Dishwasher repair

WDF530PLYW5 WHIRLPOOL

There's no heat in my dishwasher. It's most likely the heating element as I found a plastic cover melted on it. I tried to measure the resistance but it was like zero. Before I can confirm I broke it.

So I ordered a new one, put it in, and then nothing happened. I measured the resistance of the new one. It was definitely zero. I asked the seller and he said I can get a replacement or refund. I opted for replacement. I measured the voltage at the control box and it was nothing. So I ordered a new control box too.

Before I rant more, the correct way is simple but not found in a web search. First, locate the service manual hidden somewhere in the kick plate. You may not need it if you are lucky but otherwise, you have to buy it online. Is that even legal? To sell Whirlpool's manual when Whirlpool provided for free but not online.

You don't need to take out the heating element to test it. Just unplug it at the bottom near the rear. You also don't need to flip the back of the dishwasher on it's back, lying flat on the ground. This model can rest at an inclined angle so you can get to the heating element from down under. Pull out the connector and you can see the terminals. The resistance should be a little more than 10 ohms.

If the resistance is 10 ohm, the current is 120/10=12 A. Normally the current rating is 15A max so your model could have a little less resistance. For 20 ohm the current is 6A, which is too small unless it's very energy efficient.

If your ohmmeter is old or you are not sure about the battery charge, you should test it with a small value resistor like 10 ohms. All my trouble started because my old analog cannot measure small resistance, while all other measurements are functional. So I was wrong about faulty elements; it was my meter.

You don't need a meter for testing the element. It's highly not recommended to pass 120V across the element terminals. The control board actually does this via relay switches. If you want to do this, you have to use wires, connectors, plugs, and sockets rated for 15A, or you fuse will blow or your circuit breaker trips. That's my second mistake. I thought the element actually has almost zero resistance but what burned my plug and tripped the circuit breaker was the excess current on my insufficient rated circuit elements.

It's true that you have to "reset" the dishwasher before it works again. Actually, you need to clear the error codes stored in the machine. Power off reset doesn't do it. Pick any three buttons 1,2,3. Press them in the sequence 1,2,3,1,2,3,1,2,3 with 1 sec max between each button. Then the diagnostic routine will start. I don't think the fault codes will be automatically cleared when the routine finishes. Maybe it does. Whatever, you need to put in a working element so the diagnostic routine will pass and the fault may be cleared.

What happened is that in normal operation or in diagnosis, if a fault is detected, the power to that component, typically the heating element or the motors, is cut off for safety. The cut off will not be reversed unless you run a diagnostic routine.

On the first part of the routine, the machine displays up to 3 2-part error codes by blinking on the clean LED alone! Each code is separated by 5 sec of pause. There is a 2 sec pause in the 2-part code. So if the clean LED blinks 7 times, pause 2 sec and then blink once, you have an error code of 7-1. You can look up the Sears parts website but I never know what it is before I discovered the service manual.

After the error codes, you press the HI Temp button (or is it the Dry button?) to clear the fault codes. Then that button will blink twice to confirm. If there's no confirmation you have to open and close the door. So you can just run the diagnostic routine again to see if there are still any fault codes and that the button blinks twice. 

So actually I'm doing everything for nothing. My original heating element may even be working before I broke it. I just need to clear the fault codes, like resetting the circuit breaker. Simple as that! I ended up buying a replacement, a replacement of the replacement, and another from I think a more reliable source that is more expensive and cost over $11 to ship. But that's not too bad. The first seller just agrees with me that all the elements are faulty and refunded me instead of giving me free repair advice. The 2nd seller has a good refund policy but I lost shipping both ways. 

More, I bought a new control box but my old one could still be working. I just need to run diagnostics to clear the fault. So it's pointless to run the dishwasher normally to measure the voltage across the heating element without connecting it. Even if you can get the voltage you won't get it on the next run because the dishwasher will take it as a fault and cut off the power to it.

But that's not too bad. The box may be less expensive than a service call. I can even return it but I don't bother to open the door up and replace the new one with old one. 

If running the diagnostic routine doesn't reset the machine, there's little you can do without the service manual. The fuses are at the back of the circuit board. You can test things on it, like fuses and the thermister, only if you know the terminal or connector number. And you don't need to go down to access the bottom of the machine because the test points are all on the circuit board.

