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Topics Discussed:

• 2001 Kitchen Aid Washing Machine Not Agitating or Spinning
• Samsung Microwave Has Rust Spots on the Door
• 2002 GE Dishwasher Does Not Turn On & Continually Fills with Water
• 2005 Maytag Neptune Front loading Washing Machine Pumps But Does Not Spin Well
• Amana Gas Range, Model AGS730W, Broiler Is Not Working
• 2000 Kenmore Front Loading Washing Machine, Model 417.41042000, Makes a Loud Humming Noise
• 1999 GE Profile Range With a Faulty Top Burner
• 1999 Maytag Washing Machine Making a Squeaking Noise When It Stops
• 2008 LG Refrigerator Icemaker Not Working

2001 Kitchen Aid Washing Machine Not Agitating or Spinning

JOHN MCCULLOCH

We'll start things out with Steve, in Detroit, here on the Appliance Repair Show. Morning Steve, go ahead.

STEVE

Got a Kitchen Aid washing machine, approximately seven, eight years old. It just stopped agitating. It makes a grinding sound. I have no idea what it might be.

JOHN SOWDEN

Is it a top loading washing machine?

STEVE

Top loading, electronic control.

JOHN SOWDEN

And does it spin the clothes out?

STEVE

It does not.

JOHN SOWDEN

So it doesn't do anything as far as anything in the drive train.

STEVE

It moves real slow. The agitator moves real slow not like it's suppose to.

JOHN SOWDEN

And does it pump the water out?

STEVE

It does pump the water out.

JOHN SOWDEN

From what you're describing, what normally is found is there's what they call a motor coupling on that machine which is what they use in that unit in replace of a belt that you would normally find on some of the older machines. It's basically a rubber isolator with a couple of plastic fingers in it that go between the transmission and the drive motor. And what happens is over time either during normal wear and/or if you've got an over loader in the family...

STEVE

That is the case there, an over loader.

JOHN SOWDEN

What happens is that coupling will fail. It's really easy to change that. If you go to our website, RepairClinic.com, go to the "Contact Us" section, put your email address in and you'll go into what we call our self help library and there are some documents in there that you can print on how to take the cabinet off of that machine and get in there and inspect it and from there you can pick up a new motor coupling and change it. There normally under $20.

STEVE

And you can just order it online through RepairClinic?

JOHN SOWDEN

You can order it online. If it's something you have to do today, our parts counter is open from eight to six, seven days a week, so if you wanted to make the trek out to Canton, you could still get that checked off your list today. If not, you can order it and depending on what shipping you choose you should have it in a short time.

STEVE

Excellent. Thank you very much.

JOHN SOWDEN

Thank you for calling.

JOHN MCCULLOCH

And, you just mentioned to him to come out and visit you. Why would somebody want to do that?

JOHN SOWDEN

Well at RepairClinic.com, we have a lot of reasons why we like people to do business with us. We have over a 90% fill rate for our customer which means you'll more than likely find what you're looking for. We have over 100,000 pictures so when look on our website you can normally find a picture of the part that you're trying to find. We have a guarantee that if it doesn't ship the day we tell you its going to ship, your orders free. Not the shipping's free, the whole orders free. If you order it today and we say it's going to go out Monday because it's a business day thing then if for some reason it doesn't and, it doesn't happen very often, or we wouldn't give the guarantee. We certainly take a lot of pride in our customer service. And, we ship things FedEx so if you absolutely have to have it then we can hopefully get it to your door in quick time. We'd like to feel that were competitively priced. If you're looking online or your local store or whatever, the only difference is you'll find is we have it in stock and can get it to you. The biggest reason is what were doing right now is we help people for free. We get thousands of people every day whom get repair advice right from the general basic stuff of operation right down to some specific questions. If you have one you can log in and ask Repair Guru's, as we call them, specific questions to repair your machine. In today's economy, to save a buck, it's not a bad idea.

JOHN MCCULLOCH

That's for sure.

JOHN SOWDEN

So there's my speal.

Samsung Microwave Has Rust Spots on the Door

JOHN MCCULLOCH

Rosemary, in Warren, you're next here on the Appliance Repair Show. Go ahead.

ROSEMARY

Yes, I have a Samsung microwave oven. It's a real small one and inside the door is like rusted, two spots and I was wondering if that is dangerous to us that.

