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Need help figuring this out....

So what is it?


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that is a new problem is fixing an old problem.

:ROFLMAO: That's the awesomness of today's crappy products when they have a problem: just wait until: A. it fixes itself, B. it dies and needs to be replaced

More seriously I think the heating element has a short and the last time it tripped the breaker it also took something controlling it with him (a triac if I had to guess) as the breaker may not have been fast enough to avoid some fried electronics...
 
Over the last few days had some luxury time, so figured it was time to take the d/w apart... like what am I going to do... break it? just getting it free was a chore... took a day to figure out the "side tabs" had pushed outwards and were blocking it from coming out. Thought I was going to have to remove a cabinet to get it out.

So Google wisdom (not you lot) said it's ALWAYS the FLOAT SWITCH. So okay... says it's a 15 min job. Two hours later I have the dang thing out, still have all my digits and most of my blood. The pins aren't marked, but 5 and 6 should measure 11k ohms on a good thermister at room temperature. Sure enough... 11k ohms. It did only take 15 min to put it back together...assuming it's not going to leak once water goes back in.

So, I go to test what I thought it was... a short/open in the heating coil that's built into the expensive variable speed motor. I find online it should have about 15 ohms resistance across it. Looks pretty easy... all I have to do is to find the hidden heater connector.
WTF ... Hidden?

1597081616719.png

Fortunately, armed with a map, the connector wasn't hard to find at all. But I couldn't get it to come off with my fingers.
No problem, that's why god gifted man with pliers. Frigging thing still won't budge. Okay, two pliers, one for the socket, one for the plug, and using a spare finger to keep the release tab down while in a yoga position reminiscent of the '60s.

If you're expecting a complete disaster right now, raise you hand. Seriously? Well put your hands back down... you look silly.

With a cracking sound it comes free...
1597081943696.png 1597081976621.png

Now the good news is, the heating coil measures 15 ohms, so the short may have been in the socket. It's not wet and I don't see any reason it should have shorted... but I suppose if it gets hot enough to weld plastic together it would dry out fast.

I've never seen a plug/socket go before. Do you think this is the root cause or something else? I was thinking possibly the heat from the heating element could have melted it other than a short, but there's all that carbon in there.... what do you think?
 
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Oh, as I'm working on it I notice that stupid float switch with the thermister... the bottom of it is sticking out the bottom of the dishwasher. You can easily measure the ohms from the bottom without taking anything apart.
 
I've seen connectors burn up due to high contact resistance so it could have just been slowly cooking over time with heat accelerating as things deteriorated. It could also be a bit of water did get in and cause corrosion leading to the same thing and as @HRTKD pointed out, water bridging the pins would do it too.

I've even come across a 486 server where one of the 5V pins on the motherboard power connector had burned up due to high contact resistence.
 
So, a little Dielectric grease, a new connector, and good as new? No water on the floor when I first took it out (dust bunnies were bone dry). The connector on the motor looks built in... don't want to replace the motor if I can help it.

Well great... looks like the wiring harness is no longer available? Just as well, way to expensive. I suppose I could carefully dremmel out the socket on the motor and clean up the bayonet pins.

Anyone by chance recognize that connector type? I suppose worse case I could use 1/4" spade connectors and electrical tape.

Let's see... 120V / 15 Ohm = 8 amps? So, 10+ amp connector?
 
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Turns out that almond piece on the terminals just has two snaps and two crimps hold it in place. Was fairly easy to dig out the char and other plastic. Used a box cutter to cut the char off the spade terminals, only stabbed myself once and less than a 1/4" inch deep, so that was nice. Then a light sanding with 600 grit wet/dry. Anyway, the motor terminals are all cleaned up and like new (okay, like heavily used and once crisped). There's no saving the other end....I can't even see the female connectors. I did get a part number off it... Roanoke 1012... how hard can that be to find (okay, only kidding about Roanoke)?
 
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I've seen connectors like that. One of two issues: poor design (undersized wire or wire crimp) or like was said, high resistance because it wasn't snapped together correctly. I had that happen on a '78 Subaru BRAT headlight fuse/headlight joint, and I know a number of Slingshots that were under-designed and smoked.
 
Looks like poor fitting of the connector led to heating which led to even less pressure on the conenctor pins which led to more heating, etc... happens lots on cars with marginal connector design on power hungry things.

Carbon is conductive and is likely why your breaker tripped. You need to clean all of it.

What I'd do is cut the shroud around the resistor connector and clean everything, cut off the harness connector, solder the wires on the terminals of the resistor connector, add some heatshrink tubing (the kind with glue inside would be better here, and don't forget to put it on the wires before you solder them...) and then add silicone over the whole thing so if there's water near by there's no chance it can harm your work ;)
 
The nice thing about this approach is I won't have to worry about a repeat problem

Yep, I know this solution is a bit extreme but when I repair something problems similar to this I tend to by-pass completely what failed in the first place if possible so there's no chance of it happening again ;)

Also I suggested it only because you're unlikely to have to touch that thing again; but you can always unsolder them if needed, and in case you really want a connector you can always add one a little further down the wires, but choose a nice proper one and derate the current by 2 or 3 (especially as heating elements tend to have a lower resistance when cold and thus suck more power).

