Samurai Appliance Repair Man's Blog

Brother Strath talks us through these tulips using the Whirlpool Duet washer model WFW9400SU01 as an example:

here's the short version:

- Remove everything from the tub front and back. (Shocks, hoses, pressure hose, bottom hose, ground wires, drive belt, motor, pulley - but leave the bellow still attached, just disconnect it from the washer front.)
- Pull the weights off front and back to make it lighter. (Tub's are about 53 lbs with all weights removed.)
- Lift the tub out the back (you might disconnect the top brace that holds the valves and lift it up to make it easier.)
- With a Sharpie, mark where the clips are on both halves.
- Remove all the clips and separate out.
- If you are doing this because of a bad bearing, you have to replace the rear tub as well.
- Don't forget to gob up the new bearing with the supplied grease ... and don't forget the new gasket that goes between the tubs
- Put the halves back together - you may have to pinch them together with Channel Locs to get the first couple of clips back in place
- Reassemble
- Double check that all hoses have been connected before testing.

Beer time.

Parts:

Inner Basket

Rear Drum with Bearing


To learn more about your washer or to order parts, click here.

Source: model # wfw9400su01

yes it is the transformer

the noise is a loose winding and will never stop the microwave from working or make it unsafe in any way

if you replace the transformer the noise will go away

Replacement transformer for your GE microwave oven.


To learn more about your microwave oven or to order parts, click here.


Source: GE MICROWAVE

Pretty easy to troubleshoot with a multimeter at the inverter board. On the leftmost connector, using wht/red for your neutral to the meter, you should have 120vac on the red/blk wire and the orn wire (gray on some models). Still using the wht/red for neutral, on the rightmost connector (control voltages from timer) you should get 120vac on these wires depending on mode of operation.

High speed agitate, blu and vio/wht
Low speed agitate, wht and vio/wht
High speed spin, blu and red
Low speed spin, wht and red

If you are getting the appropriate voltages for a particular mode and the motor isn't working, the motor is faulty or you have the wrong one. There are about 5 different versions of this motor/inverter and they are not interchangeable. On washers that use an electronic control board versus a timer, the control voltages are low DC levels, not line voltage. The inverter has it's own microprocessor, memory and program algorithm for operating the motor. The control voltages from the timer simply tell it what mode to begin operating in. If you are not getting the proper voltages from the timer, the timer could be faulty or you may have a faulty pressure switch or wiring/connection problem. There should be a wiring diagram behind the control panel.

Eric

Some resources from the Downloads section that'll hepya:

GE Hydrowave Washer Motor Replacement Chart

GE WASHER Hydrowave / Mode Shifter w/ LED Inverter Motor Service Manual

GE Profile Hydrowave Washers With Infusor Wash System 31-9188 Service Manual

GE Hydrowave Infusor Washer Tech Tips

GE Top Loading Hydrowave Washer Training Bulletin: Testing Procedures



To learn more about your washer or to order parts, click here.



Source: GE WBSR3140G3WW Cant get it to work.

0. Introduction
1. Disclaimer of Affiliation
2. The Second Law of the Prophecy and the Golden Rule
3. The “Authorized Servicer” Racket
4. What about Kenmore?
5. The Four Prime Criteria™ and General Brand Recommendations
6. Notes and Observations on Specific Manufacturers
7. Recommendations by Type of Appliance
8. Epilogue


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0. Introduction

This is the Second Edition of the Samurai’s Appliance Brand Recommendations, updated April 2013.

One of the questions I get asked a lot on service calls and on the web is, “Which appliance brands do you recommend?” Or some variation on that theme such as, “Who makes the best dishwasher?” or “What’s the best brand of scrotum scrubber?”

So I thought to myself, I said, “Self, that’s a ding-dang doggone good idear for a Special Samurai Scroll™!” And the Lord did grin and the people did feast on fruit bats and orangutans and breakfast cereals…

Skip a bit, brutha.