JOHN SOWDEN

Well, I'd have to see the door to give you a real accurate assessment. At times, if you have a little surface rust you can sand that area down and then they actually make microwave interior touch up paint that you can then go over and cover up that area. If you keep letting it rust, then it'll burn.

ROSEMARY

It'll get bigger?

JOHN SOWDEN

Yeah, and a lot of times once it gets bare metal in there it will start arcing in that spot.

ROSEMARY

It's never arced. It's a smaller one. It's not a lot of power to it.

JOHN SOWDEN

The size of it doesn't matter. Once you get those microwaves beating around inside there and you have a bare metal source, it will start to arc and flash so that's good that its not. That tells me that it's on the lower part of the door frame which...

ROSEMARY

It's at the bottom on the side, in the middle where the door opens.

JOHN SOWDEN

That's something not facing right against the cavity that is probably why you are not seeing the arcing. Most often, you can again just clean it up with a little sand paper and put some touch up paint on there and get some more miles out of the machine.

ROSEMARY

Does it have to be microwave touch up? I've got some white paint in a little tube.

JOHN SOWDEN

It's probably better if you use that. You can try the other stuff but they do make stuff that's for that. It's fairly inexpensive normally $5 for one of those little...

ROSEMARY

Where would I get that?

JOHN SOWDEN

You would get that at RepairClinic.com.

ROSEMARY

Is that you guys?

JOHN SOWDEN

That's us guys, yes. I'm a little biased but I know you can get it there. And then what I would do, if you have any questions or concerns about the way the door looks you can have it leak checked. A lot of local service places will do it for a nominal fee for a leak check on your microwave.

ROSEMARY

Well, it was a cheap one to begin with. Its just one of those small ones.

JOHN SOWDEN

That's the thing about microwaves. As of 20 years ago when they were $400 or $500, now a days you can get them for ten percent of that.

ROSEMARY

And it's a small, real tiny one. Another thing too, do you still have to go underneath your refrigerator to dust? Because I've got a Maytag and it was saying it wasn't really necessary unless you had a cat or lots of dust and stuff.

JOHN SOWDEN

I always recommend that you do it at least once a year and twice a year if you have pets.

ROSEMARY

I used to have that brush. And when I moved, I didn't bring it. I lost it.

JOHN SOWDEN

Well, you know can get it again when you're getting your touch up paint, you can get that at RepairClinic.com. We have a couple different styles to choose from. The condenser cleaning brushes they basically look, as you know, as like a big baby bottle brush and get that and your vacuum cleaner and you can go back there and clean out the coils. It runs more efficiently. It runs less.

ROSEMARY

Yeah, I've been here eleven years and never did anything.

JOHN SOWDEN

Oh, it's about time you get busy.

JOHN MCCULLOCH

About time you did it.

JOHN SOWDEN

Thanks for your call this morning, Rosemary.

2002 GE Dishwasher Does Not Turn On & Continually Fills with Water

JOHN MCCULLOCH

Thanks for joining us here this morning on the Appliance Repair Show. Here's Darryl, in Lakeport, on the Appliance Repair Show. Hi Darryl, go ahead.

DARRYL

Yes, I have a General Electric dishwasher, Triton series, and it's probably six or seven years old. When I close the door none of the lights will come on but it'll make the little beeping sounds when you press the buttons and it continually fills with water even with the doors open. I got to keep the water turned off and it won't go. I've monkeyed around with the little float inside to see if that was free floating or stuck, its not. I just can't figure anything out on that.

JOHN SOWDEN

No matter what happens you can't get it to go into a normal program?

DARRYL
Right, it'll never start a cycle and if you turn the water on at the little valve there, you turn the water on it just continually fills no matter what.

JOHN SOWDEN

So if you have the door open and you turn the water valve on or turn on the shut off to your dishwasher, it'll start filling?

DARRYL

Right.

JOHN SOWDEN

Okay. Well it sounds, well first of all, the water coming in, normally, when you open the door you've opened up the door switch which kills power to the rest of the machine so unless that's failed the problem you have with your water valve is mechanical meaning that the valve is physically stuck open and its letting water through. So, it sounds like you have almost two problems here and unless the dishwasher's being told to keep the water valve through the controls, you know, they're malfunctioning but that'd be kind of rare and again with the door open you're normally cutting power to the whole thing. When you open the door does the power light power down and the lights go off?

