c/appliance-repairers

Pro tip: That $40 ultrasonic cleaner from Harbor Freight saved my bacon on a crusty control board

I had a range board caked in dried soda and grease, ultrasonic bath with some simple green stripped it clean in 15 minutes where hours of brushing did nothing. Anyone else use these for electronics or am I risking something I haven't thought of?

Saw a guy in Bakersfield trying to fix his fridge with a butter knife last week

He was jamming it into the defrost drain like it was a clogged sink, and I had to stop and explain how those plastic housings crack under pressure. Is it just me or did people used to actually read the manual before grabbing whatever tool was closest?

Picked up a tip at a scrap yard in Phoenix that saved me 3 hours on a dryer repair

I was dropping off some old copper at a yard near Phoenix last month and saw a guy sorting through a pile of busted dryers. He showed me how to check the thermal fuse without pulling the whole drum assembly out. Just test continuity at the back panel with a multimeter first, takes maybe 2 minutes. Been doing it that way ever since and it cuts my diagnostic time in half. Has anyone else found a quicker way to check those fuses without taking everything apart?

Had a dryer vent fire scare at a duplex last month

I was clearing a lint trap on a routine call in a 4-unit duplex near downtown and found the vent packed solid with 6 years of buildup. The heat sensor was literally melted on one side from the restriction. Has anyone else found hidden fire hazards like this that changed how you inspect vents now?

Had to pick between a $40 capacitor tester and a free multimeter reading

I spent 20 minutes trying to diagnose a dead fridge compressor with just my multimeter before I caved and bought the dedicated tester from the supply house. Which one of you guys actually trusts the multimeter for capacitance readings on those big run caps?

Warning: I've been using my multimeter wrong on refrigerators for 3 years

Had a call last week on a Whirlpool fridge in Omaha where the compressor wouldn't kick on. Checked resistance on the start relay like I always do and got a good reading so I moved on. Turns out I never tested the run capacitor under load with the meter set to microfarads. A older tech at the supply house set me straight after I wasted 2 hours chasing a ghost. Anyone else miss basic stuff like this after years in the game?

My $40 water level switch gamble that actually paid off

I had this Kenmore washer that kept acting like it was drunk, filling up way too much then stopping mid-cycle. After watching six YouTube videos I figured it might be the water level switch. But genuine parts were like $80 and I wasn't sure that was the problem. So I took a shot and grabbed a $40 generic one off Amazon just to test my theory. Took me maybe 20 minutes to swap it out and bam, the thing ran perfect for the last three months. I was sure I'd just tossed $40 down the drain but it saved me from calling a real repair guy. Has anyone else had luck with those cheap replacement parts or am I just asking for trouble down the road?

Vent: Found out a customer's 'leaky dishwasher' was a cup of water on the counter

Got a call last Tuesday from a woman in Arlington saying her dishwasher was flooding the kitchen. Drove 30 minutes, walked in, and she pointed at a puddle on the floor next to the counter. It was a half-full coffee mug she'd knocked over an hour earlier. She paid me $75 for the service call and didn't even apologize. Anyone else have a customer waste your time like that?

I finally stopped over-tightening refrigerator compressor bolts after 8 years in the trade

Was working on a Samsung RF28 model last Tuesday, replacing a bad start relay. Snapped the bolt head clean off the compressor. Customer watched me do it too. My old mentor saw the picture I sent him and said 'you know those are only supposed to be torqued to like 15 inch-pounds right?' I'd been cranking them down like lug nuts this whole time. How many compressors have I probably killed by warping the mounting plate? Anyone else ever realize they've been doing some basic thing wrong for years?

I used to hate thermal imaging cameras, now I use one every day

I thought they were just a gimmick for the first 5 years I did repairs. Then I had a fridge in Austin that was tripping the breaker randomly, and after 2 hours of poking around I borrowed a Flir unit from a buddy. Found the defrost heater shorting in like 30 seconds. Has anyone else had a tool they dismissed that turned out to be a game changer?

Hot take: That old-timer who told me to stop using refrigerant gauges and just feel the lines was completely wrong

I tried his method on a 2019 Whirlpool fridge in Austin last month and ended up chasing a slow cool issue for 3 days before I finally hooked up gauges and found the low side was 10 psi off, has anyone else had bad luck skipping the tools for 'experience'?

Question about using a multimeter vs a test light on fridge compressors

I've been fixing fridges for about 3 years now and always used a test light to check compressor windings. Last week I borrowed a Fluke multimeter from a buddy and tested a dead Whirlpool in Oakland. The multimeter showed me the exact resistance values on the start and run windings, which helped me find a shorted winding that a test light would've missed. Has anyone else switched over to a multimeter for this kind of diagnosis?

Rant: That moment I learned not to poke at a freezer drain with a screwdriver

Last Tuesday in Bellevue, I was unclogging a Frigidaire freezer drain on a service call. I got impatient and jammed a flathead in there to break up the ice, and it punched right through the drain line into the foam insulation. Had to spend an extra 45 minutes pulling the back panel and patching it with epoxy putty while the customer watched me sweat. Anybody else got a shortcut that backfired this bad?

