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Samurai Appliance Repair Man's Blog

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About this blog

Pearls of appliance repair wisdom from the Appliantology Forums

Entries in this blog

Secrets of the Ten-Step Tango™ Troubleshooting Method Revealed!

I've been working with appliance techs online for over 20 years. One of the biggest changes I've seen in the tech community during that time is a steady decline in competence in troubleshooting electrical circuits. It's to the point today that many techs don't even know what real troubleshooting is or looks like. A common misunderstanding is that pattern recognition and parts changing are what constitute "troubleshooting."  Real troubleshooting starts with a succinct problem statement that an

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

A Day in the Life: A Tale of Two Refrigerator Service Calls

In this first video, we troubleshoot a warm beer compartment (fresh food) in a Frigidaire Gallery french door bottom mount refrigerator. The video illustrates the importance of following a cardinal rule of troubleshooting: Fix the obvious problem first.  In this case, the customer simply reported that the FF compartment was warm but the freezer compartment was good. We verified these temperatures upon arrival. But then the customer points out that the lights in the FF compartment were stuck

Wall Oven Wiring Fail

I went to remove a wall oven today and ran into a little problem. Can you find it? I run into this kind of problem all the time up here in the backwoods of New Hampster. It's an endemic problem with electricians and handymen not bothering to read the installation instructions. For the record, this installation fail was done by a licensed electrician. Kind of a wake up call for the whole licensing racket, isn't it? Having a "licensed" electrician is still no guarantee that he knows what in the h

Troubleshooting and Repairing a Bosch Gas Range Surface Burner

No schematics on this one! I know that'll be a relief for some of you. Honestly, it was a nice break for me, too. I love these easy jobs where you can troubleshoot using only your eyeballs and fix it with something as simple as a paper clip.  In this short little video, I show you how to troubleshoot a problem with a surface burner on Bosch gas range. The burner was not lighting correctly and would sometimes flare up.  All gas range surface burners operate using the same principles so

Samurai Appliance Repair Man

Samurai Appliance Repair Man

Troubleshooting a Samsung Gas Range E OE Error Code with Rats Nest and Yapping Little Dogs

In this glimpse into the glamour life of an appliance tech, we troubleshoot an E-OE error code on a Samsung gas range with the added twist of rat infestation and yapping little dogs. It's winter in New Hampshire and rodents will seek out warm places but this place was a literal rats nest. The smell of rodent piss was gagging us (me and @Son of Samurai) as soon as we walked in the door. It would have been stronger if it was actually warm inside the kitchen but it was probably only about 45F which

Samurai Appliance Repair Man

Samurai Appliance Repair Man

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

Three reasons why doing component replacements on electronic boards is a bad idea

A recent topic in the tech forums here at Appliantology illustrates perfectly a point I’ve made in the past that replacing components on electronic control boards, rather than replacing the whole board, is a bad idea both for the customer and for the technician. The discussion was about a power supply problem on the main control board in a Kitchenaid KSCS25INSS refrigerator which is NLA. This topic pointed out three specific reasons why replacing components on electronic control boards is i

How to replace and reprogram the main control board on Bosch dishwashers

Replacing and re-programming the control in these Bosch dishwasher is a pretty straightforward job. But the instructions for the reprogramming are a little different from what you might actually see. Here's a video showing how to replace the control. And here are the written instructions from Bosch (click to enlarge): In the video, the re-programming portion is the last 30 seconds or so of the video. Notice that what they show in the video doesn't quite match up with what's shown in the

GE Refrigerator Appliantology: Fans, Evaporator and Condenser

This is the first in a series of posts I’m going to do about the technology used in GE refrigerators. Understanding the basics of how these refrigerators work will give you a lot of troubleshooting insight when you’re trying to track down a problem. This post explains how the fans in GE refrigerators are controlled and operated. Like most other refrigerators, GE refrigerators have at least two fans: - the evaporator (freezer) fan - the condenser fan (the hot coil in the back, underneath the refr