DARRYL

The lights never come on.

JOHN SOWDEN

Yeah, it sounds like the water inlet valve is sticking open. Have you had any work done to your plumbing lately?

DARRYL

No, I haven't.

JOHN SOWDEN

Okay, normally, what happens is if you have something else done, you replace the hot water heater or something, you'll get debris in the water line and it will push to all the components that are in the stream of the hot water and it'll plug up the screens and/or get in there and hold open the little rubber plunger that opens and closes the valve. So, straight away it sounds like you need a water inlet valve to stop the water from coming in whenever. And then, as far as the unit not doing anything, I'd make sure you have power to the unit and, also, if it's a situation where you could have a broken wire in the wiring harness of the door. As you open and close the door, the door goes from the control panel down to the components underneath. Its possible that you've got a broken wire or a bad control, but from what you're describing I'd say it is the water inlet valve sticking open which is not that uncommon of a situation. I'd start there and then see what's going on but first make sure you're getting current to the unit.

DARRYL

Okay.

JOHN SOWDEN

But be careful.

DARRYL

Okay. Sounds good. Thank you.

JOHN SOWDEN

Thank you for calling.

JOHN MCCULLOCH

Could hard water cause that problem?

JOHN SOWDEN

Yes, that depends on where you live as far as how many miles you get out of the water valve for anything your washer, icemaker, anything that's hooked up to potable water. Yeah for normally, if you open the door that normally cuts power to the whole thing and waters still coming in you can rule out an electrical problem. It's sticking open physically.

2005 Maytag Neptune Front loading Washing Machine Pumps But Does Not Spin Well

JOHN MCCULLOCH

Okay. Here's Kim, in Warren, with a washer question on the Appliance Repair Show. Hi Kim, go ahead.

KIM

Well, hi guys. How you doing this morning?

JOHN SOWDEN

We're doing fine this morning.

KIM
Well, I have a front loading Maytag Neptune and its approximately four years old. This is the second time that this problem has happened. The first time what we found was the issue was it was not spinning the water. And it was, it was not the locking control mechanism that you typically seen. It was the motor control board in the motor. And two weeks after we replaced a similar thing happened. This time the locking light mechanism does come on stay on throughout the process. It pumps but it does not thoroughly spin out and during the spin cycle it just does this spin flopping back and forth thing but there's no real agitating action to it at all.

JOHN SOWDEN

And how old is this machine roughly?

KIM

Like I say, about five years old.

JOHN SOWDEN

Okay, so its one of the earlier productions?

KIM

Yes it is.

JOHN SOWDEN

And, you say you have already replaced the motor speed control board?

KIM

Correct.

JOHN SOWDEN

And, the reason that it had failed; you had some burned resistors on the board? Is that...

KIM

It was a fuse thing on the bottom. The upper board that is behind the digital mechanism and all that. There was none of the burning and the whole wax motor thing checked out fine. But it was that lower board that the guy found on it was a bad fuse and I guess they come as a package. We bought the whole thing. We tried to get just the board but they sell the package and the motor together so we replaced them both.

JOHN SOWDEN

Okay, so you replaced the motor and the motor speed control board. Now the wax motor if its one of the original productions, you probably should have changed that too. Because at times, what will happen that will short or fail and then wipe out the board.

KIM

Really? Okay.

JOHN SOWDEN

So you want to see, there's two different styles of it. I apologize, but it's a color code, if it's red or brown it's the original, and if not it was one of the updated ones, but that's information you can find on our site to get more specific. If it's not spinning otherwise, if its spinning slow you have either another problem in the motor control board or possibly that the bearing is starting to fail where it's just so much drag on it. Has it been making any noise while it was spinning previously?

KIM

Yeah, the spinning now there's just it's kind of you can hear like a light grinding sound. It's not, like I said, spinning out, but its turning. And, I checked the upper board and there doesn't seem to be any of the brown resistors or that when I looked up the issue online. It said to check for that but anyway there wasn't any of that. The board looked, at first glance, it looked pretty cleaned.

JOHN SOWDEN

Unfortunately, some of those, the boards will melt down and they're very easy to see the problem. Others, with electrical components, it's something that by just looking at them you can't always tell if they're functioning properly. Again, sometimes, they'll burn up and its okay you got a burn hole in them that is pretty straightforward. But, the other thing to look at, again, is the bearing. If the bearing is dragging and it's causing the motor to load up or not to be able to turn it up to speed then you'll get the slow spin as well. It can't physically get the drum up to that RPM. So, it could be another problem, again, I'd look at the wax motor issue and see which one you have. She's quite an informed caller by the way, John. She's done all of her homework.

