Search the Community

Appliantology is an invaluable resource for working appliance repair technicians, providing service manuals and datasheets, continuing education technical training, and a community of thousands who have your back whenever you need help or have questions. To maintain the quality of our community and keep it ad-free, we do charge an annual fee of $297 for our Professional Appliantologist membership, which unlocks all that Appliantology has to offer, including tech-only help forums and unthrottled, lighting-fast downloads. If you're a Legacy Tech member, which means that you have limited access to premium features of the site due to a membership you purchased back when our membership structure worked differently, you are entitled to $100 off the normal price when you purchase a Professional Appliantologist membership. All you have to do is contact us to take advantage of this deal. How to Save Money on Your Membership Empowering technicians has been our mission from day one, so we’ve made it possible to enjoy all the benefits of the Professional Appliantologist membership for FREE. All you need to do is enroll in the online appliance repair training courses at the Master Samurai Tech Academy. Why? The more master technicians who are active on Appliantology, the more useful Appliantology is for all of its members, you included. Here’s how membership works for students: After you enroll in any of our technical courses, you will receive a free 6-month Professional Appliantologist membership. Instructions on how to activate this membership will be included in the course you purchase. Even after your 6 months are up, you’ll have earned a lifetime discount on your Professional Appliantologist membership. You can purchase this discounted membership at any time by writing to us through our contact form, and cancel at any time. The current discount is $100 off, for an annual fee of $197. Want a Free Annual Membership? There are currently two ways to earn a free annual premium tech membership: Earning your certification in the Core Appliance Repair course at Master Samurai Tech Earning your Master Certification at the Mr. Appliance Academy Once you receive your certification, contact us for your free premium membership. To maintain your free membership indefinitely, all you need to do is stay active and contribute to the community. We know techs like flowcharts, so here's one that summarizes how memberships work. If you have any questions at all about how to get a membership, contact us. A Quick Recap 1. Professional Appliantologist: the easy, instant premium membership for $297 per year. Provides access to our tech-only help forums; unthrottled, lightning fast downloads; on-demand webinar recordings, and more. 2. Membership for MST Students: this free premium membership provides the same benefits as a Professional Appliantologist membership and lasts for 6 months. It is included with enrollment in any of our technical courses at Master Samurai Tech. This is a one-time membership, but even after it expires, you’ll have earned a lifetime discount on your Professional Appliantologist membership (currently $100 off). 3. Membership for Certified MST Alumni: this free premium membership provides the same benefits as a Professional Appliantologist membership, but it can be renewed for free indefinitely. It is earned by getting certified in the Core Appliance Repair course at the Master Samurai Tech Academy, or by earning Master Certification at the Mr. Appliance Academy. Special discount for longtime members If you're a Legacy Tech member, which means that you have limited access to premium features of the site due to a membership you purchased back when our membership structure worked differently, you are entitled to $100 off the normal price when you purchase a Professional Appliantologist membership. All you have to do is contact us to take advantage of this deal. Every Appliantology tech membership also ensures two things that very few other sites out there do: no ads and no data harvesting. We strive to provide our members with an uncluttered, ad-free experience, and during your stay at the Appliantology forums, absolutely none of your personal data or the content you create will be collected for our own or any other company's purposes.

