Special guest presenter Mark Williams will show you how easy it is to diagnose temperature problems in the newer electronically-controlled refrigerators and how to do it right the first time.
We'll show you examples from Samsung, LG, GE, Whirlpool, and Electrolux. You'll see that they all work the same way.
You'll also see how to accurately test thermistors from the computer control board and you’ll learn the difference between resistance and voltage drop when it comes to testing the
In this short, easily-digestible technical workshop, we dive into some of the wacky things that can happen when a sloppy tech miswires a dryer terminal block. In fact, this dryer looks like it shouldn't be able to run -- the neutral wire isn't even connected! And yet it does run. How, you ask? That's exactly what you'll need to watch and find out.
This and our dozens of other technical training webinar recordings are only viewable by premium tech members at Appliantology.
Topics covere
A lot of techs lose their heads when it comes to control boards. This leads to the classic PCM behavior of "throw a part at it and hope it works." But isn't there a better way of troubleshooting computer-controlled appliances?
Of course there is. With a concrete and logical troubleshooting plan like the Ten-Step Tango, you can troubleshoot any appliance with a control board with confidence. In fact, in many ways, a control board being present makes it easier to do your troubleshooting.
In this interactive webinar workshop, we explored an LG gas dryer issue that had stumped an Appliantology tech. We performed a forensic analysis on the troubleshoot to figure out how it could have been improved, and then we moved on to thoroughly examine the circuits and understand how they work.
This and our dozens of other technical training webinar recordings are only viewable by premium tech members at Appliantology.
Topics covered include...
DC and AC loads
Compute
What do you do when a seemingly simple problem stumps you? Well, it's times like that when it's essential to have a structured troubleshooting strategy like the Samurai's Ten-Step Tango.
What is the Ten-Step Tango and how do you use it? That's exactly what we're going to teach you all about in this webinar recording, using a real-life example from here at Appliantology: an LG electric wall oven that won't heat. Strange as it may seem for such a simple problem, most techs would troubleshoot
What would happen if you took a 240 VAC outlet and swapped the terminals around? What effects might that have on the machine that's plugged into it?
That might just sound like an interesting thought question, but it's an issue that more than one tech here at Appliantology has had to deal with. So let's pull out a schematic as an example and start drawing some lines!
By the way, the process I'm going to walk you through is something any tech should be able to do: puzzle out how a circui
There are many standard items a CSR should collect from the customer (name, address, contact information, type of appliance, etc.), but I'd like to focus on the key features of a good service ticket that may be overlooked by some. If you make sure to follow these tips, you'll set your techs up for the easiest prediagnosis and best service calls possible.
1. Collect a valid model number
A model number is essential for a tech's prediangosis. Without it, he cannot get the correct in
If you're getting into appliance repair, or even just looking to downsize an overstuffed tool bag, you might be wondering: what are the absolute essentials that you should bring with you on any service call? Well, having my fair share of experience in the field, I'll put forward Team Samurai's list of must-have appliance repair tools. Note that this isn't supposed to be a totally comprehensive list -- just the bare essentials.
Multimeter with a loading/LoZ function
If there's a t
I've got another scenario for you, taken right from the trials and tribulations of an Appliantology tech. Here's the situation: you're working on a top-load washer, and whenever you try to run a cycle, the tub doesn't move and the motor just hums.
Right away, we have a decision to make: do we go ahead and tear apart the machine to take a look at the wash motor? After all, there are a number of mechanical failures that could cause these symptoms. Maybe we should just go ahead and get our han
Vent hoods are pretty simple appliances -- something you've probably surmised if you've ever looked at the schematic for one. Usually, all they have going on is a blower motor and a couple of lights. When it comes to troubleshooting a hood, there are just two technology-related concepts you need to be familiar with: venting specifications and how multi-speed motors work.
First, venting specs. As with any machine that produces exhaust as part of its operation, vent hoods have certain require
Merry Christmas to all the Appliantology Brethren! Here's hoping that this holiday is capping off a great year for your business, and that an even better year is just around the corner.
Here at Appliantology, our primary mission is to support appliance repair techs in performing prediagnosis: the method of performing as much troubleshooting as you possibly can before setting foot in the customer’s home. Prediagnosis is the biggest factor in increasing FCC (First Call Complete) rates, and the higher the FCC rate, the higher your company's profitability.
So how exactly does one prediagnose, and how does Appliantology help with that? Well, let's walk through the journey of an
"Ohms lie." It's become a popular phrase in the tech community, but what does it actually mean? Should you never do an ohms measurement? Are they completely worthless? Or is this phrase just another example of tech mythology?
The answer is more complicated than any of that. Let's run through a quick example to demonstrate. This is an old-skool Whirlpool gas dryer, just like they were cranking out left and right in the good old days.