JOHN MCCULLOCH

Yes, she has.

KIM

Yes, I have.

JOHN SOWDEN

So that's the few things I would describe. You could have a problem with the motor and control board that is in there, but I doubt it. Most parts, I do believe, have a 90 day warranty. So how long ago has it been since you've had this work performed?

KIM

About two weeks.

JOHN SOWDEN

Okay. So you're in the driver seat for all those conditions. Now, did you have somebody do this for you?

KIM

Yes, I did. I, basically, found somebody on Craig's List that does repairs and they came out and did it and it spun wonderfully after that.

JOHN SOWDEN

Yeah, I'm just wondering if, again, if the originally wax motor may or may not have checked good. So then, its, all right, well this is not a problem, but its something that if it was the original a lot of times they'll recommend that you update it. It's just kind of a fail safe. So, it's something that it could have taken out the original so what I would recommend if you had somebody you paid good money to have somebody do this most often repair people will have a warranty for their work and I would call them up and ask what is your warranty on the work, the parts should be under warranty, so you're involvement, at this point, is nothing more than picking up the phone because you've already spent your money.

KIM

Right, okay. Now is that bearing something easy to replace? Should we get that from you guys or no?

JOHN SOWDEN

No, you can get the parts from us and we'd love it if you did, but the problem is that comes as a whole rear shell of the tub. It's basically a metal bearing pressed in a plastic housing. So to change it, you have to, basically, take out the whole drum assembly, separate the two, and then remove the inner drum and spindle and then put it back into the new outer shell which I think are around 400 bucks or something like that. They're not giving those away.

KIM

Oh heck no.

JOHN SOWDEN

You're at half the cost of a new machine at that point.

KIM
Right, okay. Well thank you for you help.

JOHN SOWDEN

Well, thanks for calling. Continue on...have fun with that.

JOHN MCCULLOCH

If you can call it that.

JOHN SOWDEN

Yeah. I like to see people who go on and do their research and really know what they're doing so when somebody comes out; its helps the service man, too, to know what its doing or not doing.

Amana Gas Range, Model AGS730W, Broiler Is Not Working

JOHN MCCULLOCH

And George, in Bloomfield Township, has a question about an Amana gas oven here on the Appliance Repair Show. Hi George, go ahead please.

GEORGE

Good morning.

JOHN SOWDEN

Good morning.

GEORGE

My Amana gas cook stove works fine on the cook top as well as the oven but the broiler will not light.

JOHN SOWDEN

Okay, does your unit have a waist high broiler or is it on the bottom of the oven? Do you have broiler...

GEORGE

On the top, I would say that it's on the top of the oven.

JOHN SOWDEN

Okay, well not all are. Some have one igniter and then the broiler is actually a drawer below. On other units, the lower drawer is a storage drawer and then they have a separate heating unit on the ceiling of the oven and that's what in the industry they call a waist high broiler. When you're standing up next to it that kind of spells it all out. So, you're oven is heating to proper temperatures. So, when you set it to 350 it is baking and all that good stuff?

GEORGE

Yeah, everything is working fine, otherwise, for the regular oven.

JOHN SOWDEN

But when you set it to broil nothing happens?

GEORGE

Correct.

JOHN SOWDEN

And, do you see a glow coming from the igniter on the broiler at the top of the oven?

GEORGE

No.

JOHN SOWDEN

Okay. Well most often what's happening there, the components in that circuit are your thermostat which you set it to broil and that is suppose to send power to the oven igniter and then the oven safety valve. And from there, the oven is heated or the broiler is ignited by the oven igniter drawing a certain amount of current and getting very hot and once it does, it allows the oven safety valve to open up. If you're not getting any glow whatsoever...the three things

GEORGE

I have not seen that.

JOHN SOWDEN

Okay. Most common failing thing would be the igniter. The glow bar or other there are several different terms they use. The ceramic piece that's supposed to glow bright orange or red has failed. A lot of times, if it's not doing anything you can probably see a small crack in it somewhere. The other thing that can cause that would be the oven safety valve could have a bad circuit for the broil portion of it and/or the oven thermostat is not, when you set it to broil, it is not sending a signal to those components downstream to turn on the oven. Most often, it's the igniter. If you...

