Jump to content
Click here to check out this guide.

FAQs | Repair Videos | Academy | Newsletter | Contact


Samurai Appliance Repair Man's Blog

  • entries
    861
  • comments
    1,395
  • views
    2,678,323

About this blog

Pearls of appliance repair wisdom from the Appliantology Forums

Entries in this blog

Troubleshooting a Thermador Wall Oven F34 error code with ZERO disassembly

You arrive on the call for Thermador wall oven. Complaint: F34 error code-- cooling fan rotation problem-- shown on the display when the oven is turned on. As a black belt in the martial art of schematic-fu, you pull up the schematic on your tablet computer. With one simple move, you identify the exact cause of the problem with ZERO disassembly.  Question: What slick move did you make to identify the specific cause of the problem with ZERO disassembly?     

Samurai Appliance Repair Man

Samurai Appliance Repair Man in Tech Talk

The Future of Appliance Repair: a Profession or an "Idiocracy"?

We have a lot of moving parts at play in the appliance repair industry today. Over the past couple of decades, appliance technology has become much more complicated, yet technician troubleshooting skills have eroded. This creates some uncertainty about the direction our industry is going.  Are we going to be a profession, filled with well-paid, highly-skilled technicians at the top of their game, or a semi-skilled trade, filled with low-paid parts changers who are essentially just the eyes

Gas dryer not heating, troubleshooting with only a jumper wire

Problem: I'm on a gas dryer service call-- no heat complaint. Solution: Using only my jumper wire at the main board, I proved a problem with the Neutral sense line from the motor and made the burner fire up.  Question: At what two points did I place my jumper wire to troubleshoot this problem?   

Samurai Appliance Repair Man

Samurai Appliance Repair Man in Tech Talk

Sealed system repairs: the mystique, the reality

Many professional appliance techs do not currently offer refrigerator sealed system repairs but are thinking about adding it to their service repertoire. In this post, I’ll offer some thoughts to help you decide if this makes sense for your service area. I'll also offer some resources for learning sealed system repair if you decide that makes sense for you. I encourage any of my Brethren in the Craft to post their comments and experience.  The false mystique of sealed system repair  Fi

Samurai Appliance Repair Man

Samurai Appliance Repair Man in Tech Talk

Appliantology through the Looking Glass

Back in the ‘90’s, when the internet was new and I didn’t have any grey hair yet, I started the first of several incarnations of sites that offered appliance repair wisdom online. Appliantology.org was started in November 2010. It’s an old site by Internet standards. It has evolved a lot over the years and I expect it will continue to do so.  As it exists today, this site is dedicated to supporting the professional appliance tech community with teaching, training, information, and camarader

The Future of Appliance Repair - The Internet of Things

You guys have heard me say in webinars and elsewhere that we are going through a paradigm shift in the appliance repair trade. Gone are the days of Buttcrack Bubba. Parts Changing Monkeys are already obsolete and everywhere going out of business-- and good riddance! At the same time, techs who keep learning the new technologies being incorporated into appliances are thriving and have growing businesses.  Appliance techs today have nothing substantive in common wit

A Powerful and Portable Information Tool for Professional Appliantologists

If you've been doing appliance repair as a Professional Appliantologist for any length of time, you've probably struggled through something similar to all these situations: - You're trying to fix an Electrolux range but you can't even figure out how to take it apart so you can troubleshoot. - You need to put a Whirlpool Duet washer into diagnostic mode but the sleaze bag who worked on it last stole the tech sheet. - You're working on a temperature control problem in a GE refrigerator and need to

Replacing the Fuse on the Main Control Board of an LG Refrigerator

This LG refrigerator was DOA- warm inside, no compressor operation, no lights, no nuttin'. Found a blown fuse on the main control board. What took out the fuse: bad board or just a spike on the power line? I show how to check for that.  The fuses on these LG boards are soldered in and not easily replaceable. But a new fuse can be installed and I show how to do that without even having to remove the board, while it's still installed in the refrigerator.  Learn appliance repair at http:/

3 Sure-Fire Ways to Spot an Appliance Repair Hack in Your Home

[A Note to my Brethren in the Craft: This article is released into the Public Domain. You are encouraged to copy it, modify it as you wish, post it on your website and social networks, with or without attribution, your choice. The objective is to raise consumer awareness about the rampant problem of moral and technical deficiency plaguing our trade today. We need to expose these hacks and parts changing monkeys who are ripping people off, either knowingly or through willful ignorance, and giving

Whirlpool Vertical Modular Washer (VMW), United Servicers Regional Training in Albany, NY

Starting to get my notes and photos together from an excellent United Servicers Association regional training in Albany, NY. Here's my summary of the training. Dave Shertzer was the instructor; he did a great job. This is a very easy machine to work on. Tears down in about 10 minutes; 15 minutes if you're one-armed, one-legged, or one-eyed. You're gonna want a set of these to facilitate electrical measurements on those tiny-ass wire harnesses. Inside the control panel the VM washer. Pan

Field repairs on electronic control boards: the new PCM frontier

I used to do board level repairs on state of the art computer controlled radar systems where there was real troubleshooting involved with signal generators, digital probes, oscilloscopes, and a fully stocked bench. Yes, you had to understand how electronics circuits work and how to read electronic schematics. I did this all day long for several years in the Navy and with Delta Air Lines. And by the way, almost all the electronic failures in these units were completely invisible— you had to find

