Monthly Archives: May 2013

Fridge only runs 5 or 6 seconds at a time, freezer defrosted, food spoiling

Your Name: Flower

Type of Appliance: Refrigerator

Brand: whirlpool

Model Number: GS6SHAXMS00

Your Precious Words:
Fridge runs for 5-6 seconds at a time. Not enough time to cool off. Coils are clean, fan in rear is running fine. Its been 2 days and the freezer is totally defrosted and fridge is getting warm inside

This sounds to me like what we professional appliantologists call the “hum-click cha-cha.” That’s where, every few minutes, the compressor tries to start making that humming sound, but then clicks off. What’s happening is the compressor start relay has fried and is preventing the compressor from starting.





It’s a straight forward repair… if you just look out for a couple things shown in a couple of my videos below:


Gas dryer ignitor glows for a moment then goes out, burner never fires up, clothes do not dry

Your Name: Larry

Type of Appliance: Dryer

Brand:

Model Number: LGQ9508PWO

Your Precious Words:
Have read the post but what makes this strange to me is that it worked fine, moved it 20 feet, other side of the wall it was on, same exhaust connection and same gas line but new connections. Finished the move, fired it up and all that happened is the “pilot” flame ignited but the system did not kick in. Cloths do not dry.

Thoughts on this.

Thank you in advance.

This model does not have a pilot flame. What you’re seeing is the hot surface ignitor glowing momentarily but then going out because the gas valve is failing to open. This is a classic sign of bad gas valve coils. Very easy and inexpensive to replace. Watch videos on how to replace dryer gas valve coils for various dryer models.


Light inside GE range oven goes out when the oven gets hot

Your Name: Ricky

Type of Appliance: Oven/Range/Stove

Brand: GE electric range

Model Number: JB700SNSS

Your Precious Words:
The inside oven light seems to turn off when the oven gets hot. You can leave oven light on all night without using the oven and it stays on all night. Any ideas?

What’s happening is that the oven light socket is warping as it heats up, causing the bulb to lose electrical contact. Replacing the light socket is easy and inexpensive. Watch a video on how to replace the oven light socket. You can also buy the new light socket there, too.

Frigidaire Top-Load Washer Squealed During the Spin Cycle and Now Won’t Spin

Your Name: Emily

Type of Appliance: Washer

Brand: Frigidaire

Model Number: FWS223RFS1

Your Precious Words:
The machine squealed during the spin cycle on two separate occasions. I stopped and resettled the clothes and it was fine. Today it doesn’t spin at all. I have checked the belt and it looks fine. I have not yet investigated the pulley drive. I’m curious if it might be the timer. You mention the lid switch as a possibility. Which way should I investigate first (I’ll need to borrow tools). Thanks. I bow before to the Samurai Warrior of Appliance Repair. Cheers

The squealing noise is almost certainly the spin bearing, an inexpensive part and actually not hard at all to replace. And as long as you’ve got the machine torn down to replace the spin bearing, might as well replace the tub seal assembly while you’re at it because the leaking tub seal is probably what made the spin bearing go bad. Here are videos showing you how to replace these parts…

The no-spin condition is a little trickier because it could simply be the spin bearing is locked up, in which case, replacing it as shown above will take care of it. Or, it could be something else like a bad lid switch. You might want to go ahead and buy the lid switch at the some time you buy the spin bearing and tub seal so you’ll have it on hand. If it turns out you don’t need the lid switch, return it for a refund!

Replace the spin bearing and tub seal first because you definitely need to. If the washer still doesn’t spin, then go ahead and replace the lid switch, too. This video shows you how…

You had asked about the timer; there’s a very small possibility that the timer is bad but I think it’s very unlikely because I usually see the timers fail in a different way than what you’re describing. Lid switch, spin bearing, and tub seal are the most likely culprits. If you want to make sure, you can use you’re meter and see if you’re getting 120vac on the lid switch wire harness. We can give you details on how to do this in the Appliantology Appliance Repair Forums.