September 2006

Miele Dishwasher – No Water

September 30, 2006 Dishwasher Repair

I went on a service call for a three-year old Miele dishwasher; the complaint was that water wouldn’t enter the basin. Miele coded the call as warranty unless the problem was customer-induced or caused by external factors. After some preliminary troubleshooting, I found that the water inlet hose had been attacked by a rat! Naturally, [...]

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Water Dispenser in a Maytag Refrigerator Floods the Kitchen

September 29, 2006 Refrigerator Repair

This actually happened on a Maytag model MSD2754FRW but can happen to any of the Maytag MSD side-by-side refrigerators with the in-door water dispenser (also called a “fountain”). The dispenser can turn itself on when you’re nowhere around and just keep spitting out water until the inlet valve burns itself out resulting in an expensive [...]

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How to Diagnose the Emitter and Receiver Boards in the Optical-Sensing Icemakers

September 28, 2006 Ice Maker Repair

This topic at the repair forum has some excellent instructions from Sublime Masters of Appliantology on how to diagnose the infernal optics control boards on these over-engineered icemakers that use the optical ice level sensing… as if that’s appropriate technology to have in a silly little icemaker inside your freezer. What are the manufacturers thinking [...]

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Appliance Repair Radio: Which Washing Machine Should You Buy?

September 21, 2006 Appliance Repair Radio

In the market for a new washer? So many choices and you’re agonizing over which one to buy? Sweat thou not the load, my leetle grasshopper, for the Samurai and Mrs. Samurai will give you the low-down on today’s washers, explaining the various washers available and their pro’s and con’s, and introduce a revolutionary new [...]

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Samurai Appliance Repair Forum Server Migration

September 20, 2006 Forum

We made it! Last night, I moved the entire repair forum, whole and intact, over to a Virtual Private Server (VPS). This should give us more resources and greater reliability resulting in a faster server and more uptime. Things could be a bit bumpy for the next day or so as the domain name for [...]

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How to Check the Burner Components in a Gas Dryer

September 19, 2006 Dryer Repair

The radiant sensor, ignitor, and valve coils should all show continuity. The ignitor will have a resistance in the range of 100-300 ohms and will increase as the ignitor gets older. The resistances of the coils will be higher. This page has detailed explanations and specs on the valve coils. The only component not shown [...]

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Checking the Thermistor in GE Refrigerators

September 19, 2006 Refrigerator Repair

The newer GE and Hotpoint refrigerators use a thermistor to sense temperature. The motherboard on the back of the refrigerator sends an electrical pulse to the sensor to measure its change in resistance and thus sense the change in temperature of the refrigerated space. So, checking the thermistor comes down to simply measuring its resistance [...]

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Kenmore HE3t Washer Stainless Steel Tub Self-Destructed

September 17, 2006 Washer Repair

Mary B. posted this sordid story of schlocky appliance service in the Samurai Appliance Repair Forum: Last week, during a normal load of laundry our HE3 Washer started making a horrible loud sound! It sounded like a car coming through our garage. We got the washer stopped. When we removed our white clothes, there was [...]

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Pamper your Appliances!

September 17, 2006 General Appliance Wisdom

Hello! Mrs. Samurai here to fill you in on a little-known ingredient to maximizing the effectiveness and longevity of your appliances – the right household products. The Samurai has been deep inside the innards of countless appliances over the years, and has seen a difference between those that are used with many of the common-brand [...]

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Asko? A Former Asko Owner Says, “Oh NO!”

September 14, 2006 Washer Repair

In the Fall 2006 issue of our newsletter, Appliantology, I talked about the Staber washer and the typical happy Staber owner. I mentioned that, “If you’re not a DIYer and expect to call for service, get a commercially available washer from your favorite appliance dealer. Some good ones are Whirlpool Duet, Miele, Asko and Fisher-Paykel.” [...]

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Grand Opening: Samurai’s Staber Store

September 10, 2006 Website Updates

The Samurai’s very own appliance store is up and running! The

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Samurai Appliance Repair Forum Down

September 8, 2006 Website Updates

The Samurai Appliance Repair Forum, the Mecca of DIY appliance repair help, is temporarily down while we resolve some server issues. Should be back online tonight or by Saturday morning at the latest. In the meantime, I’m available for quick questions via AIM, my screen name is Zenzoidman. Sorry for the inconvenience but persevere and [...]

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Appliantology Newsletter, Fall 2006

September 6, 2006 General Appliance Wisdom

The long-awaited Fall issue of our award-winning, official newsletter, Appliantology, the oracle of appliance enlightenment, has hit the Internet face-first and screaming. Hurry, download your FREE copy now before it gets all used up! You’ll be glad you did. In case you missed the previous issues of Appliantology, you can peruse the archives. And if you [...]

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Maytag Neptune FAV6800AWW Top Load Washer “OP” Code

September 6, 2006 Washer Repair

A young Samurai Apprentice posted this problem in the repair forum. Sublime Master of Appliantology Stumpowitz rendered the illuminating initial diagnostic advice: Magnetic reed switch on left side below the gray rubber bumper, shown here. Release two spring clips in front between main top and front panel using putty knife. Lift the main top and [...]

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Appliance Brand Recommendations

September 6, 2006 General Appliance Wisdom

MESSAGE SENT THROUGH YOUR WEBSITE This form was submitted: Sep 06 2006 / 22:47:34 by a visitor with this IP Address: 71.112.108.215 name = John comments = Again want to thank you for your service. You have provided valuable help twice before oh wise one. I ‘am e-mailing instead of calling the hope that it [...]

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