Hair dryer, typical faults and DIY repair

When the hair dryer belonging to your betrothed stops working, it can turn into a tragedy….

Of course, you can please your beloved with the purchase of a new one, but believe me, if you undertake to repair the old one and succeed, you will not only save your home budget, but also increase your status as an owner, husband and jack of all trades!

Of course, for many, the repair of such devices will not cause any particular difficulties due to their own experience and knowledge, but after all, not all such masters fix it!)

Now, with a live example, we will consider some typical malfunctions of this type of equipment, and those who have never encountered such work will see that there is nothing overly complicated in this. Of course, there will be differences in different devices, but the principle is the same.

The first thing you should pay attention to is the power cord, often the wire breaks either at the base of the power plug or at the very handle of the hair dryer. Moreover, a broken wire may visually seem to be in good order, since it is covered from above with a rather thick insulation.

Such a malfunction is often detected by the fact that by bending the wire in the above places, the device can work. But do not flatter yourself, it is impossible to operate electrical devices with such a wire, the wire must be replaced.

To do this, you will have to disassemble the hair dryer, however, this will also be needed to eliminate other malfunctions. Let's get started.

How to disassemble a hair dryer

As a rule, all modern hair dryers, however, like other household devices of this kind, do not always have fastening bolts available and visible, they are often hidden behind various plugs or plastic panels that need to be unfastened. The patient for this article, the old Rowenta hairdryer, is no different in that sense.

Snap off the handle of the hair dryer and remove the plastic panel

With a thin flat screwdriver or better with a short mounting knife, squeeze the latches and remove the cover. Next, you need to disassemble the mechanism for switching the speed mode. To do this, take out the switch wheel axle and remove the bar.

Then we remove one more overlay and only now you can unscrew the fastening bolts.

By the way, this often requires a cunning screwdriver, such as a triangle, an asterisk, or a flat screwdriver with a slot, in my case this is a homemade product made a long time ago from an old flat screwdriver, but now you can buy these.

Now that the two screws are unscrewed, for complete disassembly it is necessary to remove another plastic part of the case.

Now, you can replace the wire and perform any other repairs.

What was the cause of the malfunction

In my case, the heater shutdown button was broken. Do you know what this button is for? Many, as it turned out, were not in the know. The fact is that if you turn off the hairdryer immediately, without using this button, then there is a risk of ruining the device. This can happen because the fan immediately stops after it is turned off, and the spiral has not yet cooled down, the heat has nowhere to go, the hair dryer overheats, so you can even melt the case. And this button allows you to turn off and blow out the spiral when the fan is running, allowing it to cool down a little.

So this very button went out of order, the fastening of one of the contacts broke, respectively, the hairdryer blew only with cold air. For repairs, I had to slightly expand the hole of the torn contact and put it back in place with plastic to fix it. Of course, before that, it will be correct to clean out the burnt contacts.

In general, after these simple actions (it takes much longer to describe than to do), the hairdryer worked properly.

What other malfunctions can you fix yourself?

Check the integrity of the power cable, plug, quality of connections, soldering. The button itself can also be disassembled for cleaning if necessary, but this must be done carefully so that the contacts and the spring do not pop out (used in some buttons) just can't be found.

The fan motor and the spiral itself are just as little subject to repair - if they fail, either professional intervention is required, or ... ... Long live the store!

Another possible repairable malfunction is a thermal fuse.

This is a self-restoring fuse that turns off the heater coil when it overheats, and after cooling down, it returns to its original, closed position. But it happens that his contacts burn out over time and he stops working normally. It is necessary to restore good contact, gently, with something thin (a nail file is great, while the wife does not see), shuffle between the contacts, but do not unclench them more than the thickness of the file. Otherwise, then you will have to bend the contact plates for good compression.

Sometimes folding is just necessary. But be careful, it is not so easy, remember that everything is fastened on a fragile mica base and by applying efforts you can only worsen everything.

Remember that with any repair, care and accuracy are important! This is one of the keys to success!