I have replaced the $30 drain pump twice already, and the same issue has popped up again. Is their some type of maintenance or cleaning I should be doing that might prevent the pump failing yet again?

The filter trap at the bottom looks the normal amount of yucky, mostly dog hair.

My wife is going to want to buy a new machine when I tell her that it broke again, and I don't think I can argue my case a third time! Worse, she'll want a new dryer too so that they match.

It's an WM2101HW, if that helps. The serial number starts with a zero, which supposedly indicates that it was built in a year ending in a 0, so it is either 16 or 26 years old, which I suppose is a good run.

https://www.lg.com/us/products/documents/lg_spec_sheet_wm2101h.pdf

I have a collection of innertubes that can no longer be repaired because either the valve broke or the break was on the seam of the valve. The old tubes give a lifetime supply of rubber bands cut to your width of choice. The whole tube also functions as a big bungee cord.

But I have to wonder: can they serve us better by preventing future punctures? Two things to consider:

• A tube could be sliced lengthwise (not cross-sectionally), and it could give an extra lining between the tire and the inflated tube. As tires develop cracks that expose the tube, an old sacrifical tube could perhaps mitigate a puncture. Might it make sense to glue the old tube to the inside of the tire?
• Tubes are wasted when they break near the valve seam. What if a section of old tube is cut and a hole is made so that it can wrap around the valve of the new tube? Would it help reinforce the area around the valve to prevent future valve seam issues? Or might it even be practical to do this to repair one tube with another where the valve seam is broken? I just wonder if the glue (vulcanizing?) would have a significantly negative effect on the elasticity of the area near the value. OTOH, perhaps that’s just what is needed.

It beeps when it's done.

It beeps when you press the button.

It beeps when you place it on the base.

But today, it beeps no more.

I classify this as a repair.

My ultrasonic cleaner was in the middle of a job, started to get loud, then made a PFFFT sound. I know it was the sound of death. It still gets power and the timer still works but it does not vibrate anymore.

So I guess the ultrasonic generator itself died. The most important component. I cannot think of a way to repurpose this thing. So I guess the question is, is it worth it to replace the ultrasonic generator? The answer to that likely depends on compatibility. What are the chances that another ultrasonic generator can be a drop-in replacement? Would they all generally take the same amount of DC or AC power, generally?

I am tempted to say not worth it, because the tub is small. If I get my hands on the naked UG component, I wonder if it would make more sense to epoxy that to a bigger tub, like a spare metal sink that I have.

BTW, it died under warranty and the vendor did not even want the dead unit back, so they apparently decided it’s not worth it for them to repair, and they would likely have the correct parts on hand.

A couple years ago my SO brought home a big air filter. Their office had thrown it away because it ''didn't work''. We plugged it in, turned it on, and it ran fine. We cleaned the filter and put it to work.

After a few months it started making a noise which worried us, so we stopped using it and I took it apart to see if I could find the issue. I oiled the fan motor where the shaft emerges and it went right back to working well.

Disassembling the thing turned out to be more difficult than it had any reason to be. Some of that is my fault, I started at the wrong end, where you could see actual screws (I assumed if there weren't any screws visible at the top, that was because everything was loaded in and attached from the other side). In reality, everything but the filter was loaded in from the top, all the fasteners were just hidden with stupid plastic shrouds.

To access the motor you must remove what I've come to think of as the saucer section. This is a sort of disk made in two parts, which directs airflow and houses the control electronics. To remove the saucer section you must first disassemble it, as if you were trying to get at the electronics. You start by disassembling the handle, which is held together with plastic tabs (at least one will snap during this process). Then you can access the screws hidden at either end. Then you pry the control panel towards the edge of the saucer section until it snaps free, so you can access the screws underneath it (these connect the top of the saucer section to the bottom). Then you can remove the top half. Next there are six screws which attach the saucer to the rest of the air filter, remove them and it swings out of the way (just attached by the wiring).

(The fan has already been removed in this picture)

I know different people have different aesthetic tastes but I hate this ''pretend there are no screws in our product'' nonsense. On my first time reassembling the thing, I realized I'd have to glue the handle together because I broke the tabs, and I didn't want to make things harder on myself if I ever had to open it up again, so I cut the ends of the top to expose the screws. I also drew an arrow on the case so I'd remember how to get the control panel out of the way.

