[Sticking It to the Man]

I fixed my washing machine. The belt that spins the machine got greasy and the spin cycle wouldn't work. I am not an appliance repair person at all. I just ripped off the front and noticed the greasy belt. My wife says, "Just buy a new one." HA!

I did notice the belt was a bit frayed, so I took down the part number and ordered a new one for $8 delivered. I found the best deal through shopping around on the internet. It was anywhere from $6 to $14. I got the brand name one for $6 plus $1.90 shipping. I'm sure I can put it on.

About 1 year ago, the timer went out. I know this because the dial would stop halfway through a cycle and I would have to manually advance it. This got old and inconvenient.

I was inspired by reading an article called "The Dumbing Down of America." It was regarding how even trained technicians in fields such as appliance repair and auto repair simply recognize and replace parts in many cases. They do not know how to repair those parts. For example, you take your car in and they say, "You need a new alternator." They never say, "I fixed your alternator."

Using this premise, I opened up my washing machine and noticed the timer had a couple of screws mounting it to the frame and a plug going in and a plug going out. I ordered the timer for $90 and plugged it in and mounted it to the frame. I'm not sure how much an appliance repair technician would have cost but probably around $175 - $200. First he/she would have jacked up the price of the timer then the home visit charge, plus the hourly charge = youch!

I would recommend everyone that has an appliance break down to at least attempt to fix it yourselves prior to calling a repair technician. A lot of the repairs are easy enough for a novice. Just be sure to unplug the appliance before working on it. There are also some instruction diagrams to be found on the internet. Good luck.