Appliance repair

[JoeP]

I've posted this subject as a reply several times in the past, but it really deserves its own thread. If you've ever had an appliance fail after the warranty, please take a few minutes to research appliance troubleshooting and repair web sites and youtube videos.

We bought a HE top loading washer/dryer set a couple years back, and bought the extended warranty. You shouldn't have to do this, but the perception of a complex machine failing scared us. It actually paid off when the washer tub ended up cracking, and the replacement plus labor ran over $400.

Now that it is out of warranty, it started flashing an error code. I was initially scared because I assumed the newer washers were more complex and not as user serviceable compared to the older ones, but I was surprised how simple it really is. For example, the motor is actually consists of 3 pieces (shaft, stator mounted to the tub bottom, and the armature wheel that spins the shaft) and it is easy to work on. Also, there are two small pumps and a heater. An hour worth of effort fixed the problem, and my familiarity is an asset next time something goes wrong.

So just a bit of advice for your out-of-warranty appliances: see if you can save some time and money by looking for solutions. For some of the repairs, you don't even need to be mechanically inclined.

[MonkeyMama]

Great Advice.

In the days of YouTube, this is just more true than ever.

Growing up, though my dad in mechanically inclined, this kind of information was less readily available. But there was a small appliance store that would always walk you through how to fix appliance problems if you called - so my dad always called them first for advice. (They sold parts).

We are less mechanically inclined but we have a repair person we found who will insist you fix it yourself and walk you through it over the phone, if it's simple. We've called him our for a couple of more significant repairs, that unfortunately were way beyond us.

We've had two problems with our fridge that we have never called for help about. Thanks to YouTube. First it just needed a cleaning (vacuum under and behind). I know many people who tossed their fridge when probaby all it needed was a little cleaning. But, I will never understand people. !! We actually had a large number of home repairs this year. One of them was a freezer water leak - a water line had just frozen over. The solution was pour hot water over it. Wala. Saved us a $100 service call in a crazy expensive year. This is my "not really handy at all, but not keen on wasting money" point of view.

We also had one toilet leak and replaced the parts inside the tank. That was an internet diagnosis and we just did them all because they were all 10 years old (don't want to mess with water leaks). I value my time and am not mechanically inclined in the least, so I would tend to just hire stuff out. But, there is a threshhold of "too easy to not do it yourself." & of course, we will always lean towards "repair" versus "replace."