Amana Appliance Repair in Philadelphia

Born in Iowa's Amana Colonies, Amana launched the Radarange in 1967, among the first countertop microwave ovens for home kitchens. Whirlpool Corporation has owned it since 2006, and the brand now offers basic, budget-minded cooking, refrigeration and laundry. In the late 1940s Amana was one of the earliest sellers of an upright home freezer, well before the Radarange microwave made it famous. As the entry tier of the Whirlpool family, Amana concentrates on agitator washers, basic dryers, top-freezer refrigerators and coil or smooth-top ranges. You'll find it in many rentals and starter homes, and it has no built-in or pro-style products.

When one reaches our bench, we look first at simple electromechanical controls on many models, agitator top-load washers, Whirlpool-shared refrigeration platforms, and basic coil and smooth-top ranges. Because Amana controls are so simple, a meter can track down most faults in just a few minutes, keeping diagnosis brief.

Amana appliances are common in Philadelphia rentals near the universities and in landlord-owned rowhouses, where a machine may have gone years without a vent cleaning or coil vacuuming before a tenant reports a problem. A slow or clicking igniter is the most common gas complaint on Amana equipment, and the cause is usually the igniter itself or a dirty burner rather than the gas valve.

Summer thunderstorms and winter nor'easters both knock out power in parts of the city, and the surge when PECO service comes back is hard on the control boards in an Amana. A Far Northeast stone house and a Point Breeze row home put very different demands on an Amana, which is why we ask about the installation when you book.

Most Amana faults fall into a few groups: dryer thermal fuses and belts, refrigerator defrost systems, washer lid switches, range surface elements, and dishwasher drain pumps.

On Amana dryers, plan on thermal fuses, heating elements, drive belts, and idler pulleys. Amana ovens are prone to bake elements, gas igniters, oven sensors, and selector switches. The common Amana microwave faults are magnetrons, door switches, turntable motors, and keypads.

Before a single panel comes off an Amana, the noise, heat and smell tell us a good deal, and we use them to narrow the fault quickly.

Vacuuming the refrigerator coils and cleaning the dryer vent once a year heads off most of the problems that bring us to an Amana. Know where the gas shutoff behind the appliance is, and if you smell gas, leave the house and call PGW or 911 from outside. After an outage, give electronic controls a minute before restarting, and call if a fault code does not clear.

When you call, have the model and serial number, the symptom and when it began; a photo of any error code helps as well.

Whirlpool distribution handles Amana parts, which are usually cheap and on hand within a day or two. On an Amana, a cheap part such as a fuse, switch or relay on an otherwise sound machine is an easy repair to justify.

An Amana is worth fixing when the problem is a fuse, switch, belt or element; a failed compressor or transmission on an older unit usually points toward replacement. We agree the price in writing up front; afterward, parts are covered for 90 days and labor for 30.