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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.

Salutations, my name is Wayne, and I attended the MSTA in February of 2015. I wanted to tell you my story. My first foray into the appliance repair world was working for a man named, let’s call him Judas. He owned a company and taught me for one month how to repair appliances, and then sent me out in the the wild blue yonder. I learned old school parts installing. You know, replace the part based on the symptom, and 9 times out of 10 it would work. I got paid $25 a job, and thought I was on top of the world. After 8 months of appliance hell, I stumbled upon the Master Samurai Training Tech Academy. Within one month of applying the teachings through the courses I excelled as a real deal appliance diagtician. I went from being the laughing stock of the parts house to them asking me for advice. Fast forward and today I own my own company, Rightway Appliance, because the only way to do it is the right way! We made $140k our first full year in business. I have a tech, an office manager, and two vehicles in the field. As of today I have contracts with American Home Shield, First American Home Warrant, PULS, The Home Depot, Appliance Repair Men, and Appliance Appointment .com. We have over 70 5star reviews on home advisor, and are one of the highest rated in our area, in the top 5 on google in the DFW metroplex. I owe this success to God, Scott Brown, Appliantology, and MSTA. Thank you everything. This was the best investment I’ve ever made, and I’m proud to be Alumni.

In this special international episode, the Samurai is in Fiji at Samurai International Headquarters, while Mrs. Samurai is in the Team Samurai New Hampshire pavilion. Although halfway around the globe from each other, Team Samurai comes together through the miracle of the Internet to deliver you this timely and crucial information in this episode of Master Samurai Tech Radio. We compare and contrast three online training options with the Master Samurai Tech Academy. Subscribe or listen to the audio-only podcast here: http://mstradio.com

Troubleshooting is the big missing skill among appliance techs today. In fact, many techs don’t even know what troubleshooting is and mistake pattern recognition and factoids for real troubleshooting. Classical troubleshooting is a structured and scientific method for thinking and solving appliance problems. There is a method to the madness! The Master Samurai Tech troubleshooting method is called the Ten Step Tango (TST). There are specific dance steps to troubleshooting, and we teach them to anyone who wants to learn. As an introduction to the TST, we’re offering a free short course to the entire appliance tech community where techs can quickly learn the TST troubleshooting procedure and immediately start benefitting from this skill on service calls. The TST short course uses a real-world, modern refrigerator (dual evaporator, computer-controlled) case study to lead you through each of the ten steps in the TST to troubleshoot and solve the problem. To get started, just register a free account at the Master Samurai Tech Academy, and you'll see the “Ten Step Tango Troubleshooting Procedure Case Study” listed as one of your free courses available to you on your login welcome page. If you're already registered at the Academy, just log in as usual and you'll see the course on your login welcome page. You'll also be able to take our other free courses: Appliantology 101 and Internetology. All our free courses are short and fun to do. So have fun, dammit!

UPDATE: The Oven and Range Repair course is now open for enrollment. Click here for details. Team Samurai is turning up the heat this July with a new full-length technical course: Oven and Range Repair The content that we’ve created for you is absolutely fantastic. We cannot wait to be able to open the doors so you can see it for yourself. This is a mondo course, with over 30 original videos and 7 Case Studies, that was almost a year in the making using the same training structure for the prerequisite courses we developed for Sub-Zero Wolf factory training. The Oven and Range Repair training course covers all the technology used in modern gas and electric cooking appliances, ovens, cooktops, and microwaves, and includes seven real-world troubleshooting case studies using the world-famous Ten Step Tango® troubleshooting procedure. Next to refrigerators, cooking appliances are the most profitable appliances to repair, especially high-end cooking appliances. Any appliance company that expects to thrive and prosper in the coming recession needs to be competent at troubleshooting and repairing high-end cooking appliances and this course empowers any tech to do exactly that. Here's a list of the topics taught in the course: 1 Groundwork concepts 1.1 Basic electricity refresher 1.2 Conductor ampacity 1.3 120/240 VAC split phase power supplies 1.4 Ghost voltage and electrical measurements 1.5 GFCI and AFCI circuit protection 1.6 Gas fuel basics 2 Cooking appliance technology 2.1 Mechanical and solid state relays 2.2 Capacitive touchpanels 2.3 Motorized door lock assemblies 2.4 RTD oven temperature sensors 2.5 Electronic oven controls 2.6 Microwave oven operating principles and troubleshooting 2.7 Electric cooktop infinite switches 2.8 Radiant and inductive cooktops 2.9 Gas surface burners 2.10 Gas oven burners 2.11 Fuel conversion on gas ovens and cooktops 2.12 Gas burner spark ignition systems 2.13 Gas flame detection and burner reignition systems 2.14 Gas oven hot surface ignition systems 2.15 Direct spark ignition (DSI) systems 3 Seven troubleshooting case studies on modern, real-world gas and electric ovens and cooktops applying the principles taught in the course and the world-famous Ten Step Tango® troubleshooting procedure. 3.1 Dual fuel range - oven no heat 3.2 Double wall oven - long pre-heat 3.3 Dual fuel range - gas surface burner continuous sparking 3.4 Dual fuel range - gas surface burner no ignition 3.5 Gas range - bake burner no ignition 3.6 Gas range - low/erratic oven temperature 3.7 Electric cooktop - hot surface indicator light stays on The Oven and Range Repair training course will be released this coming Saturday, July 15, 2017, at the bargain introductory tuition of only $375. We'll announce the official release in our newsletter. Look for it in your inbox.