c/appliance-repairers

Warning: I spent a month in my garage trying to fix a weird fridge hum by replacing the compressor, only for my kid to point out the noise was coming from a toy robot stuck behind it.

Has anyone else had a customer call that turned out to be something totally unrelated to the appliance itself?

Pro tip: I finally caved and bought a proper vacuum leak detector for $350.

I always thought I could find leaks with soapy water and a sharp ear, but this thing found a tiny intake gasket leak on a Sub-Zero in ten minutes flat. Anyone else have a tool they fought buying that ended up being a game changer?

Read a study that said 30% of dryer fires start from lint in the vent hose

Found it in a fire safety report from the National Fire Protection Association. Makes me double check every vent connection now, even on simple service calls. How often do you guys find clogged vents that the customer had no idea about?

Heard a guy at the parts counter say he always checks the door switch first on a washer that won't spin, which saved me a whole hour on a Whirlpool yesterday.

I was grabbing a thermal fuse in Phoenix and overheard another tech telling the clerk he skips straight to the door latch on any no-spin call, so I tried it on my next job and, sure enough, the little plastic actuator arm was snapped clean off (saving me from chasing a bad motor or lid lock assembly first).

Just realized those 'universal' dryer door latches are a total waste of money

Bought a pack of three for $24 online to fix a rattling Whirlpool dryer... the plastic was so cheap it snapped the first time the customer closed the door. Had to go back, eat the cost, and order the actual OEM part anyway. Anyone found a decent brand for these, or is it always better to just get the real thing?

I finally hit 500 dryer vent cleanings in my service area around Springfield... and I think it's a bad sign.

Everyone talks about these jobs like easy money, but hitting that number in under three years shows how many folks are ignoring basic upkeep. I'm finding full blockages behind brand new units in houses less than a year old. Has anyone else in a newer development seen lint buildup this fast?

Had a Samsung fridge ice maker fight me for two hours straight

Got a call for a fridge not making ice, classic. Figured it was the usual water inlet valve or a clog. Nope. This thing was a DFI model from 2021, and the whole ice maker assembly was frozen solid. I mean, a solid block of ice inside the unit. I had to pull the whole thing out, bring it to the kitchen sink, and pour hot water over it for like 15 minutes just to get the cover off. The customer was watching me the whole time, asking if I was sure I knew what I was doing. After I got it apart, I found the little heater wire had failed. Replaced that, put it all back, and it started working. But man, what a pain. Who designs these things where you need a flood to fix them? Anyone else run into these newer Samsung ice makers being a total nightmare to service?

Got a call for a 1987 Maytag washer that had been sitting in a garage for 15 years, and it was the best day I've had all year.

My old way of checking for gas leaks was a joke

For years I'd just use soapy water and a prayer, until a job in Tempe last month where I found a tiny leak with a proper detector I finally bought. The homeowner said, 'I thought I smelled something funny for a week,' and I felt like a real dummy. How many of you still use the old soap trick, or did you switch to a tool too?

Hit 500 dryer belt replacements this week and the number threw me

I keep a simple tally sheet in my toolbox, and when I added up the jobs from the last three years, it came to exactly 500. That's a lot of bent-over hours fighting lint and panel clips. Anyone have a favorite trick for getting that rear drum glide back on without dropping the spring?

Had a 4-hour fight with a dishwasher that was just unplugged

Got a call for a Bosch that wouldn't power on, and I spent the whole morning checking the door switch, control board, and wiring harness before my apprentice pointed at the outlet behind the cabinet. The customer had pulled it out to paint and never plugged it back in. How often do you guys actually check for power at the receptacle first, or do you dive right into the machine like I did?

Vent: Just read a report that says 40% of appliance calls are for user error, not broken parts

Found this in a trade magazine article from last month. They surveyed a bunch of shops and that was the average. Means almost half my day is spent fixing things that aren't actually broken. Had a call yesterday for a dryer not heating, and the guy just hadn't cleaned the lint screen in maybe a year. Took me 10 minutes to show him, but I still had to charge the full trip fee. How do you guys handle explaining this to customers without them getting mad? Feels like half my job is just being a teacher now.

I thought those 'smart diagnostic' apps were a total gimmick... until one saved me a 45-minute drive to a job in Henderson last week.

