I fixed my dryer myself
Came home today and found wet clothes in the dryer. Which was weird because earlier, I had found the same load in there wet and just thought I had forgotten to start the dryer. Low and behold, when I stood and watched it, about ten seconds after starting it, it started beeping and gave out an F01 error code.
While googling it, it seemed that the code meant the relay electronics board had failed and needed to be replaced. I thought, I can probably do that, but the board seemed to be more than $150, which is more than the callout fee on our home warranty ($125). But what we most needed was a working dryer!
While looking for the exact price and a source to order the board, I found this video describing a simple fix for a blown solder connection. I unplugged the washer, opened it up, and the board was blown in the exact same spot as in the video. I soldered a jumper in, put it back together, and lo and behold, the dryer runs!
I have an undergraduate degree in electrical engineering, even though it hasn't been my day job in a long time. So I could at least evaluate the plausibility of the fix, and I had the tools and know-how to do the soldering. So definitely not a fix for everyone.
Money is tight right now, so fixing the dryer for $0 (and in half an hour no less) was big for us. Sometimes you need a win, and today was a day I really needed one!
What fixes around the house are you most proud of, saved you some money, or kept a piece of equipment out of the landfill?
Proud of you (as a fellow electrical engineer). I wish we had room in the curriculum to work with our hands these types of repairs... instead of solving abstract problems about infinite sheets of charge.
I've been doing minor fixes to cellphones and electronics myself and it brings a small bit of joy.
You brought back a tiny shiver of dread from the old days. There are some things I miss about college, but that isn't one of them.
My 2003 Honda Pilot has been rock solid for years til last month. The ignition seized and the the key refused to turn. Local locksmith said bring it in, it's a common Honda problem. It'll be $450. Watched a youtube and did it myself for $50.
Then at the same time the starter went. Bad luck. But a new one was only $125 off Amazon instead of $320 at NAPA and after watching another video, had it in within an hour.
And as luck would have it, the blower motor went two weeks later. Dealer wanted $365 for the same one I got for $48 on Amazon. Another video and it was in under an hour.
Just a run of bad luck for a vehicle that's been absolutely pain free for many years, so I'm not even too upset. All in all I spent about $225 for the three repairs but with shop parts and labor it would have been about $1500 for it all. Thank goodness for YT.
My car-related fix was my hatchback door after it stopped opening.
I had a hunch something wasn't moving properly in the latch system. The car had only a small access panel offset from the latch, so I could reach it with my hand but not see it (I wasn't really feeling committed to removing the entire panel). After playing with the latch and feeling its movement for a while, I found and adjusted the section that was misbehaving, which fixed the door. It never had a problem again. None of this is in my skill-set, I feel like I just got lucky.
Funny you should mention that, my 06 Ridgeline is in the shop for $2k worth of repairs right now. A good chunk of that is expected consumables (brakes). Most of the rest is an exhaust system repair. Last time it happened, it was the flex coupling and required welding or replacing e whole thing. This time, hit a rock and broke the flanges on a catalytic converter, according to the mechanic.
Been driving it with the extra loud roar for a few months but it won't pass inspection, so it's time to bite the bullet. I did try to get under there and see if some jb weld could nurse it along, but couldn't even find the source of the roar myself.
To be fair, this is the first time we've put money into it in a couple of years. Still for cheaper to repair than replace, and it's a very reliable vehicle. It only has 140k miles, so plenty of life left in it :).
And I mentioned in the TOP that I had the background to know how to fix the dryer. The opposite is true with the truck. I know I could learn how to do brakes, etc. But I'd rather not learn on the car I drive my family around in.
I've had multiple people tell me that brakes are easy... but it's like... the brakes. The stuff keeping me from hurting an innocent tree or wall! No way I'm gonna try my hands at that, lol
On the other hand, the defrost circuit on the rear window came loose and soldering that was an easy job, and super satisfying the next day when I could see through the rear window
I don't do plumbing in my house for the same reason. Maybe I would go do the plumbing on someone else's house. Although this pro-press stuff I am seeing on youtube looks pretty idiot proof.
