As you can see, this email is a bit different than what I usually send. It's about my recent experience at a local laundromat. An experience that showed me how
my perspective on laundromats has changed over the years.
I live on a quiet dead end street in the Village of Johnson City, New York. There's a community center at the corner. The street is lined with ten houses and an apartment building one house from the dead end.
There's a laundromat is across from the opening to my street. I use its service occasionally and have gotten to know the owner. He's quite intellegent - an engineer who works for a major manufacturer about an hour away. For this story, I'll call him "Sam".
Last week Sam called about a dryer in another store he owns about two blocks away. The dryer has a mechanical type timer that wasn't working and asked if I could look at it. My business is with dryer
computers. But I had dryer timers in my laundromats for many years and am quite familiar with them. When I met with Sam last Saturday, he showed me his
one
dryer that had the "insert coin - turn knob" timer. He had a couple of extra front panels with computers that would fit and asked about installing a computer in place of the mechanical timer.
We compared the computer hook up, with the timer. It
looked
good... although the color coding of the wires in the two panels was different... all the plugs to the dryer were the same... we looked over the wiring and I said that I didn't see what it could hurt to try it out... So, he plugged it in, turned on the power, and... everything worked! (Except for one consideration.)
Although the tumbler turned and the heat appeared to turn on and off normally, there was one question that stopped him. I wondered if the thermistors (temperature sensors) for the two different control systems were the same. They probably were, but probably wouldn't do it! Sam is now checking on that.
What You Don't Know Can Hurt You!
What's a Thermistor? And Other Related Parts...
What I found interesting about this was that Sam had
no idea
of what the thermistor was! He even asked if the dryer might just not have one.
This made me realize something about my own background with washers, dryers, etc.. Although I had a lot of repair experience, there were some details I was never exposed to until I started rebuilding the electronics and working with the circuits. (Of course I did know about the thermistor.)
Because of this, I thought it might be helpful to go over some control systems to give insight on how they work with the dryer. This would make trouble shooting and repairs easier. For example, I've seen a dryer where the spark turned on, the gas turned on and lit, then turned off immediately - over and over and over. Understanding the circuits made diagnosis easy. It was
not
the ignitor. It was the sail switch turning off the heat. This was caused by a restriction in the exhaust.
If You've Had a Problem, Someone Else Has Too!
Right now I am just starting to write up some information about temperature controls. It will be about what I think would be helpful. It would be better yet if you can tell me about any questions, or suggestions
you
might have. That way I can tailor the information to make if more useful to you and everyone else.
The Heat Control Information Will Cover:
-
Spark Ignition
-
Glo-Bar ignition
-
(maybe) Dryers converted from pilot lights to electronic spark
-
Circuit diagrams
-
Functioning of different parts of the control system
-
How parts are interrelated
-
Important Safety Features and how they work
-
What NEVER to bypass - or you could have a fire!
-
Trouble Shooting Tips
-
Repair Tips
It will apply to all brands, but probably won't be too brand specific.
What I am Asking of You
Sharing Your Problems, Solutions, and Insights Can Help Others
Many of our customers are fairly new to the laundromat business. If you have any temperature control questions, or would like to relate a story of an obscure "mystery" problem that you fixed, please email it back to me at:
HappyLaundryParts@gmail.com Subject line "heat controls" (Of course you will be given credit.). It would be great to include some real-life problems and solutions to benefit everyone!
If you think you know the answer to the headline at the beginning, let me know. I am interested in seeing what you might think it is.
I look forward to hearing from you!
Best regards,
Ernie
PS If you prefer to mail your questions, suggestions, or comments, please send to:
D&E
1724 Hawleyton Road
Binghamton, NY 13903
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