Monthly Archives: September 2010

Beep-beep! Fixitnow.com goes mobile

Fixitnow.com goes mobile. Now you can take your favorite appliance repair website with you wherever you go on the road, we’re as close as your smartphone. Win friends, influence people, get all the best babes at parties with your amazing new ability to wax eloquently on all things appliantological with just a flip of the phone.

The special new mobile theme at Fixitnow.com is optimized for the very best mobile browsing experience. You’ll appreciate the reclining bucket seats made of genuine Afghani cashmere leather that caresses your bottom as you accelerate smoothly from 0 to over 127mph in less than 3.8 nano-seconds.

You’ll also appreciate the built-in and fully indexed search function to quickly locate the information you need so you can impress that babe you’re coming on to at your buddy’s party.

And you’ll enjoy direct access to the Samurai’s iPhone– an exclusive feature just for mobile users. You can message me directly from Fixitnow.com while browsing with your mobile phone and it will get immediately pushed to the Samurai International Headquarters iPhone based on my hip.

Samurai Appliance Repair Man
http://fixitnow.com

Parts==> http://parts.fixitnow.com
Facebook==> http://facebook.com/FixitnowSamurai
Twitter==> http://twitter.com/FixitnowSamurai

Sent from my iPhone

Auto Load Detection in Newer Model Whirlpool (and some Kenmore) Top Loaders; We’re Not in Kansas Anymore, Toto!

Newer model Whirlpool-built (includes Maytag brand and some Kenmores) top loading washers are using a newfangled technology called “auto load detection.” Whirlpool washers with model numbers like WTW57ESVW0 and Maytag washers with model numbers like MVWC6ESWW0 use this new system.

Auto load detection senses the load of clothes in the tub and automagically provides the correct amount of water to get ’em washed. It works with a flow meter and an automatic temperature control (ATC) switch, both also new, to accomplish this miracle of modern engineering.

This is all done as a band-aid attempt to reduce the obscene amounts of water used by these dinosaur top-loading washers. Of course, if you, as the green-minded and environmentally conscientious consumer, were truly concerned about conserving water, you wouldn’t be using one of these machines in the first place; you’d use a front loader or one of the high-efficiency top-loaders. But I digress…

As far as band-aid hacks go, this one has been pretty reliable. When something does go horribly wrong, one of the most common problems you’ll see is that the washer will start agitating as soon as it starts filling with water when you start the machine. It may also start filling during the spin cycle with the end result of your clothes coming out sopping wet. How’s that for water conservation?

If you see this problem, the cause is almost always a bad water level (load sensor) switch. It lives in the control console and looks like this:

You should be aware that Whirlpool uses at least two variations of the auto load detection switch so be sure to look up the correct switch for your washer using your model number. Just get your model number and plop it into this nifty search box and you’ll be sure to get the right switch (or any other part you need):





In case you want to know more about the new auto load detection system, here’s the tech bulletin from Whirlpool:

Auto Load Detection in Whirlpool-built Top-loading Washers

To learn more about your washing machine, or to order parts, click here.

The sound of bad drum bearings in a front loading washer; if your washer sounds like this, you’re goin’ shopping.

Awwite, grasshoppers, y’all go grab you a brewski and weird ol’ Uncle Samurai’s gonna tell ya a sorrowful tale of a heartbreak service call on a Kenmore (Frigidaire) front load washer.

Went out on a service call the other day on one of these machines. Complaint was that the washer was full of water, wouldn’t pump out and wouldn’t spin.

Well, this is a pretty common problem with any front loader– no pumpy-outy, no spinny– and you usually end up finding some piece of gookus, like a nail or a piece of plastic, caught in the pump impeller. I’ve previously posted a nice, commented set of photos detailing this repair that you can peruse here:

Frigidaire Front-Load Washer Drain Pump Clean-Out

So I whipped out my katana and prepared to deal harshly with this washer’s major malfunction. The katana in this case was my wet vac that I needed to use to suck the water out of the drum cuz if’n you don’t do that first, you’ll have one helluva mess when you pull off the pump suction hose.

With as much water sucked out of the drum as I could get, I then removed the suction and discharge hoses from the pump and unscrewed it so I could pull it out and feast my bloodshot Samurai peepers™ inside that thang (see the aforementioned photo album link for details on this). With the pump removed, I turned that sucker around and, lo, I did behold the offending item:

Broken piece of the outer tub caught in the pump impeller
(click to enlarge)

That’s a pretty hefty and unusual piece of plastic broken off from somewhars and caught in the pump impeller and it looked uncannily like the same material as the drum, same color, same heft. Somewhere, deep in the murky, fermented recesses of my solid steel Samurai cerebrum, something was nagging at me saying, “Yo, Samurai, sumpin’ ain’t raht.” But I shook it off and proceeded to put it all back together.

After I got it all put back together, I fired that puppy up and prepared to bask in the glory and accolades of having spared another household from a trip to the Laundromat. The machine filled with water and pumped out just fine. But when it ramped up to high speed spin, my bowels got all loose and quivery-like when I heard this noise:

In this next video, you can hear it winding down from high speed spin as the inner basket comes to stop and the chattering noise subsides:

Then came the sinking, sickening horror of realizing that all my foregoing sweat and labor on this washer was for naught. This is the sound of classic drum bearing failure in these washers. If your washer sounds like this, you’re going shopping. The new bearings come factory-pressed into the drum assembly and the cost of the parts alone is over $400. And it’s a complete teardown; a three-hour job that’s best done with two men; not worth the money and I advised the customer accordingly.

