Mesa Appliance Repair

The Cause And Effects Related To Start Component Failure

Most refrigerators I look at with failed start components have the same cause- “Dirty Condenser Coils”. These days refrigerators have condenser coils down underneath with the compressor and a fan has been added to cool them down by passing  air over them at ambient room temperature. This process is so critical that not only will your refrigerator fail to get cold enough but eventually it would cause the compressor to burn out if dirty coils are gone unchecked.

When we see a blanket of lint across the whole condenser we call it completely plugged. Lack of cooling at this stage makes the system work harder to cool inside the refrigerator. The result is longer run times for the compressor which creates more heat. “Do you see where I’m going with this?” The problem is cyclical and perpetuates. Eventually the compressor will only shut down during defrost cycles. Barely long enough to cool down before restarting. You may have noticed a buzzing sound followed by a click before the refrigerator quit altogether. That would be the compressor trying to start but it was too hot. The click is the sound of it’s thermal cut-out.

Every couple of minutes the compressor will try and start again. Once this cycle begins it also perpetuates until finally the start components burn out. Having allowed this problem to go on until reaching full fruition has often resulted in a burned out compressor. The best way to avoid costly repairs is to mark your calendar for checking your condenser coils once every six months.

What you should know when your dryer doesn’t heat up

If you ever have had prolonged blockage in your dryers venting don’t be surprised if you have a secondary issue following the repair.

When their clothes dryer stops heating most people automatically think that it must be the heat element or coil. In fact that is usually not the case.  In most cases what we find is a burned out high limit. The high limit is a switch that is positioned near the heating element. And it’s job is to shut off the heat in the event that something goes wrong with the other functions.

Ordinarily the high limit would not be used at all. It is only there to protect you from a possible house fire. It is the job of the cycling thermostat to switch the heater off and on. The cycling thermostat is positioned along the air flow after air has left the tub. The dryer’s blower wheel is responsible for drawing hot air from the heater into the tub of tumbling wet clothes. The hot air is dry and so it accepts the moisture from the clothes. This transfer of water cools the air as it leaves the tub and is pushed through the ventilation system. Because the cycling thermostat is in this area of less heat it is able to switch the heater on and off repeatedly for years before burning out.  

This illustration shows the flow of air through the dryer.

Air is drawn past the heater.  The hot air passes the high limit, then enters the tub and finally is blown past the blower wheel and then past the cycling thermostat. What is important to know is that in many cases what caused the high limit to burn out was blockage in the dryer venting. This blockage is usually found in the home’s venting system. When the hot air cannot flow through the system it becomes super heated at the high limit. Absence of hot air at the cycling thermostat means the thermostat never turns the heat off.

There is a possible secondary problem that has been caused by the blockage

Although it doesn’t always show itself as a problem there is a chance that within days the heat element may burn out after the repair. Repair should include clearing any blockage in the venting system. This will make the machine much more efficient and will allow the dryer to dry the clothes quickly.

The added induction of air will cause the heater to become super heated at any thin areas of the coil. These thin areas can be formed when the dryer had been blocked.  The coils reached an extreme level of heat. The high limit cycled from on to off again and again. The repetition of  super heating and then cooling  causes the coils to melt and stretch under the stress of their own weight. Wherever there has been stretching the coil is thin and week.

And this is an explanation of the cause and effect of multiple parts in an appliance.

LD is the Code for Slow Draining

 Recently my brother Dave and I went out on a call for a Whirlpool Cabrio Washer. The error code was reported as LD by the customer.

 The most common reason for this error is restricted flow through machine’s drain pump and drain hose.

The next most common cause would be a defective drain pump.

Ruling these two out as causes, the next plausible cause would be the water pressure sensor. This sends information to the main control board as to the amount of water that is in the wash basket at any given time.

Once we have checked the lines, pump, water pressure sensor and air supply hose to the sensor, we may begin to suspect a board failure. The control board is an expensive part to replace on this machine so it is important that we are sure of it’s failure before changing it out.

What we discovered on this particular Cabrio was not what we expected to find; The inner basket which floats and slides up and down the drive shaft had become bound up. The basket was not dropping back down the shaft during the drain and rinse cycle.

