Dishwasher repairman

[AArdvark]

The motor will then come loose from the machine, exposing the impeller cavity.

[AArdvark]

We can now move to the workbench for the rest of the surgery. See how the threaded brass insert has been worn away by the stainless motor shaft. It's a mess. If I could only replace that part I'd be a winner. But there it is. I cleaned the remains of the JB weld off with brake cleaner in order to prep for the New Amazing Road Runner Epoxy

[AArdvark]

The top side, where I tapped all the way through last week in order to make it fit somehow.

[AArdvark]

Mix the stuff according to the verbal directions of the assembly guy at work. It's the same as with any two-part epoxy, I'm guessing.

30 minute setup time, 24 hours to fully cure. I got this.

[AArdvark]

OK, filled the entire brass part with the goop and coated the threads on the shaft as well. Fit it all together snugly and now we wait a half hour.


Reverse the disassembly process and wait till tomorrow to run a cycle and see if it works. One cool thing I noticed is that there are small holes that let water in to the motor shaft area. It must be a cooling/lubrication thing. The actual motor coil is on the outside of the plastic housing and the shaft, which has a tubular magnet attached to it, is in it's own little water filled area.

THE
MINI SEA WORLD
AARDVARK

[pinback]

The motor will then come loose from the machine, exposing the impeller cavity.

"Impeller cavity" is what I did to your mom last night.

[AArdvark]

We can't have nice things.

I bet you used to knock down people's card houses too.

[Flack]

Sunday, we attempted to fix our clothes dryer. Actually, that's not true. Sunday, my wife decided she was going to buy a new dryer because the old one doesn't dry anything. I suggested we try and fix the old one first.

According to Google, the first step is to determine whether or not the dryer is getting hot. If it's not, it could be the heating element or a fuse. Ours gets hot, which points to poor ventilation. One way to test this is to disconnect the vent hose and dry a load. We did that and it worked fine, which points to blockage in the vent pipe somewhere.

Step one was to scoot the dryer away from the wall, disconnect the vent hose, and check it for lint. Just know that in between every one of these steps, the dryer has to be moved and a lot of arguing takes place. The hose was full of lint. We emptied it out, ran a load... didn't help.

Next step is to clean the vent in the wall that runs from the wall to the roof. This involved a trip to Home Depot to purchase a pipe cleaning kit for $20. The kit consisted of multiple flexible rods that attached together to make one really long rod. The last one has a brush on it. You can attach the other end to a drill and spin the whole rod, cleaning out lint. 9,385 tons of lint came out. We tried drying another load... no good.

Again keep in mind that this involves reattaching the vent hose, scooting it back in place, running a load, yelling, pulling it back out, disconnecting everything, and trying again.

After looking at the cleaning kit my wife purchased it was clear to me that there's no way it could possibly reach the top of the vent. The vent runs through the roof, two stories up. While I was looking at the outside of the vent, I was pretty sure I saw a mud next in the vent (it faces sideways). That led to another trip to Home Depot to buy another vent cleaning kit (so we could attach two of them together) and two 8' pieces of PVC pipe for cleaning the nest out of the vent.

While my wife cleaned out the entire vent pipe, I stood outside, attempting to wack a bird's nest with 16' of wobbly plastic. This attracted the attention of every one of my nosy neighbors, who came out and watched as if I were performing in the Olympics or something. While I was holding these PVC pipes and poking this nest, my next door neighbor came over and asked, "whatcha doin?" It took everything I had not to hit him with the wobbly pipe.

After cleaning out the next and cleaning out the entire vent and the pipe... the goddamn thing still doesn't work. Not sure what to do next. I am convinced buying a new dryer will not fix the problem, otherwise I would have done it.

[Ice Cream Jonsey]

Could your unhelpful neighbors volunteer to put their brains together? Sorry, I mean, "let you knock their skulls together."

[Casual Observer]

Maybe the Fan's not strong enough to push air up through that long vent tube.

[AArdvark]

I never heard of a dryer vent going up through the roof. Must be a newer building thing. All the dryer vents I've ever seen go straight out the closest outside wall. How about running a shop vac hose into the vent and blowing out any clogged lint?

[Jizaboz]

Yeah that's a new one on me too. Mine goes through the floor and makes a bend and blasts out at the carport at my house.

This probably sounds completely impractical but I wonder how it would run outside with no vent at all? The dryer I have in a shed by my trailer isn't hooked up to any vent.

[AArdvark]

My friend has his venting into his garage. Kinda keeps the cold out in the winter

[Casual Observer]

My friend has his venting into his garage. Kinda keeps the cold out in the winter

Sounds like a wet heat. Not sure that's a good idea from a rust or mold point of view.

[Jizaboz]

It doesn’t make a fuck in a dry basement or in a airy shed filled with humidity to begin with.

[Flack]

When it rains, it pours. Yesterday, the upstairs A/C unit went out. It happens to much here that it's almost a joke. Every GD time there's a serious lightning storm, our A/C takes a hit and something goes out. Last time it was the capacitor, this time it was the motor.

After the A/C guy was done replacing the motor, I was whining about my dryer situation when he came up with an idea. He went to his truck and came back with a big CO2 bottle. He hooked the nozzle up to the vent inside the house, turned it up to 400 PSI, and WHOOMP the lint (and the remains of a bird's nest) shot out the top of the vent like a fucking cannon! Sue's about to run a load through and test, but I'm pretty sure we got it!

Current status:

A/C Unit: FIXED
Clothes Dryer: FIXED
Ice/Water dispenser on the fridge door: BROKE
Front Water Faucet: BROKE
Rear Water Faucet: BROKE

[AArdvark]

If the faucet fixes involve sweating copper together prepare for an impossible mission. My back hose faucet had a constant drip whenever it was turned on. I solved it by turning off the water in the basement, cutting off the external plumbing and buying a longer hose to reach all the way around the house.

THE
ANOTHER PLUMBER
STAY AWILE
STAY FOREVER
AARDVARK

[Ice Cream Jonsey]

My current status: banana

[Ice Cream Jonsey]

Who broke the banana???

[Casual Observer]

It doesn’t make a fuck in a dry basement or in a airy shed filled with humidity to begin with.

not my experience, just saying. I had a break in the dryer vent in a fairly dry basement and after a load of laundry there was condensation everywhere. That's how I knew there was a problem.