In discussing it with the customer, she told me that the washer was making that same loud noise right before it quit running. Then it all came to me in a vision.

I realized that the odd piece of plastic caught in the pump impeller was a broken off piece from the drum. I looked but didn’t find a hole broken through the drum so it must have been an inside piece of the drum that got broken off from the inner basket banging around inside there during high-speed spin.

The moral of the story? Well, there are two:

1) when you see a heavy-duty piece of plastic that looks suspiciously like the drum caught in the pump, stop and ask the customer if the washer was making an unusually loud racket before it stopped running, and

2) some days, I’d rather be licking urinals at the Texaco than running appliance service calls.

To learn more about your washing machine, or to order parts, click here.

Whirlpool Duet washer– push the power button, beeps 3 times but won’t run: the short and shorter solutions

Example model number: WFW9200SQ02

Short answer: Common problem and the solution is to replace the Motor Control Board (MCU):

http://www.repairclinic.com/SSPartDetail.aspx?s=t-WFW9200SQ02-%3d%3dc13i1257029&PartID=1257029

Longer answer but still mercifully short:

I’ve posted about a very similar problem to this one except with the display showing the F70 error code. Same diagnostic procedure and solution described in that post would apply. Come hither:

http://fixitnow.com/wp/2010/08/16/whirlpool-duet-sport-washer-testing-and-replacing-the-motor-control-unit-mcu/

To learn more about your washing machine, or to order parts, click here.

Jenn-Air W276 wall oven not heating up. Is it the relay board or electronic range control (ERC) board? Well, lemme tellya…

Hard-won battle experience has shown us that there isn’t really much that can go wrong on the relay board on these old Jenn-Air wall ovens and it’s very seldom the problem.

The electronic range control (ERC) board is what is failing, pretty common to see in these old dawgs with this problem.

Here’s the part link to the ERC:

http://www.repairclinic.com/SSPartDetail.aspx?s=t-W276-%3d%3dc13i1242522&PartID=1242522

And if that don’t git it fer ya, you can return the ERC within 30 days for a full refund, even after it’s already been installed! How ’bout them sushis?

To learn more about your range/stove/oven, or to order parts, click here.

Whirlpool-Kenmore “Even Heat” dryer: lights come on but the motor won’t run

Don’t let all the fancy electronics on this dryer fool you; behind all the glitz and glam and beep-beeps of the fancy-pants electronics, it’s still just a dumb dryer and it does the bidness of drying clothes like even the simplest (and more reliable) dryers out there.

If you’re dealing with a problem where the lights come on and the controls seem awake but the motor won’t run, sure, it may be a problem with the control board or the motor relay. But take a look at the highlighted motor circuit in the schematic below. What else do you see in the motor power circuit? Well, there’s some pretty dang simple stuff like the door switch, belt switch, and the thermal fuse. If any one of these is open, you’re gonna have a dead motor situation. You feel me?

Whirlpool-Kenmore Even Heat Dryer Schematic Diagram with Motor Power Circuit Highlighted
(click to enlarge)

To learn more about your dryer, or to order parts, click here.

GE JB968T0K2WW door lock operation

This little diagram explains the operation of the motorized door lock in your GE range. A great troubleshooting aid for those troubling times such as when the oven door won’t open and dinner is stuck inside. Download it now and share with all your friends. Fun for the whole family!

GE JB968T0K2WW door lock operation
(click to enlarge)

To learn more about your range/stove/oven, or to order parts, click here.

Maytag MAVT446 washer with a melted motor pulley

The Quandary: Is it really just as simple as replacing the pulley or does a deeper, darker, more insidious problem lurk deep within the bowels of this beast?

Nah, just replace the cheesy pulley. It’s just a freakin’ piece of plastic, whaddya expect?

Pulley part link: http://www.repairclinic.com/SSPartDetail.aspx?s=t-21001108-%3d%3di1472&PartID=1472

To learn more about your washing machine, or to order parts, click here.

GE refrigerator freezer section back wall keeps frosting over every few days to a couple of weeks and everything in the fridge starts warming up…

…but fret thou not, my leetle grasshoppah, because this is almost always a simple problem of the defrost heater burning out. Usually a simple inspection is all that’s needed to tell it’s bad.

Remove the back panel from the inside of the freezer and get some peepers on the evaporator coil. If it looks something like this…

Photobucket

… then that’s what I’m talking about. The defrost heater is at the very bottom of the evaporator coil, with the orange arrow pointing to it. It’s supposed to be a clear glass tube with a shiny metal spiral running through it. If it’s blackened or smokey or green, it’s fried. You need to replace it with the upgraded heating element. The new element is a dualy and looks like this:

Easy to install, it’s a plug n’ chug kind of a deal. And, in case you need it, the new element comes with complete destructions. You can get the new defrost heating element ratcheer:

http://www.repairclinic.com/SSPartDetail.aspx?s=t-GSS20IEMBWW-%3d%3dc42i1399613&PartID=1399613

To learn more about your refrigerator, or to order parts, click here.