Reading schematics is an essential part of troubleshooting, but it's not always clear how to break down a circuit into understandable bits. Is there an easy rule of thumb for identifying what component does what and how to go about testing it?
In this excerpt from one of our many full-length technical training webinar recordings, you'll learn exactly that! In addition, we'll show you how to break down a seemingly tangled schematic and identify loads in series vs. loads in parallel -- all in
Take a look at this LG gas dryer schematic, paying special attention to the circuit with the flame detector.
If you trace it out, it becomes a bit puzzling what that circuit is actually doing. The hi-limit thermostat, the safety thermostat, and the flame detector don’t appear to have any direct effect on the gas valve coils as you would find in other dryers. So what purpose do they serve?
This markup makes it all clear.
Unlike many circuits that use controls li
Electricity and circuits are at the core of what we do as techs. You've got to have a solid understanding of these in order to do any meaningful troubleshooting. So that's exactly what we cover in this excerpt from one of our many technical training webinar recordings. Give it a watch and build yourself a solid foundation!
This video is an excerpt from a longer Master Samurai Tech webinar and is free for anyone to watch. In the full webinar, we covered topics such as:
Neut
In this clip from a longer webinar, we give you the long and short of how NTC thermistors work and how to troubleshoot them. Don't know what NTC means? Don't worry -- that's covered in this video, too!
Want to watch the full webinar, which goes through using the Samurai's Troubleshooting Ten-Step Tango to nail refrigerator problems every time? Click below -- viewable only by premium members.
This past Sunday, we gave a webinar covering everything you need to know about thermal controls in dryers and the underlying technologies behind them. The full recording dives into all the details of identifying, understanding, and troubleshooting these ubiquitous devices.
In this short clip, we'll introduce you to the three technologies and show how different manufacturers give them various (and sometimes confusing) names.
Want to watch the full webinar recording? Click belo
There are a lot of funky things going on on this Electrolux dishwasher schematic -- including normal-looking switches that are labelled "transistor switches". What does this label mean, exactly, and how does it affect our troubleshooting? That's what the Samurai breaks down in this short clip from a longer technical webinar recording.
Want to watch the full webinar? Click below to watch -- available only to premium members.
Some circuits have a bit more going on than they seem at first glance, and this Whirlpool washer has one such circuit. Watch the excerpt below to learn how to unravel this tangled mess of lines and apply it to your troubleshooting.
Want to watch the full webinar recording where we go through the entire schematic analysis, covering tracing everything out and covering topics like triacs, shunts, and series loads? Click below -- viewable only by premium members.
Thermistors are everywhere in appliances these days, and they're a relatively common-fail item, so wouldn't it be nice to stock a supply of them in your service vehicle to be used on any occasion?
Well, in order to determine how feasible that is, we need to answer a question: are all thermistors interchangeable?
The short answer is no. The long answer is that thermistors are not interchangeable brand-to-brand, but they can be interchangeable within the same brand, depending on the manu
It should always be our goal to get our diagnosis with as little disassembly as possible using our schematic-reading know-how, but did you know that you can sometimes track down the problem without any disassembly at all?
That's just what the Samurai did for this Thermador gas range. Want to learn how he pulled off this magic trick? Watch the video below.
Want to watch the full recording? Click below -- viewable only by premium members.
We techs should always be looking to sharpen our repair skills, and one of the best ways to do that is to learn from each other's experiences.
In this excerpt from a longer webinar, the Samurai walks through a Bosch dishwasher no heat problem that he encountered, working through his thought process and schematic analysis step by step. Watch it and learn a thing or two!
Want to watch the full webinar recording? Click below -- viewable only by premium members.
Here's our scenario: you're working on a Samsung WA50K8600AW washer that won't advance in the cycle. Error codes and test modes aren't telling you anything useful, and the control doesn't even seem to be trying to advance the cycle. You've checked the air tube connected to the pressure sensor, too, and everything is clear there.
What can you do here? Do you just call it a bad board and move on?
Let's see if there's a smarter test we can do on this one. What if we could test the signal
You don't have to be a physicist or a mathematician to troubleshoot properly, but you can't get around the fact that math is the only way to really understand electricity. Sine waves are one such mathematical representation used for both voltage and current. But how does this representation work, exactly, and how does it help us wrap our head around voltage, current, and power?
That's what we'll break down for you in this excerpt from one of our many full-length technical webinar recordings
Let's say you're on a call for a Whirlpool GI6FARXXY07 refrigerator. You notice that the evaporator fan isn't running, even when the unit isn't in defrost. "Simple enough," you think, and you disconnect the fan harness and check its resistance.