I wasn't quite ready to make more changes (what if I wanted to give the thing away?) so I left it there. But a year and a half later it started making that worrying noise again, and I had to open it up to fix it, and I realized I didn't care about preserving the original aesthetics anymore. I recently put together a writing resource on fixable tech for solarpunk settings and I guess it felt like a chance to practice what I preached.

This time I marked all the screw locations with an awl and drilled holes so you could access them without fussing around with plastic tabs and unnecessary extra disassembly. I also wrote instructions right on the top to save myself some hassle. The sixth screw is right underneath the control panel (great design there) so I just taped it inside the saucer for now. The lack of it doesn't seem to be causing any issues so far.

I

Does it look as good? Probably not. But it's a two-foot-wide, two-foot-tall air filter, there's no world in which it really ties the room together. At the very least the next time I need to oil the motor, it should be a bit easier to do.

I have recently accidentally come into possession of a bunch of old lead acid batteries, ranging from a few months to several years without charging or maintenance. I could just get rid of them, but I would like to recondition and reuse them as additional power storage for my solar array, if possible. I have been looking at desulfator chargers online and I am planning on getting one and hooking it up to the batteries and just seeing what happens.

Does anyone have any experience reconditioning old lead acid batteries? Are there pitfalls I should be aware of? Since they are of unknown condition, am I better off scrapping them and buying new?

The thermostat is dead in my strange¹ fridge with no replacement parts. I posted about the mystery component before.

There is a metal plate that appears to sandwich a single small loop of refrigerant (guessing!). Mounted attached to the backside is a coil with a ground and two wires marked to handle 220v. One of the leads connects to the LOAD wire on house mains and the other to the (now broken) thermostat.

I can only imagine that it’s a heating element for defrosting (as suggested). But I struggle a bit with that theory because I’m surprised the fridge would ever get cold enough to justify defrosting.

Anyway, I wired the mystery coil directly to mains and left it for 10 min or so. The temp of the metal plate did not feel any different. Is that expected? Metal is naturally cold at room temp and that did not change.

I would like to understand it because I cannabalised a simpler t-stat from another fridge. The t-stat has no connector for whatever the mystery component is.. it’s just a switch that connects two wires. I don’t know if I should just omit the mystery component, or if I should wire it in series with the new t-stat, or keep it attached to the old broken t-stat and wire that in parallel to the new t-stat.

¹ I say strange because there is no freezer-fridge vent. So the fridge is independently cooled.

I was burning a cone incense and left it on the sink, and this stain won't come off. I tried baking soda, water, vinegar, hydrogen peroxide. I tried letting them sit for multiple interations, and it made no difference.

Either the relay is broken or the thermostat. I know this because I could force the fridge to run by hotwiring 220V across the common and run pins then briefly jumping the start pin to the run pin (thus sending 220V through the start winding for a split second).

The thermostat assembly has too many wires to know what to measure resistance on. But I figure that the thermostat can be black-box tested simply by checking whether it sends 220v to the relay switch. There are THREE wires involved (in addition to ground). With the relay removed (thus compressor disconnected), I plugged the fridge into mains. Got these measurements:

common pin to run: 220v
common pin to start pin: 20v

I’m tempted to conclude that the start winding /can/ accept 220v (proven by hotwiring), but 20v is also sufficient to cause enough motor movement to get it started. Does that sound reasonable? Can I conclude that the thermostat works and the relay is toast?

It’s hard to be confident without a service manual, particularly when the relay¹ has continuity. The common pin goes through a cylinder marked “Klixon MRP342LZ-32Q1”, which as 0.5 Ω. The start and run pins go through what seems to be a ceramic disc having 45 Ω. Is that reasonable?

I am ½ tempted to attach the relay, bypass the thermostat, and wire the relay to mains with start-run jumped persistently. Is that crazy? I assume the relay would internally disconnect the start winding. The fridge has no fans AFAICT, so no need for anything else to have power in this test.

¹ The relay I have has part № “A 3B7 8100” printed on it, which I cannot find online. But it looks exactly like this one.

Update

I hot-wired the relay. It was non-trivial because the relay has /3/ inputs. After studying it closely, I realised that one of the inputs (apparently for the start winding) is phony. The spade connector that attaches to it ultimately goes nowhere. When connecting the remaining 2 pins to load and neutral for the house mains, the fridge started and ran just fine.

Thus I have to conclude that the thermostat went bad. And replacements are not sold. However, Amazon has what’s claimed to be a universal fridge thermostat. It’s cheap, but I boycott Amazon. I think I will wait until someone throws out their fridge. Perhaps I can just take any thermostat and make it work.

