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Dishwasher Maintenance Advice

Hello again, this is the owner of Western Boise Appliance Repair bringing to you more tips and tricks for appliances in the Boise region.  These short tips will hopefully bring some insight to you in your appliance repair endeavors.  Today we will discuss dishwasher maintenance and/or cleaning. Dishwashers need maintenance and a little bit of tender loving care in order to keep cleaning your dishes for years to come.  These pictures show a dishwasher that hasn’t been maintained very well and the water circulation was blocked by debris such as toothpicks, popcorn, nuts, etc.  These items can wreak havoc on the dishwashers.  They are not chopped up but get inside the wash motor impeller and drain pumps and cause damage.  It is always a good Idea to removed hard items such as these from plates and bowls before placing them in the dishwasher. Most dishwashers now have a filter that needs to be cleaned out often.  In these pictures the filter is not show very well but it is located right underneath the spray arm.  Your owners guide should point you in the right direction.  Regular cleaning is very important because when the filter is clogged it prevents the free flow of water which is needs to effectively pump out all of the dirty water.  Your dishwasher will have greasy and dirty deposits throughout its interior because of this.   Hope this helps and don’t forget to call Western for all or appliance repair needs!  Take care!

By |2021-01-17T11:41:05-07:00January 17th, 2021|Appliance Repair Boise|0 Comments

Dishwasher Maintenance Tips

Hello Folks!  Thanks again to all my Boise and Meridian customers who tune in and read my blogs.  I will always update blog periodically and I hope these are helpful.    Today I want to talk about techniques for getting the most from your dishwasher. Detergent Clean dishes starts with the basics – good detergent.  There are many dishwasher detergents on the markets today and some get very high marks for cleaning.    My recommendation is to choose dishwasher detergent pods.  The pods contain a measured amount of detergent for the most efficient cleaning.  I recommend Finish and Cascade. Heated Dry if the wet dishes are left inside the dishwasher to “air dry” you may start to see mold buildup on the inside of the tub.  You may also start to smell a bad odor.  For this reason I don’t recommend using this.  The phrase “air dry” suggests something that it’s not.  There is very little air circulation in the tub to dry the dishes.  It is a good idea to always use “heated dry” to properly dry the dishes and prevent bacteria and mold. Heated Wash Most dishwashers have a Heated Wash function.  Using this is a good idea.  This ensures that the water temperature is high enough to properly dissolve and drain the fatty food residuals from the dishes. Proper Water Drainage All dishwashers should have a drain loop under the sink.  The drain hose should travel from the garbage disposal to near the underside of the counter-top for proper [...]

By |2020-09-08T20:11:42-06:00September 8th, 2020|Appliance Repair Boise|0 Comments

Burned up Dishwasher Control

Hello Folks, this is Rich from Western Appliance Repair Service in Boise and Meridian Idaho. Here is a picture of a burned up control board on a major-brand dishwasher.  This is one of the worst ones I have ever seen and this damage to the dishwasher was extensive.  When I entered my Boise customers house the smell was STRONG and there was no mistaking the smell of burning circuitry. This burning is caused by loose fitting AC Supply connections at the control board.  This was most-likely caused at the factory.  The “making” and “breaking” of contact on the connector pins causes heat to be generated.  This heat oxidizes and burns the contacts over time -little by little.  As burning and oxidizing gets worse and worse more and more heat are generated the connector eventually melts and flames up.  The dishwasher’s internal safety thermostat should have been triggered.  In this case the safety thermostat was burned and did not stop the AC Current like it was suppose to do.  What saved this from being a house fire was the service panel circuit breaker doing what it was suppose to do – stop current quickly. This dishwasher was a complete loss.  Even if we had replaced the burned wiring and control board the smell would have continued to permeate the house for months if not years.  In this instance it was best to replace the dishwasher with a new one.

By |2020-05-10T08:19:30-06:00May 10th, 2020|Uncategorized|0 Comments

Dryer Ventilation

Dryer Ventilation Hello Folks, my name is Rich from Western Appliance Repair in Meridian and Boise Idaho. In this blog post I’d like to discuss dryer ventilation and how important it is. Dryer ventilation originates at the blower wheel.  Dryer motors have this blower wheel directly attached to the dryer motor so that when the dryer drum is rotating the blower wheel will be rotating and blowing air out the back of the dryer at the same time.  The blower wheel is located in a housing/duct so as it is blowing air out the back of the dryer it is also sucking air from the dryer drum via ducting. This airflow is there for the purpose of removing the moisture and air from the inside of the drum during the drying process.  If there is an air restriction somewhere then the dryer can overheat and will not dry the clothes properly.  In many instances Boise and Meridian appliance users will feel that there dryer is producing heat but are confused at why their clothes are not getting dry. This can be cause by a few different things: A restricted house vent duct. This is the ducting that runs from your dryer to outside.  This is the most common problem. A clogged lint filter. A lint filter should be cleaned before every dry cycle.  I hate to say this but I am guilty of not cleaning this on my home dryer.  It happens but I think I’ve learned my lesson. A [...]

