25 August 2014

Appliance Frustrations


I have spent far too much time staring at this view, trying to figure out exactly what is wrong with our dishwasher. In a nutshell: the door switch is malfunctioning. It registers that the door is open when it isn't, sometimes in the middle of a cycle.  Last week I replaced the plunger, the spring, and the case cover, and tried to replace the relays, but ended up getting foiled by the wire connectors.

I finally got some proof tonight that the relays were a likely suspect: I was able to repeatedly trip the relays with the power on, and the machine never beeped. (In hindsight, I could have just tested them.)


I had been working on releasing the clasp portion of the relay connector, which is shown as a circle on each of the connectors above. What I actually needed to do was use a pair of needle nose pliers to loosen the teeth below, and then pop the clasp. I didn't think that they could exert that much tension on the terminal, but I was mistaken. I was about to just make up new connectors when I finally figured that out. That would have been interesting: I had 3 suitable connectors in my electrical repair toolbox, so the 4th would have ended up being a hack or an alligator clip until I could replace it with something better.

The machine is running now, as I write this. I really hope I've got it worked out, but I refuse to celebrate yet. This problem tends to resolve temporarily after opening the machine up. All of our major appliances have needed attention over the past month or so. The washing machine is still on the blink, though I might try to tackle that next. Our attempt at purchasing a replacement failed miserably, and the quote for repair was nearly half the cost of the machine itself.

In today's economical climate, with companies cutting back as much as they can, I offer this advice: buy the longest warranty that you can afford. Chances are good that it'll be cheaper than a single repair call.

Anyway, that's it for now. I've got a race report to write up, tentatively titled "Ouch", and I still need to finish the cleaning. Until next time, be excellent to each other.