This thread gives some history and pics. Someone found a closely matching service manual, which is here:

https://www.how-to-repair.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/Beko-WMB61431B-Washing-Machine-User-Manual.pdf#page=72

That goes to the error codes, which implies that I was reading the error codes upside-down. I thought it was error code 9 but the machine apparently has error code 18. It means the “load is imbalanced”. How does it sense that? There is no load in it at all now . But it’s trapped in an error state that cannot be cleared.

Am I missing something? Because this is outrageous. AFAICT, all components work. But the control board thinks there is a fault. And there is no way to clear it and force it to run. Page 86 of the service manual says:

“Explain the customer the following unbalanced load preventive actions.”

IIUC, according to page 86, the previous user ran an unbalanced load many times in a row. They retried running an unbalanced load enough times that the machine entered a locked state to protect itself from damage. But this service manual does not give a way to reset the machine. Am I fucked?

It’s the same problem with my other Beko washing machine as well. Both my Beko washing machines are trapped in an error state that is unclearable. The secret info was not released for either machine.

Fridge stopped running. Both freezer and fridge do not cool. The compressor is silent and cold. Light comes on when the door is opened, so power is getting to the light and thermostat assembly.

I found no service manual for any Zanussi fridges. There is a (apparently useless) user manual for model ZD 19/4. My model is Z 19/4 D, which archive.org does not have the manual for.

Anyway, I pulled off the relay switch and took these compressor measurements:

        ° common
start °   ° run

common-run:    14.3 Ω
common-start:  19.3 Ω
start-run:    ~33.3—34 Ω

Ytubers quote values of ¼ of what I am measuring. They are demonstrating on different models of course, never my model, but they speak as if their measurements are a norm. My start-run resistence is the sum of the other two measurements, which is the one characteristic that is claimed to be correct. But are my resistences all too high? I used 2 different DMMs to confirm.

I hot-wired the common and run terminals to the house mains. It made a hum sound. Then I jumped the start winding to the run winding and the motor started. From there, it runs fine. Sounds like normal and the external coils get hot, as expected. So I assume the compressor is good and the problem is either the relay switch OR the thermostat. How can I narrow that down?

The relay measured at ~45 Ω. One Ytuber says the relay should be 0—1 Ω, so I am tempted to conclude my relay is bad. But I also have little confidence in what Ytubers say on these measurements. I have not yet taken resistence measurements on the thermostat, but when I do I expect the same problem: not knowing if my reading is good. Because user manuals withold this info.

I thought perhaps the relay is cheap enough to experiment, particularly in my case because apparently there is no starter capacitor. It’s a quite simple design. The parts shops all say the relay is discontinued, except one, who says they can get ½ a relay (it’s missing a circular part that looks like it might be the part that switches off when hot -- not sure). They want €40 for ½ a relay. Fuck me. Not worth the risk. It might be the wrong half, or my problem might be the thermostat (which is also likely unavailable).

But I have to ask, isn’t it foolish that relays are not standardized? Or is there a chance that I can hack together another relay to work? Or do generic relays exist to save these big boxes from landfills?

I could rig up a switch and a pushbutton to turn on the fridge.. then off, periodically, but that manual effort will test my tolerance.

I’m trying to fix a broken washing machine for which I do not know the history. It simply had a note on it: “filter needs cleaning”. The cap to access the filter was jammed by a maxi pad that got tangled with the cap arms, which I was able to clear by removing the drain pump.

So then I tried to run a program. All programs fail, even just the spin program. It pauses, then the end program light (“Einde-Fin”) LED blinks. The machine is undocumented (no user manual nor service manual), but often a soft-reset (of sorts) is a matter of holding down start/pause for 3 seconds, which I did. That gets it back into the initial power-on state, but from there every program I start goes to the fault state.

Various videos for repairing other Beko models show entry into diagnostic mode by holding the start button while turning the knob from OFF to COTTON (the first program). When I do that, it seems to give an error code (guessing!) This is in the top pic. Then after a few seconds, it goes what lower pic shows, but with the Fin LED blinking.

I am guessing that the ~3 second display is showing an error code and that it’s in binary. The top LED (1400) is lit as well as the 4th one down (a fill icon). Does that correspond to binary number 1001? Can I then assume it’s error code 9?