Samurai Appliance Repair Man

Samurai Appliance Repair Man

[video] Troubleshooting a Kenmore-Electrolux Dual Fuel Range F30 Error Code

This dual fuel range was flashing an F30 error code. The tech sheet says this points to a problem with the RTD (temperature probe). A parts changing monkey reading only the error code description without looking at the schematic replaced the RTD only to have the exact same problem: F30 error code. Watch how a real technician uses both the tech sheet and the schematic to accurately diagnose the problem without guesswork.      Get online, on-demand 24/7 appliance repair train

[video] No oven heat on a DUAL FUEL range

Watch as I demonstrate some basic troubleshooting katas applicable to all appliances, regardless of brand or type.   Wondering what the fault on L2 was? Here's the big reveal: we actually induced the failure ourselves on our test range in the Samurai Studio (in our secret lair hidden deep in a volcano) so we could show you this basic troubleshooting kata. Our videos are not showing pattern recognition ("if this symptom replace this part"), product training, or parts chan

How to read the cycle sequence chart on a Whirlpool GWS dishwasher

You know that complicated-looking cycle sequence chart on the techsheet for these dishwashers that no one uses because they don't understand it? Yeah, that one. We explained how to use it in the Appliantology Tips and Tricks webinar on August 11, 2019. It really is a powerful troubleshooting aid that lets you check all the functions and loads in the machine in just a few minutes. Appliantology premium tech members may watch the webinar recording here.     This webinar recording i

Finding service manuals for Kenmore model numbers in the Downloads section of Appliantology

Here's a quick tip for finding service manuals for Kenmore model numbers in the Downloads section here at Appliantology.  Let's say you have a Kenmore model number like 796.31512210. The site search doesn't play nice with special characters like the "." in the model number. Easy workaround: Use the search wild card character, "*" to replace the model number prefix including the "." like ahso: *31512210 Copy and paste that search term into the search bar at the top of the

The Big Three Deadly Dishwasher Mistakes

Deadly Mistake Numero Uno: Using a gel detergent or powered detergent that is old or has already gotten wet. The main tasks of a detergent are to remove soil from surfaces and prevent the re-deposits of soils on the surfaces. The best detergent formulations will be powdered. Do not use gels or liquid detergents. Why powdered detergent? Because in today's phosphate-free world, you need two types of cleaners in a detergent formulation to get dishes clean: 1. Enzymes to remove protein-based stains

Samurai Appliance Repair Man

Samurai Appliance Repair Man

Get World-Class Tech Help at Appliantology.org for FREE with your MST Enrollment

We on Team Samurai maintain and develop two different websites: Master Samurai Tech and Appliantology. Each site is designed to assist you in different stages of your appliance repair journey. Master Samurai Tech is an online academy that provides state-of-the-art appliance repair training, both for new techs and techs who have been in the business for 30 years or more. Appliantology is a tech support community that provides peer-to-peer tech help, service manual downloads, and li

Appliantology Tips & Tricks

Appliantology is a powerful appliance repair tool, with lots of features that may not be obvious at first glance. If you feel like you're missing out on some of what the site offers, then you'll want to watch these clips from our Tips & Tricks webinar. In just a few minutes, we'll step you through how to use a few of the most commonly missed features of Appliantology. Here are some clips from the Appliantology Tips & Tricks webinar we had on May 5, 2019.   The Homepage You

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!

Troubleshooting a microwave oven using the Divide and Conquer Method

Electrically speaking, microwave ovens have two sections: low voltage and high voltage. The low voltage section consists of the door switches, start button, control panel, turntable motor, cooling fan, stirrer motor, and some miscellaneous switches. The high voltage section consists of the transformer (which steps 120vac line voltage in residential units and 240vac in some commercial units up to 2,000+ volts), the high voltage rectifier (diode), and the charging capacitor (which together with

Samurai Appliance Repair Man

Samurai Appliance Repair Man

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

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

Samsung Dryer Troubleshooting and Electric Circuits Review

Many techs have trouble interpreting a schematic diagram and understanding how to use it for troubleshooting. In this webinar, held on March 29, 2019, we used a Samsung electric dryer and a GE double oven as case studies to review electric circuit principles and troubleshooting. Some of the topics we talked about: Neutral sensing in Samsung dryers: what that means, what it does, and how it affects troubleshooting Series and parallel circuits and how to identify them on a real-worl
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