Repairs
Tips and Advice
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What Bad Pots Will Do To Your Glasstop Stove
My advice: if you are going to spend $1200 on a new glasstop stove, you should also spend a $100 or so more and buy yourself some new cookware that has flat bottoms. This series of photos show what a warped frying pan looks like and what it will do to your glasstop in 6 months as well. This was an Indian customer who was also using that wire grate as a grill to grill the underside of their Chapati (Indian flatbread.) This is not a good idea as the stove was designed to have the heat from the elements absorbed by something and not to essentially be heating air. $450 for the new glasstop. Thank you very much.
httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5UpurstH4GE
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Melted Stove Coil Elements
This element is 6 months old. Funny – some people go years without problems, others melt elements in 6 months. While, elements today are certainly not as sturdy as elements from 20 years ago, I’m convinced that this is caused by cooking style. Running an element red hot on high 10 to 12 hours a day will cause this every time.
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Computer Problem With A Duet Washer
This is a cool problem that I’ve not seen on this unit before. The washer will start and make all the right sounds – then suddenly unlock and sit there flashing for ever. Almost like someone has touched the ‘pause’ button – except nobody has. I’m going with a CCU on this one, but it could end up being a UI (User Interface.). I’ll let you know.
httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HMlxI2T7mOQ
EDIT: So this one ended up being a User Interface. It looks like Start button was shoring out and causing the unit to go into ‘Pause’ which is why the door was unlocking and the lights are flashing … just like someone had hit the ‘Pause’ button. Unfortuately I went with the CCU first thinking that something in the CCU was causing the stoppage – but this did not fix the problem. If you see this – go with the UI first! Live and learn.
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Wrong Clutch Spring Installed
Previous company (one of those guys – you know who they are), replaced the transmission and basket drive on a direct drive Whirlpool washer last week. Customer called back to complain that her clothes were coming out wet at the end of the cycle. For some reason I was sent out. After tearing the thing completely apart again, I found that they had installed the wrong clutch spring. They used the one for the apartment sized washes instead of the full size one. On top of that, they only finger tightened the transmission mounting bolts, so it was rattling around on the spin cycle.
So, a new clutch spring and proper assembly and this unit is working again. Plus I got a 5$ tip from the customer. Sweet!
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F25 on a Duet Washer
F25 is a pretty unusual code on these machines – I don’t see it very often. F25 tells us that the central control board (or motor control board – not sure which) is not sensing the tachometer on the motor. On this one, the motor and tachometer both ohmed out as good. It took me a good half hour of checking continuity and testing to finally find this broken wire. It was still nicely lodged into the connector, but no longer had continuity. When I gave it a good tug, it popped out of the connector.
So a new motor harness for this one. That was a fun problem.
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Freezer Door Hard to Open and Close
This is a French Door model Whirlpool refrigerator. The freezer door was incredibly hard to open and close. The cause was pretty obvious. The left hand rail and track system has completely come apart and is binding up. Will be replacing the whole left rail system to get this unit working properly again.
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Washer Spinning When It Was Supposed To Be Agitating
This washer was mostly spinning pretty much the whole cycle. I replaced the timer which fixed the problem. When I took the old timer apart, I found fused contacts – so the timer was definitely the issue.
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Leaking Front Load Washer
Leaks can occur on these machines for many different reasons. The most common though, is leaking due to damage to the door boot (or bellow as it is also commonly called.) It does not take much for a leak to develop. In this case the customer had shut the door with an item of clothing trapped between the door boot and the bottom of the door glass. When the unit went into its spin cycle, it pulled on the gasket hard enough to change the shape of the flap that seals to the bottom of the door. This unit was not leaking much – maybe a tablespoon per load, but it was definitely caused by this little wrinkle.
If yours is leaking and there are no obvious tears or holes in the door boot, then take a look at the bottom edge and see if it is a bit misshapen. If it is, a door boot replacement is what you’ll be doing to fix it.
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Contaminated Refrigeration System
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.
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Whirlpool French Door Freezer Door Not Closing All The Way
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.
httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bzv5wP0S7K4