Can I then leap to the next assumption that error code 9 is a door latch problem? I get the impression that Beko error codes are relatively consistent across models, and one video for a different model indicates error code 9 is the door latch. Is there a way to test that without buying a door latch? I would be happy to hack it to get a false signal that the door is latched certainly just to test the machine but perhaps even on a permanent basis because no kids live here.

Seems unlikely that the machine would simultaneously have 2 problems. Whoever dumped the machine only knew of the filter problem. So I also wonder if error code 9 is really a drain fault and the machine is trapped permanently in that state as it waits for a secret sequence of steps to clear it (in which case I’m fucked because Beko will not disclose that info unless I take a hostage and even then it would have to be the CEO).

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.sdf.org/post/40709622

Getting burnt by repair-hostile makers of washing machines who refuse to share documentation inspired this form letter (in LaTeX):

\documentclass[DIV=16]{scrlttr2}

%\LoadLetterOption{NF}              % uncomment for French standard windowed envelope
%\LoadLetterOption{DIN}             % uncomment for German standard windowed envelope
%\LoadLetterOption{UScommercial9DW} % uncomment for US standard double-windowed envelope

\usepackage{ragged2e} % needed to restore the loss of paragraph indents when \raggedright is used
\usepackage{hyperref}

\setlength{\RaggedRightParindent}{\parindent} % restore the loss of paragraph indents when \raggedright is used
\RaggedRight

\newcommand{\appliance}{washing machine} % replace with whatever you need to buy
\newcommand{\mfr}{Machine Maker} % replace with Whirlpool, or whatever
\newcommand{\mfrAddress}{123 sesame street\\90210} % replace with mfr address

\begin{letter}{%
  \mfr\\
  \mfrAddress}

  \opening{Dear \mfr,}

I am in the market for a \appliance.
When I asked the local retailer (whose profession is to sell your products)
which \mfr\ models include service manuals, they were helpless.
Could not find a single machine that respects consumers and thus their right to repair.
Zero. Every product by \mfr\ in their showroom was anti-consumer.

There are no service manuals published on your website either. 
When looking at various second-hand models, many basic user guides were missing as well,
apparently depending on the age of the unit.

I will not buy a disposable anti-consumer \appliance.
Those are for stupid consumers.
A \emph{\bfseries good} \appliance\ meets this criteria:

  \begin{enumerate}
  \item has a \emph{good} service manual which is available to anyone, free of charge
  \item has no cloud-dependency (\emph{all} functionality accessible without Internet)
  \item has no app, OR has a \emph{good} app
  \end{enumerate}

  A \emph{good} app satisfies this criteria:
  \begin{itemize}
  \item open source
  \item requires no patronisation of Google or Apple to obtain
  \item has an APK file directly on your website or on f-droid.org
  \end{itemize}

  A \emph{good} service manual meets this criteria:
  \begin{itemize}
  \item wiring diagram
  \item parts diagram with part numbers
  \item inventory of components including the manuafacturers and models, and functional resistence ranges (Ω)
  \item error codes and their meanings
  \item steps to reach diagnostic mode and steps to use it
  \end{itemize}

Do you make any \emph{good} pro-consumer \appliance s with a good service manual, with no bad apps?
If yes, please send me the service manual and I will take your product seriously.
If not, you are sure to lose the competition.
If everyone else loses the competition as well, then I will continue washing my clothes by hand
-- perhaps with this repairable machine: \url{www.thewashingmachineproject.org}.


  \closing{Sincerely,}
\end{letter}

I suggest sending that letter to every manufacturer making machines for your region. It will get no results but it will send the message they don’t hear enough of.

I'm frustrated about trimmers today. I hope somebody can recognize the problem and even though the channel has been not very active I hope somebody has a direction to look into.

I have a 230v trimmer and the wire of 1.6mm. I trim grass. But the problem I get with this trimmer is that the wire snaps too often. Many times the wire is melted or clamped in the spool in which it breaks. The more this happens, the more damage to the spool which makes breaking more occuring. Now it happens every 1 minute of trimming. I probably do something not okey. I bought a new spool with original wire but the problem occurs also there Does anybody have had the same problem? It's a 250w trimmer with a very standard trimmer head.