Had a Tuesday last month that almost made me quit the trade

I was in Appleton fixing a Samsung fridge that kept throwing a temp sensor error. Replaced the sensor, still bad. Then the compressor wouldn't kick on. Three hours in I find a chewed wire behind the back panel from a mouse. Customer said they never saw any mice. That one job ate up my whole morning and pushed back 2 other calls. Has anyone else had a single repair spiral into a nightmare like that?

TIL the hard way not to take repair advice from a YouTube commenter named Dave07.

He told me to bypass the thermal fuse on my dryer with a paperclip to "save $10", and after my load of jeans came out smoking hot enough to singe my eyebrows off, I had to replace the entire heating element and the belt drive too, has anyone else ignored bad advice and paid for it?

Saw something in a Denver repair shop that got me thinking about dryer vent cleaning

I was picking up a used control board from Johnson's Appliance down on Colfax last Tuesday. Guy behind the counter had a pile of lint traps that looked like they'd never been cleaned. He told me most of his service calls for dryers not heating come down to clogged vents or dirty lint traps. I'd say at least 7 out of 10 jobs he sends his techs on are just basic cleaning stuff. Has anyone else noticed how many customers just ignore the simple maintenance and then call us when it breaks?

Switched from a multimeter to a clamp meter for diagnosing fridges last month, wish I did it years ago

TIL: A dead freezer compressor can look totally fine from the outside

I spent three hours last Thursday tearing apart a Whirlpool freezer that wasn't cooling. Checked the thermostat, the defrost timer, the start relay, even pulled the back panel to inspect the evaporator fan. Everything looked normal, no obvious burn marks or broken parts. I swapped out the capacitor just because I had a spare, still nothing. Finally broke down and put my multimeter on the compressor windings themselves and got an open reading on the start winding. That stupid thing looked clean as a whistle from the outside but was completely dead internally. Whole job took me almost four hours when it should have been a 30 minute diagnosis. Has anyone else wasted a whole afternoon on a compressor that looked perfectly fine?

Found a leak in a fridge line that took me 2 hours to trace

It was a pinhole in the copper behind the compressor on a 5 year old Samsung, and I ended up just patching it with epoxy instead of replacing the whole line - has anyone else had luck with epoxy holding long term?

Heard a customer say my dryer repair only took 20 minutes, wish they saw the 2 hours of diagnostics

I was fixing a dryer for a lady in Phoenix last Tuesday, and she told her friend on the phone that I just swapped a part in 20 minutes. She didn't see me spend 2 hours checking the drum rollers, belt, and thermal fuse before finding the seized idler pulley. Got me thinking how much of our work is invisible to people. Anyone else have customers who think repairs are just swapping parts?

That service call where I refused to replace a perfectly good part

I read a post last week where someone said you should always swap the control board on a washer that's acting up, no matter what. That got under my skin. Friday night I had a call in Austin for a Whirlpool that was stopping mid-cycle. Customer was ready to drop $200 on a new board. I spent 20 minutes checking the lid switch first, found it faulty, and charged them $35 for the part. The whole job took 40 minutes. I think we push these expensive swaps because it's easier than digging into the simpler stuff. Has anyone else run into situations where the quick fix turned out to be the wrong call?

Had a talk with a water heater guy that changed how I look at efficiency

Met a plumber named Dave at a supply shop in Tucson last month who told me he always checks anode rods first before touching anything on water heaters. He said he's seen units that look fine but have totally shot rods, and replacing those saves more energy than a whole new unit. Anyone else run into customers ignoring anode rods until it's too late?

That moment my fridge compressor seized up at 2am on a Saturday

I was just chilling at home after a night shift, grabbed some leftovers, and heard this weird hum from the kitchen. Opened the fridge and the temp was already at 50 degrees, food starting to sweat. Knew right away it was the compressor since it was hot to touch and the fan was running fine. Had to pull the whole unit out, check the start relay and overload, turns out the start relay was fried. Swapped it with a universal part I had in my van and it kicked on after 15 minutes. Has anyone else had these cheap start relays fail more often than the actual compressors on Samsung fridges?

Fighting with a stuck refrigerator compressor fan vs just replacing the whole fan assembly, what's your breaking point?

I used to spend an hour cleaning and oiling seized fan motors on older fridges but after 3 calls last month where the bearings were so shot the shaft had wobble, I started swapping in a new $25 fan assembly instead and saved myself the aggravation, so has anyone else shifted from repair to replace on this one part?

Customer told me my dryer vent work was too clean to be safe

Had a guy last month in Phoenix insist I leave his lint trap partially clogged because he said perfect airflow was a fire hazard. Told me his brother's unit caught fire after a professional cleaning. I changed nothing about my process and he left a bad review. Has anyone else run into customers who want worse work done?