Not sure if this is what you had in mind with 'around the house', but I regularly fix my clothing. I generally prefer to buy decent quality clothing, but that means I need it to last longer because I can't afford to re-buy too often.
I darn my good woolly socks, re-sew blown out seams, fix holes in clothing, re-hem too-long trousers. I'm particularly proud of a recent replacement zipper in a pair of trousers; it was my first attempt at zippers and turned out really well. Also, I darned a small hole in the crotch area of a pair of trousers and it's barely visible.
Downside is these all take time. But, it's easy to pick up a project during remote meetings, while watching shows/movies, and listening to audiobooks, so it's not too bad.
If we're talking appliance fixes, I once sorted out a fridge door that wouldn't close properly by placing a small piece of folded paper strategically as a shim to shift the part that was catching on the door. An incredibly cheap, lo-fi fix to a problem causing everyone in the house grief.
I love "invisible" darning in particular! I get a lot of pleasure out of picking out embroidery thread and trying to match the existing fabric as closely as possible, like this shirt I repaired for my partner.
Woah, that is soo impressive! I've only ever done single colours.
I love those simple hack fixes best. I imagine the clothes repair is super satisfying too.
I watched this video of someone weaving patch into a frayed area of a vintage suit. That was really next level. I aspire to that kind of things but I don't really wear clothes that would merit that. In my jeans, it's usually the fabric in the crotch itself that fails, not the seam. I tried a patch, but it seems like there's just no structure to base the repair on. But maybe that is just buying $30 jeans.
Haha, I knew exactly which video you were referring to before watching. I can only aspire to that level of skill and detail.
Maybe not worth the effort for cheap jeans, but if you ever have the inclination, try to reinforce with an internal patch before the jeans or trousers blow out completely.
I tried to find a guide, and honestly the most succinct was this invisible mending reddit post (visible mending is a whole other thing).
This is good advice. Thank you!
I usually wear four pair of jeans in rotation (each one for a few days), so they get washed pretty often. By the time they get to the point of ripping, they are pretty saggy and threadbare all over. The jeans all get replaced at the same time so they are evenly worn. I do this with socks, undershirts, etc as well. I find that if I have a mix of old and new, I'll favor the "good jeans" (or good socks, etc) and basically never wear the others. And having a single batch of identical items makes pairing and sorting things easier.
That's funny I just replied to another comment about how I fixed my dryer:
https://tildes.net/~life.home_improvement/1ecw/how_do_you_even_find_quality_appliances_anymore#comment-c2fr
Essentially I had a very similar sounding problem but instead, I replaced the board with a simple timer relay and a 3-position switch: https://envs.sh/FJ9.pdf
That is cool, and next level. I would consider doing for the dryer for all the reasons you mentioned -- relatively simple electronically, etc. I suppose I'd try the stove/oven. I guess if the repair doesn't work you could always fall back to getting the original replacement parts.
I am building a new 3D printer right now (Prusa MK4 to go with my MK3). One of the reasons I like the kits is that I understand how it goes together and how all the parts work, so it's easy to service when something breaks.
I would totally buy kits for most of my stuff -- paper printers, appliances, even the furnace and A/C if it were available.
My time to shine!
!!! Warning! I'm writing about insides of microwave which contains high voltage electronics which may be charged to lethal levels even after unplugging! Do not open microwave oven if you don't know what you are doing and what precaution to take! Seriously, it can kill you!
Our microwave stopped working just after two year warranty period. First part of numbers stated going dimmer on the display then oven just began starting and adding time by itself out of nowhere or complaining about door being open (because it wanted to start). I don't have degree but I have my fair share of electronics and electrical knowledge, so I opened it up and saw just one chip there doing everything (input from buttons, driving the display and output to relays). It was clear it's this part that was faulty.
The rest of the oven was just power board (to convert mains to 5V for logic and 12V for relay coils) which included three relays (one for light, fan and plate turning which is wired in so that actually all three things are turned on or off with this one relay; one for grill function and one for microwave function). There were microswitches on the door as safety measures which means the oven will stop when you open the door by mechanical means, not by chip telling it to stop whih was why I went and did my very own electronics for it - I didn't have to worry about safety.