GEORGE

A bad igniter, how would that...I guess I'd have to...

JOHN SOWDEN

You need to get a flashlight and open up the oven door and look towards the back wall where the burner tube goes into the back wall and you'll see the igniter mounted to the burner itself. It's usually a few screws and a few wires, of course, you want to unplug the unit and you can take that igniter out and, again, if its broken its, normally, you can see a small crack or a small burn mark. If not, you can check it with an ohmmeter as well to see if it's a complete circuit.

GEORGE

I see.

JOHN SOWDEN

But that's where I'd start. Those are the three components and if I was a betting man, most often I'd say the igniter is the part that fails the most in that.

GEORGE

I see.

JOHN SOWDEN

Okay?

GEORGE

Thank you very much.

JOHN SOWDEN

Well thank you for calling. We appreciate your call this morning.

2000 Kenmore Front Loading Washing Machine, Model 417.41042000, Makes a Loud Humming Noise

JOHN MCCULLOCH

Yes, we do. And, here's a call from Toledo from Dave with a Kenmore washer question, here on the Appliance Repair Show. Hi Dave, go ahead.

DAVE

Hey good morning.

JOHN SOWDEN

Good morning.

DAVE

I have a front load Kenmore washer. It's one of the early versions of the front load washers when it came out on the market. And, we bought it back in I think 2000 or 2001, so it's eight or nine years old. And, as it starts to the spin portion of the cycle, I get a very loud hum and if you touch the cabinet it doesn't feel like there's no vibration there or anything like that. The washer itself seems to be operating just fine it's just extremely odd that you're picking up this real loud humming noise.

JOHN SOWDEN
And, you say, real loud. Is it while it's spinning? Does it sound like a bearing noise or is it like a locked motor or something...?

DAVE

You know it could be a bearing noise because as it picks up speed it eventually goes away.

JOHN SOWDEN

Yeah, so it's on the lower RPM's. Well, it could be a tub bearing issue or it could be a motor bearing issue. Its one of those things, normally, if it's a tub bearing if you look at the back of the unit if the tub bearing has started to fail, normally, the water seal has failed and, at times, you'll see where there's water that's been, you'll see a trickle of water or where there has been water dripping down the back of the drum. In that's...

DAVE

Oh, the back of the drum? Okay, because there's no visible water.

JOHN SOWDEN

Right. A lot of times it's a small amount and with the soap and stuff you'll see a trail of where the soapy water was dripping down the back. Otherwise, it does seem to be spinning up to speed though?

DAVE

Correct. Yes, and this has a high speed, has two speeds on the final spin and you have like an ultra high speed spin and everything seems to be working just fine there.

JOHN SOWDEN

Yeah, those things get up to 900, 1000 RPM's on some of those.

DAVE
Yes.

JOHN SOWDEN

It's a 15 minute trip in the dryer for a lot of those any more. Unfortunately, a noise is a hard thing to diagnose. If it's spinning up to speed, normally, the bearing is probably not the problem but it could be on its way out where you're catching it in the earlier stages and you're just pretty observant at, to hear the machine. The other thing that could cause buzzing noises in spin is the lock solenoid. It's off on the front of the machine. So when it goes into spin, the solenoid helps lock everything together. And, those can buzz as well so if there's anything you can do to try to pinpoint where its coming from you know via the front of the machine, by the door area, I'd suspect the door switch assembly or the solenoid and/or if its more from the back I'd say its more possibly in the motor and/or the bearing.

DAVE

And the way to do that is just listen more closely for the noise?

JOHN SOWDEN

Yep, that's about all you can do.

DAVE

And then are either one of those things that I can repair or is this something that I need to bring a repair man in?

JOHN SOWDEN

Well that's a good question. A lot of times, people think they can't repair things and so they call somebody and other times they think they can and they end up with a real mess.

DAVE

Don't want to go there.

JOHN SOWDEN

So if it's a bearing, I would definitely have somebody come out if you're really not comfortable tearing things completely apart because that is a complete rework and the cost may make it prohibitive if the units nine or ten years old you might want to actually start looking at; all right how much is a new one? Because right now, just like vehicles, cars it seems like appliances are really aggressive in their pricing. This is the time to buy a new anything it seems like. So, I would just monitor, see if you can determine where its coming from and you can look at the back to see if there's any sign of a leak which might help as far as what's going on with the bearing itself.