Wow -- 500 K-ohms! No way that's in spec. Gotta be a bad fan motor, right?
Before we get too hasty, let's step back for a moment and do what we should have done at the start -- look at the schematic. When we do that, we can pretty easily locate
In this recording from a recent live technical training webinar, we walked through the whole thought flow for troubleshooting this Samsung dryer that always runs when the door is closed. There's no guesswork or monkey-jabbing here -- strictly analytical and accurate diagnostic techniques that bring us ever closer to the solution.
Here's a short excerpt to show you what we're on about:
Want to troubleshoot like a real tech? Click the video below to see how. Viewable only by pr
Sometimes, manufacturers don't write out schematics as clearly as they should. In cases like this Frigidaire cooktop, the way that the relays for the simmer function are drawn is downright obtuse.
In our latest workshop webinar, we broke down the function of this circuit and really understand how it works, bringing our electrical and technical know-how to bear to make logical deductions about the circuit.
Did you miss the original webinar and want to watch this webinar recording? Click
Knowing how to properly use a schematic for your troubleshooting is key to saving money and time. In this short presentation, the Samurai shows performing circuit analysis to identify the most useful, but also the most convenient tests to quickly zero in on the problem. Topics covered include:
- reading schematic diagrams
- strategic selection of your reference voltage
- doing live testing (appliance plugged in and running) vs. Ohms testing
- using a loading meter to test AC line vol
Join me on another short troubleshooting journey -- this one taken from a real tech's experience that he posted on Appliantology.
You're troubleshooting a Samsung dryer that won't start-- the control panel will let you select a cycle, but it won't actually run if you press the start button. But the real head-scratcher is that, despite not being able to start a cycle, the machine always runs when the door is closed.
Sounds tricky, but as you'll see, the troubleshoot is pretty simple if
We covered not one, but two different workshop topics in our last webinar, and I now present to you the second one!
In this workshop about a dishwasher with a starting-and-stopping motor, we covered topics like:
How to nail this problem using a single test
Analyzing the wash motor circuit to understand how it works
Identifying how the board senses circuit current
...and more!
Click below to watch the full recording -- available only to premium tech member
In our latest workshop webinar, we cultivated the much-desired skill of troubleshooting appliances with multiple control boards. Topics included:
Using the schematic to form your troubleshooting strategy
Identifying inputs and outputs
Making meaningful measurements and understanding what their results mean
...and much more!
Want to learn this stuff for yourself? The full webinar recording is available right now to premium tech members of Appliantology. Click b
We talk a lot here at Appliantology about always consulting the schematic as the first step of your troubleshooting. But how exactly do you do that?
That's where the Troubleshooting Ten Step Tango comes in! Watch the clip below where the Samurai demonstrates how to use this reliable, universally applicable troubleshooting framework to troubleshoot a real-world refrigerator scenario.
Want to watch the full webinar recording and learn how to use the schematic and the Ten Step T
Take a look at the circuit for this electric cooktop element. Notice anything odd about it?
Looks pretty straightforward, right? Well, it certainly is straightforward when the simmer switch isn't closed. Here's what the circuit looks like when it's not running on simmer.
L1 goes through the simmer select board and a temperature-controlled switch, and L2 goes through the relay board and a couple other switches. Standard stuff for one of these elements.
But what's going
How do you use a schematic to analyze a circuit, and how do you then apply that knowledge to a real-world troubleshoot?
That's the question we answer in this Schematic Workshop webinar! We start off by working through the most interesting parts of this dryer circuit, and then we move on to several more schematic exercises. You can watch an excerpt of the full webinar below:
Want to see the rest of the troubleshoot? Click below to watch the full recording and step up your trou
There's a very common configuration of valves that are used in refrigerators with ice makers and dispensers -- so common that every tech should be very familiar with how it works and what terms are used to refer to it. You can't troubleshoot what you don't understand!
We'll use a GE refrigerator as our example, but this same system is used across almost all refrigerators with water supplies. Here's a snippet from a GE manual:
All this is saying is that you have three valves in th
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?)
In our latest troubleshooting workshop, we start with a seemingly simple problem -- overly long dry times -- and walk through all the surprising pitfalls that you could be ensnared by. Topics include:
Correctly measuring dryer vent airflow
Differentiating between real diagnostic tests and fluffy sales features
Identifying dummy troubleshooting directions and errors in manuals
Learning why you should always use amps rather than ohms for troubleshooting AC loads
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By Samurai Appliance Repair Man in Samurai Appliance Repair Man's Blog1 comment