### ### ### ###

1. Disclaimer of Affiliation

Right. So, since I’ll be talking about appliance brands and offering my opinion as a
professional appliantologist on the good, the bad, and the butt-ugly, a disclaimer is in order. Hear ye:

In offering my professional opinions on appliance brands, I accepted no amount of money of any kind, neither shekel nor shilling, yen nor yuan, nor any Federal Reserve Note debt instruments masquerading as dollar units of value in consideration for my favorable opinion. My opinions are based solely upon my vast and considerable experience as an appliance samurai engaging in hand-to-machine combat in the field with machines that are no longer operating within their specified parameters or fulfilling their design function.

### ### ### ###

2. The Second Law of the Prophecy and the Golden Rule

Okay, with that bit of legal unpleasantness out of the way, let us proceed straightaway to the Second Law of the Prophecy: All machines break. Always keep this in mind when contemplating a new appliance purchase. Failure to consider repairability at the time of purchase is to guarantee heartbreak in the two to four years (industry average) when the appliance has its first malfunction and requires a repair.

And, brothers and sisters, let us always be mindful of the Golden Rule for buying appliances: Don’t pay so much for an appliance that you’re married to it. If the appliance suddenly requires an outrageously expensive part or has been a troublesome box of bolts requiring frequent repairs, you want the freedom to Deep Six that pig-dog and git you a new one. Well, how free will you feel to jettison said pig-dog if you’ve paid $4,000 for it? Marry a human, not an appliance.

### ### ### ###

3. The “Authorized Servicer” Racket

You also need to understand the “Authorized Servicer” racket. All an “Authorized Servicer” means is that an independent servicer, such as Joe-Bob’s Appliance Repair Service, has signed a contract with a manufacturer agreeing to do their warranty work (i.e., fix their factory eff-ups) for a bargain-basement price, and in most cases, slave’s wages. Sometimes they get a half day or a day’s worth of training and some technical service info. The quid pro quo is that some manufacturer’s will only allow their authorized beeotches access to their tech sites and service bulletins.

In my opinion, this is tantamount to a form of blackmail and it does a great disservice to the customer. An all-too common example is that someone has an appliance from a manufacturer who plays dirty like this (and I name names below) and they need a repair. The “Authorized” guy says he can’t get there for three weeks. And while the person’s regular repair guy can get there tomorrow, he declines the job because he doesn’t have access to the latest service bulletins needed to fix the damn thing.

So, I ax you, mah bruvahs and sistahs, in whose best interest is it to restrict access to technical service information: you, the customer and end user, or the manufacturer with this medieval policy? Think on these things.

### ### ### ###

4. What about Kenmore?

Most people understand that there ain’t no Kenmore factory in Malaysia or some place. The Kenmore “factory” is several floors on the Sears Tower where corporate bureaucrats beat up other corporate bureaucrats at manufacturing companies, like Whirlpool or Electrolux, to make their stuff for them and slap a Kenmore label on it.

Kenmore is nothing more than that– a label slapped on an appliance that someone else made. Kenmore is merely a marketing company in the Sears Tower in Chicago. The real manufacturer is coded into the three digit model number prefix. Not that there’s anything inherently wrong with that. But it creates problems such as crossing over a Kenmore model number to the real manufacturer model number, which is needed to look up tech info like service manuals and bulletins. So it affects repairability.

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5. The Four Prime Criteria™ and General Brand Recommendations

Having laid all that groundwork, you are now ready for me to reveal my Four Prime Criteria™ for selecting an appliance brand:

- Repairability: the appliance should be constructed in such a manner that it is easy to work on.
- Reasonable markup on parts compared to the markup on similar parts from other manufacturers.
- Availability of parts meaning it has a widespread and robust parts distribution system as opposed to having to buy exclusively from the manufacturer or one of their “Authorized” dealers (and usually get screwed in the process).
- Access to technical info, the big bugaboo I ranted about above, which also ties into Repairability.

To help summarize this information, I’ve developed recommendations based on how well a manufacturer lives up to the Four Prime Criteria™:

Recommended- Meet all the criteria.
Recommended with reservations- Meet some of the criteria and may be worth considering e.g., get a great bargain price on one.
Not recommended- Meet none of the criteria, not recommended for purchase under any circumstances.