Opening up the door isn't that difficult. You need a T15 torx screw bit for the door and a T8 bit for the control box. Opening up the control box is a bit tricky without the service manual but doable. But there's no point to open it when you don't have the manual. 

Blind spot camera

First, blind spot mirrors are easy. Other than the many blind spot mirrors for mounting outside, I prefer bigger mirrors for mounting inside. You just need to mount near the side mirrors but inside, facing a little more outward than the side mirrors. If you mirror is fairly big, you just need to check if you can see the back corner of the backdoor window. And for those newer utility cars where you can just pry off the trim and put it back with your fingers, mounting on the A-frame is trivial.

The problem with blindspot mirrors is that, if they are not permanently and securely mounted, you don't know if they are even there at night when there's nothing bright at the back for you to see. Also, you still have to look left and right and up (for the rearview mirror) if you want to be safe. With a cam or cams, you should just need to glare slightly down on the dashboard instead of the windshield.

First, instead of left and right cam and some split screen viewer, just a single wide-angle cam will be fine. It's like something called lane-changer mirror; it mounts on top of the rearview mirror giving you a continuous semi-circular view on your back and sides. The problem of this kind of mirror is that you see the rear passengers as well, blocked by them or the interior of the car. It's perfect if the lane-changer can be moved a bit backward to the windshield at the back. But then you can't see the mirror anymore. A cam will solve all problems.

Now, of course, you need a wifi cam to stream to your smartphone. A wired cam with its own monitor isn't at all bad. You still need wires to get power to your cam and phone.

You need a night vision cam that sees through the glass from the inside of your car. Those relying on infrared LED won't work. Dashcams are perfect as they all work at night from the inside.

You need a mirror of the image facing backward. If not, it will be like flipping the view of the rear mirror horizontally, left becoming right.

So I bought one more YI dashcam. Everything is good except for the mirror image. There's no app for that. So you need some silicon pad to keep your phone level on the dashboard, and a real mirror standing up about 45 degrees up. That would be something like a HUD converter for phones mounting on the dashboard. But you need to cover the back of the semi-transparent "mirror" with black paper to increase the brightness.

You need a phone that can stay on maximum brightness for hours without getting too hot. And you need one where the adaptive brightness can be turned off. Some cheap phones cannot do that.

The best mounting position of the cam is the top middle of the rear windshield, pointing slightly down to a lot down.

With a wide-angle cam, things at the back are a lot smaller. But that's OK. As long as you can see something at your back, it's close enough not to brake suddenly. And the cars on you blindspot are very big, closer to you than the cars following you.

In the daytime, mirrors are superior when there is plenty of sunlight. The phone screen looks dim in comparison and it's hard to see because of the reflections from all sides onto the phone and then onto the mirror. At least you need a piece of black cardboard to shield off reflections from the top of the windshield.

The cam image is perfect on a rainy or cloudy day where you can see which car on which lanes at your rear. It's also very good at night to detect anything at your back. You can see headlights a mile back. But you shouldn't rely it as a lane changer on a busy freeway because all the headlights at your back will be confusing. Use it as a rear warning signal. On a road with occasional or moderate traffic at night, you can drive with your head on a pillow without moving.

The YI cam is OK but the software is not perfect for this application. There is a video server on the cam so you don't need to have an additional wifi router onboard. Indeed you cannot because the software is proprietary.  However, the video startup connection is pretty slow. It's not like you switch on the engine and drive away. Though you can make the connection once you drive away.

The startup is a bit clumsy for real-time streaming. Assuming the YI app is already started, you need to tap on the connect button. When the connection is completed after a few seconds, you need to tap on the full-screen button that is tiny! But why? So lame design! Then you need to tap again to get rid of the camera icon for you to take pictures with one tap. Also, the orientation of the image is fixed. For some phones, you also have to tap again to get rid of the "no internet" warning.

As for the mounting, the easiest is using transparent mailing tapes. You make a cardboard box to hold the cam. There should be taps, wings, or extrusions from the box for you to tape it onto the rear windshield. With tapes, you can take it off anytime without marks.

You can mount your cam with magnets outside at the top of the rear windshield. You need to weatherproof the cardboard cam housing which is easy. You also need to have enough super magnets for your maximum speed. But the problem is that you need a small cam with an unnotable housing. People are nervous around cameras.

For the YI cam, you still need the SD card or the image will be jerky. Your phone also cannot be too old. Some quad-core phone works smoothly but some don't.