Training at the Master Samurai Tech Academy is already a killer deal: comprehensive, state-of-the-art training that’s online and on-demand at tuition low enough that anyone can afford it. Well now we’re kicking it up to 11 with the Master Samurai Tech Alumni program. If you have been certified* in the Core course at the Master Samurai Tech Academy (formerly called the "Fundamentals" course) or earned Master Certification at the Mr. Appliance Academy (Bundle 1 only), you can get full tech access to our tech support site, Appliantology.org, with no annual fee. Yes, as in FREE. You heard that right. You would be a Master Samurai Tech Alumnus at Appliantology with the same level of access and all the benefits of a Professional Appliantologist member (read all the benefits of PA membership here). That’s a $297/year value-- FREE! What’s the catch? No catch but there is a small difference between PA and MST Alumnus membership. PA members can continue to renew their membership at the annual rate and can download and request all the manuals they need regardless of how much or how little they participate in the forums. The MST Alumnus membership is also annual but instead of paying with money, you “pay” with participation in the forums. "Participation" here means posts that contribute to the community -- new topics in a repair forums (not manual requests), replies to topics, or file contributions to our Downloads section. The idea here is not to place a burden on you -- it’s just to discourage people from getting the MST Alumnus membership and simply downloading manuals without interacting with the other members. When your membership expires, all you have to do is write in via the contact form requesting your free Alumnus renewal. We'll review your participation and renew you for another year if we see that you've been contributing to the community. Even as little as one contribution per month can qualify you for renewal. This really is a killer deal and a special perk for certified Core graduates! Why are we offering such a great deal? Simple: We want to encourage more techs to successfully complete the Core course and get certified. This helps them be better techs and helps the trade in general. Certified Core grads tend to be top tier techs who bring interesting questions and good problem solving insight to the forums. They are skilled techs and potentially valuable content contributors. This deal is retroactive meaning that if you’re already a certified graduate of the Core (formerly "Fundamentals") course, you are eligible for this deal. If you’re already a PA member and a certified Core grad, we can move you to the MST Alumnus deal. So how do you get started on this gravy train? Easy: just fill out this short form, we’ll review it and set up your MST Alumnus account here at Appliantology mo’scratchie (that’s Samurai-speak for “quickly”). * Certified means that you meet all currently required quiz and exam score requirements for the course; see this page for details.

The Samurai gave a live walkthrough on how to effectively use Appliantology as an appliance tech information tool: getting familiar with the site layout and content, how to search for service manuals, how to start new topics, and much, much more! BONUS: a quick run through of the Master Samurai Tech Academy.

