Fixing an Electric Range Burner

Okay, what we’re going to be doing here in today’s home appliance repair installment, brought to us by scottsdaleappliancemasters.com,  is we’re going to be testing a burner and the receptacle and the reasons you do that is if your burner’s not heating up, you know, doesn’t come on at all, you turn in on and it doesn’t come on at all. So the first thing you want to do is you want to unplug this unit, we’ve already done.

And then the next thing, what we’re going to do is we got to remove the burner. The way you do that is you just tip this up a little bit and it’s just plug them just like an extension cord would plugged in to the wall and then you just pull that right out. And you can see terminals there that plug in.

So the next thing that we want to do is we want to get our multimeter, we’re going to set it for ohms and this is not always really accurate. Sometimes it tests okay and then it’s still don’t come on so don’t be alarmed if your test’s okay.

Now, you going to need to refer to your service manual to find out the specs the ohm reading this should have, this one was supposed to be 28 ohms and this should be within 10 percent, we got 27.4. So it says this one is good. So the next thing what we want to do is we’re going to remove this little tray here and there’s a screw holding the receptacle.

Okay now you’ll need to refer to your service manual to see how your stove top comes up. Sometimes there are a couple of clips in here that you need to push in with pocket knife, there may be screws and this particular one just lifts up.

Okay, now here’s our receptacle here, we’ve  took that screw out so we can just unhook that, you’ll know this wiring that goes to these receptacles is very snug and the reason is this sort of the wiring isn’t flapping around in here so. If you have to replace this, you want to make sure you keep it nice and taut over there.

So now that we have the receptacle out, we want to get over a multimeter again, set it to volts and we have this unplugged still and then what we’re going to do is we’re going to plug in our leads, one into each side, make sure they are not touching anything metal, they’re in there firmly and then we’re going to come around and we’re going to plug this in and then we’re going to turn this burner to maximum and we should have a 120 volts there.

Okay now that we have it plugged in, and we had everything clear, we’re going to take this and we”ll going to turn in on and you can see we have a 120 volts there.  Now if we had no power going to the receptacle and the receptacle looks visually looks good, the problem is going to be in our switch so we want to text our switch next.

Well, if it has a really loose fit or it looks all corroded, you going to want to replace it. So now that we have it disconnected in the front, we’ll going to want to come around to the back of the unit, you may need to remove this control panel, some of them do remove from the front, this particular one has a cover on the back so we go around to the back and we’ll remove that cover.

Okay, on the back of this cover, you’ll see a series of screws going around it, well just take those screws out so we can get the access at it. Okay, we have the back cover removed, okay so you can see your clump of wires coming from underneath the burner assemblies and they all have different colored wires and these two that are going to that receptacle were orange so what you want to do is grab your needle nose, we’ve already unplugged this again and you want to grab the terminal itself and pull it right off, both of them.

Now it doesn’t matter if you mix those wires up because they just connect to either side. Okay, now they have a little tie in here so what you going to need to do is you going to need to pull this wires out and your new wires, your new receptacle, you’re not be able put in through there, so you just going to run up next  to it and then tape it with electrical tape. You want to make sure that you keep it taut, right to the burner and have your excess wiring in the back here and that way, there’s nothing that can catch on fire underneath there. We’ll replacing that receptacle and testing it out.

Troubleshooting Electric Ovens with Austin Appliance Repair Master

What we’re going to be doing today in this article is we’re going to be checking the ERC, electronic range control, the main control to the oven. And there’s a few reasons you might want to check them, one of them would be the light, it won’t power up and all, it’s not responding to any of the commands or you’re getting a fault code that’s referring to check or replace the ERC. We’ll be getting some great insight into how to go about tackling this from our good friends at Austin Appliance Repair Masters (www.austinappliancemasters.com), who always provide great tips.

So the first thing what you want to do is want to check to make sure you don’t have any stuck buttons and to do that just simply push each one and feel that you can feel it retracts, you’ll actually hear it too. If they all feel good, which just one does, next thing that you want to do is take it apart.

Now, this is a GE, there’s a lot of different models out there, so it may come apart different. Some of them will have any caps, it going to come off, two or three screws, four screws underneath and few on the back and then this usually just pops right off, this one pulls out a little and pull off. It’s got two screws underneath and 4 along at the back so we get that taken apart and just want to carefully set it down.

Now, here’s our control here and you can see there’s 4 screws holding this is here but before we do that, what we want to do now, we have it unplugged now I’ve referred to the tech sheet which was usually taped around the back and this one was on the back and it showed me what lines are coming in and what I was looking for is an L1 which is this red one right here and then we want the neutral which is either one of those white.

I want to get out my multimeter and I want to set it to volts and then what I’m going to do is I’m going to plug this in and then I’m going to take my volt meter and I’m going to connect to one lead to the line in and one lead to white and I should have a 120 volts coming to it which I do.

