My 10-12 year old Kenmore has been as reliable as death and taxes until this morning. On her way out the door for work this morning my wife reported that it wouldn't come on. I gave it a quick once over to rule out tripped breakers and the like and saw that everything appeared okay until I pressed the start button. I got a beep (normal) and then heard a relay click down near the motor but no motion and no heat. The front panel didn't appear to know or care that the motor was not running. I had a busy day scheduled and the thought of freeing up even a couple of hours for a repairman during business hours gave me a headache.
The rest of my week looks just as crazy, so this evening I Googled the model and symptoms and found that if it wasn't displaying an error code, the motor or the control board were the two most likely culprits. It's a front loader, so I yanked the top off and was pleasantly surprised to find a plastic sleeve on the side wall containing a 10-page trouble shooting and repair manual. Of course in big letters across the top it said "For use by repair technician only". That slowed me down almost as long as it took me to find my multi-meter.
Step one in the trouble shooting chart for the motor circuit was to check the resistance between two pins on the main board. Sure enough, the board failed the test and I'm wincing, remembering how much the main board for the washer cost me a few years back. As I looked at the back of the board I saw a scorch mark. My first thought was that at least now I was 100% certain I had identified the problem. Then I looked at the front of the board closely and realized that none of the components seemed to be damaged. A closer look at the back and a bit more Googling revealed that the relay that controls the 120v circuit has a reputation for heating up and burning off the solder causing a short. A bit of clean up, a bit of re-soldering, and old faithful is back in service.
When time allows, I prefer to stick to surveying and let others take care of appliance repairs, but I'm glad I tackled this one. A repair tech would've just diagnosed it and ordered the part and I would've been hit for two trips plus the part.
I wish my total stations had a technician's repair manual inside them.
I changed the heating element in my dryer a couple of weeks ago. Watched how to do it on youtube. I didn't have to figure out a thing, just did what the guy did and it went very smoothly. I didn't break into a cussing tirade once.
I've used YouTube for at least half a dozen appliance and electronics repairs in the last 10 years (or however long YouTube has been around). Just yesterday I used it to diagnose and repair an HP printer that suddenly decided to do nothing except display a "printer or ink system error" message. I wouldn't have gotten anywhere with that printer without YouTube.
It's an amazing resource.
Stephen Ward, post: 381062, member: 1206 wrote:
A closer look at the back and a bit more Googling revealed that the relay that controls the 120v circuit has a reputation for heating up and burning off the solder causing a short. A bit of clean up, a bit of re-soldering, and old faithful is back in service.
"Cold solder joint"
I'd be willing to guess that more than half of the many appliance repairs I've done (fridge, dryer, washer, range, hot tub, microwave, etc.) have been due to cold solder joints. The board undoubtedly started its life out with one of these...The crappy connection due to poor or incomplete soldering causes an initial high resistance which leads to heat build up. sometimes they can actually fix themselves by reflowing the solder into the joint, but more often they just burn up, oxidizing everything nearby. Can be a pain to repair, but very satisfying compared to $$$ for a new board, or worse yet, $$$$, hiring some Sears technician who knows nothing except how to order more boards. Good job there!
Good job! SWMBO will no longer allow me to bring anything that even resembles a tool into the house.:(
We are all problem solvers. Good job!
Great to hear! Too many people just throw stuff away anymore. I figure if it's done broke, I can't make it worse by trying to fix it. I might even get lucky. I don't mess with soldier, cause that all I can do with it is make a mess. Enjoy a steak dinner with what ya saved on repairs!
I fixed our gas dryer using YouTube. In the process I completely dismantled it and cleaned all the dirt and change that had fallen into cabinet.
I eliminated everything including the motor. I took the motor out, put power to it and it ran. It had to be the mechanical control unit. So I replaced that and it ran fine after that.
Took apart the 15 year old kenmore gas dryer last month or so. I was cleaning the lint filter when I accidentally knocked a sharpie pen laying on top down the filter chute. Oops . it stuck the blower fan that shut down the dryer. Disconnect the gas lines and vent duct. Fortunately it is designed to do that to prevent totally destroying the dryer. Flipped it on its belly and removed a dozen or so sheet metal screws and cleaned it thoroughly.
I have used YouTube to fix the old dishwasher but it finally died. Bad design.
Robert Hill, post: 381211, member: 378 wrote: Took apart the 15 year old kenmore gas dryer last month or so. I was cleaning the lint filter when I accidentally knocked a sharpie pen laying on top down the filter chute. Oops . it stuck the blower fan that shut down the dryer. Disconnect the gas lines and vent duct. Fortunately it is designed to do that to prevent totally destroying the dryer. Flipped it on its belly and removed a dozen or so sheet metal screws and cleaned it thoroughly.
I have used YouTube to fix the old dishwasher but it finally died. Bad design.
My gas dryer is the same as the Kenmore which is handy because most of the YouTube videos are for the Kenmore.
Stephen Ward, post: 381062, member: 1206 wrote:
When time allows, I prefer to stick to surveying and let others take care of appliance repairs, but I'm glad I tackled this one. A repair tech would've just diagnosed it and ordered the part and I would've been hit for two trips plus the part.
Well done!
I have some Kenmore washer boards left over from a repair job that didn't go as well as yours. Part numbers etc. on request.
Dave Karoly, post: 381212, member: 94 wrote: My gas dryer is the same as the Kenmore which is handy because most of the YouTube videos are for the Kenmore.
You do know that Kenmore have mostly been made by Whirlpool and that most of the parts are interchangeable. Learned that from a Sears parts guy when he didn't have the part I needed on stock. He sent me to the local Whirlpool place to get what I needed.
SJ
