Now that appliances from the 1980's are in their late 20's-30's I suppose it makes sense that some of the fatigue failures one reads about on high-use items are starting to creep in. Still, I've never seen this one before, not even on GE Dishwashers from the late '50s.
About four years ago, a friend's Potscrubber suddenly stopped working. She called a repair shop (I was in Germany at the time) and they diagnosed the door switch. They told her at the time that it was far too old to be worth fixing, but she insisted (the 900 was a quite good machine) so they banged in a new door switch.
Monday, this week (with nearly 20 people coming to Thanksgiving) she called me in panic - the Potscrubber had died and nothing would wake it up again! I didn't have time to look into what was certain to be a major overhaul, so we checked inventories (and decided for the umpteenth time that Lowe's has the worst database frontend on the planet) and found precisely two dishwashers available in Southern Wyoming.
Got the MOL Amana (yes, dahlinks, I know), set it up and hauled the still warm corpse of the 900 off for a later postmortem.
So - what done her in? Was she pushed or did she fall?
She was pushed! The repair in-duh-vi-dual (insert my usual terminology which is too salty for the refined air of the PANK forum) had drawn the L<sub>1</sub> tight against the frame below the door, looped it inside the enclosure by the door switch and thus created a strain, leading to fatigue, leading to first an intermittent failure and then complete failure when the black wire broke clean through.
Well, given that the harness is nearly 40 years old, I'm going to replace all seven wires. Now, the interesting thing is, of course, this is one of the oldest tricks in the business. Just surprised me to see it done with such clear intent.
If anybody is interested, I can post some pictures this weekend. I'd like to give the 1200 and the Twenty-Eight Hundred a rest. After a 14 month break, we've entertained a tremendous amount this past year and each has been run at least once and frequently twice a day, non-stop.
Oh, and the much-maligned shaded-pole motor? Running smooth as a top. No seal leaks, either.
About four years ago, a friend's Potscrubber suddenly stopped working. She called a repair shop (I was in Germany at the time) and they diagnosed the door switch. They told her at the time that it was far too old to be worth fixing, but she insisted (the 900 was a quite good machine) so they banged in a new door switch.
Monday, this week (with nearly 20 people coming to Thanksgiving) she called me in panic - the Potscrubber had died and nothing would wake it up again! I didn't have time to look into what was certain to be a major overhaul, so we checked inventories (and decided for the umpteenth time that Lowe's has the worst database frontend on the planet) and found precisely two dishwashers available in Southern Wyoming.
Got the MOL Amana (yes, dahlinks, I know), set it up and hauled the still warm corpse of the 900 off for a later postmortem.
So - what done her in? Was she pushed or did she fall?
She was pushed! The repair in-duh-vi-dual (insert my usual terminology which is too salty for the refined air of the PANK forum) had drawn the L<sub>1</sub> tight against the frame below the door, looped it inside the enclosure by the door switch and thus created a strain, leading to fatigue, leading to first an intermittent failure and then complete failure when the black wire broke clean through.
Well, given that the harness is nearly 40 years old, I'm going to replace all seven wires. Now, the interesting thing is, of course, this is one of the oldest tricks in the business. Just surprised me to see it done with such clear intent.
If anybody is interested, I can post some pictures this weekend. I'd like to give the 1200 and the Twenty-Eight Hundred a rest. After a 14 month break, we've entertained a tremendous amount this past year and each has been run at least once and frequently twice a day, non-stop.
Oh, and the much-maligned shaded-pole motor? Running smooth as a top. No seal leaks, either.
105*C would be fine for me. I mean even if the water reaches 212*F, that is still below 100*C, and most parts of the machine have air moving about. 
