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DIAGNOSING DISHWASHER PROBLEMS

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Unlike some of your other household appliances, your dishwasher will give your specific symptoms to indicate what’s wrong with it. By diagnosing the problems with your dishwasher, you can save money by cutting down on repair times. You may even be able to take care of the simpler problems yourself. Read the tips listed below and learn about how you can diagnose dishwasher problems yourself .

A leaking dishwasher can indicate several problems.

  • Overloading By putting too many dishes in each load, you may cause the machine to leak. Try fitting in less dishes and see if the leak persists.
  • Faulty Door Seal Check the plastic seal around the door of your dishwasher. If there are cracks or holes, it may cause the machine to leak. Replacing the seal is an easy and cheap problem to fix.
  • Excessive Detergent Check your detergent tray. If there’s a soap residue left over, you’re putting in too much soap per load and causing your machine to leak.
  • Faulty pipe connections Check the pipes in the back of your machine. By tightening any loose pipes, you may be able to stop your dishwasher’s leaking.

If your dishes are coming out of the dishwasher dry and still dirty, it means that your dishwasher isn’t filling with soap and water. This can be caused by one of the following:

  • The hot water valve isn’t open. Check under your sink to see if the hot water value is fully open. If it’s not, opening the valve will allow your dishwasher to fill with water.
  • The inlet valve is clogged. If the valve is plugged with debris and residue, cleaning it will repair the machine and enable the dishwasher to fill.

A little water in the bottom of your dishwasher is normal. But if you think there is an excessive amount of water, you may have a problem with your drain hose. Refer to your machine’s manual to find your dishwasher’s drain hose. Check that the drain hose has no holes, isn’t damaged in any way and is free of debris or soap residue.

Call Absolute Appliance Repair NOW if you have any problems with your dishwasher!

Phone lines

(415) 831-1259 San Francisco
(415) 388-0690 Marin County
(650) 525-0512 South SF / Daly City / Pacifica

 

 

 

 

OVEN PROBLEMS

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Is your oven not baking?

  • Bad bake ignitor. You can’t tell it’s bad by looking at it–you must measure amperage. Just because it glows orange, doesn’t mean it’s good. On round ignitors, look for a current draw of 2.6 to 2.8 amps. On flat ignitors, look for 3.2 to 3.6 amps. Insufficient current draw will not allow the gas valve to open. If unsure how to test, check this tech sheet.
  • Bad valve. If ignitor checks out OK, remove power from oven, pull the two wires off the valve and ohm test. Should read two to five ohms. If open, replace valve.
  • Pilot is out. Try reigniting pilot. If it goes out again, check 1) gas supply (out of gas, crimped line, etc.), 2) pilot orifice clogged or dirty.
  • Pilot flame not wrapping around thermocouple. Reposition the thermocouple bulb so the pilot flame wraps around it.
  • If pilot is spark ignited and you’re not getting spark to the pilot, replace the spark electrode, spark module, and the ignition wire. These parts are inexpensive enough that it’s not worth the trouble to just replace one, replace the entire ignition system as long as you’re in there.
  • If your broiler is not working check the above steps with the broiler instead of the oven

Is your oven not self-cleaning?

  • Self clean latch bent or misaligned. Inspect for proper alignment to make sure that latch is contacting the latch switch.
  • Defective Self clean latch switch. Run continuity check.
  • Bad function selector switch. Run continuity check on switch.

Is your gas oven not getting hot enough?

  • Sluggish ignitor. A good ignitor will fire the oven in less than three minutes. If it takes longer than this, the ignitor is starting to go. Measure ignitor current draw as described above. As the ignitor gets sluggish, it takes longer for it to fire the burner as the oven cycles on and off while the in use thus lowering operating temperature.
  • Oven door gasket ripped or torn.

Is your oven door stuck closed?

  • Defective ERC. Check for error code in display. If error code given, check against manufacturer’s code explanations in owner’s manual or tech data sheet inside oven control panel.
  • Misaligned self clean latch. Disassemble oven to manually free latch and realign or replace as needed.

Call Absolute Appliance Repair NOW if you have any problems with your oven!

Phone lines

(415) 831-1259 San Francisco
(415) 388-0690 Marin County
(650) 525-0512 South SF / Daly City / Pacifica