General Brand Recommendations (recommendations by appliance type are in Section 7)

Recommended:
LG, Dacor, Electrolux, Whirlpool / KitchenAid, GE

Recommended with reservations:
Bosch

Not recommended:
Samsung, Viking, Sub-Zero, Fisher-Paykel

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6. Notes and Observations on Specific Manufacturers

LG: Free access to their tech site for professional appliantologists, an enlightened policy that generates good will among appliantologists and, in turn, good word-of-mouth to customers– a guerilla marketing tactic. Relatively new to the major appliance scene but their front-load washer is already proving to be one of the best out there.

Electrolux - Frigidaire: Excessive compressor failures in refrigerators. On their front load washers, they removed front panel access to drain pump to save $.50 per unit in production cost; greatly decreases Repairability. However, they allow free access to their tech site for professional servicers so kudos for that.

Whirlpool - KitchenAid: This manufacturer acquired Maytag and so owns the Maytag, Amana, Jenn-Air, and Magic Chef brands. Excessive tub bearing failure in front load washers. Allow access to their tech site for professional appliantologists but it’s NOT free; $500/year for non-authorized appliantologists; $250/year for authorized.

GE: Allows access to technical info like Whirlpool but for a much lower fee ($160/year) and their tech site is a helluva lot better, too. GE’s TAG (Technical Assistance Group) is also very innovative about getting training information on their new appliances out to independent techs in the field. For example, they do things like put on webinars for techs. Old news for most other fields but that’s bleeding edge in the appliance world!

Samsung: What were the engineers smoking when they designed this refrigerator? Restrictive access to technical service info, quasi-restrictive parts procurement. Often a nightmare getting the right part the first time unless you have access to their good ol’ boys network, GSPN. Rots o' ruck widat, GI!

Fisher-Paykel - DCS: Poor reliability on all products. Flimsy products all the way around. Restrictive parts procurement. Restrictive access to technical info. Avoid. Warning, Will Robinson!

Bosch - Thermador - Gagmenow: Restrictive access to technical info. In the case of Thermador, overpriced products with a high failure rate and difficult to work on.

Dacor: Good-quality but pricey products. Robust parts distribution. Open access to technical info. All American-built products.

Sub-Zero: Restrictive access to technical info. Restrictive parts procurement. Excessively high failure rate for the price paid. Sticker price is a marriage license.

Viking: Draconian about access to technical info. Have threatened lawsuits against servicers to keep their tech info off the web. Restrictive parts procurement. Very poor construction quality on all their in-house built stuff. This manufacturer fails all the Four Prime Criteria. If there’s a more effed-up appliance manufacturer out there, I’ve not seen ‘em yet.

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7. Recommendations by Type of Appliance

Here are my (updated) bottom line recommendations by type of appliance, listed in order of preference:

Front load washer: LG, GE, Electrolux, Whirlpool
Top load washer: Whirlpool direct drive (also sold as the Maytag Centennial washer), Whirlpool Cabrio (also sold as the Maytag Bravo and Kenmore Oasis washer)
Refrigerator: Any of the Whirlpool-built products, GE, LG
Dryer: Whirlpool-built with lint filter in the top panel, LG, Electrolux-Frigidaire-Gibson
Dishwasher: KitchenAid. Yep, just KitchenAid but with the caveat that all dishwashers built today suck. And you can thank the Energy Star requirements for that.
Dishdrawer: KitchenAid by Fulgor, not the piece-of-trash KitchenAid that was previously built by Fisher-Freaking-Paykel.
Oven/range/stove: Electrolux, GE, Whirlpool, Dacor

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8. Epilogue

Just a reminder, you can find whatever appliance part you need through the parts search box right here on this page. No harm in buying and trying with our 365-day, no-hassle return policy, even on electrical parts that were installed! It’s insane!

Samurai Appliance Repair Man
www.Appliantology.org

this may apply:

Freezer Drawer (some models)
1. Open drawer to fully open position.
2. Remove upper and lower basket.
3. Remove screws one in each rail marked on side of rail.
4. Lift front of drawer up and out to remove drawer.
5. Set drawer on a padded surface to prevent damage to finish.

To learn more about your refrigerator or to order parts, click here.



Source: Whirlpool French Door GI6SDRXXB00