Manufacturers do sometimes help us techs out -- Samsung has been putting on training sessions pretty regularly both for their own models, and for Dacor-branded models as well (Samsung acquired Dacor a few years back, for those who don't know). While a lot of how we troubleshoot is by understanding the principles that are common to all appliances, you always need a bit of info specific to the appliance you're working on. In particular, information about the exact implementation of the technology
We've got a toughie for you to figure out today. The tech in this scenario has been out on this dryer multiple times now, and the problem just won't go away. The heating element keeps going open, and the timer motor keeps stalling and not completing cycles. He's verified a good 240 VAC power supply to the timer and replaced both parts multiple times, but the problem keeps recurring every few months. What gives?
Let's board the train away from PCM-Land and use one of our foundational trouble
In this excerpt from one of the many technical training webinar recordings available to our members, we cover two tricky areas that have tripped up many a tech: deciphering an unclear schematic, and decoding a convoluted customer problem description. Both of these are essential skills for any tech, since if you mess up either of these steps, the entire rest of your troubleshooting will be thrown out of whack.
The troubleshooting framework that we're using in this video is our patented Ten-S
Specs are essential for troubleshooting. After all, to test a hypothesis, you need to make electrical tests, and to make electrical tests, you need to know what your expected readings are. However, manufacturers don't always give you everything written out. What do you do if you need to make an amp measurement, but the manufacturer only gives you watts? That's exactly the question we're going to answer in this excerpt from one of our many in-depth technical webinar recordings.
Wan
Ever wanted an in-depth explanation of how a split-phase motor gets going from a dead stop? Sure, most of us have a passing knowledge of what's going on. But do you really know what's happening on the electromagnetic level? What is this special "split-phase", anyway, and how do we quantify the way the magnetic fields interact?
These are exactly the questions we answer in this excerpt from one of our many full-length technical webinar recordings. Don't worry, we're not getting into any of th
While we don't like to rely on ohms testing as appliance technicians, those tests have their place -- such as if you want to verify that a compressor's windings are in spec. But if you want to do an ohms test on a split-phase compressor's windings, you'll need to identify which of the three terminals on the compressor's casing corresponds to which winding.
To do so, you have to have a little bit of knowledge about how split-phase compressor windings are arranged, and what their specificatio
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
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
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
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
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?
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
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
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 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
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
Want to really put your technical know-how to the test? Well, have we got the webinar for you!
This one covers a whole potpourri of circuit puzzles and troubleshooting scenarios, including:
Some pop quizzes about series and parallel circuits
Diodes, how they work, and the surprisingly tricky situations that can arise because of them
Loads in series, how they work, and what they look like in a real refrigerator schematic
A real world troubleshooting scenario invo
We're taking a step back from our fancy electronics to the good ol' days of simple AC circuits. Well, I say "simple", and that is true -- but engineers back then had to pull out all the stops and do some pretty cool tricks to get the functionality they wanted. This means that, to really understand what's going on in these older circuits, you need to have a firm grasp of both AC circuits and the technology used.
In this webinar, we:
Work through 4 real-world dryer case studies that h
All appliance repair techs should understand the AC split-phase household electrical power supply that they deal with on a daily basis. But the fact is that most do not, and there's a lot of disinformation and "tech myths" out there about these power supplies. But they re easy to understand once you grasp a few fundamental concepts about electricity and split-phase voltage.
And that's exactly what we cover in this webinar recording!
Topics covered include:
How sine waves are us
If you are a member of Nationwide Marketing Group (NMG) and you would like to fully unlock the ultimate online appliance repair toolkit that is Appliantology, fill out the form below. Once you've done so, we'll set you up with your premium Appliantology membership at an exclusive 15% discounted rate.
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Gas burners are a whole little microcosm within appliances with some interesting technology that we don't see much elsewhere. In this webinar recording, we cover how to troubleshoot various cooktop ignition systems, covering topics such as:
DSI systems
Single-point ignition
Reignition systems
Continual sparking after a flame is established
Applying the Ten-Step Tango to real-world problems
...and more!
Click below to check out this webinar record
Greetings, my brethren in the craft!
I wanted to give you all a heads up about the server migration that's currently in progress here at Appliantology. You shouldn't notice too much amiss while this is going on (besides some downtime early Saturday morning when the actual transfer takes place), but there may still be some weirdness. For example, we just noticed that some PA membership renewal notices just got sent out to a few of our users that had already renewed within the past few weeks.
The very first step in troubleshooting a broken appliance happens long before the tech sets foot in the customer's home. In fact, it can happen even before the tech knows about the service call. We're talking about formulating a problem statement.
What I mean by a problem statement is very specific. A valid problem statement answers these two questions: "What is the appliance not doing that it should be doing?" and/or "What is the appliance doing that it shouldn't be doing?" It doesn't go b
Why are microwaves so picky about the way they do their door switches? Are two different interlock switches really necessary? And what does the monitor switch even do, anyway? All these questions and more answered in this short instructional presentation.
Big props to Brother @Vance R for his explanation of these switches in this topic, which inspired us to make this video.
Topics covered include:
Schematic analysis of interlock switch circuits
Identifying if the schemat
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
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