A dirty Duet dryer that won’t heat
April 16th, 2013
Would you ever let your dryer get this dirty? Gee I sure hope not. The reason that this dryer in our video was not heating anymore was because of a blown Thermal Fuse. This fuse is an over temp protective device that usually trips when it gets too hot inside the dryer.
The dryer in our video had actually caught fire at least once and fortunately the fire was not able to sustain itself.
Last year, 27% of all house fires began in the laundry room because of a dirty dryer. I have personally seen a dryer after it began to burn. It’s a sight I won’t soon forget, and it firms my resolve to never let it happen in my home!
The cause of the over temp is generally because of POOR AIRFLOW caused by excessive lint buildup throughout the entire system, including the house vent. The lint clogs the vents much like clogged arteries, slowing down flow.
When heated air passing through the dryer moves along slower, more of the heat is absorbed by the machine, warming it up. Eventually, the heat rises to where the thermal fuse, usually set to open at somewhere around 190 degrees, goes open circuit and, no more burner heat. The burner circuit gets shut down.
Cleaning the dryer usually involves opening it up to a large degree, followed by a complete brush out which typically lasts thereafter for about 2-5 years, depending of course on how often it gets run. Busy moms with a handful of kids might expect to need a cleaning every 2 years.
And don’t forget the house vent. Often, that’s the part of the system with the worst accumulations. The very worst vent installations are those where the dryer is centrally located inside the house, with a long vent run to the outside, and more than 2 right angle turns that end up exiting on the roof. The best vent of course is a dryer set against an external wall and venting a scant 3-6 feet from the machine.
The do-it-yourselfers can buy a bristle brush on a 10 foot long coiled wire snake to brush out the house vent, so long as there aren’t too many turns in the system. Clean it out from both the inside and outside.
We offer this service to our customers and many have us on their calenders to come out routinely to care for dryer and refrigeration periodic cleanings.
More longer vents that involve multiple turns will require the expertise of a dryer vent cleaning company. You will fine the link to one on our links page.
And one more word of advice, its a GOOD IDEA having a FIRE EXTINQUISHER attached to the wall in your laundry room and kitchen too!
Was this article and video helpful for you? Please let us know!
A winter wonderland of snow in the freezer
January 7th, 2013
(Condensed Re-print from The Samurai Appliance Repairman at http://appliantology.org/)
A common problem with refrigerators is various forms of water in places where it shouldn’t be. Such as: water at the bottom of the freezer and running out the door in a side by side refrigerator; frost built up on the back wall of the freezer compartment; moisture on glass bottles and jars on the side walls inside the refrigerator compartment; or a solid slab of ice on the bottom of the freezer compartment.
Water in the refrigerator takes three forms: ice, frost, and condensation.
CONDENSATION
Condensation appears as “sweating” on jars, bottles, and even the sidewall in the refrigerator compartment. It’s caused by water vapor condensing into a liquid state when it contacts cold surfaces inside the refrigerator. This means outside, humid air is getting into the refrigerator. Look for bad gaskets, doors not closing properly, or doors left open.
ICE
Ice is water that froze into a solid. It’s an important distinction from frost, also known as rime ice, that fuzzy looking stuff that’s formed when water vapor condenses directly into a solid, bypassing the liquid state. Ice and frost are the effects of two completely different causes.
If you see smooth or solid ice in a freezer, you’re looking at liquid water that flowed, pooled and froze: Such as a clogged condensate drain in the drip trough below the evaporator coil; ice maker fill tube leaking or out of place; ice maker mold leaking.
FROST OR RIME ICE
If you see frost or rime ice in a freezer, you’re looking for water vapor that’s getting into the compartment. How does water vapor get into a refrigerator? It comes in with the outside air. In most cases when you see frost in a freezer, you’re looking for an air leak: bad door gaskets or doors not closing all the way.
A common problem is frost accumulated on the evaporator coil or back wall inside the freezer that covers the evaporator coil. This is a defrost system failure (defrost terminator stuck open, burned out defrost heater, bad defrost timer (on older units) or adaptive defrost control (ADC) board).