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 camaraderie. This wasn’t always the case. The purpose of this little magnum opus is to relate the long and storied history of this site and its predecessor, Applianceguru.com, and to reflect on how we’ve changed, some of the dysfunctional people we’ve dealt with over the years, and where we are today. I’ve learned a lot about running internet communities, often the hard way and by trial and error. The Internet was a brave new frontier for everyone back in the 90’s. So everyone was making it up as they went along. You’ll get a glimpse into the challenges of keeping a forum community alive and kicking. Come with me now on a journey through the Appliantology looking glass... History - the "Good ol' days?" I started the old forums at ApplianceGuru.com waaay back in 2003. It was a plain-jane forum-- no downloads section, no webinars, no blogs, no galleries, just a fraction of the functionality and features of this current forum software. The Applianceguru.com site was started as a DIYer support forum. DIYers were the focus and it was 100% funded by affiliate parts purchases from DIYers. It was a workable part time model back in the day that brought in a little beer money. Other techs started coming to the site and helping answer DIYer questions. Naturally, techs started helping each other out, too. I started collecting service manuals in a Mediafire account. I called this “the Stash.” Eventually, I started sharing lifetime access to this file storage with techs who paid a modest one-time fee ranging from $5 to $40. That account and file storage still exists today. The developer of the old forum software quit or died or something and he stopped supporting it. This was at a time when smartphone usage was starting to get big and there was no possibility of a mobile-friendly version of that forum software ever being developed. So, in November 2010, I took the plunge and started a whole new forum-- this one-- using completely new software and at a completely different web address. Thus Appliantology.org was born. As a courtesy and convenience to tech members at Applianceguru.com, I migrated their accounts over to the new forum, even though the old forums at Applianceguru.com remained open until a couple of months ago (the software was completely obsolete and couldn’t be maintained any more). When Appliantology was first running, there was no Downloads section like we have now. The only Download available was the access link to the Mediafire account. Techs still had the option of making a small, one-time donation to access the Mediafire account. Eventually, I started adding files in a separate Downloads section, what is now called the Appliance Repair Manual Pot Luck Supper. Today, that library has grown to almost 4,000 files and more manuals are added almost every day and on request. All the manuals are indexed and searchable. Several things changed that caused us to have to restructure the business model used to support this site: DIYers started coming to the site to get help, but then shopping elsewhere (eBay, Amazon) for the part to get it for a buck cheaper. Some would actually come back and brag about it. Affiliate parts sales (and hence all income to run and grow this site) dropped to almost nothing. Since DIYers had basically said to hell with us, we decided to change the whole business model of the site to focus on supporting the professional appliance tech community. The increased bandwidth from users and downloads required a more expensive server arrangement (ultimately getting the dedicated private server that we have today). The increased hard costs and man-hours needed to run the site as a high-quality tech support resource meant I had to make a decision: either run it like a business or shut it down. I wasn’t ready to just shut the site down because I believed that enough people in the appliance tech community would value a high-functioning, full-featured appliance support site. So we set out to reinvent the site. We did this by making a few changes: We briefly offered a lifetime membership shortly after we set up shop here at Appliantology, until we realized it wasn’t going to support the features we wanted to provide. So we created a new membership group called Professional Appliantologist with an annual membership fee. This is used to pay for the operation and maintenance of the site. All techs who had purchased a “lifetime membership” for access to the Download Stash at Mediafire from Applianceguru.com or in the early days of Appliantology still have access to that resource. They also have gratis downloading privileges but it is at a throttled speed and one file at a time. This was necessary to ensure that limited server resources were available for the Professional Appliantologists. All lifetime techs likewise have access to the tech-only forums (which is now most of the site) and the live training webinars. Remember: most paid a ridiculous pittance, $5 to $40, more than 7 years ago for lifetime access at a completely different website, Applianceguru.com, not unlimited access to this site, Appliantology.org. In either case, the Download library did not exist as it does today. Extending downloading privileges at all to the original tech group was a pure gift on our part. Unfortunately, a small segment of these techs did not see it this way. Accusations from Malcontents Most techs at this site are really great people to interact with and value what we strive to provide for them here. The malcontents and detractors comprise less than 1%. If you think about it, this is probably true with your service call customers. It’s about the same distribution anywhere you have a large group of people. One type of malcontent we’ve encountered are the “lifetime” members from the early days who thought they should get all of the privileges and benefits that our current PA members do. We were accused of various forms of selling out, greed, and “only being in it for the money”, despite all the access that they still had, as described above. Again, we’re talking about a handful of users. Most of the techs from the early days either were content with their legacy-member benefits, or simply upgraded to a PA membership to get all of the new goodies. Most people are unaware of how carefully an online forum has to be managed to keep the community healthy, to retain old members and attract new ones. This is one of those skills I had to learn by a lot of trial and error. But learn I did, and over the years I have escorted several people off the site for various reasons, which I’ll discuss in a moment. It’s always regrettable but also necessary to maintain the quality experience of the site for the other members. In cases where a person had paid for a Professional Appliantologist membership, I refunded 100% of their money even though they had persistently violated site Guidelines and were several months into their membership term. I did this with the hopes that we could simply part ways amicably. Unfortunately, being “amicable” is not in everyone’s toolkit. Have you ever decided not to continue on a job that you could tell was breaking bad, refunded any money the customer paid, and then they STILL talk shit about you? Then you know what I’m talking about. Part of my responsibility as your gracious host is to maintain a positive atmosphere at the site. Occasionally this means showing folks to the door when they persistently demonstrate one or more of these defects: Uncouth or unpleasant in their communications with other members Unwilling or unable to learn, either about how to effectively and properly use the site or about basic technology, such as electricity and circuits (things about which it is not a matter of opinion-- you’re either right or wrong) Persistently, albeit unintentionally, giving inaccurate information even when myself and others would try to correct it Bullying or overbearing personality You’ve heard the saying, “The customer is always right.” Well, that’s bullshit. The customer is not always right if they’re not the right customer. And any business that’s been around long enough will inevitably have a few of those kinds of customers that need to be “pruned.” On the