I drew schematics of the mains part (how it's wired to relays and microswitches etc.) and also the low voltage side of things (how to control relays basically).
I have used Arduino Nano (clone) to read inputs and to output sigbals to relays. I had to redo whole display assembly because I din't have multiplexing knowledge to reuse original display (I still don't know multiplexing). I have used shift registers for the display, one for two halves of seven segment display, which became hell when I had to program it. But it also was great coding exercise! I have learned a ton by doing this project.
I also own probably first microwave oven woth USB in the world :-D It's there to be able to program it even when it's in place.
The oven is running fine for six years since then. Apartnfrom soume button bouncing (false inputs when you press buttons) it works great. It could be remedied but I would have to take it apart andmake it inoperable for a day or two though which is not possible with two kids and wife :-)
EDIT: Added warning on top of comment.
That is amazing. I had one fail in the high energy parts, and I was going to try and fix it, but chickened out when I started to think about microwave leakage or messing around with HV components.
I think it's worth writing this down for other brave Tilderinos: the capacitors in a microwave are very big and [can store a lethal amount of energy](https://www.cpsc.gov/s3fs-public/micro pdf) even when the microwave is unplugged, so be very careful!
When I was a kid, I opened up an old tube TV set that someone had left on the curb. They have similarly big capacitors. Knocking the screwdriver around inside, I accidentally shorted one of the big capacitors. It welded the screwdriver to the terminals and made it red hot. I left the screwdriver in there, put the cover back on, and putt it back on the curb, considering myself lucky and a little wiser.
Yes, definitely. Insides of any mains powered appliance are dangerous, CRT monitors or TVs and microwaves especially because of what you have already mentioned.
I went into this knowing that and knowing precautions and how to behave with such electronics. Definitely not for anyone to do or even attempt or just even open the microwave like I did! Your life is more valuable, every single time!
I love doing stuff like this. There's a satisfaction of both breathing addition life into a device or appliance with your bare hands, as well as giving a middle finger to the corporation who set such low quality standards and expected you to just buy a new one.
I've repaired the fridge twice, the dryer twice, and completely failed to repair the clothes washer twice.
I have a really common old dryer, while GE no longer makes the parts, I can get replacement parts from Chinese companies.
Sadly, I recently realized after 10-15 years, GE stopped selling circuit boards for the dishwasher & fridge. I wish I had stocked up on circuit boards and commonly replaced parts while they were easily available. I had to buy a new washing machine, twice, and it was not a pleasant experience.
I had something similar with the control board on my dishwasher last year. I could afford to replace the dishwasher but I really didn't want to spend that money so I went poking around in there and was really glad I did.
I'm only just okay with a soldering iron so luckily it was a nice big through-hole component. Fixing it made me feel like Louis Rossman
I am assuming from your language in the beginning of your post that you started the dryer and then left the house. Just an FYI, washers and dryers cause around 16000 fires a year with dryers causing 90% or more of those.
I wonder how many of those fires are due to clogged exhaust vents. That’s a good caution either way.
I would wager a good portion of them. You'd be surprised by how many people don't know to clean the lint trap, let alone that their dryer itself should be cleaned once a year as well as they exhaust vent.
I wonder how many of those are lint fires? We regularly clean the lint vent with the a brush and drill attachment. I do have a smoke alarm in the laundry too (connected to the alarm system, so I get remote notifications).
It's all down in the basement, so I'm not sure what good being home would be? I think my response be "call the fire department" even if I was home.
Last year our robotic vacuum started throwing out error codes related to one of the side brush motors. I found a guide online to replace it on a slightly different model but the directions were close enough to get everything apart. The problem was you have to take everything apart to get at it. Start at the bottom and start taking off the wheels so you can get to the screws that hold the top on. Then you can take off the bumper and some sensors so you can get to the screws that hold the main board down. Lift up the main board and finally you are at the brush motors.
I managed to find a replacement motor on ebay for less than $20 and had to buy a soldering iron to put it in. But after a couple hours work and needing to open it up a couple times to plug in the sensors I forgot, we had a working vacuum again.
I'm a mechanical engineer but I dabble in electronics.