The reason rime ice forms on the evaporator coil in the first place is because the coil operates at a temperature of -20F. At that temperature, water vapor that contacts the coil will condense and freeze directly into a solid, forming rime ice. Every few hours the defrost system should kick in and melt that ice, because if it’s allowed to accumulate it will eventually act as an insulator, preventing the air from contacting the evaporator coils and getting cold. The resulting problem would first be seen as a warm refrigerator compartment and, if allowed to continue, eventually the freezer will also get warmer than normal (normal = 0F). Rime ice accumulated on the inside of the back wall in the freezer will often be seen at this point.
This melted rime ice has a special name: condensate. (Not to be confused with condensation, although the words are similar, they arise from two different causes.) Condensate refers to the water that gets melted off the evaporator coil in the freezer compartment during the defrost cycle. This condensate drips onto the condensate drip trough below the evaporator coil and drains out the condensate drain– a hole in the condensate drip trough– through a tube to the drain pan placed down by the compressor where it eventually evaporates due to the combined action of the compressor heat and condenser fan motor.
A kitchen aid refrigerator control module swap out
October 18th, 2012
This job took about 2 hours. Because its a big built-in unit it required a lot of effort to get it from the cabinetry. Sometimes when the floor is uneven (tiles, terra-cotta, stone, etc) The refrigerator can be nearly impossible to extract. I have turned down some jobs exactly because of this. Extracting the box is the most effort-some part of the task, second only to getting the box back IN.
As the video shows, its just routine from that point on till you get to the controller module. Now this is the part that makes no sense to me.
The module is No Longer Available.
That’s right, Kitchen-aid isn’t making the module any more. That leaves you with two choices; go out and buy another ref, of have your module repaired. The company that does this kind of repair is Core-Centric. They are a re-manufacturing facility that repairs boards to refrigerators, washers, dryers, dishwashers, air conditioners and medical devices.
They are located in Illinois, and their website is corecentric.com. Phone is 866-737-2244.
If you want to use them, I advise that you call first to see if they do repairs on your particular board. Have your Make, Model, Serial Number and if possible, the part number for the part. Repairs seem to average about $125. Turn-around is generally 10 business days. The advantage of their service is that when the board is returned it will be Better Than New. This is because the manufacturers of your board sub out the work to assembly houses that bid the lowest price right? They will use CHEAP LABOR and in many cases cheap parts, Core Centric uses only the best components available and the boards are repaired BY HAND.
When you get your re-built board back, its a good idea to use the anti-static strap that they will ship along with your board. You wear it on your wrist and then attach the other end to any GROUNDED surface. A spark from static electricity can easily wipe out the IC’s on the boards. And always handle the boards from the edges only!
So you’re board is back in place, you power it up while the box is still out of the cabinet to make sure all is right and then you can proceed to close it up and back in place. Sounds easy huh?
Does this article help you out? Let us know!
A Bosch washing machine won’t drain
August 12th, 2012
A repeat customer called me out last week because she was having trouble with her Bosch front load washer.
Sometimes the machine wouldn’t drain. and she also wanted the door boot replaced because it was smelly and moldy.
Well changing the boot was no problem though you have to remove the entire front of the machine to get to it, and it takes about an hour to do.
But the drain problem perplexed me. While I was there, it was draining, so I thought a small article of clothing may have gotten blocked inside the pump innards.
But no, nothing blocking the pump.
I had the machine about half-way reassembled and I tried the pump…
By golly, It doesn’t drain now… What the heck is goin on here?
I got a mirror up inside the pump while energized and the impeller is spinning so it ought to be draining right?
Wrong!
a freewheeling impeller that does no good
I realized that although the impeller was turning it was not actually connected to the motor. The impeller mount was loose on the motor shaft and was only freewheeling because the motor was turning- but as soon as I put my finger on the impeller it stopped rotating. Sometimes the impeller shifted longitudinally and re-engaged to the motor, while other times it would shift back out again and stop draining. A bad pump for sure. So out to the service van, take down a new pump, installed and she’s happy again.
Oh and by the way, if you want to avoid a smelly, moldy door boot, just leave the door ajar after washing. It will air out, the moisture dissipates, and the spin bearing will last longer because it isn’t constantly exposed to moisture, Also an occasional bleach wash will help too!
Sometimes you have to think outside the box and expect the unexpected!