So unplug that, so then the other thing you want to do is you want to carefully inspect this with the flashlight for any burn marks and all the slightest little burn mark is an indication that it is no good and inspect one of these relays and if you’ll look close sometimes you’ll leave and see the bake and the broil, the words written right on it, telling you what relay is what, or if you’ll look at your tech sheet it will tell you that.

So, I don’t see any burn marks but that doesn’t mean that it is not any good. So if you got power coming in to it and its not responding to anything you going to need to replace it. And to replace it, it’s pretty easy, you just take out these 4 screws and we have it unplugged and its showing a pulse greyed out.

Now this is the membrane, this particular one doesn’t have a separate membrane on it. What this is is more or less just a sticker and the membrane are actually like that also. So sometimes when you get your new control, this doesn’t come with it, so you want to do is make sure you got it oriented to the new one right next to it oriented correctly. Take a razor blade, get under the edge, peel it up and then just peel it right off and then stick it right back on to the new one on the same spot and press it down and then check each button to make sure they respond. You can feel and then you just set it right back in once you have the new one in place and it’s easy to tell where these wires goes so you won’t have to label anything.

You have your new one in place, screwed in and then just connect your wires up to where your taken them off, one at a time and then just reassemble and that’s all there is to it. If you need this electronic range control, just go online, punch in your model number and the part will come up and we’ll tell you if it’s in stock and how quick we can get it to you. Thanks for reading.

How to Clean a Garbage Disposal – 4 Quick Tips

Today I am going to show you how to clean a garbage disposal. So if you are running into the problem if stinky drains in your kitchen, you think it’s coming from your garbage disposal, this article should help you. It could help you out immensely and I know it has helped many people because ti comes from my friends at Appliance Masters of Las Vegas (http://lasvegasappliancemasters.com) who share this info with all their customers having issues with their disposals. So let’s get to it.

The first method that we’re going to be using to clean your garbage disposal is using lemons. So take a lemon and cut it in half, like I did here. And then cut it in half again. So you are going to have a whole bunch of half- moon shaped pieces of lemon. And I like to de-seed it. I know that it sounds funny because we are using a garbage disposal, but I don’t want any extra stress put on the disposal.

And honestly, I really use it other than for like very minor food stuff. Then turn on the water after you stuff the lemons down in the garbage disposal. Turn it on and run it for a good minute. That way you’ll clean out the disposal and get it smelling good.

The second method we’re going to be using is with Heinz Vinegar. I am from Pittsburgh, you might know that, so I like using Heinz Cleaning Vinegar and freezing or making vinegar ice cubes.

You can do that in your ice cube tray. Just make sure that nobody uses them because that would be a bad surprise. Stuff the ice cubes down into the garbage disposal and run it. Again, turn on the hot water first, and then run the garbage disposal for a good minute, and that will clean it out really nicely.

The third method we are going to use involves baking soda. So this is just pure baking soda that you probably have in your kitchen for cooking.

Measure out about a half of cup and stuff the baking soda down into the garbage disposal, and let it sit there for about one hour. So again, push it down with a spoon and let it sit there for one hour to absorb all of the nastiness, all the yucky smell. And then what you can do is add about one cup of vinegar. So you are going to pour that vinegar down the drain.

You are going to create this lava effect because when the baking soda and the vinegar combine, there is a chemical reaction. It’s pretty harmless, but rinse out the garbage disposal. Run it for another minute and you are good to go. That is another way to clean your garbage disposal. The final method of cleaning the disposal involves twenty Mule Team Borax.

So this is a natural laundry cleaner, and they even outline on the boc how to clean your garbage disposal using the Borax. Grab a tablespoon, so just one tablespoon, and you are going to add about 2-3 tablespoons of the Borax to the garbage disposal. And you are going to let it sit in the garbage disposal for about fifteen minutes.

Again, you’ll have to push it down with a spoon. And the Borax will work just like the baking soda did. The only difference is you definitely want to use warm water per the directions. So clean out your sink, and then turn on the garbage disposal and you are done. All right. There you have it. Those are several ways that you can clean your garbage disposal.

I hope this information helped you out. Feel free to share it with anyone you think might also get some benefit from it, or let me know if there’s something I missed that you would like me to cover.

Fixing a Power Cord That Has Been Cut

We’re going to be looking at a repair that can happen all too often around the house… dealing with a power cord that has been cut.

I've got this Skilsaw I am going to be working on, my brother-in-law cut the power cord up by accident, so I cleaned it up a little bit, you can see here I peeled back the covering and expose some wire. There are two ways to fix this. Quickly, I'll show you the cheap and fast way. Expose a little bit of wire, just about a quarter of an inch I am cutting off and then you would just do this like a regular wire, where you would twist them together and use a wire nut like that.

These wire nuts have metal inside and they help threading. You would do the white one too, fold it over like that and then wrap it with some electrical tape, this is blue electrical tape, does the same thing, just different color. And you go around and around and around and here you go. The problem I don't like with that method, especially on a tool like this is you have this lump in your cord, so when you are using this and you are pulling your saw along, the cord is going to follow and the right on until it hits this bump and it's going to jerk the saw.