other hand, when they are the right customer, you will bend over backwards to please them. Some people left quietly, accepting that Appliantology just wasn’t right for them. But others, despite getting their money back, have gone on to spread malicious lies about me personally and even my wife, accusing us of being “greedy” and “ripping them off.” All Content Creators are “turd magnets” Do you ever wonder what causes people to leave nasty comments on YouTube or other places? They’re doing what envious non-creators have always done to creators: shooting off their big fat mouths because that’s all they’re really good at. You can probably relate to this in your repair business, when a customer gives you a scathing online review that shows they know nothing about what it takes to run a professional in-home service business. It takes a lot of time and hard work to create valuable content that people are willing to pay for. If these malcontents had any real talent, you would see the results online. Instead you see them bellyaching and lying. They have never created anything online that anyone would pay a nickle for. In short, they are entitled, envious, pathetic losers. This is the same psychological profile of the infamous “YouTube hater.” Creating a comprehensive information and training resource takes dedication, talent, and years of in-depth education, things that envious haters are in desperately short supply of. So their lying and complaining is not really about money-- it never was. It's about rejection. And their fragile egos can't handle that. Again let me say that the turds are maybe 1% of my interactions. But, dayyam, they sure can stink up the place! It takes the occasional sweep with the pooper scooper to keep our community a pleasant place to hang out. Before I leave the topic, let me tell you about a few of the... Weird pathologies I’ve dealt with over the years One of the weirdest, most perverse pathologies that all teachers deal with is where a student attacks the teacher instead absorbing the teaching that the teacher offers. This sick dynamic exists in all teaching settings, from high schools to trade schools to here at Appliantology. There have been a few techs with whom I professionally disagreed on a technical point go on to disparage me, my site, my personal hygeine, my parentage… you get the picture. A related psychosis that teachers encounter is where someone benefits from the teaching and then turns around and resents the teacher for telling them something they didn’t know. I know- it’s absolutely insane! Yet it happens all the time to all kinds of teachers. A third sickness is where someone sifts through the mountain of information that a teacher has produced and offered over the years to find some insignificant (usually imagined or misunderstood) flaw and tries to use that to discredit everything the teacher has ever done, despite the fact that they benefited greatly from the material. This is a pathetic attempt to pull down the teacher to make himself feel better. This is the ugly face of pure envy. I’ve gotten pretty good at spotting these diseases early on and terminating the relationship before it festers. This site is a business I appreciate and value the many awesome techs who have joined me in my online appliantological adventures over the years, but let’s be clear about something: this site is my virtual dojo. I work here for a living. I don’t do this for free. Nor do I do it as a public service. My time and talents are valuable and I produce high quality content that many people are happy to pay for. I may give some away, but the best stuff I reserve for paying members. To those people, I strive to overdeliver on value for the price they pay. This site is not a hobby run out of some guy’s basement. It is a business. That means a couple things: It is professionally managed in every way: hardware, software, and content. Professionals get paid for their time and talents. I am one of those professionals. So is my son, Sam (Son of Samurai) and my wife of 28 years, Susan (Mrs. Samurai) All businesses are based on voluntary exchange: people value the information and services we offer more than the dollars they’re holding and thus a free market transaction takes place. As a business, we’re always looking for ways to please our valued customers in the hopes that they chose to continue doing business with us. Membership here is a two-way relationship, not an automatic right or an entitlement. I choose not to associate with boors, bullies, and boneheads because life is just too short to piss it away with the wrong people. I know that most of my fellow Brethren in the Craft at Appliantology feel similarly. At the same time, I try to make this site an appealing value, even a “killer deal,” for techs looking for a positive, full-featured information resource. Reasons to be or not to be here Appliantology is open to all and all are welcome within the terms of the site’s Guidelines. Professional appliance techs may choose to purchase a membership to enjoy all its many benefits. But Appliantology is not trying to be all things to all people--an impossible goal for any business. I’ll go over some reasons to be here and some reasons to not be here. Appliantology is probably a good fit for you if... You want to learn new things and become a better tech You want to help other techs learn to become better at their craft You understand what it means to disagree without being disagreeable You learned what yo momma taught you when you were little: Share everything (i.e., information, technical literature, etc.). Play fair. Don't hit people. Clean up your own mess (i.e., close out your topics with the solution). Appliantology is probably not a good fit for you if... You have something to prove to yourself or others You are unwilling or unable to learn new things like How to use this site correctly and effectively (Hint: it’s not at all hard if you just READ) How to read schematics, understand technology and think like a real technician You're only looking for parts changing information You resent the rare instances that I may correct a post you made (in the spirit of being helpful) or hide it altogether when it is not helpful, may only confuse the OP (original poster- the guy who started the topic), or is a distraction from the teaching point I'm trying to help the OP to understand. Do you value a tech support site that... uses state-of-the-art software with lots of features and functionality? has nearly 100% uptime? is hosted on its own private server which enables consistently fast page load times and download speeds? is monitored and maintained 24/7? has no Google ads or popups for Professional Appliantologist members? is 100% mobile-friendly and the full functionality available on desktop is also available on mobile? emphasizes understanding the underlying technology behind specific failures, applying good troubleshooting techniques and clear thinking to problem solving rather than merely parts changing info (“if this problem, replace that part”)? has three full-time people (one of which is me) dedicated to constantly improving this site, adding enhanced features to continually add value for members? uploads new service manuals and technical literature almost everyday and on request? offers regular, live tech training webinars on topics and technologies that you will never learn anywhere else? makes many of these webinar recordings available for you to watch at your convenience? prizes accuracy and clarity of information? maintains a positive and professional environment by flushing the occasional turd? If you value these things, then Appliantology is your home because we value YOU as a member of this tech community! We are constantly looking for ways to add value to your membership and welcome your suggestions. Appliantology has come a long way and Team Samurai works hard to make this site the premier professional appliance tech resource on the web. If you are a member, I sincerely thank you for being a part of this community. If you're thinking about becoming a member, I hope some of my comments were helpful in that decision… or at least entertaining. Lemme know what you think. Post your comments below.