The Cabrio is a very complicated machine that runs good when all is working within parameters designed by the manufacturer. When things go awry however, the cause and effect of problems and failures can be tricky to isolate.

Too much water during a fill cycle can cause an LD error because the logic in the machine knows that it took longer than normal to drain. So this doesn’t necessarily indicate poor drain flow nor does it necessarily indicate a faulty drain pump.

We had to free up the basket on the shaft and remove it from the machine- No easy task! Then we polished the surfaces of the shaft and basket where they ride against one another. Once the ridges were removed and surfaces were made smooth using 6000 grit emery paper, we reassembled the machine and tried it out. Victory! The machine ran perfectly once again!

How You Can Bring Your Old Dishwasher Back To Performing Like New

Some of us are old enough to remember when the electric Drip Coffee Makers first came out on the market. Not long into that phase the use of vinegar became common knowledge for cleaning out the mineral deposits that would build up in them.

Well, guess what? Vinegar may be the answer for your Dishwasher if you’ve noticed that it doesn’t do the job it once did. There really isn’t such a thing as a Dishwasher that has stopped cleaning to it’s fullest ability because it is old.

Dishwashers perform well until a part fails to function properly. With the many Dishwashers I have diagnosed I have found in most cases there was no need to replace the part, but rather the machine which had been known for the job of cleaning was now in need of a good cleaning itself.

Dishwashers are kind of like the Automatic Transmission which is  in most of the vehicles you and I drive today.  Like the Automatic Transmission, Dishwashers rely on pressure to function. Those Spray Wands you see inside the machine; They are not motorized. The Spray Wands have orifices in them. The water that’s pumped through the Wands is expelled through the Orifices at a fixed angle that was engineered specifically for that machine. Water shooting out of the Orifices performs two jobs at once; The water is jetted out to clean dishes and at the same time the angle of the spraying force in relation to the center of axis of the rotating Wand causes it to move in a circular path.

When the Orifices become clogged their ability to clean is greatly inhibited. Hard Water also builds up inside the Sump, in the Filter and into the Pump’s moving parts, as well as the Impeller. If gone on unchecked, the machine acts as if it is ready to be replaced.

I have seen many dishwashers that from an outward appearance didn’t seem to have a hard water problem. But once I opened them up the amount of deposit build up was profound.

This is a photo of a typical filter section of a dishwasher. This one is packed full of deposits.

It was necessary to replace this filter.

This Dishwasher filter had to be replaced

Although I used to recommend CLR for hard water clean up, I have discovered that plain distilled vinegar works very good.

Just remember for best results run machine then let sit overnight with vinegar soaking in it.

An Easy Way To Tell If Your Dryer has an Air Restriction 

A sure sign that you have restricted flow in your clothes dryer

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venting is when lint is found on the wrong side of the filter.

Blockage in your dryer venting causes a turbulent affect. This makes lint which has gotten past the filter to circulate and then collect against the filter and inside the dryer’s cabinet.

This dryer failed due to excessive lint build up

Prolonging The Life of Your Appliance

All household appliances are succeptible to breaking down, just like your automobile. Machines are designed and created by man.  They perform tasks which stretches the envelope of nature.  To do so , these machines must work hard against the very forces they were designed to dominate.

Whenever a machine does work there is wear. And we rely on our appliances to do a great amount of work over long periods. Forces working against them includes; gravity, friction, heat, dirt and electro-motive force.

Most of us, as consumers just simply take our appliances for granted. It’s as if we believe that somehow in the design and manufacture of the machine some self diagnosing, self cleaning and infinite lubing abilities have been placed.

The truth is that most cases of early failure of an appliance can be tracked back to a prolonged period of disregard. Parts do get dirty. Dust and lint are both primary enemies of virtually all appliances. Whether we are speaking about refrigerators, washing machines or dryers the number one cause of heat, friction and wear is dirt and lint.

The good news is that preventing premature death of an appliance is possible by exercising regular maintenance. There are things you can do yourself and there are other things you may wish to consult the professionals for.  The average cost to maintenance a machine once every six months or twelve months will save you money over simply running it until it quits and then buying a new one.

I am always available to answer your call here at Bishop and Son. So should you have a question or need to schedule an appointment, I look forward to hearing from you!