Appliance Repair Tips

[Michael Farabee]

Hello,

I have seen many people (including myself) try to repair appliances and the first thing they do is start unscrewing everything to get to the inside. After all, that is where the fun stuff is!  If the appliance is completely dead, there are a couple things I like to do before I ever pick up my screwdriver.

• Wiggle the power switch and power cord. or any parts that might have an interlock. Intermittent connections are common. Sometimes 3 seconds of wiggling can identify the problem!
  
  • Most often the power cord will have a break at the plug or where the cord goes into the unit.
  • If the prongs on the plug look burned (usually around the plastic where the terminal goes into the plug, that usually means that it is arcing inside the plug body and should be replaced before plugging it in.
• If it is a lamp, I like to check the bulb! I cannot count how many lamps I have fixed that have burned out bulbs. Recently I fixed a floor lamp that had flickering bulbs by replacing the non-dimmable LED bulb with a dimmable bulb (yes, the lamp had a dimmer on it.
  • If the lamp works, but is ugly, there is nothing you can do. You just can't fix ugly! 
• Check if the unit has interlocks. 
  • Many heaters, air fryers, dehumidifiers, and food processors have interlock switches that prevent the appliance from running if it is not setup correctly. Heaters will often have the switch at the bottom so if it gets knocked over it will stop working. Other appliances have switches that make sure the lid is closed, or bin is installed correctly. Often these switches will not be activated properly due to an obstruction or broken tab. These are easy things to look for, before tearing into the guts! 
  • I have seen fixers take something apart and find that the unit is dead when they are testing it on the bench, only to find that they forgot about the interlock!
• I like to test the continuity of the power cord.
  • Unplug the appliance.
  • Turn on the power switch.
  • Measure the continuity between the two terminals on the power cord.
  • You are quickly checking the power cord, power switch, fuse, interlocks, and any input circuitry (primary of transformer, heating element, motor winding, etc...)
  • You should measure a low resistance. If no resistance is measured, you can focus on these items.
    
• Use a NCV (Non-Contact Voltage Tester). These are great little devices that can quickly check the presence of electricity without touching anything (It's Magic!)
  • 120V AC power has a HOT and a NEUTRAL side. The NCV will identify electricity of the HOT side, not the NEUTRAL side.
  • If you run the NCV along a power cord and it stops beeping, there is a break in the wire at that point.
  • You can remove the bulb in a lamp and hold the NCV in the socket and it should beep when the lamp switch is on.
  • Advanced Tip: If you are getting an indicator on both HOT and Neutral side, it might mean that the neutral is open. This is because the Neutral is "energized", since it is not connected to the return path.

If you found this helpful or have other helpful hints, let me know!

MikeF

[Terra Heilman]

These are great general tips that I agree-will fix many many issues! 

Once I learned about the interlock on my own personal food processor, I've seen sooooo many "broken" food processors just be this. They are somewhat complicated to put back together after cleaning and the interlocks are prone to getting food gunk down in them. A way to test the processor is to engage the interlock with nothing on in-no bowl, blade, lid, etc. Many of them allow you to do this. If the motor runs with that switch engaged, you know it's either user error in assembly of the whole unit or I've also seen (at a Repair PDX event) that the bottom of the bowl had a chunk that had busted off so it could not properly engage the interlock. In this case, it's either recycle it, chuck it or (ideally) replace the broken bowl. 

But, I would say AT LEAST half of the food processors that came through our program were not actually broken. Just the interlock was not engaging correctly for some reason. I even "fixed" one at the library branch, never having to return it to the workshop, assign it out to someone, etc. Just verified that the motor ran on it's own and then took a few moments to properly reassemble the whole processor so that it would work. 

-Terra

[Patrick Kagi]

Does anyone have any experience repairing paper items?  This is a music roll from an Autophone organette and you can see that the paper has deteriated along the edges.  (See red arrows in the picture below).  I would appreciate any help or ideas as these rolls are very hard to come by.  It has to be somewhat durable since the metal gears pull the paper roll across the pneumatic reeds.  

Thanks,

Pat

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[Michael Farabee]

Hey Pat,

My wife does book repair and makes the following suggestions:

• Use acid free tapes or paper. Archival supplies are the best.
• Here is a supplier: https://www.shopbrodart.com/

Depending on the thickness you can accept, I would apply tape on both sides to reform the paper and then recut the notches with an exacto knife using another card as the template.

You might see if there is any information on repairing spiral notebook pages as that would have a similar problem. I did a quick search and did not find anything, but a more exhaustive search may yield something.

MikeF