Samurai Appliance Repair Man's Blog

A priceless compendium of engineer jokes posted by Brother Lee Fix:

Understanding Engineers #1
Two engineering students were biking across a university campus when one said, "Where did you get such a great bike?" The second engineer replied, "Well, I was walking along yesterday, minding my own business, when a beautiful woman rode up on this bike, threw it to the ground, took off all her clothes and said, "Take what you want." The first engineer nodded approvingly and said, "Good choice: The clothes probably wouldn't fit you anyway."

Understanding Engineers #2
To the optimist, the glass is half-full. To the pessimist, the glass is half-empty. To the engineer, the glass is twice as big as it needs to be.

Understanding Engineers #3
A priest, a doctor, and an engineer were waiting one morning for a particularly slow group of golfers. The engineer fumed, "What's with those guys? We must have been waiting for fifteen minutes!" The doctor chimed in, "I don't know, but I've never seen such inept golf!" The priest said, "Here comes the greens-keeper. Let's have a word with him." He said, "Hello George, What's wrong with that group ahead of us? They're rather slow, aren't they?" The greens-keeper replied, "Oh, yes. That's a group of blind firemen. They lost their sight saving our clubhouse from a fire last year, so we always let them play for free anytime!." The group fell silent for a moment. The priest said, "That's so sad. I think I will say a special prayer for them tonight." The doctor said, "Good idea. I'm going to contact my ophthalmologist colleague and see if there's anything she can do for them." The engineer said, "Why can't they play at night?"

Understanding Engineers #4
What is the difference between mechanical engineers and civil engineers?
Mechanical engineers build weapons.
Civil engineers build targets

Understanding Engineers #5
The graduate with a science degree asks, "Why does it work?" The graduate with an engineering degree asks, "How does it work?" The graduate with an accounting degree asks, "How much will it cost?" The graduate with an arts degree asks, "Do you want fries with that?"

Understanding Engineers #6
Three engineering students were gathered together discussing who must have designed the human body. One said, "It was a mechanical engineer. Just look at all the joints." Another said, "No, it was an electrical engineer. The nervous system has many thousands of electrical connections." The last one said, "No, actually it had to have been a civil engineer. Who else would run a toxic waste pipeline through a recreational area?"

Understanding Engineers #7
Normal people believe that if it ain't broke, don't fix it. Engineers believe that if it ain't broke, it doesn't have enough features yet.

Understanding Engineers #8
An engineer was crossing a road one day, when a frog called out to him and said, "If you kiss me, I'll turn into a beautiful princess." He bent over, picked up the frog, and put it in his pocket. The frog spoke up again and said, "If you kiss me, I'll turn back into a beautiful princess and stay with you for one week." The engineer took the frog out of his pocket, smiled at it and returned it to the pocket. The frog then cried out, "If you kiss me and turn me back into a princess, I'll stay with you for one week and do anything you want." Again, the engineer took the frog out, smiled at it and put it back into his pocket. Finally, the frog asked, "What is the matter? I've told you I'm a beautiful princess and that I'll stay with you for one week and do anything you want. Why won't you kiss me?" The engineer said, "Look, I'm an engineer. I don't have time for a girlfriend, but a talking frog - now that's cool."

Source: More hotter water, please!

You're probably going to find the evaporator coil in the freezer choked in with frost, in which case, the problem is almost always the infamous Jazz Control Board.

There's a tech sheet in the toe grill that tells how to put the board in diagnostic mode for various tests. But the most common failures with this board are 1) failing to initiate defrost and 2) keeping compressor running during defrost. Both result in a frosted up evaporator coil.

Put the unit into forced defrost. If the defrost heater fires up, that means the defrost heater and limiter are good. Then go ahead and replace the Jazz Board.

Here's my video showing how to do the diagnostic dance:

http://youtu.be/2enSBwQXnhw

Source: Kenmore/Amana Bottom Mount 596.65939401

Brother PDuff gives us the inside skinny on this one-trick pony:

The Frigidaire dryer control board "runs home to mama" with the E68 fault code. It's the only fault code listed and the only one it knows. It indicates stuck button as Brother Reg advised. I've never found a stuck button, usually a bad board. Did have a Gallery dryer the other day with control board and interface. Threw an E68 at me so I ordered the main control board to have when going out. Turned out to be the interface. RATFARTS!!! P/N for your board is 134523200.

Part link for the Main Control Board with a one-year return policy.



Source: Frigidaire Dryer That Has Error E68 and stops every 30 Seconds

Brother PDuff enlightens us with this nifty tip for making a quick check of the sealed system (refrigerant and compressor) using your fingers and earballs:

Quick way to check evaporator: With compressor running drain the water from the reservoir by removing bottom cap. Let run for a couple of minutes and check for slight frost on evaporator plate, touch top of plate with wet finger-should stick. If not cold, turn unit off and listen for a hissing noise from evaporator. Not cold and hissing-bad evap. Would replace compressor as well for moisture contamination.

Service manual for this unit is here: http://appliantology...atic-ice-maker/



Source: zdis15cssj GE Monogram under counter ICE MAKER not producing ice:

Y'all gather 'round, ol' Uncle Samurai has another sad tale to tell about how someone thought they were gonna save a buck or two buying cheap, generic parts off of Ebay or Amazon but it turns out the parts either don't last long or don't work at all. I rectum this is an increasingly common story in these tough economic times with everyone pinching pennies so hard you can almost hear ol' Abe screaming. But, as we're gonna see in today's saga, buying cheap, knock-off parts from the online peddlers of phony appliance parts is false economy, what we call "penny-wise and dollar dumb."

I got this email from confused and frustrated Karla who contacted me about a (surprise!) non-functioning knock-off part she bought from some peddler on Ebay. For some reason, she thought she bought it through this website, www.Appliantology.org. Why did she think that? Who knows! People think all kinds of strange and unpredictable things. That's why humans are so interesting and frustrating at the same time.

For the record: all parts sold through the parts links and search boxes at this website are new, genuine OEM parts and all come with a one year return policy, even on electrical parts that have been installed. I do not sell parts on Ebay but there are peddlers there who do using names that sound confusingly similar to this website.

Your Name: karla *******

Your Email Address: karla********@********.net

Your Appliantology Username, if you have one:

What would you like to talk about? Other NON-APPLIANCE REPAIR problem

Talk to the Samurai: Less than a week ago i bougth thru ebay and pay by paypal a part to my fridge apparently it came ok but once intalled only worked for two days, is there a possibility to return it and change the part for one that works please call ***-***-**** i need the fridge to work
Item title
Price
Shipping price
Qty
Item total

NEW GE refrigerator main control board part WR55X10942 ( item: 261174184655 transaction: 1192412668016 )
Paid on Apr-16-13
$89.25
Free
1

$89.25

Shipped on Apr-18-13
USPS Priority Mail

Estimated delivery: Tue. Apr. 23 - Wed. Apr. 24
Tracking number: 9405503699300397360687

The control board she bought for her GE refrigerator is the famous Muthaboard. A genuine replacement Muthaboard, brand new in a GE box with a one year warranty retails for about $165.

Karla paid about $90.

How does that work? Well, in her case, it didn't. The board she bought from the parts peddler on Ebay was probably scavenged from another refrigerator that was junked for a bad sealed system. The parts peddler had no way of checking the board and probably didn't care-- just sell it and let the customer see if it works.

Read more about online appliance parts ripoffs and scams in the March issue of our newsletter, Appliantology: The Oracle of Appliance Enlightenment.