A Unique Approach for Responding to Negative Yelp Reviews

Recently, someone posted a bogus, malicious review about our appliance service business on Yelp. We had never worked for the reviewer nor had a service call that went anything like what he described. We think it may have been posted by a competitor. But this doesn't stop Yelp from posting it or allowing it to remain. There are two ways to deal with such reviews on Yelp, both of which are focused on perception damage control and so are written with the potential customer in mind. But they are ver

Appliantology Newsletter: Keep Your Oven Cooking for Thanksgiving

Appliantology NewsletterKeep Your Oven Cooking for Thanksgiving November 1, 2012 PresentsRunning Your Oven's Self-Clean Could Mean Cold Turkey on Thanksgiving DayProfessional Appliantologists mark the seasons by the mix of service calls we get. We're just now coming out of refrigerator season and getting into the thick of oven season. Every year, in the few days leading up to Thanksgiving Day, I can always count on a ton of last-minute, panicked service calls."Why is that, Samurai?" you ask.We

Twas the night before Christmas and the oven control board was repaired…

It was a cold December day when the call came in. Just a few days before Christmas. Gas oven no bake and loads of family coming to visit from out of town. The customer was desperate, hoping for a Christmas miracle. Things were looking grim when it turned out NOT to be the igniter, but the control board. Not only was the board not available for several weeks, but it didn't even make sense to spend that kind of money on this older, POS range. And yet, there was no time to get a replacement range i

How does the air baffle assembly work in this refrigerator?

1. Which wires are the power supply circuit for the damper motor?  2. What does that switch by the damper motor do?  3. What's with the line going from one side of the switch back to the board?    Hint: This is a dead simple circuit. The motor does not reverse direction of rotation. The schematic alone tells you everything you need to know. You do not need any additional “inside baseball.”   Don't let me down, comrades. First one to answer all three questions correctly w

Samurai Appliance Repair Man

Samurai Appliance Repair Man in Tech Talk

Using an Airflow Meter to Check Your Dryer Vent for Safety and Efficiency

In this journey into appliance repair enlightenment, Samurai Appliance Repair Man shows you how to use an airflow meter to analytically test the back pressure on a dryer vent for safety and efficiency. Looks can be deceiving, as this video shows, and even a short simple dryer vent that appears to be ideal can have airflow problems. So it's always wise to use a meter to actually measure the back pressure. Here's the air flow tester I used in the video ==> http://www.repairclinic.com/PartDeta

New and Improved Appliantology Membership Packages

In my ever-evolving quest to offer my users the very best online appliance repair help and information experience, I've improved the membership packages available here at Appliantology. The free Grasshopper package will continue to be available as is. But the Apprentice and Professional Appliantologist packages have been upgraded and, incredibly, made even better... as if that was even possible, right? For starters, the free Apprenticeship package using the Facebook coupon promotion has ended. I

MST Radio Episode 28 - The Biz of Selling New Appliances

Special guest, Justin Duby, with Just-in Time Appliance Repair in Grantspass, OR ( @applianceman97 here at Appliantology) joins us to talk about his experience selling new appliances and offer tips and advice for anyone thinking of adding this to their appliance service business. Also, at the end of the show, we give an update on the developing Facebook data-selling debacle that's unfolding. More info on this in my previous blog post.   You can subscribe and listen to th

Repairing a Samsung Quatro Refrigerator

Join Samurai Appliance Repair Man on a repair safari into Refrigerator Land. In this scintillating video, I narrate a series of photos I took during a service call I did on a Samsung Quatro refrigerator. These are unusual refrigerators because they have four evaporators (hence the marketing name "Quatro"). In this service call, I fixed problems with two of the compartments-- fortunately, both on the same side!

No-parts field repairs on two dryers with failed timers

I had two service calls recently on two different dryers with the same problem: the motor wouldn't run.  These are two different dryers: one an old skool Whirlpool-built unit with the lint filter on the top panel and the other a Maytag Neptune-style dryer. Different disassembly, wiring, and schematics, and completely different timers. But in both cases, the problem was the same--a burnt contact in the timer (failed open so would not close). In the two videos below, I show you how

How to Troubleshoot the New Inverter Compressor Refrigerators

The new inverter compressors ain't like the old skool compressors used in yo momma's beer cooler. Oh, they still do the same basic job-- pump refrigerant vapor. But you have to troubleshoot them differently from the old skool compressors. In their quest to comply with increasingly onerous Energy Star requirements, all the appliance manufacturers are producing refrigerator models that use inverter compressors. Like it or not, inverter compressors are here to stay. Many a fine tech has been befudd

Are Samsung Appliances Reliable?

Samsung's in the news lately with exploding washers and tablet computers. So people may be wondering how reliable Samsung appliances are.  Here's a good article from the Yale Appliance blog comparing Samsung repair rates with industry averages. Yale Appliance and Lighting [website] is a large appliance dealer and service center in the Boston area. Yale completes over 20,000 service calls per year so I expect their results to be a good representation of reality.  One comment that caught my e

Annual Service Training Institute 2017 in San Diego

Had a great week at the Annual Service Training Institute (ASTI) in San Diego last week! Got to hang out with old friends as well as meet lots of Appliantologists and Master Samurai Tech students in-person for the first time. For technical training, I focused mostly on high-end appliances since that's about all that's worth fixing these days. Attended some technical training on Sub-Zero, Wolf, Bertazzoni, DCS, and a couple others, and some business courses.  I also conducted an all-day
×
×
  • Create New...