It's not fun. Let's clean this back up and I am going to twist them to braid the strands together. Rather than do that, you need to get a soldering iron, these are cheap, this is just under ten bucks and solder just these two things here and I am going to use some heat shrink tubing. This is a quarter inch and it shrinks down to an eighth of an inch, so half the diameter. This stuff comes in a big long rolls, you can peel out however much you need, it's about five bucks for this at Home Depot.

So instead of pairing there up like this and twist them, I am going to twist them together like this. But before I do that, I am going to slip on some of this and what this plastic does, when it's near heat source, it will shrink. One for the white and one for black. And I will twist white to white. You can see that it goes in a straight line. First thing you do, get the wire that you want to heat up little bit hot and keep your heat shrink away because that will  contract before you are ready for it.

And you just add some solder to it and gets sucked right in like hot wax on a string. And that's it. Now I'll heat up the white wires, touch them with a little bit of solder and when it's really hot, sucks it up. Nice and easy.So now those are joined, looking at them, looks good, looks strong. I can slip over this heat shrink material, then you blow with hot air from a heat gun and if you have a blow drier, use that. Okay. So that contracts and makes a nice covering for this.

So next you can either wrap it in this, but if you bought more shrink tube and you have a big one, you can even put it on this and cover the whole thing with it as well. I am just going to wrap this in electrical tape now and put a little bit more, not much, I don't want it to bulge too much here. A little bit more around the joint, just to protect it. All this blue so you can see it better and just a couple of wraps on this one, just to give it a little extra separation.  And then wrap it several times with your electrical tape.

It's always best just to get a new cord if you can, but sometimes it's a pain, or you don't have the time, or you can't find the right kind, so you always want to make sure that if you are doing stuff like this, that it's not dangerous and you did a nice clean job, just keep an eye on it, make sure that later on your connection is really good and that this stuff is not coming apart anymore, you don't want to get zapped.

So I am going to keep wrapping up tape around here, make it nice and secure. It's not as good as replacing the cord, but it's a great repair and it's better than throwing the tool away. I hope this helped you.  Here's some more help, courtesy of good ol' YouTube!

A Simple A-To-Z On Handy Strategies Of Home Remodeling

Whether it is done as a hobby or from necessity, home redecorating is something that every house owner does. Our kitchen area in this 1930s tudor had actually been renovated in the early 1980s long before we purchased it, however it had not been actually succeeded. I understand how difficult it is to wait when you move into a home and you can barely stand the cooking area. People have found a lot of outstanding tips on home improvement projects to boost your home’s value from some other places like repairing old appliances rather than buying new ones (www.denverappliancemasters.com were really helpful). If you’re looking for some basic guidelines on efficient methods to get this kind of work done, try these guys. My kitchen area actually began to take shape and come together in the genuine planning phases just after I had interviewed about 10 contractors.

By opening the wall in between the living-room and the kitchen area without obtaining the lower wall, it enabled us to have a small workplace and an open kitchen area layout. Your resource for cooking area redesigning information When it concerns a kitchen area, the layout is crucial. As you make choices on plans and consider the expense, bear in mind, kitchen area renovation constructs value and personality for your home. Given that the 1950s, you really can’t have a conversation about kitchen floor plans without pointing out the idea of the work triangle.

When choosing the businesses to revamp you home question them for the realities of remodel these have done. All this specific research will certainly assist you to pick a perfect home upgrade business to remodel your home. You need to likewise make sure that you have adequate time to look over the home remodeling job. Anticipate fees around $50 to $150 per hour, or 5 % to 15 % of the total cost of the job.

Replace Countertops – A countertop has a substantial impact on the atmosphere of a cooking area and replacing it is an economical way to spruce up the look. Measure the existing kitchen area and plot the walls onto the graph paper at a scale of 1/4 inch per foot. If the remodel consists of adding on to the outside of the house then lightly mark the designated extension area on the graph paper making use of a dashed line. Take the plan to a cooking area design center together with the file of clippings and the budget. It does not possess a lot of area however is just as efficient and useful as a regular kitchen.

Unless you are taking a curatorial strategy– like what a house gallery would do, and, yes, even some private owners are purists– it’s not likely that any of us truly wants to re-create, let alone clear out and prepare up in, a pre-electric kitchen area.

However then you can look in to different rooms, kitchen areas, restrooms and which are actually the 2 major focus that we have for renovating your home and also 2 areas that add the most value to your house when they’re renovated.

Updating your cooking area will certainly not only improve the visual value of your home, but it will also increase its functionality and commercial value. You will certainly have more area for keeping your meals and the whole kitchen will be more arranged. These were a couple of trends that you must bear in mind if you are planning to update or renovate your kitchen. It might be the most costly project so ensure that every purchase you make should have a resale value.