 17:36 ET.  [permalink]

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Tuesday, April 05, 2005

Oven Thermostat Repair Lab Report

I got a great email from an engineer, Iceman, who successfully repaired the thermostat on his Jenn-air range. I was so impressed that he took the time to write up his lab report and send it to me that he has earned a permanent place in the Samurai Hall of Fame. This is great stuff! Here, now, for your grokking pleasure, are the Iceman's pearls of wisdom on repairing oven thermostats:

Iceman wrote:

Konichiwa honorable Samurai Appliance Repairman.

Jennair Wall Oven: W136W-C
Thermostat: 04100575
AKA Maytag Thermostat 703080
AKA http://www.repairclinic.com/referral.asp?R=154&N=348235

Problem: BAKE and BROIL elements stop working

As I was seeking enlightenment in the "Diagnostic & Repair Guide: Ovens & Ranges" for the answer to that immortal question "The bake and/or broil element never gets hot" I was puzzled when I did not see the following possible solution: "The thermostat has failed".

In reckless disregard of the master's wisdom, this grasshopper jumped the bake contacts on the thermostat and the bake element changed to the color of the rising sun. Upon removing the thermostat for deeper inspection, all auxiliary contacts were confirmed to operate correctly. However the two primary sets of contacts (the ones operated by the capillary tube of form “Double Pole Single Throw”) (Perhaps BAKE and BROIL contacts?) remained in the off (open) position regardless of the thermostat dial position. By loosening the back of the thermostat thus increasing the clearance slightly between the capillary tube’s push rod and the spring loaded clicker switch, I was able to simulate normal operation (Clicker switch now opened or closed depending on thermostat dial position). I have two questions fearless one, which I humbly submit for your consideration and for the enlightenment of grasshoppers patient enough to read:

1) When a capillary tube based control fails why does it fail open?

I would expect if the fluid leaked out it would fail closed, since a decrease in fluid pressure would simulate a lower temperature resulting in a call for heat (=> closed primary contacts). However the failure mode was definitely that the push rod was longer than it was supposed to be, not shorter, which in this control at least, turns the main contacts off. Perhaps the failure mode is that when the fluid becomes contaminated with oxygen it expands irreversibly. I doubt it. The way it is, it fails safe, so that is obviously the design intent, I just don’t understand the failure mechanism. Perhaps the fluid is still intact and the failure mode is that it turned to jelly. Certainly my vice-grips could not persuade the push rod to reduce its length. Perhaps the push rod just seized. Perhaps it is a mystery not attainable by the untrained mind of a grasshopper…

2) Why is it not possible to obtain replacement capillary tubes and push rods as a single subassembly, or is it?

Surely this would be far less expensive than replacing the entire switch. I was able to remove my capillary tube/pushrod subassembly without damage, so presumably the reverse procedure could be performed just as well. The control was made by Robertshaw, but they do not appear to offer replacement capillary tubes. For that matter, my control is no longer offered for sale by them.

Warning, this procedure involves a high voltage safety hazard, work with one hand behind your back if oven breakers have been turned on (or even if they always were on). Better still, just assume they are turned on:

In any case, may I humbly suggest updating the "Diagnostic & Repair Guide: Ovens & Ranges" answers to "The bake and/or broil element never gets hot" to include “Check to see if your thermostat is hosed up by locating the primary BAKE Contacts, or primary BROIL contacts on the thermostat control and jumping them when the thermostat is in the on position (one pair at a time). If the respective element lights, you have a defective thermostat control. If both light (respectively) when they both did not previously, the defect is likely in the liquid bulb attached to the capillary tube or in the capillary tube itself (not repairable), otherwise the defect is in the primary contact surfaces, which a patient grasshopper can repair by cleaning with wet and dry paper and isopropyl alcohol. Be careful not to lose the tiny ball bearing behind the capillary push rod when you take the control apart (like another grasshopper who is now out $160 did) or your thermostat will never work again.

Arigato gozaimas for your pearls, honorable Samurai Appliance Repairman.

iceman

Domo arigato to you, Iceman!

Samurai Appliance Repair Man cast these pearls at 22:48 ET.  [permalink]

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Samurai in the News

KSDK, a TV station in St. Louis, MO, picked the Samurai's humble dojo as their website of the day for April 5, 2005. Mucho domos, KSDK!

Samurai Appliance Repair Man cast these pearls at 22:28 ET.  [permalink]

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Friday, April 01, 2005

Appliantology Newsletter for March 2005

Appliance Wisdom

Washing Machine Shootout: The Staber vs. Whirlpool Duet

Do Maytag Neptune Washers Still Suck?

Appliance Repair Revelation, Disassembling the Maytag Neptune Dryer

Appliance Repair Revelation, A Peek Inside the Whirlpool (and Kenmore) Duet Dryer

Fixite Do: The Ancient Martial Art of Appliance Repair

Field Notes: Frigidaire Dryer Front Drum Glide Replacement

Coughin' Up More Cash for New Appliances

The Appliance Repair Hotline Assumes Room Temperature

Three Easy Steps to Total Washing Machine Flood Prevention

Appliance Repair Mania

Washing Machine Drain Pipe Backin' Up Blues

Black Smudges Left on Clothes After Doing Laundry

Burner Flame on Gas Stove Won't Shut Off Completely

Whirlpool Duet Washer Giving Some Not-So-Good Vibrations

Rich Repairs on a Maytag Neptune Super Stack Washer

Replacing the Motor in a Maytag Dryer

Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness

Who Wants to be a Millionaire?

Dumping the Empire

The Empire Strikes Back

Herd of Sheeple

Life is Good

No Child Left Unmedicated

Hillstomping Update: Mt. Kearsarge

Hillstomping Update: Mts. Welch and Dickey

A New Pinch off the Old Loaf

Hillstomping Update: Smarts Mountain

Let's Call a Spade a Spade

Big Brother Moves to Squelch Political Speech on the Internet

Hillstomping Update: Mt. Liberty

Hunker Down for the Hard Day

Appliantology Newsletter for February 2005

Samurai Appliance Repair Man cast these pearls at 08:22 ET.  [permalink]

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