By |2019-11-22T17:54:48-07:00November 22nd, 2019|Appliance Repair Boise|0 Comments

No Water from Refrigerator Dispenser

If you are not getting water to flow out your refrigerator dispenser nozzle this can be why. When I see a water-dispense problem in the dispenser area of the refrigerator I usually find a bad water inlet valve or a bad actuator switch.  This is most common because the inlet valve is responsible for letting water flow out the nozzle.  The switching is responsible for sending a voltage to a control board or directly to the inlet valve – to turn it on. On this particular Boise repair service call I found something way different then what I was expecting.  I verified the valve and switching were operating perfectly.  I disconnected the water line going into the refrigerator door, on bottom, and verified we had good water flow.  We did.  But, no water flow out the refrigerator’s dispenser nozzle.  There could be no mistake about this, water was being restricted inside of the door.  Buy why?  How?  We would soon find out. I removed the door and pulled the refrigerator water tube out completely and found the water line kinked like you see in the picture.  The question I have and that I can’t fully understand is – How can water flow through that water tube for years, then out of the blue, form a kink.  You have to realize that the water tube is sealed inside the door and is not moving.  Well, here is the proof!  We replace the water line and now the refrigerator is working good. [...]

By |2019-09-02T08:57:12-06:00September 2nd, 2019|Uncategorized|0 Comments

Oven Repair

Our techs at Western Appliance Repair in Boise completed an interesting service call today for a Whirlpool Oven. These pictures show what disassembly is necessary to replace a bad cooling fan motor in a slide-in oven.  The disassembly is quite severe to say the least.  This is not a problem for us however.  We can tackle a job like this one with ease. When we arrived on site we ran a diagnostics program to confirm the blower was indeed not working.  The blower was inoperable and when we actuated the control relays remotely we received no response.  This suggests we may have a bad motor or, as we’ve seen in the past, a bad control board.  In some cases the blower motor AND the main control board will need to be replaced due to compatibility issues.  In this particular case however, the cooling fan was the only thing that was replaced. After repair was completed and new fan installed, we ran a diagnostic program to verify proper fan operation.  Our nice customer informed is that the oven has been working perfectly with no more error messages. A job well done!

By |2019-05-23T19:37:04-06:00May 23rd, 2019|Uncategorized|0 Comments

Dryer Heater Thermostats

Hello, it’s Rich again from Western Appliance.  We did six more repairs today.  It seems that appliances never stop breaking. In this picture we see two different components.  One is a dryer high limit thermostat and the other is a thermal fuse. These important components regulate the dryer element's heat - which is used for heating the interior of the drum when you dry clothes.  They do not regulate the temperature inside the dryer drum however.  I hope I did not confuse you. The only thing these components do is regulate the dryer element heat alone, that’s it.  The dryer uses separate components which regulate the internal drying temperature.  I’ll try to explain this a better way – if you wanted to start a campfire with a match you would want that match to burn at a sufficient temperature to light a fire.  Once the fire is started then you can regulate the fire with the addition of wood or reducing the fires oxygen.  Well, these thermostats regulate the “match”.  The heat inside the dryer is controlled by a separate thermostat or temperature sensor. They are mounted to the electric heating element housing and prevent overheating.  It is very common to find these on most every dryer we encounter in Boise and Meridian.

By |2019-04-02T18:42:24-06:00April 2nd, 2019|Appliance Repair Boise|0 Comments

Lint inside the Dryer

Lint can be a real problem with dryers because it restricts the air flow inside the dryer drum during the drying cycle.  Air flow in the drum during the drying cycle is very important because the moisture from the wet clothes needs to be flushed out.  The air flow also needs to cool the heater element to prevent overheating and damage. The clothes will take longer to dry and also can cause damage to thermostats, heaters, and electronics. This picture shows lint buildup around the heater element and the thermostats.  This lint buildup suggests there may be a vent restriction.  Air back-pressure causes this lint to flow inwards and into the interior of the dryer. Dryer vents should be professionally cleaned at regular intervals to maintain proper dryer operation and to avoid costly repairs.  Western Appliance can recommend a good company to have this service performed.  For any questions feel free to call Rich at 208-344-4893 or visit our website at https://appliancerepairboise.com Thank you Rich

By |2019-03-14T20:26:47-06:00March 14th, 2019|Appliance Repair Boise, Dryers|0 Comments

GE Dishwasher – Poor Washing

GE's latest dishwasher design is a very popular and dependable appliance.  As with most appliances they can and will have minor and major functionality problems.  In this case the dishwasher was not filling the tub with enough water to ensure  proper functionality. Problems like this can be a great inconvenience to our Boise homeowners.  When appliances break down, nobody is happy. When I arrived I ran a diagnostic routine on the appliance and found that indeed, the tub was not filling completely with water - at least to it's specified level.  It would fill with water for about 10 seconds, stop, then fill again for a couple more seconds.  Then, instead of the hearing the wash motor turning on, I would hear a clicking sound - repeatedly.  It appeared the sound was coming from under the toe-kick area of the appliance.  This is where the main control board is located.  Although a problem like this should be verified by doing voltage checks at the control board connector this "clicking" sound is a tell-tale sign of a possible malfunction with control board.  A  faulty control board was verified by looking at a "switching" voltage at the water control valve and an absence of a control voltage at the dishwasher wash motor. Well, long story short, I arrived today, installed a brand new control board, and the now the dishwasher functions great! I will have a Youtube video on this replacement procedure so if you would like to subscribe to my channel [...]

By |2019-03-05T18:27:35-07:00March 4th, 2019|Uncategorized|0 Comments
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