Dirty Appliance Inlet Air Vents

Blocked Appliance Air Vents  Port Elizabeth. South Africa

Block appliance air vents will not only cost you extra on your electricity bill but it will also shorten the life span of your appliance. 

Hence the reason for this post is to make you more aware about the importance of cleaning your appliance's air vents on a regular basis especially the air-vents that is hidden from plain sight.

Blocked Lg Refrigerator bottom inlet vent

Did you know if the temperature of your appliance motor rise with more than 10% there is a good chance that it will fail? The motor needs a constant flow of cool air moving through it 

Most people never clean behind their refrigerators and this is the no one reason why refrigerator fail. 

Must instruction manuals don't tell you the importance of cleaning the air vents at the back of the appliance. Microwaves,  tumble driers, refrigerators all have air vents behind them that should be clean at least once a year. 

A washing machine motor de-fluffing is little bit more involved to get to, but drop me email and I will give you pointers.

Signs of blocked air vent 

• Fridge starts to warmup

• Goodies in freezer has a soft freeze 

• Refrigerator runs for longer periods before switching off.

• The refrigerator starts making strange noises. 

I hope this post has added some value to your time  Feel free to contact me if you need more information. 

Cheers!

Pine 

083 52 52 52 2

Dirty Defy Tumble dryer filters

Tumble Dryer fluff 

It is very important that a tumble dryers filter gets cleaned after every use, Otherwise it becomes one of the most expensive appliance to use in the home.

If the air vents are covered with fluff, It has the following effects;

> Hot air gets tramped inside the dryer and every component starts to heat up. From the timer control to the main motor just need a couple degree temperature rise to burnout.

> If vents are  blocked the hot air cannot move through the turning drum to dry the laundry. Which means the machine must operate for longer periods of time using more electricity.

Remember to check both filters, the Intake and outlet filter. Most tumble-dryer-users never check the air-intake-vent.

If you should need more information I will catch you on the otherside

Cheers

www.pinepienaar.info

PS. Also read; Tumble Dryers is hot but slow to Dry clothes
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Hoover Condenser Tumble Dryer model VHC 391

Tumble Dryer Repairs in Port Elizabeth

We recently had the honor to service a Hoover tumble dryer mode VHC 391. I can actually count on one hand the times we had this specific model in our workshop. This Dryer was build in the true Hoover Superior tradition and it has so many unique feature which will take forever to tell you about them.

The Condenser Dryer

Hoover Condenser Tumble Dryer modelVHC 391

Condenser Dryers keep the wetness/condensation inside the dryer and it has a unique drip-tray where the water accumulates. Just to explain what this means, in our part of world (Eastern Cape) if you use a normal tumble dryer the water evaporates into the air which is all fine on normal days

. 

The snag comes in when you live in a small apartment or the machine is kept in a small laundry room. On a humid days combined with the evaporated water from the drier results that wetness moves into already dryer garments.

This dampness which you don't think is now on your garment and it will make your clothes start to smell moldy.  

Most of the time you don't even pick it up straight away, its only when your body starts heating up from around about 10 - 11 in the mornings. This also the time when most people tend to blame their Washing Machines or detergent.

Hoover Condenser Tumble Dryer model VHC 391 front door switch and inner drum expouse

We can go more into how important it is to keep the environment around your tumble dryer clean at all times because when taking dried out garments out of the dryer it will suck-in moister from the immediate surrounding straightaway. If the kitchen dustbin or smelly dirty garments are lying nearby the newly dried garment it will get some of those smells in newly dryed garments. I will discuss this drying process more in a another post

The actual reason why I did this post is to show (pictures) you the reason why it is so important to have your tumble dryer serviced or cleaned regularly. Autumn is here and winter is the time when you use tumble dryers the most and you don,t need a breakdown when you need it the most.

Hoover Condenser Tumble Dryer model VHC 391 Front covered with fluff

Fluff

Fluff is the number one reason why tumble drier fail

• Fluff blocks the flow of hot-air inside the tumble drier which results that instead of the Hot air move through the garments and to the outside, it now lingers inside the dryer unit causing the motor and timer (programer) to overheat.
• When the tumble-dryer airflow are restricted it takes much longer to dry Garments resulting in using more electricity.

