Problem:    Sensor to detect sideways was disconnected
Solution:   Re-solder sensor wires
Brand:
Cost new:   £110
Cost of fix:0
Age:
Success?:   Yes

This one was fun and took a whole session to fix!

The customer brought it in and said that the dehumidifier used to work occasionally or if they hit it it would sometimes come to life, but then wouldn’t even turn on at times.

Opening it up and going through the obvious things, fuses, signs of damage showed nothing promising. I could give it a rattle and it would sometimes turn on, so I could repeat the issue the customer had.

I started unplugging wires from the control board to see which was the offending system, and eventually came to a single 2-wire suspect. I followed this wire to a teeny tiny PCB that rattled and made a noise, which is a tilt sensor! This PCB contains a tiny sensor to detect if the dehumidifier is sat upright or not, and prevents all power from going to the dehumifier if it thinks it’s not set up correctly!!

For some reason, there’s no indicator of this! There’s no LED or display that says this information!!! The PCB had a wire that was holding on by a single conductor line just barely, so it was basically disconnected at times and the control logic thought the dehumidifier wasn’t set up correctly. Re-solder the PCB wire and it works like a charm. Very fun fix!