Dave's
Dictionary of
Appliance Terms
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Calibration
1) oven – The procedure used to adjust an oven’s bake temperature. A
remote thermometer’s thermocouple is placed in the center of an empty
oven, and the controls set to a specific operating temperature, commonly
350F. Several heating/cooling cycles are allowed to take place, after
which the ‘on’ and ‘off’ temperatures are recorded, and the oven
control adjusted to match the average. Ex: at 350F, it’s common for the
‘on’ temp to be around 325F, with the oven cycling off around 375F.
2) thermometers can be calibrated, or at least tested for accuracy,
by immersing them in ice water (32F)
Calrod
– trade name for the material used in bake and broil elements, to
distinguish them from earlier Nichrome wire coil type elements.
Capacitor
– energy storage device, used widely in motor starting applications,
microwave oven voltage doubling circuits, power supply filtering, and
more.
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Capillary
or ‘cap’ tube
1) a tiny tube, usually of copper, that provides an engineered amount of
resistance to fluid passing through it. Used as a restriction device in
smaller home refrigeration systems – refrigerators, freezers, air
conditioners, dehumidifiers, etc 2) small tube attached to a
‘hydraulic’ thermostat; charged with a liquid whose expansion and
contraction can be made to operate switch contacts via a bellows on one
end – widely used in ‘remote’ thermostats, in ovens, air
conditioners, electric heating, etc
Cavity
size (cu ft)
– Not a dental term, but a common size rating on microwave ovens; simply
the volume of the cavity (inside of oven) in cubic feet.
Centering
tool (DW) –
a handy little device for ensuring that a motor shaft is perfectly
centered in a dishwasher pump’s rotary seal to help prevent leaks and
premature seal wear. Used whenever a pump and motor are separated, this is
simply a piece of properly sized round plastic, and varies with brand.
Ceran
– the trade name for today’s smooth-top range glass; usually black in
color, but paint can be applied in almost any shade or pattern
Charging
stub
- Short length of tubing, usually attached to a refrigeration system's
compressor, through which the refrigerant system is accessed to evacuate
and add refrigerant, both in manufacturing and in field service. In the
factory, the original refrigerant charge is added through this 'stub',
then it's pinched shut, and brazed or ultrasonically sealed..
Chilled
water tank
– a small plastic tank or coil of plastic tubing, located in a
refrigerator and connected to the chilled water dispenser. This dispenser
is most commonly mounted to the freezer door, and water is fed from the
fill valve on the back of the refrigerator, through the tank, where it is
chilled, and then up through the freezer door, usually through the hollow
bottom door hinge, to the dispenser.
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Choke,
door
– A ferrous material built into microwave oven doors, and sometimes
doorframes, to absorb any stray microwave energy in this area and prevent
its leaking into the room.
Clutch
– (remember when your car had one of these?) Some brands of clothes
washers still use one of these, but many have gone to a specially treated
‘slip’ belt instead. Much cheaper to manufacture. In washers, this is
usually a slip clutch, which is just a drum with shoes inside that are
designed to slip while the tub comes up to speed in spin. |
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Cold
control
– another name for a refrigerator thermostat. Responsible for sensing
inside temperature and cycling the cooling system on and off as needed.
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Cold
control ballast – a
chunk of metal, often aluminum, that the cold control sensing cap tube
wraps around. This acts as a heat sink, dampening thermostat response
time, which keeps a refrigerator from turning on and off every couple of
minutes.
Compressor
– a motor and an air pump, usually hermetically sealed into one
container, that compresses a gas, using either a piston or rotor. Most
often used in refrigeration systems, this is a system’s ‘heart’,
providing the energy to change the state of the refrigerant, moving heat
in the process. Unlike a pump, which is most often designed to move
liquid, a compressor is designed only to pump gas. Liquids can’t be
compressed, and if a compressor attempts to pump liquid, it will
‘slug’, and valve damage will result.
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Compressor
oil
– sealed into a refrigeration system’s compressor and tubing, along
with the necessary quantity of refrigerant, is the oil the compressor
needs for the lubrication of its bearings.
Condensate
– water that is a product of condensation, as from an air conditioning
or dehumidifier evaporator coil.
Condenser
– the ‘high side’ coil in a refrigeration system. Here the high
pressure refrigerant vapor is cooled, causing it to condense (aha!) back
into a liquid, releasing the heat that it picked up inside the cabinet,
that ‘boiled’ it into a gas.
Condenser
fan motor
– most condenser coils are cooled by forcing air over them, and this
motor’s fan blade does just that. Traditionally mounted next to the
compressor, it also provides compressor cooling.
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Control
thermostat
– pretty much a clothes dryer term, this is the ‘cycling’
thermostat, as opposed to the ‘safety’, which normally doesn’t cycle
on and off during use. Regulates the temperature inside a dryer drum. Most
use a calibrated piece of bimetal to ‘read’ temperature, and are very
reliable.
Controller
– right about here, all the ladies are thinking of a particular guy
they’ve known over the years, and they half expect to see his name here!
But actually, we have in mind the microprocessor and circuit board
that’s the ‘brain’ in many of our appliances today.
Conversion
(Any pastors reading this? <grin>) – These days, we’re mostly
referring to the analog to digital conversion that takes place inside the
microprocessors of appliance electronic controls. The analog value
measured by the processor, most often the resistance of a temperature
sensor, is internally converted to a digital value that is then used to
determine its course of action or sent to a digital display.
Cooling
fan –
I guess this one’s pretty self-explanatory; fans are used in built-in
ovens, microwaves, and computers, to circulate air through them and cool
their components.
Coupler
– Whirlpool-made top load washers no longer use a drive belt, but a
‘direct drive’ coupler to transfer motor power to the gearcase. Fast
and easy to replace when they fail, and inexpensive, here’s the latest
version.
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Crisper
cover
– refrigerator hydrator/crisper cover/shelf; early ones were heavy
glass; most are plastic today.
Cycle
defrost
– Also referred to as manual defrost, this refrigerator system has a
freezer that requires manual defrosting (sit a pan of hot water inside –
don’t scrape this frost or
you’ll risk putting a hole in the aluminum, causing a leak!). The fresh
food compartment cooling plate is designed to quickly defrost during each
of the thermostat's 'off' cycles.
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