Had a weird one with a Samsung fridge ice maker in a rental unit yesterday

The auger motor on a 2021 model just gave out, no warning at all. It was the whole assembly, part number DA97-15234A, and it's a known issue they don't really talk about. I had to pull the whole thing and order the kit, which set the owner back about $130. Anyone else run into this specific motor failure lately?

I used to think those cheap multimeters were fine for appliance work

For years I grabbed whatever $15 meter was on sale, figuring voltage was voltage. Then I got a call for a fridge in a rental unit last month where my reading was off by 8 volts on the line, almost missed a bad board. My buddy lent me his Fluke 117 for the next job and the difference in accuracy was huge. Now I keep a good meter in my main bag and only use the cheap one as a backup. What's your go-to meter for daily service calls?

Question about the worst service call you've ever walked into

Last Thursday I got a call for a fridge not cooling, and the kitchen floor was covered in about an inch of water from a clogged defrost drain. The homeowner just said 'it's a bit damp' when I booked it. What's the biggest gap between a customer's description and the mess you actually found?

Visited a 1950s diner restoration and their old soda fountain compressor setup was wild

I was checking out this restored diner in Pasadena last weekend, and the owner let me peek at the back. They kept the original 1950s soda fountain running, and the compressor system was something else. It was this huge, open belt-drive unit, not a sealed system like we see now. The belts were still good, but the motor bearings sounded like gravel. The owner said a local guy 'who knows old stuff' services it twice a year for about $300 a visit. It got me thinking about the specialized knowledge for these antique commercial units that's probably fading. Has anyone here worked on one of these pre-1970s ice cream or soda machine systems? I'm curious what the common failure points are besides the obvious wear on the old motors.

Can we talk about the change in dryer belt quality over the last five years?

I used to get a solid 18 months out of a generic replacement belt, but now they're cracking in under a year. Is it just cheaper materials or did something else shift?

I finally listened to a customer about their noisy dryer

For years, I dismissed homeowner diagnoses, but a woman in Springfield insisted her Kenmore 600 series dryer's squeal was a specific idler pulley. I argued it was the belt, but she was right. The $15 pulley I ordered fixed it in 20 minutes. How often do you all actually trust a customer's hunch on a noise?

A customer's comment about his old dryer actually made sense

I was working on a 15 year old Kenmore dryer yesterday, and the owner mentioned he never cleans the vent because 'it's just hot air, what's the harm?' I always thought that was just laziness, but he explained his dad was a repairman who said modern sensors handle it. It got me looking up failure rates, and apparently lint buildup causes over 15,000 fires a year. I'm going to start showing customers that stat. Has anyone found a good way to explain this without sounding like you're just upselling a service?

Three years ago in Cincinnati, I started telling customers to stop using vinegar to clean their washing machines.

Everyone online swears by it, but after seeing the same model of front-loader with a rotted rubber door boot and a corroded pump housing three times in a month, I'm convinced that weak acid over time does more harm than good compared to a proper cleaner, so has anyone else had a specific failure they can trace back to DIY vinegar cleaning?

Cleaned out my old toolbox and found something I forgot I had

I was sorting through my main box yesterday and found a set of Whitworth wrenches tucked in the bottom. I bought them for a job on a 1970s English washing machine about fifteen years ago. I haven't needed them since, but I kept them just in case. It made me think about how many parts are just not made like that anymore. Do you still hold onto any old tools for those rare calls?

Went to the appliance section at the big Sears in Springfield and saw something I haven't seen in years

I was there to pick up a thermal fuse for a dryer job, and I noticed they still have one of those old, full-size Maytag Neptune front loaders on the floor as a display. The sales guy said it's been there since 2004, just for show, and it still powers on. Got me thinking about how many of those I've pulled the pump and motor on over the years. Anyone else still running into these in the wild, or are they mostly gone now?

Remember when you could just pop the back off a dryer with a flathead?

I spent $75 on a specialty tool kit for a new model last week, only to find the exact same hex key in my old box. Anyone else getting tired of the 'unique fastener' arms race?

Can we talk about how you handle old appliance parts after a repair?

A homeowner in Boise last month said my truck looked like a 'rolling junk pile' because I was saving old motors and control boards. I started recycling copper and plastic separately, but I miss having spares for testing. Do you keep a stockpile or strip and scrap everything right away?