DAVE

Okay.

JOHN SOWDEN

Yeah, it's one of these things where you kind of have to monitor it. See if different load sizes makes a difference or not. You know if you don't put a lot of stuff in there and it's louder that's normally something that would tell you it's a drive train issue.

DAVE

It does seem to be pretty consistent in that respect. I've listened to the machine often enough that you know it's been a variety of load sizes so...

JOHN SOWDEN

Okay.

DAVE

Okay, hey, thank you very much.

JOHN SOWDEN

Thanks for calling this morning.

1999 GE Profile Range with a Faulty Top Burner

JOHN MCCULLOCH

Jeff, in Bloomfield, has a problem with a glass range top here on the Appliance Repair Show. Hi Jeff, go ahead.

JEFF

Hey, good morning guys.

JOHN SOWDEN

Good morning.

JEFF

Yeah, I've got a glass top GE Profile stove and it's about ten years old.

JOHN SOWDEN

A smooth top?

JEFF

A smooth top, correct. It's got a little extra to it. The speed burner, the main burner we use which is, it's got an adjustable coil, you know a size coil. It's either all on high or nothing; I've got to turn it off. It's burning a lot of stuff. Is that something that can be serviced?

JOHN SOWDEN

Yes, you've got the one that you can pick for the, what is it, six and eight inch burner or both? Is that...

JEFF

Yeah, correct. The coil size is...

JOHN SOWDEN

A little switch on the control panel?

JEFF

Yeah, correct, it's on the top you'll see a choice of two sizes.

JOHN SOWDEN

And, now when you switch it that from large to small does that work?

JEFF

No, it's still either all on or...yeah, that does, and you can get that part to work. It's still either on or all off.

JOHN SOWDEN

Okay, so from what you're describing most often the problem is the control or the switch or the component behind the knob which controls that particular burner. It's basically what we call a runaway which means the switch is either on or off, its not regulating and reading, you know, what the burner is doing so when you turn it on it just stays on and it doesn't cycle on and off. When you turn on the stove to like medium heat, it pulses the electricity to that burner to maintain that intensity and as you turn it up it pulses, more or less, if you turn it down and it sounds like that has failed. So, you need to get the model number as it reads off the appliance, go to RepairClinic.com, and you can there find a picture of all the parts that are common for your stove. If you have any questions or problems or if you're having problems finding which one it is, give us a call at 888-343-4948 and...

JEFF

Now this is the knob itself, the adjustment knob has to be replaced?

JOHN SOWDEN

No, no the control behind it. When you pull the knob off there's a stem that sticks out and behind that...

JEFF

Right, right it's that that needs to be replaced.

JOHN SOWDEN

Yes, that control.

JEFF

Okay, it's called a control?

JOHN SOWDEN

Yes, or burner infinite switch, but its not infinitely controlling the burner, its kind of statically controlling the burner.

JEFF

Right, that is something that you guys would stock at your...?

JOHN SOWDEN

More than likely, if not we can certainly get it for you in quick time. Get the information for it and from there you can, normally there pretty straightforward to replace, its just accessing the control panel, there's a series of screws and, obviously turn off the power to the unit and if you run into any problems you can call a service guy in too.

JEFF

Thanks for your help guys.

JOHN SOWDEN

Thank you for calling.

JOHN MCCULLOCH

And still no refrigerator questions.

JOHN SOWDEN

Yeah, you're trying to set a record or something?

1999 Maytag Washing Machine Making a Squeaking Noise When It Stops

JOHN MCCULLOCH

I notice stuff like that. Here though is another washer question from Bill, in Amherst, on the Appliance Repair Show. Hi Bill, go ahead please.

BILL

Hi. Thanks. We have a Maytag washer that's probably about ten years old and what happens is when you hear it stop you hear a squeaking noise like a belt. Is there a belt on there to change?

JOHN SOWDEN

Well, it depends. You're unit being ten years old could be one of a couple different variations of a Maytag washer. The older are the Performa style series of the Maytag's have a two belt system, one drives the pump, one drives the main drive pulley and if that's the case, most often, the squeaking upon shut down is caused by the brake assembly. And, it's something that can go for years and not be a problem. Is it a real high pitch loud screech?

