Whirlpool service just left stove back in operation

[washman]

had an "interesting" situation yesterday.

 

After baking some chicken wings, the oven was rather nasty. I used the self clean cycle , set it to run 3 hours 30 minutes. With less than 45 minutes remaining, I heard a helacious POP, saw a puff of smoke come out from the control panel then a pronounced THUNK as the dedicated 50 amp breaker tripped.

 

Hmmmm ok, I turned the breaker back on, the cycle ended but I had to wait for cooldown before I could open the oven door. That happened, the oven door opened, cleaned out the ash, turned the oven on. It worked so I'm thinking gosh, what else could the issue be?

Well I found out later on when I went to use the large left front burner. Turned the knob. Nothing.  This is a smoothtop so when the burner is on, you'll see the red elements glow. Tried the small back burner, same thing. Tried the right side, both burners worked fine.

 

Hmmmm.

 

placed call to Whirlpool, they dispatched a nice older chap that happens to have a 26 year old direct drive Whirlpool unit that he adores (along with his wife) and we kibitzed about washers, the DOE, the EPA and BIG BOX junk along with my actual problem

 

Turned out, the wiring harness that runs from the controller up to the burner control knobs was mashed against a lip for the control hood. The pinching of the harness was plain as the nose on barbara streisands face.  He immediately saw the black burned area on the lip and cut the wire, respliced it and put some cloth type tape around the whole harness to prevent such pinching in the future.

 

Design defect.........whirlpool should have either made a notch in the panel OR put a strain relief on the bundle of wires.

 

At any rate, back in business and I can play Chef again.

 

No charge to me, he said Whirlpool gets the bill on this one!  I would agree, this was a defective design/assembly as there is no way I could have gotten back there and mucked with the wires.

Hi Frig!

 

[appnut]

Yay!! Glad to hear.  I didn't remember this range being WP given you have a Frigidaire dishwasher. 

 

[washman]

The contractor did a mixed bag

When he constructed this house.  Recall it was built and put on the market, I was not involved with the planning or construction.

Stove aka range Whirlpool, from Lowes

Ice box, Frig, again from Lowes

Dishwasher Frig again from Lowes

 

Not sure why he went WP on the range, perhaps Frig did not have model that he liked or perhaps this WP was cheaper?

 

hi frig!

 

[combo52]

Shorted Wiring Harness In A Whirlpool Range

This type of defect can show up during a clean cycle when everything is hotter than normal. This was an assembly defect where the wiring was not positioned correctly, if WP had had a lot of these failures they would issue a rework of these models.

 

Why a WP range instead of a FD, I would have asked the builder why not a WP ref and DW, WP kitchen appliances are still a cut above FD in both price and reliability.

 

[panthera]

they do a decent job,

But Whirlpool, like everyone else, has their moments.

Had a friend's compact 240V Whirlpool dryer trip the circuit breaker - mighty wham! she said.

Took a look, VOM said it was shorted dead to the cabinet.

So, took it apart and turns out they'd run the wiring to the motor and one sensor through a roughly stamped and razor sharp cutout in the frame instead of with the other wires through a rounded opening which wouldn't rub anything off in 50 years of constant use.

Being paranoid, I traced all seven wires back to their plugs (those nasty, cheap, thin brass thingy-s which are totally inappropriate for high-amps in a vibration strong environment. Replaced the wires and plugs all the way through. Went with a much higher quality connector.

Still working over 20 years later.

 

[washman]

Agreed combo52

but read my post again. I bought this house after it was built. The builder bought the lot after the prior double wide burned to the ground, put in all new utility connections, constructed this house, put it on the market.

 

I came along and bought it loooooong after the appliance decisions were made.

 

If had been involved from the get go, there would be a gas stove there and it would be a Whirlpool. Or GE.  The Ice box would have been a Whirlpool also. Same with the DW. Or perhaps kitchenaid.

 

At any rate, I would not have selected Frig appliances at all. Nevertheless, the DW, in spite of its plebeian heritage, does a very good job with the dishes.  Other than it being noisy, I cannot complain otherwise.

 

The icebox on the other hand, is nuisance in every sense of the word.  Cannot get the 37/0 temp. It is noisy and I detest the wire shelves.  But it keeps the food cold sort of.........and when, not IF, it croaks, it is out of here and I'm getting a totally different brand.

 

And I would have gone Heil or Carrier on the HVAC. Goodman is builder grade and has a mixed track record. If installed by a proper HVAC outfit who knows their shit, they work very well indeed. However if installed by a backyard hack with a beer gut and room temperature IQ, you'll have problems. At least I registered the warranties for EVERYTHING online so as to get the maximum warranty benefit.

 

He did spend some coin in the BW water heater. They are regarded among the best in the industry. My jury is still out as my experience is limited to State Industries gas units in the 40 gal capacity.  Let me get back to you on that in a few years.

 

THE SQ, naturally, are mine from the condo. That was my non negotiable deal breaker on any house I looked at. It Had, and I mean had to have aWD hookup.  Whether or not the machines where in place was of little concern.