Understanding the Appliance Parts

Although some home appliances are rather complex mechanisms as a whole, they are all composed of simple mechanical components and simple electrical circuits. Understand these components and circuits first and you have taken the first steps toward understanding what goes on inside an appliance. That's the big secret of the entire appliance repair. Understand how an appliance works—and you'll have a better chance of a successful appliance repair.

Every appliance brand differs in some respects, but there are enough similarities to allow you to understand each type of appliance repair. Explanation what happens inside a typical appliance will give you the simplest and best techniques and methods of servicing particular appliances. You can also learn about some areas where you should not attempt service unless you are a technician with specialized equipment at your disposal. It will be up to you to draw the line how far you want to go in repair appliances, depending on your own mechanical ability, tool accessibility, etc. You'll probably find that the more you learn about appliance repair the more you'll be able to do and the more you can do appliance repairs, the more you can save.

But remember that all of this begins with the appliance basics—an understanding of the appliance mechanical parts and appliance electrical circuits you find inside an average appliance.

One appliance repair trade secret will be of great advantage in repairing appliances it's the word simplify. Appliance repair diagnosis is the key to solving any appliance problem. Simplification is the key to diagnosis. Simplification starts with the appliance as a whole. When you look at it, you should simplify by breaking it down mentally into its various assemblies. And when you look at the appliance assemblies, you must simplify these and their problems by breaking them down into their simplest appliance components.

How to keep electric appliances in working order

Consider any electrical appliance and ask yourself, "What actually does the work in this appliance?"

Major appliances with more than one function require isolation of the individual appliance components before disgnoses are made. Always unplug the appliance and remove one wire from the component under test before recording your result.

Appliance switches should always indicate 0 resistances. They're relatively easy to pinpoint in the event of appliance breakdown. Any reading higher than 0 resistances in an appliance switch indicates bad contacts or loose connections. The job of these components is simply to get the electricity to the load where it can be put to work.

There is no need to list voltage readings in the chart, because these are known (either 115 or 230 volts on all home-appliance loads). Heating elements in major appliances such as ranges, dryers, and dishwashers and some ac central units, operate on 230 volts; most other components on 115 volts. With this in mind, you can go to an inoperable appliance and see if voltage is present at the suspected component.