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 Your path to getting the appliance repair information you need starts at the Appliantology homepage. Whether on device or full size screen, taking a few minutes to get to know what's on the Appliantology homepage will pay off big time! The forums and their descriptions hardly ever change but you need to pay attention to the focus of each forum. The widgets have information that changes more frequently: announcements, new file uploads, and more. The video shows all the goodies to your tingling eyeballs! Notifications of Replies and more When someone replies to a topic you posted Appliantology, you'll want to get notified of that reply. You can do this by email and/or onsite notifications. Onsite notifications are awesome! Use the Search, Lurch! Knowing how to effectively search the vast repository of appliance repair wisdom is key to using Appliantology effectively. It's super easy once you know just a couple of tricks! Frequently Asked Questions have already been answered! We've been running Appliantology a long time and know most of the questions users have. So we made a special page that answers your burning questions about using Appliantology!

Appliantology Peer Group web meeting, Feb 25, 2018 - Agenda and Notes View File These are the agenda and meeting notes from our inaugural Appliantology Peer Group web meeting held on Sunday, Feb 25, 2018. Submitter Samurai Appliance Repair Man Submitted 02/26/2018 Category Appliance Repair Manual Pot Luck Supper  

This short little screencast by @Son of Samurai shows you how to renew your Professional Appliantologist membership at Appliantology.org so you can continue to enjoy the many benefits the site provides to professional appliance repair technicians.

The internet has been a game-changer for the appliance repair industry. But it only works for you if you know how to work it! Information is key. Professional appliance repair techs work on so many brands and models that access to manuals for disassembly info, schematics, and specifications is a big factor in the success of the repair. And with the increase in computerization of appliances, war-gaming the service call ahead of time has become critical for increasing first-call completes, decreasing reliance on time-wasting and unpredictable tech lines, and increasing customer satisfaction - and yours! And you can’t war game without the info ahead of time. Back in the old days, we had shelves overflowing with annoying paper copies of manuals, VHS videos to scrub through, and tech lines operators to wait on hold for. Thankfully, those days are over! Now we have Appliantology: the web’s premier appliance repair tech support site. Appliantology is rich and deep with resources for the professional tech: repair forums with world-class peer-to-peer tech support, live chat and tech help, service manual downloads for all makes and models, live training webinars, and exclusive tech training videos. But like any powerful tool, it’s only as useful as your ability to avail yourself of its many treasures. Some of our professional tech members sign up and only come around every now and then, and then wonder if the membership fee was worth it. It’s disappointing to invest in something and then not really know how to take advantage of it. The Samurai sheds a tear for every Professional Appliantologist who barely scratches the surface of the site and never sees the power and beauty within! Others learn how to use the site fully, unleashing Appliantology’s power to amp up their repair mojo, and then ask us how we can offer such an amazing resource at such a low annual fee. A Professional Appliantologist membership is $149/year, that's less than $3 per week. When you are well-prepared for your jobs, you will not only be more profitable, but you will have more fun doing it. Who doesn’t want that? To take the free Appliantology 101 short course, all you need is a free registration at Master Samurai Tech which you can get here. If you already have a student account just make sure you are logged in and you’ll see it in your course listings on your login/welcome page. Take our FREE short course, Appliantology 101, and see how easy it is to get started with the awesome functionality of the site, and then dive deeper into how to really take your work to the next level!

Appliantology Grand Master Funks Meeting, March 19, 2016 View File PDF of the discussion notes from the Appliantology moderators (Grand Master Funks) meeting on March 19, 2016 Submitter Samurai Appliance Repair Man Submitted 03/19/2016 Category Appliance Repair Manual Pot Luck Supper