Friend's fridgidaire dish washer failure

[Stormin Mormon]

Friday Jan 23, 2015 Forwarded from a friend. . Christopher A. Young learn more about Jesus .

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OK my very expensive 5 yr old Frigidaire dishwasher that is of course 2 weeks out of the extended warranty has died. It turned on last night on the timer at midnight and I heard the water kick on in the hot water tank that is on the other side of my bedroom wall (otherwise the dishwasher its silent).

I got up this morning and there is water in the bottom of the dishwasher.

Than I noticed that none of the lights will light up on the control panel (its flat panel with led lights above each control). It has never given me a problem until today.

I checked my house power power I replaced the old breaker with a new one I had for a extra I checked all my GFI switches in this house (had that happen before lol). I have 120 volts at the receipticle I have 120 volts at the the power connection under the dishwasher I have 120 volts going into the main Control board I have proper continunity at the float switch in both positions (open/close) I have power at both of the door latch switches in the open & close Nothing has scorch marks on it, nothing smells like burned wires, and it looks just as nice and new as the day I bought it.

Before I spend $231.99 plus shipping on a new circuit board so I can have it here for monday, can anyone give me any other idea on what it could be? While I still have it apart and can check it out.

Also there is a printed circuit board that is under the touch panel, it just senses the touches, and sends info to the circuit board... I dont think its this one... I think its the main board that controls everything.... because if something is going to go wrong its always the worst one for me.

[Ed Pawlowski]

Certainly sounds like the circuit board.

Couple of suggestions. Burn incense, chant, dance naked in front of it. If none of that works, I'd go for the new board.

[bob haller]

my whirlpool dishwasher has ate several boards over its lifetime of 2 years.

new designed stuff is not designed to last.

[Ken]

If you measured 120 volts at the control board, see if the board is converting it to DC. The logic board is going to operate on DC and it probably will have a fuse in the circuit that creates the DC. I don't know what your capabilities are with respect to circuits, but that is where I would start. If you cannot trouble shoot the circuit and have no DC, buy a control board.

[Steve Stone]

Typical points of failure on circuit boards these days , especially with no/low lead solder techniques, are cold solder joints and bad electrolytic capacitors. Surface mount technology using grain of rice size components requires magnification, special tools, and kid glove treatment.

[Stormin Mormon]

Sigh. Try to help people......

On 1/23/2015 1:27 PM, wrote: > > Thank you. > > I think im just going yo buy another one... with my luck I will buy the board anf have it fail again... or something else break. I found a nice one on a year end clearance from over $1000 down to $479 wiyh every bell & whistle. Its stainless inside & out and only 40dba so it should be quiet > > Sent from Yahoo Mail on Android

[Stormin Mormon]

I must agree with you. That's what I'd do.

- . Christopher A. Young learn more about Jesus .

. .

[Stormin Mormon]

Agree. Anyhow, I heard back. She's replacing the whole dish washer.

[Stormin Mormon]

Never met the woman in person, but now days few people can diagnose to that level. I'm sure you are right, BTW.

- . Christopher A. Young learn more about Jesus .

. .

[Stormin Mormon]

Aye, matey. Beyond me ol ham fists.

- . Christopher A. Young learn more about Jesus .

. .

[bob_villa]

You can use your regulation Mormon undies though...otherwise our retinas will be burned!

[Stormin Mormon]

Too late, gone viral on Youtube. Just don't tell my Bishop, eh?

- . Christopher A. Young learn more about Jesus .

. .

[micky]

Major problem. Trying to wash dishes with cold air is impractical.

You need soap and water.

[micky]

I would have just set my meter to 200 vac and checked the output of the breaker, or of the receptacle that the DW might be plugged into. In theory the new breaker could be bad and it needs the same test, so just test the one in there now.

You can use that yellow thing with 3 LEDs that plugs into the receptacle.

There you go. If you'd done that first, no point in checking the breaker or the receptacle at all.

But I'll give you a lot of credit for all the tests you did, regardless of the order. Some people don't even get to the first test, let alone these.

Anyone can go without a dishwasher for a month.

Call the warranty people and see if they'll give you two more weeks. I have no idea if they will or not.

Well, if the touch board were bad, that woudn't stop the lights from going on.

I havent' worked on anything this new. The stuff I worked on would have near where the AC comes in, to power the control panel maybe a transformer to lower the voltage, then 2 diodes to make it DC, a moderately big capaacitor to get rid of the AC hum. then a wire to the switch on the switch panel, which I gather is just a touch panel, maybe actual mechanical switches or maybe just capacitance from the touch of your finger. If the latter, I don't know what that circuit looks like.

If the former, actual mechancial switches, whatever is mechanical is always the weak point in devices for the last 30 years or more. Right now the Talk button on my cordless phone has to be pushed harder than it used to. YOu and I will have to try taking it apart to take the swtich apart and clean it with contact cleaner or by scraping lightly with a knife, getting harder until it has no blackness, or until it even shines.

But if you don't have to push AT ALL it's capacitance, which doesn't give the reassuring movement, and doesn't seem like it should work at all, but it eliminates the mechanical swtiches, which is a good thing for longevity.

If you're lucky, maybe it's the ground for the circuit board. Find the ground for the LED's, they'll all share one. Maybe it's a circuit trace that runs around the outside, or around the outside of mounting screws or is somehow connected to the neutral of the AC. And make sure the ground on the board is actually grounded. Not sure how you should do this.

Also, look for cold solder joints, on the non-device side of the control board, solder joints with a black line around them that means the board is not really connected to the pin from the resistor or capacitor. Before resoldering, make sure you find out how to do it to not overheat a transistor or Integrated Circuit. Some people just resolder every connnection on the board. (My cute neigbhor had a Honda that wouldnt' start because of a bad solder connection in the "main" relay box, under the dash. . So common on Hondas there were webpages about it and Click and Clack answered a question about it. To fix it all you had to do was resolder one connection but if you didn't know which one, there were

12 altoghether. )

So google your problem.too. STart with the brand, the word dishwasher or the model number. Then eliminate model number, maybe just the things "name", Dishsupremacy. Then without the name.

I'm out of ideas, and even these only apply if your circuit board hasn't changed much since the older ones I've dealt with.

[micky]

My mother would say, Something more to go wrong. I used to disagree with her, but from what you guys say, after 50 years, she's finally right. She actually did have a power window fail, but the cranks fail too.