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Old 09-22-08, 04:34 PM   #1
bennelson
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Join Date: Sep 2008
Location: SE Wisconsin
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Default My Laundry Room upgrade

Hey everyone,

About two weeks ago, I saw a stacked, front-loading washer and dryer for sale at a local rummage sale.

For a good while, I have been interested in front loaders because they save so much water, but have not wanted to pay top dollar for brand new machines.


(Current laundry room setup. No counter space other than setting laundry baskets on top of machines.)

I figured I could wait until I found some used ones at a better price.

I bought the washer and dryer and had the seller drop them off at my house. They were still stacked, which was NOT what I wanted, and were left on my back porch until I could get time to move the older washer and dryer out of our small laundry/utility room to make space.

My brother came over one night, and we grunted the old washer and dryer out of the house and the new ones (still stacked) inside.


(Old washer and drier moved to porch)


(New washer and dryer moved inside.)

For the life of me, I could not figure out how to seperate the stacked washer and dryer. Together, they were too tall to fit under our cabinets, and we really didn't need more floor space, but rather we could use some counter space.

There are two screws in the front of the dryer (top unit) that must be removed to take it off. The screws are only accessible from inside the machine. The left side one could be reached from the natural gas servicing panel. The other one was totally unreachable. In the end, I removed the left screw with a vice grips (only the pointy end of the screw could be reached, not the head end) and I used a Sawzall with metal-cutting blade between both machines to zing off the sheet metal tab that held them together.

Finally apart, I was able to begin hooking up both the new washer and dryer.


(New washer and dryer, apart, and in place.)

The new washer worked great. When it began to dump the used water, I was ready with empty 5-gallon buckets to catch the waste-water to see how much the machine used. This machine came out to almost exactly 20 gallons per load. My old machine used 35-40 gallons per load.


(The new washer "bucket-testing" out at almost exactly 20 gallons.)

One reason we would like to conserve water is that our waste-water is very expensive. We have a 2000 gallon holding tank. It costs about $90 to empty it, and we go through that much water (showers, toilet, cooking, clothes washing, etc.) about every five weeks.

We paid $250 for the matched set of the washer and dryer. I did the math to figure how much money it would save us in water. If we sold our old washer and dryer in the classifieds for $100, that brings our actual cost of the new ones to $150. Based on 4 loads of laundry per week, our return on investment is just over one year.

Now to try out the dryer.

Oh no! It tumbles, but the clothes don't get hot!
Time to troubleshoot it.
When the top cover was removed, I found there was a repair schematic inside. That will come in handy.


(My guide to fixing this thing.)

I went to AcmeHowTo.com for some general information on how gas dryers work, and how to repair them. In just a paragraph or two, I had a much better understanding of how a gas dryer works.

Mine uses a glow plug, very similar to my gas stove.
The glow plug uses electricity to heat an element (just like a toaster!) and when it it hot, opens up the gas valve, which is ignited by the hot element, which then turns off. There is also a temperature sensor in there which makes the right things happen at the right times.

On my dryer, the glow plug would turn on and off, but the gas valve would never open. It seems like the temperature sensor worked right, because it would turn the glow plug back off, once it was up to temperature. That means the problem is somewhere in the gas valve.

The gas valve is opened using electro-magnets called solenoids.
I got some values on the internet for what the coil of a gas dryer solenoid should read using the resistance setting on a multimeter. It should be around 1300 ohms.


(The double-solenoid on the natural gas valve, with one coil removed.)


I took the quick connections off the coils and tested them. The first one read fine, but the secondary coil didn't. It was dead.

I then tested the solenoids themselves by placing a strong elemental magnet near the solenoid. I could hear the valve click open, and then back shut, when I removed the magnet.

The secondary coil was definately bad, and must be replaced.

Fortunately, I have a full-service appliance store only a few miles from my house. I called them, and they said they had a solenoid coil kit in stock for $30. I drove out there, tested the new solenoid coils with my multimeter before purchasing, and bought them.


(New Solenoid Coils.)

Back home, I installed the new pair of coils (I got both the primary and secondary, and figured I may as well put both in, couldn't buy just the one.) and tested out the dryer.

Sure enough, the glow plugs glows, followed by the gas valve opening and a nice, hot purple flame heating the dryer.


(Gas dryer - Now With Flame!)

The dryer came with a top, but the washer didn't because they were stacked.





I used a piece of vibration absorbing foam rubber as a cover for the washer, and then covered the whole thing with the least expensive countertop available at the big box home improvement store. The countertop has a back edge to it, to keep things from falling behind the laundry machines.

This small laundry room now has more more counter space, uses slightly less electricity, and 40% less water.


BEFORE


AFTER

I may still add legs to the countertop to make it into a "table" because both machines do vibrate a fair amount while in use. We will see if it's an issue or not.

Also, please note that I did turn off the gas valve while working on the machine, am not a smoker, and followed other rules of safety.

Til next time,

keep ecorenovating,

-Ben

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