Tech Tip
Stuff for other Techs
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Don’t Be This Appliance Repair Guy
Unfortunately, it is very difficult for consumers to know whether their appliance repair person is a good tech or not. On-line ratings are helpful, but often don’t tell the complete picture either as they really just reflect how good that person or company is at managing their on-line presence. So this post is more for repair guys = don’t be this kind of appliance repairman!
Background: I follow a bunch of appliance repair ‘help’ sites and a few Facebook Groups. I sit here and shake my head sometimes at the absolute and utter nonsense that I read from ‘professional’ appliance repair technicians. This morning I read advice about a very common repair that shakes my faith in my fellow repair guys.
The Appliance and Repair: There are a certain number of models of Whirlpool Top Load Washers that occasionally have issues with the drum bearings. (All washers have bearings and all bearings can and do break. Whirlpool is about the only brand that makes a washer where the tub bearing is somewhat economical to replace.) In this discussion, ‘professionals’ were talking about the kit that Whirlpool has produced that replaces the bearings and the shaft that go bad on these units.
Don’t Be This Guy: This gem comes from one of the guys giving advice on this forum:
This ‘professional’ literally throws out 3/4’s of the parts that come in this kit that the manufacturer has made available for this repair! = including the shaft which the bearings ride on … that is ALWAYS scored and chewed up. Unbelievable! And this guy is giving advice to other repair guys!
Understand this: installing the sleeve tube, spacer and shaft takes NO EXTRA TIME!! This guy just knows better, and chooses to not install these parts. I’ll bet he charges for the full kit too. Shameful.
My fellow repairpeoples … don’t be that guy. Cutting corners and doing temporary ‘repairs’ hurts all of us. We all look bad when you do this garbage. Take pride in your work. Take pride in your repair.
For those of you wondering which bearing I’m talking about:
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Dead User Interface on Whirlpool Maytag Dishwasher
1st time I’ve seen this, so hopefully this helps other repairs out there.
This is on the Whirlpool line of brands integrated dishwashers with the fan assist dry. Mine happened to be a KUDE70FXSS5 but any in this line with fan assist dry could have this issue.
Dead User Interface Touchpad.
No lights, no beeps. Check for power going into the touchpad 5 vdc. If you have power, then your UI is dead. But why?
Ohm out the dry fan motor on the top left side of the door. In my case it went between high resistance and open, my meter could not lock onto it. Over time this amp draw during the dry cycle can take out the User Interface. If you are lucky, you can just unplug the fan motor and the UI will light up again, but in my case the UI was toast.
If your fan motor is out of spec change it to complete this repair without having to worry about a callback some months down the line.
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Mobile Office – Printer Setup
I often get asked how I have my ‘mobile office’ printer setup so that I’m able to print receipts or manuals or pretty much anything I need while on the road. I use 3 things:
1. My Samsung Galaxy Note 3 phone. (Bigger is better in this case! lol)
2. An app called PrinterShare
3. A HP Officejet 100 Mobile Printer – a Bluetooth battery operated printerHere’s the setup in action:
httpvh://youtu.be/Qlihtbvz4T0
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Using Clamps to Service a Washer Full of Water
This is a quick little tech tip for guys who are servicing washers that are not draining … and have a tub full of water. I use these flat paddle clamps that I got at a local hardware store for cheap. They work perfectly! Enjoy.
httpvh://youtu.be/qOCp-O0ecgA
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Whirlpool Dishwasher Leaving Bits of Food on Dishes
This was an interesting one that I eventually figured out today. Customer complaint was that her dishes were not getting clean she also mentioned that her rinse agent dispenser was not emptying – she never had to fill it as it was always full. She mentioned this as an aside, but her main complaint was the washing issue.
As a tech, sometimes the solution is in the details … it’s the little inconsequential stuff that can put you on the right track when working out a problem like this. This is why the best diagnostic tool in your kit is often your ears. It took me a long time to learn to close my mouth in customers kitchens and just listen … let him/her talk out the problem they are experiencing. Sometimes you have to wade through a lot of gunk to get to the good stuff … lol, but more often than not, the solution is in the description of the problem. In this case, the customer mentioned the rinse agent as she was going out the door. Thanks goodness she did as this is what I found:
httpvh://youtu.be/G5aqMvREfDE
So – for this one, the soap and rinse agent dispenser is activated 100% of the time when ever the door is shut on this dishwasher.
This creates two issues:
1. The dishes are not getting clean or dry.
2. There is a potential fire hazard here – if that door stayed shut long enough and the wax motor stayed energized long enough, it could begin to overheat and melt down. As it was, it was too hot to hold my finger on for longer than a second or two and that was just after 10 minutes of activation. Imagine how hot it would be after being activated overnight!I will replace the electronic control on this one and verify that the dispenser is working normally again. If anything further shows up, I’ll report as an edit here.
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Leaking Frigidaire Dishwasher
This was a fun problem that I found on this leaking Frigidaire Dishwasher last week. Customer complaint was leaking … but it only leaks about once a week or so. So it turns out that she bakes buns with her Kitchen Aid Mixer about once a week and when she is done, she loads the mixer bowl into the dishwasher, and it leaks. All the other loads during the week = no leaks! What a strange problem! lol. Well, here was what I found …
httpvh://youtu.be/jhXsjLErxxU
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Using a Temp Recorder For Fridge Diagnosis
I had a Whirlpool Freezer that was giving me a bit of trouble with the diagnosis. This freezer was stuffed completely full with harvest goods and the customer was really getting worried that stuff was not cold enough. After getting his food into a loaner freezer, I put a temperature recorder into it for 5 days to see what was happening (or in this case, not happening.) Below is a graph of the temperatures and relative humidity in this unit.
… oh look – No defrost cycles!!
A freezer like this defrosts every 6 to 12 hours based on a timer. In this case there are no associated rises in temp or relative humidity that would indicate a defrost cycle. When I was testing this unit, I could put it into defrost manually, so I know the defrost circuitry is good, the only part left is the defrost timer = easy repair!
This is the temp recorder that I use:
If you want to get a recorder for this type of work, this one is basically the same unit and is available from Amazon: Extech RHT10 Humidity And Temperature USB Datalogger
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How To Test a Whirlpool Duet Washer Motor
This video shows how to test a Whirlpool (or Maytag, Amana, Inglis) Duet style washer motor with the integrated MCU (Motor Control Unit.) The MCU used to be separate from the motor, but is now attached to the back of the motor. Testing is very much the same as when the MCU was a separate device, but I thought I would show testing on the newer style with the MCU attached.
WARNING!! This is a live test – that means that there is power (which can hurt you) and the belt, pulley and motor may spin (which can also put a world of hurt on you!) Be aware of what you are doing and where you are at while doing these tests. I accept no responsibility for any problems you encounter if you attempt to do this yourself. That being said – Enjoy!
httpvh://youtu.be/USwxpyS151A
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Whirlpool Front Loader Noises
Just a quick Tech Tip.
This video is showing the newer Whirlpool or Maytag front loading washing machine. When you give the tub a spin, as techs, we are used to not hearing really much of anything. However, when you give the tub a spin on this unit, you hear liquid and what sounds like marble banging around. This is normal. The sounds you are hearing is the balance ring which contains heavy oil and ball bearings to try to counterbalance an off-balance load.
httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lJsLqbyP7Ss
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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.
