Lasko Twin Window Fan Model W09560 - When it does not power up at all...

I have three of these Lasko Fans Model #W09560 and I really like them when they work. Now, as of today, I have taken two totally dead units and brought them back to life in what is an odd and simple work around/repair method.

First a little history. About four months ago, I brought a Lasko W09560 out of the garage, still "new" in the box, but it had been sitting around for nearly a year. I took it out of the box and was using it for two days and then the third day I went to turn it on and nothing - it would not power up. I e-mail and called Lasko and got some indication that 1) I would not get a replacement and 2) at one point they asked me to look for a fuse. I told them I could find no evidence of a fuse.....That's where story started and ended with Lasko tech support .... because Lasko was not going to help replace the unit - out of warrenty they said and they said no more.

Today I took the unit completely apart and started checking all the electrical components ..... There was apparently no power to the unit at all. I then checked the resistance from the internal power connection solder onto the PC board at the pin for the neutral and the power side. The power side had no connection to the cord's power prong ( smaller prong ) ....NONE! But the neutral had reasonable resistance indications to the plug's neutral prong. HUMMM....

I then looked carefully at the power cord and found some information that lead me to a Patent of Lasko - Patent No.: US 6,604,965 B2 Date of Patent: Aug. 12, 2003 - Safety Enhancement Device for Electical Apparatus - with these important words in the abstract:

"An enhanced safety device combination for electrical apparatus or appliances which includes a thermal responsive cut-off in the apparatus, and a non-replaceable fuse in the electrical cordset plug."

and a picture of the Fused Plug Details.....

Long and short of it is, Lakso added a fuse inside the Plug that is not visible and not repairable and is not intended to be repaired and they made sure it was all but impossible to get to the fuse.

So with those two findings: 1) the Resistance on the Power prong was infinite and 2) the Patent number on the Plug and the above information, I decide to cut the plug off and see if the problem was simple. And it was. Powering the unit with a temporary plug brought the unit back to life immediately.

I put the Lasko Fan back together and it worked as new - all normal.

I immediately cut the plug off my other "failed" Lasko Fan W09560 unit and tried a temp plug. It too worked perfectly again.

As a proof of my theory, I did take one of the bad plugs apart. - wow - not a disassembly but rather a demolition with cutter, piers, razor blade and patience and it indeed there is a small fuse soldered inline of the power prong side. If there is interest, I can post those pictures also. The fuse appears to be a 3G2.5A 250V UL listed fuse but it is tiny and my eyes are not perfect these days.