Vent: my old lead in Wichita told me to stop chasing intermittent faults with the meter, and I owe him a steak dinner for it | Appliance Repairers - Talk Freely
Vent: my old lead in Wichita told me to stop chasing intermittent faults with the meter, and I owe him a steak dinner for it
Eight years back I had a dryer that worked fine for days then quit for no reason and my meter kept showing nothing wrong. My lead said put the meter down and let it fail while you watch, so I started running it with the cabinet off in the shop. Took 6 days but I finally saw the heating element glow then cut out while the thermistor read fine, loose connection on the relay. I almost ordered a $120 control board the week before and that would have been wasted money. Now I do the run and watch first on anything that comes in acting fine, and it has saved me maybe 4 callbacks this quarter. Anybody here got a better trick for intermittent stuff, or do you just tell the customer to run it till it dies again?
Reminds me of when I spent 3 hours on a fridge that was "running warm" and the whole time it was fine, just the door gasket was letting hot air in every time the kid grabbed a juice box. The meter said the compressor was pulling good amps and the coils were clean, so I almost started chasing a sealed system issue that wasn't there. Sometimes the fix is just watching how the thing gets used in real life instead of what your tools tell you.