Edit: I checked what pins are compatible with this housing and found there's the standard timer series and the standard power timer series, pins for those series are findable here: https://www.te.com/usa-en/products/...ts&samples=N&inStoreWithoutPL=false&instock=N

This housing is part of the standard timer series (which is weird given you found it on a high power circuit...) and that explain why it failed: the standard timer series pins handle 6 A max, while the power timer series can handle 16 A. I guess the non-power one is cheaper than the power one and explain this weird choice... and/or it's some nice planned obsolescence...
 
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... while the power timer series can handle 16 A....
I didn't find the 16 Amp version! Still thinking I'd prefer to solder it...but the silicone is in question as it's a heating element. Not sure how hot those spade blades get. A regular element probably doesn't get over 150°F, but the special one in the pump? Still... can't be turning the water into steam so probably less than 200°F. I suspect silicone's okay at that... probably says on the tube.
 
Yea I like TE conn but their catalogs and co are a bit of a PITA sometimes...

Then you can use high temp silicone (like the one we use for valve covers on engines for example) ;) Or just don't put any if you know water can't get to that part.

edit: actually as it failed because of the design and not water you can avoid the silicone, one less step, less cost and easier to unsolder the wires if needed in the future. I still recommend the glue coated heatshrink tubing tho ;)
 
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Soldering seemed to go okay, although here's a
tip... make sure your other wires aren't entangled
and there's a clear way to get the motor back in
after soldering. Hopefully nothing else broke
when I strained a few wires....

Had to "special order" the hose clamps... so
this project is back on hold. Turns out the worm
gear clamps I thought I could replace the 7mm
ear clamps with are too wide.
So, now I just need to watch for the postman...
exdxx.jpg
 
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The skinny "ear" hose clamps came in Monday, I ordered a couple of extra since they were cheap ($1.40 ea) and shipping was expensive (although the manufacturer's kit for the two clamps was $54 so saved a bunch). I was going to install the soft starter this morning, but it's raining and don't feel like sliding off the wet roof or playing with electricity ⚡ while sitting in a puddle so it was time to play with the d/w.

First try I had heat! ? Woot! No fuses popped either.

But also a small leak on the pump's high pressure outlet side. Good thing I got a couple of clamps. What a mess... had to tip it over again to get to the pump so all the water inside came out to play. I suspected the high pressure side wasn't seated quite right, so pulled it off and the low pressure side came off by itself... so first go round using ear hose clamps.
1597845287543.png

Since I had heat, the dishwasher was on it's side with the bottom plate off again... I pulled back the boot and inspected where I injected the high temp silicone to keep the connectors apart and all looked good!

Squeezed a bit harder clamping this time, didn't hear the nylon fittings underneath crack and couldn't hand-spin either hose... so keep those fingers ?
 
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Those look like PEX fittings. My trailer has them all over the place. I hate them. Mainly because they are such a pain to remove in tight spaces. Also because I don't have a tool for putting new ones on. I've been using Shark Bite fittings whenever I have to replace/repair the PEX lines.
 
Woot!

Second run looks good, no leaks as far as I can tell. Now I just need to put
it back into place without breaking anything. Took 30 min just to find the mini-level.

Worse part is, it was exactly where it supposed to be in the treasure horde,
just didn't see it first time around.
colorful-fan-firework-gif.gif


...Those look like PEX fittings. My trailer has them all over the place. I hate them...
I destroyed the original ones taking them off ... I had naively assumed I could use the ubiquitous worm-gear hose clamps that are easy to adjust. Sadly, I couldn't find them in the correct width (7mm) at the correct diameter... so was stuck special ordering what has to be the worse clamps I've ever come across. At least for me, with no experience to gauge the tightness the first go-round was too loose.

... because I don't have a tool for putting new ones on....
You're probably wondering gee Svetz, how the heck did you crimp that?

Well... they do make special crimping tools for that starting around $17 and go up to phenomenal amounts. But being cheap I used Carpenter's Pincers (more commonly used to pull or snip the heads off nails). Had to file the sharp bits dull, they worked okayish. The pinching is a little lop-sided. Perhaps I shouldn't have worried so much about over crimping, just noticed the "official" tools have more mechanical advantage then the pincers I used (which is saying a lot, those things are wicked).
 
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<sigh> waiting for the caulk that holds the screw to the screwdriver to dry.... (just so you know, not kidding... couldn't find the magnetic bits and the two mounting screws to the side brackets have to go through a bit of a tunnel... if the screw drops it'll fall into an inaccessible channel and I'd probably have to pull the whole thing out again).
 
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