BILL

Umm, it's kind of high pitch. It has been doing it for about a year or so.

JOHN SOWDEN

Yeah. That's common for the brake assembly and it's more of a nuisance as it does wear on. It might not start to stop properly so you might have a little run on so you may want to look on, you know, the unit and see...

BILL

The brake assembly? That would be something to purchase and put on?

JOHN SOWDEN

Yeah, unfortunately, those are not fun to change, yet its helps to have the special tool to do it which is a big U-shaped wrench. Otherwise, there's a one belt and a two belt unit. If it's a one belt, then it could be something in the lower or tub bearing causing the squeal. If that's the case, normally, you can figure it out by just slightly tilting the unit backwards and look under the machine. If its one belt or two belts, it's pretty straightforward from there. And then, to gain access if it doesn't seem like its coming from under the machine its more in the center of it most of the front panels come off with just a few screws that you can remove, the few screws at the bottom and lift up and then remove the front panel and have a look inside. Again, if you see, normally, a small sign of a leak that's, normally, a sign that water has gotten into the bearing assembly and that would be, again, a labor intensive thing not so much a part intensive.

BILL

I think I'll wait until spring and bring it out to the garage and work on it.

JOHN SOWDEN

There you go. I wouldn't recommend it today.

JOHN MCCULLOCH

No, not today.

BILL

That's what I'll do. Thank you very much.

2008 LG Refrigerator Icemaker Not Working

JOHN MCCULLOCH

Here's Linda, in Pinckney, with a refrigerator question and, well, it's a refrigerator question.

JOHN SOWDEN

Thanks for ruining John's day for not having a refrigerator or freezer question.

JOHN MCCULLOCH

It doesn't ruin my day. Welcome, Linda.

LINDA

Good morning. Sorry about that.

JOHN SOWDEN

No, John always likes to be right.

LINDA

Well, I heard this and the problem has been going since about November so I thought I'd call you. I have an LG refrigerator that was bought about 16 months ago and it has, you know, the digital display on the front. My freezer has, the icemaker has quit working.

JOHN SOWDEN

Yes.

LINDA

And, I called LG and they said to unplug it for a while that probably something is frozen in the back.

JOHN SOWDEN

Yep. Unplug the icemaker, take it out. Did you do that and then put it back in?

LINDA

I unplugged it, I didn't take anything out.

JOHN SOWDEN

The whole refrigerator you unplugged?

LINDA

Yes.

JOHN SOWDEN

Okay, so you let the whole freezer section defrost?

LINDA

Yes.

JOHN SOWDEN

Okay, just trying to keep up with you here.

LINDA

Yes, sorry.

JOHN SOWDEN

No that's fine. That's fine.

LINDA

And, then when I plugged it back in then what happens is the digital display does not show and so, of course, when I plugged it back in, you know, it all clicked on like it was going to work again and just within five minutes it was all off.

JOHN SOWDEN

Wow, so you plugged the machine back in and it has not started cooling again?

LINDA

No, when I did the ice...

JOHN SOWDEN

Just the icemaker?

LINDA

Then, I turned off the icemaker and the lights did show back up then the digital display came back on. The water works but no ice.

JOHN SOWDEN

Okay, so this is an icemaker problem otherwise the machine is cooling properly?

LINDA

Yes.

JOHN SOWDEN

Okay. Yeah, you probably are going to require a new icemaker to solve this problem. What happens is, is as they alluded to is that, at times, they were getting some water, I do believe, in the front of the icemaker that was causing it to ice up, freeze up, and then, of course, then nothing could move because it was all ice and then by you turning the machine off it was suppose to defrost and de-ice and then start working again. If that didn't happen then it's probably time to change the icemaker.

LINDA

Oh, when it's that new, huh? Well, this happens to be, too, one of those that is not energy approved that they said it was and then it wasn't.

JOHN SOWDEN

Oh, yeah, I read something about that.

LINDA

Yeah, they sent us a letter and we're supposed to get a rebate for the next 15 years, so we'll see how that works out.

JOHN SOWDEN

At least they took care of the problem. That's always a good thing to see the manufacturers do that.

LINDA

Well, they said they're going to but we haven't seen them at the door yet.

JOHN SOWDEN

Just give them call and see what they can do to help you out with the icemaker. It doesn't hurt to try. It never hurts to try. And, I do appreciate your call, Linda. I really do.