Neighbour's Appliance.com » Tech Tip

Contaminated Refrigeration System

Strathy — Tue, 26 Jul 2011 11:35:43 +0000

If this dark brown stuff is coming out of your filter/dryer when you push nitrogen through it, you can be sure that your sealed system is pooched. I tried everything I could to get this system dry, but it would restrict every time within about 2 mins of startup. The only way to get this unit going again will be to replace evaporator, compressor, condenser and heat exchanger – pretty much the whole system. Not worth it on this one.

Whirlpool French Door Freezer Door Not Closing All The Way

Strathy — Wed, 20 Jul 2011 16:35:26 +0000

If the ice bucket scoop is put into the holder the wrong way, it will hold the freezer drawer open and cause cooling problems.

There is a slight glitch in the video at the beginning -- what I was showing is that the freezer door is being held open about a finger thickness. Not enough to turn the light on and trigger the door alarm, but enough to coat the evaporator and warm up both sections.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bzv5wP0S7K4

Dryer Element Shorted to Ground

Strathy — Thu, 30 Jun 2011 15:04:29 +0000

Here is another dryer element that shorted out to ground. This means that whenever the dryer was on, even on the air fluff cycle, the element was going full blast. This took out the safety cut-out fuse.

From now on, unless I see really bad venting issues on blown safety cut-out fuse jobs, I’m checking the element to make sure it is not grounded.

Replacing a Torn Door Boot on a Duet Washer

Strathy — Sat, 25 Jun 2011 11:27:18 +0000

Some guys were wondering how to replace a door boot on a Whirlpool Duet washer without removing the front panel. This is how I do it.

Please excuse the background noise on the video -- this was recorded with my cell phone ….

www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lj5fvpBwBXM

Blown MCU Boards in Whirlpool Duet Washers

Strathy — Fri, 25 Feb 2011 17:34:58 +0000

I’m seeing more and more of these Duets with funky MCU (motor control unit) boards. Often the washer will not even lock – just gives 3 beeps. When you disconnect the MCU at the CCU then at least the door will lock and you know you have a MCU problem. In this case, when I pulled the board out of the plastic housing, you can see that there has been soapy condensation dripping down the back of this board. I will keep checking these as I replace them to see if this soap residue is common to all these. FTR – this customer did have HE detergent in the laundry room. That does not mean they’ve always been using it, but right now they are.

EDIT Aug 15/11: Here is another one. You can see the soapy drip trail heading right at the burnt out spot on the board. EDIT Aug 15/11: Here is another one.

Edit Sept 30/11: Another one. Multiple trails of soap residue.

Kitchen Aid Dishwasher Not Draining

Strathy — Fri, 21 Jan 2011 15:39:53 +0000

Here’s a hint for all you tech’s and DYI’ers out there.

If you have a Whirlpool or Kitchen Aid dishwasher that is either not draining or draining slow … and you’ve checked all the regular culprits for this problem (blocked drain hose at sink stack, crushed or collapsed hose, plugged sump, etc.), then you need to check the backflow check-valve in the hose itself.

The valve is a little rubber flapper and is located inside the hose just before the 90 deg elbow where the drain hose fits onto the bottom of the sump/pump.

If you use a flashlight and backlight it, you should see it flap open when the drain pump starts. It will look like a little black circle sitting on the side of the drain hose.

If junk gets stuck up behind it, the flap can be prevented form opening all the way. Also, if the flap gets lodged into the opening instead of resting on the face, it will not open up all the way.

In the video, you can clearly see it moving slightly as the water rushes by it – that is what you should be seeing.

Duet Washer Repair

Strathy — Wed, 23 Jan 2008 01:00:48 +0000

This is a tech tip for anyone servicing a Whirlpool Duet Washer. Quite often we end up having to drain the washer through the pump. Normally this would be messy, wet job. However Whirlpool was kind to us by providing a built in drain pan to drain the pump into – the bottom cover.

Remove the bottom cover. Move the wire harness down out of the way. remove the pump from the base of the washer and pull it forward. Hang the lip of the pump over the edge of the bottom cover that you’ve laid flat in front of the washer. Open the pump and drain into the cover. Don’t overflow it!