Hoover Condenser Tumble Dryer model VHC 391 Motor is completely covered with fluff

When the motor is covered with fluff the operating temperature rises by two or more degrees causing the motor fail.

One of the most common symptom of a failing motor is that it does not startup (turn) on its own. You hear this humming noise and the drum heats up but nothing is turning.

When you swing the motor with your hand it works fine again - THe reason for this is that the start winding is damaged but the run-windings are still fine.

Hoover Condenser Tumble Dryer model VHC 391 Motor

Motor windings

Windings are the copper wire coils around the motor armature - in which the electric current flows. The electricity in these copper coils creates a north and south pole (like in a magnet). Once the motor overheats the insulation between the copper coils melt and it starts to lose their poles.

In Tumble Dryer and Washing Machine motors there are more than one set of windings. The following sets are found;

• Left Start winding
• Right start winding
• Left run
• Right run

Most of the time it is only one set of windings that get damage resulting that the Appliance still has some limited functions

Hoover Condenser Tumble Dryer model VHC 391 Before and After Servicing

Sadly I must report Hoover has gone by the wayside and backup service are limited. I can't help but wonder how such a super manufacture of legendary vacuum cleaners and household appliance just faded away. 

If you have more information about this please share it with us

WWW.PINEPIENAAR.INFO

 (Mobile+27835252522)

Ps. The only cost effective condenser tumble dryer is the same class as this hoover model are the Whirlpool which also has a very big inner drum.

Tumble Dryers is hot but slow to Dry clothes

Appliance Repairs in Port Elizabeth

Tumble Drier is hot but slow to Dry clothes

When your tumble dryer is heating but takes a long time to dry the clothes. Most of the time it is a sign that your tumble dryer has a ventilation problem but there are also a couple of other things that causes this phenomenon

Possible reasons for not Drying

• Not sorting your clothing properly before loading into the tumble dryer
• Blocked filters
• Broken belt
• Broken fan

Sorting clothing; Just like when you do washing in a washing Machine and you separated the colors, It is also very important to separate the different material in a tumble dryer (and also colors). Loading heavy cotton (like jeans, towels) and woolen clothing together in the tumble dryer will   cause the woolen article to stretch. Cotton takes much longer to dry and the woolen clothing will get heat burns from been too long in Tumble dryer.

Blocked filters; Blocked fluff filters will cause the tumble dryer to use a lot more electricity than you suppose to. I am sure you know about the fluff filter in the door or in the case of whirlpool it has slide in filter on top. Most people remember to clean this regularly but they forget about the back intake louvers or the outlet channels.

Broken Belt; You will pick this up straight away, the tumble dryer makes the usual noises but the drum does not turn. Tumble driers like Kelvinator, Speed Queen and Whirlpool has safety switches attached to the Drum Belt that will turn of the unit/heater elements. Some of the other makes make use of an overload (clickson) to turn off the heaters. By the time the sensors switch off its already too late and the clothing has been scorch.

Broken Fan; The same motor that turns the inner drum of the tumble dryer has also got a fan-blade fitted on the other end. The purpose of this fan is to cool down the motor and also push air through the heater elements. Once the air has moved over the elements it becomes very hot. The hot-air is then channeled into the tumble drum through the wet clothing and out the “otherside”.

“Otherside” is the area where cleaners seldom venture. Under and at the backside of a tumble drier is like the “Darkside of the Moon” for most cleaners. This is also the area where aliens and foreigners hangout (aliens like fluff, paper, socks and Toys)

Most tumble driers has a outlet vent or intake grill at the back of the machine. Tumble driers like Defy have their air intake at the back; Whirlpool again has an outlet vent at the back. It is very common for one of the above mentioned objects to move into or over the back grill causing the tumble driers to work ineffectively.

I hope the information here has added some value to your life and as always if you need more just shoot over to facebook ("like" the Page for a free quotation) or just leave a comment on this post  – I will try to respond to your inquiry right away.

Cheers

Ps. Sorry for my phone been busy most of the time. (Whatsapp or SmS is a alternative) )83 52 52 52 2