Crosspost from: https://slrpnk.net/post/25006653

So my Siemens Fridge has been acting weird lately. The freezer under the fridge has randomly started to cool to -30°C. The temperature is set to -18°C and the freezer actually gets back to that after reaching -30 for a while and then warming back up again. It sounds like the compressor is working almost the entire day and the temperature at the top seems to almost always display the correct temperature. Ive yet to check wether it actually reaches -30, but my vegetables in the fridge have started to freeze 🙃 Ive noticed that manually rebooting the fridge helps to get it started and I plan on doing it automated until I can fix it myself. Siemens wants 120€ just for a technician to come look the the problem and because I am a cheap college student, I'd really like to fix it myself. Is there any steps I can take to further locate the problem or should I let a technician come look at my fridge?

Its a Siemens KG25FA40/01 fridge and freezer.

Thanks in advance :)

Repair cafes are great for getting appliances fixed. But I think they could improve from volunteers just doing the work to a more instructional format. It’s great that you can watch them work and ask questions. It’s almost a teachng experience in that regard, but teaching is merely incidental. The repairer probes around with the DMM¹ quickly because they want to get answers quickly. Understandably so, as there is usually a line of people waiting to get stuff repaired. They don’t generally have time to explain everything.

But what if instruction were part of the goal? I would like to hang out in the workshop and watch other repair jobs and ask questions. But I get the feeling I would be in their way and slow them down. It feels like it would be unwelcome.

In principle, they could have one repairer who welcomes an audience where he describes his every move. He works slower, but ~5 or so people could learn from it. It could even be recorded and posted on peertube (not Youtube!).

Repair cafes do not accept large appliances because they are working out of classrooms and community centers on weekends, which don’t accommodate bulky things. So I have a broken refrigerator and washing machine that will not get repaired. In principle, a repairer could have a planned session and meet “students” outside to demonstrate and teach large appliance repair.

¹ digital multimeter

I need to connect a PC to my washing machine. The washing machine has a bank of pins labelled like this:

• 0v
• tx
• rx
• 5v

The microcontroller is an ATmega32L, which has specs for the serial connection as follows:

My USB to TTL serial adapter is apparently based on a ch340 chip. It looks almost exactly like the pic I attached, except mine does not have a crystal on it because I think the chip has an embedded clock. The important thing is the pins match my adapter.

My knee-jerk thought was to connect it as follows:

adapter → washing machine PCB

gnd → 0v
rxd → tx
txd → rx
3v3 → (nothing)
5v → 5v ← bad idea?

(with s1 jumped to 5v on the adapter)

Someone told me I should not connect 5v to 5v. I was assuming one connection needed 5v and the other supplied it, but I was told they are both supplying 5v, but not perfectly 5v, so the difference will strain something and cause damage.

So how should I hook this up?

update (I’m stuffed?)

I heard washing machine manufacturers often sabotage the serial ports before shipping as an anti-repair tactic. I thought my old machine might pre-date that practice, but I might be wrong. I metered TX voltage against 0v using a crappy cheap DMM. Results:

0.01, 0.00, 0.01, 0.00, 0.01, 0.00, 0.01, 0.00, … etc, every second or so.

Looked encouraging, as if there is activity. Then I metered 0v against 5v:

~~0.01, 0.00, 0.01, 0.00, 0.01, 0.00, 0.01, 0.00, … etc, every second or so.

Yikes. I was expecting that to read a steady 5v. Due to bad wiring in the house, I think that is just noise on the ground wire. And apparently the serial port is dead.

I had the two 5v lines connected to each other for a while, so it’s possible I damaged it, if not the manufacturer.~~

Update 2: I have 5v, so the port may work

It turns out I had a bad alligator clip, so of course I got a flat reading. The 5v pin on the serial port gives 5v. Thus I might have a live port. Now how do I use it?

Unfortunately I have excessive battery drain in the left earbud of my Sony WF XM4 set. I really like these earbuds and I am going to at least try to fix them. Has anyone here done any thing like this before?

It makes sense, honestly, that the left runs down faster than the right, I use just the left at work all day everyday and only use the right at home maybe once a week. The left lasts 2.5 hours, the right lasts six or more.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.dbzer0.com/post/38015770

A washing machine is trapped in a fault state even though all the components function (AFAICT). The controller board has two ports:

• ISP (to attach an ISP programmer to flash new software)
• USART (4-pin serial port: 0v, TX, RX, 5v)

I’m guessing the ISP port is useless without whatever proprietary software is needed. But what can the USART do for me? Can that be used to obtain the error code and clear it, or reset the board to the factory state? Has anyone done that, without documentation?