Now, our scenario is a simple one: when we run
Anytime you work on a refrigerator with a control board, you've got multiple NTC thermistors in play. With how ubiquitous these devices are, it's important to know them inside and out -- especially how to test them. That's why we've made a webinar all about NTC thermistor technology for your viewing pleasure!
In this short excerpt from one of our many technical training webinars, we cover topics like:
What is an NTC thermistor used for and where will you find them?
What does
Here's a puzzling scenario on a Samsung refrigerator: the ice dispenser door keeps opening and closing nonstop.
When you encounter a weird problem like this, it's easy to lose your head and just start throwing parts at the machine and hoping one of them will fix it. But it's always important to keep our fundamental troubleshooting principles firmly in mind. In this particular case, troubleshooting is made even more difficult by Samsung providing us with a very low-resolution schematic -- bu
Everything runs on circuit boards these days, and wherever there are circuit boards, there are semiconductors. But what are semiconductors, exactly? How are they made, and what do they do?
These are exactly the questions we'll answer for you right now in this excerpt from one of our many on-demand technical training webinar recordings. In it, you'll learn the answer to questions like:
What are semiconductors?
What are they made of?
What is "doping" in semiconductors?
The technical side of the service call is generally what gets the spotlight, but what you do before, after, and during the call is just as important to your profitability -- and I'm not just talking about soft skills. The way you organize your thought process and go about your troubleshoot is vital to service call success. And that's exactly what we talk about in this short excerpt from one of our many technical training webinar recordings.
Topics covered include:
How to run a servi
Both of the big Korean manufacturers -- LG and Samsung -- have a little trick that they like to use in their schematics. While I think they do it to keep the lines from becoming too much of a tangled mess, it can sometimes be a bit unclear for the uninitiated. Here's an example of an LG refrigerator schematic:
The whole picture is a bit much, but notice all those bubbles popping up around the schematic? Let's pick one of those and focus in on it. Here's one coming off the sub PCB:
Here's a weird one for you: how does this dryer run with the neutral wire of the pigtail completely disconnected? To find out, watch this short, 7-minute excerpt from one of our many full-length technical training webinar recordings.
In this video, you'll learn the answer to questions like:
What is the difference between 3 and 4 wire dryer cords?
Why should neutral and ground be separated?
Why is the dryer able to run without neutral connected?
Give it a watch a
Here's a scenario taken right from the trials and tribulations of an Appliantology tech: you're troubleshooting a no heat complaint on a GE electric dryer. You start your troubleshooting with the heating circuit, and your findings are puzzling: there are 120 volts on either side of the heater with respect to neutral, but when you do a voltage reading across the heater, you get some weird amount like 80 volts. What gives?
There are a couple of things going on here, and one is easily remedied
Ever looked at a timing chart and been mystified by how to decipher it? Or maybe you're looking at the schematic, and you can't make heads or tails of which switch is supposed to be closed when during a cycle.
If timer charts have ever given you trouble, then this is the video for you. In less than 10 minutes, we'll show you how to read a timer chart, correlating it with the actual steps of the cycle, and then identifying how it relates to the state of the switches on the schematic. Give it
Whether you were aware of them or not, Hall effect sensors are everywhere. Any time you see a motor on an appliance with any kind of RPM feedback or speed signal, there's a Hall sensor on that motor. As with any ubiquitous appliance technology, it's important for us techs to know how they work. A deeper understanding of the technology means a deeper understanding of how to troubleshoot it.
So: what is a Hall sensor, and how does it work? These are semiconductor devices, so as with most elec
Refrigeration can seem a bit like magic -- how does a little bit of refrigerant being pushed around in some metal tubes somehow chill a freezer down to 0 degrees F? Well, it's not magic -- it's just physics. But granted, it's an aspect of physics that we don't often interact with in our daily lives, and it can be a bit unintuitive at first.
It all has to do with how a material can absorb heat without actually getting hotter. How does this happen? That's what we explain in this excerpt from
Take a look at this schematic, paying particular attention to the two circled relays.
What the relays actually do is pretty simple -- they switch L2 to the left and right burners on the cooktop. But slightly more perplexing is the question of how the relays close when those burners are turned on. We see the row of four burner switches along the bottom of the schematic above, but how do those switches cause those DLB relays to close?
A quick recap on how relays work: a relay is an
Long gone are the days when we techs had any excuse to be scared by names like LG or Samsung. Through information tools like Appliantology, we have access to all the technical docs we need to service these models. And anyone who has spent time examining the schematics and service manuals for Samsung appliances knows that there's nothing weird or proprietary going on here -- maybe a bit of Korenglish here and there, but how electricity works and the fundamental technology used in all appliances i
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