Sometimes, the schematics that manufacturers give us aren't as clear as we would like them to be. Take this refrigerator, for example:
There are a few confusing things going on with this schematic, but we'll start with the part I've circled. What is that rectangle? It's drawn with the same lines as all the wires, and we're seeing connections going directly to it. There's no label anywhere calling it out as a discreet component. Could it be that that rectangle really is a loop of wire
We've got quite the library of awesomely informative webinar recordings here at Appliantology -- literally days worth of it! Don't believe me? Here's a little taste.
Push to start switches are extremely common technology in dryers, but do you actually know how they work? And do you know the fatal troubleshooting error that can lead you to misdiagnose them? Watch this short excerpt to find out.
If you want to watch the full recording and take your appliance repair skills to the next lev
PSC (Permanent Split Capacitor) motors are nifty pieces of technology that you'll most often encounter in Whirlpool's VWM washers. They operate a bit differently from your typical split-phase motors. Rather than having a dedicated start winding and run winding, with each winding having different specifications, PSC motors have two windings that are physically identical. The only difference between them is in what direction the windings are wound.
Another big difference between PSC motors an
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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
You open up the terminal block on a Bosch range, and you see this. What's wrong with this picture? (Hint: those of you who have watched this webinar recording should know what's up).
A few questions for you sharp Appliantology techs:
Will the machine run in this configuration?
Why is it not okay to leave the machine in this configuration?
Does this machine have a 3 or 4 wire power cord?
How would you correct this situation?
Let me know your answers
You're investigating a refrigerator that's not cooling properly, and you see the following bits of evidence:
Two questions for you to answer:
What (if anything) does the rime ice on the evaporator tell you?
The source of the problem with this refrigerator is present in one of these photos. What is it?
Let us know your answers in the comments, and we'll let you know if you're right!
Want to troubleshoot refrigeration problems like this (and much m
If you cracked open a freezer and saw the defrost drain looking like this, what would be your immediate reaction?
Do you see what the problem is? Take a closer look...
Have you figured it out? The deal with this defrost drain is...
There is no problem. This is a clear, perfectly normal-looking defrost drain. You can see a little evidence of some water pooling and freezing, but the amount is well within acceptable limits. Based on a visual inspection, there is no issue
Think you know your circuits? How about we put that to the test!
In this excerpt from one of our many illuminating webinar recordings, the Samurai traces out the circuit for a refrigerator evaporator fan. Interestingly, the neutral side of the fan's power supply goes through both the defrost terminator and the defrost heater. How can this be?
Watch this excerpt and ponder the mystery for yourself. When you think you have the answer, click here to view the full webinar and see if you go
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 the situation: the tech is working on a dryer that keeps blowing its thermal fuse. The tech has already replaced the fuse once, and it's now blown again. What could be causing this, and what's the best way to tell?
We'll start by looking at the heater circuit -- an essential step in any troubleshooting plan.
Pretty simple stuff. Just a cycling thermostat, a centrifugal switch, and a hi-limit thermostat. The thermal fuse that keeps blowing is the one in the motor circuit. I
One of the first steps when you're troubleshooting a warm temperature proble in both compartments of a refrigerator should always be to identify whether you're dealing with a problem in the sealed system or with a problem elsewhere in the unit.
The go-to method for most techs is to get eyes on the evaporator coils. While the frost pattern there can tell you a lot of things about the health of the refrigerator, it has a massive drawback: getting to the evaporator can require a lot of non-tri
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
Our online appliance repair training site, MasterSamuraiTech.com, will have a few hours of downtime tonight (Monday, October 26, 2020) starting at 11pm eastern time as we install our brand spanking new website.
We will post any important updates right here at my blog.
If you are a current student, here's a quick overview of what you will experience once the new site is up and running.
UPDATE: The new site is up and running! Check it out for yourself.
How are we as techs supposed to understand the specifications we see on a split-phase motor's label? What's the difference between a motor's output power and its input power, and which of those specs is given on the label? What do acronyms like FLA and LRA mean? All that and more covered in this short video on motor specifications.
This is just a short excerpt from the great technical discussions we have every other Saturday during our Live Dojo Workshops. If you're not joining us for these
I want you to take a look at the door switch I've circled below. Think about it for a minute, then answer one question: what single test could you do to prove beyond a doubt whether or not that door switch is operating within spec?
There's no trickery going on here -- it's just a simple switch. But many techs will test it using a flawed, limited test that has a big chance of leading them to the wrong conclusion. And they'll do a bunch of unnecessary disassembly. Post your answer in th
There are some electrical terms that are often used in vague and incorrect ways by the general public. This can make things confusing for us techs, especially those new to the craft, because these terms have precise meanings when used by those in the trade. A couple of these words are short and ground.
Short is often used by the non-technical to refer to any "bad" circuit. The term "short circuit" is a popular one to throw around in this sense. In reality, a short is just one of multiple di
More and more folks are doing online training webinars these days -- so many, in fact, that it can be impossible to keep up with them all. Recently, Samsung and MSA both put out training webinars on Samsung dishwasher technology and troubleshooting, and I figured I would share the love with the Appliantology Brethren.
In the links below, you'll find my notes and screenshots from both webinars. Topics include:
Troubleshooting the OC/OE error
Identifying common sources of leaks
This microwave will run with the door open -- lucky for the customer, it also doesn't heat. But why is the turntable able to run with the door open? What do you do when a circuit doesn't work at all the way it's supposed to?
That's exactly what we discussed in our latest Live Dojo workshop.
Topics covered include:
Microwave door interlock switches
Turntable motor circuit analysis
Control board algorithms and relays
Theorizing a reasonable failure scenario
Merry Christmas from Team Samurai! Here's wishing you a joyous and peaceful holiday with all of your friends and family. And after that, lots and lots of kicking appliance bootay in the new year.
Need help with your very, very last minute gift shopping? This might help you out. (Weren't appliance ads just the best back in the day?)
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.
It's always the old-skool style circuits that have the most interesting electrical issues, isn't it?
In this workshop, we took a look at just one such machine. A missing neutral in the power supply doesn't have the effect that you would necessarily expect. For example, in this dryer, the timer motor runs on 240 VAC, but the drive motor runs on 120 VAC power. With a missing Neutral, the drive motor won't run, but the timer motor will. We go all into that, as well as the kind of troubleshooti
When you see a term like "FlowSense" in a service manual, don't immediately assume that you're dealing with some bizarre, new technology. 99% of the time, it's just a fancy brand name that the manufacturer slapped on a bit of simple tech that's been around for decades.
And that's what you're going to see in this video! in it, we show how "FlowSense" is just a fancy name for a single sensing line on the control board that detects the presence or absence of L2. Watch it now to learn exactly
If a dryer's motor isn't running, and you hear a strange humming noise coming from the start switch, what does that mean for the switch? And if you want to test that switch, what's the best way to do that?
These are questions that we answer right here in this short excerpt from one of our many in-depth technical training webinar recordings. Give it a watch and learn the answers for yourself...
Want to watch the full webinar recording? Click below -- viewable only by premium m
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