c/appliance-repairers

That tip about freezer drain tubes from a guy on here actually worked

Someone in this community told me to pour hot water down the freezer drain line with a turkey baster to clear ice buildup. I thought it was dumb and would just make more ice. Tried it last week on a 3 year old Whirlpool that was pooling water. Drained right out. I owe that random guy a beer.

I finally stopped washing the lint filter every single load

Been seeing a lot of people say you gotta clean the lint filter on dryers every time. I used to do it too but after 10 years on the road and fixing my own machines I started noticing something. If you got a good quality dryer and your lint screen is in decent shape you can go 3 or 4 loads easy before it starts affecting airflow. I tested it with a manometer on a Whirlpool in my own house. After 3 loads the static pressure barely moved. After 5 loads it dropped maybe 15 percent. The real issue is people forget to clean the vent tube behind the machine that runs to outside. That clogs way faster than the screen does and causes fires. Has anyone else actually measured the difference instead of just guessing?

Had an old timer show me the baking soda trick for fridge compressors last week

That washer drain pump on a Samsung took me 4 hours when it should have been 45 minutes

Got a call last week for a Samsung that wouldn't drain. Pulled the pump, checked the impeller, all clear. Tested continuity, fine. Spent 2 hours chasing wires and checking the control board before I realized the drain hose had a clog way up near the standpipe. First time I've seen a clog that high. Felt like an idiot. Has anyone else dealt with a Samsung drain issue that turned out to be something dumb like that?

Warning: ice maker lines can fail in a weird way nobody talks about

I did a service call last month in a house outside Charlotte where the fridge was fine but the hallway floor was warped. Customer said no leaks anywhere but I popped off the kickplate and found the plastic supply line had this hairline crack you couldn't see unless you bent it just right. It was only dripping maybe a cup of water a day but over 6 months it soaked through the subfloor. I replaced it with a braided steel line and told them to check those every couple years. Has anyone else run into those invisible micro cracks on the plastic tubing? Feels like a ticking time bomb on older installs.

I finally tried that freezer trick my coworker swore by

My coworker Dave told me to put a bad control board in the freezer for 20 minutes to fix a Samsung fridge that kept cycling. It actually worked and the board ran fine for another 3 weeks after that. Has anyone else tried this or was Dave just lucky?

Rant: The moment I stopped believing fridge compressors are always the issue

I was at a job in Austin last Tuesday, a 5 year old Samsung fridge not cooling, and I spent an hour checking the compressor and starter relay. Turned out it was just a clogged evaporator fan from ice buildup, I cleared it and it ran fine. Anyone else ever waste time on the wrong part because you jumped to the hardest fix first?

Wasted $150 on a cheap multimeter that almost burned down my van

I bought a no-name multimeter off Amazon for $150 about 3 months ago because I didn't want to drop $400 on a Fluke. Big mistake. Last week I was checking a compressor on a fridge and the leads literally melted on me while I was holding them. Almost started a fire in my work van. The readings had been off for weeks too, I just didn't realize it. Had to redo 5 service calls because my diagnoses were wrong. Anyone else get burned by cheap test gear or am I the only sucker here?

Customer feedback about my fridge compressor noise changed how I diagnose

Had a guy last month call me back about a fridge I fixed. Said the hum was still bugging him. I checked voltage, checked the start relay, all good. Then he pointed out the compressor mounting bolts. They were tight but the rubber grommets were old and hard. Never thought much about that before. Now I check all the vibration dampers on every compressor swap. Slap a new set of grommets in for like 4 bucks. Quieted his unit right down. Anyone else ever chase a noise problem that turned out to be something simple like that?

Figured out I was overtorquing every dryer drum bolt for 3 years

A customer in Denver brought back a drum I'd fixed 2 months ago with the weld cracked. I checked my torque wrench and it was reading 15 ft-lbs high. Been cranking everything down like I was building a bridge.

The debate over using OEM parts vs aftermarket on washer pumps

I got into it with a guy named Dave at a supply house in Nashville last spring. He swore that aftermarket pumps were just as good as OEM for Whirlpool top loaders and that I was wasting money. I took his advice on a job and the pump failed after 3 months. Customer called me back, I had to eat the labor and swap it with an OEM part for free. Now I'm stuck wondering if I just got a bad aftermarket pump or if Dave was full of it. Anyone else had better luck with aftermarket pumps on certain brands? Or is OEM always the way to go for you?

Talked to an old Maytag repair guy last week and he made me rethink everything

I was griping about a new Samsung washer that kept throwing error codes for no reason, and this guy who's been fixing stuff since the 70s just shook his head. He told me "you're not fixing appliances anymore, you're resetting computers." It hit different because he showed me a 1985 Maytag he still services that just needs a belt every 10 years. Now I'm wondering if I should specialize in pre-2000 machines since the new stuff is basically disposable. He said his backlog is 3 months just on older units. Anyone else see a shift in what people actually want repaired these days?

Found a 20 year old service manual in a dryer today

I was swapping a drum bearing on a Whirlpool at a house in Mobile and found a handwritten service manual tucked behind the control panel from 2004. The customer said her dad was the original owner and he was a repairman who passed away. Has anyone else found weird stuff inside appliances that changed how you approach a job?

Shoutout to the guy who taught me to clean dryer vents with a leaf blower

Last summer in Phoenix I spent like 45 minutes fighting with my shop vac on a clogged dryer vent. Customer just watched me struggle then handed me his leaf blower. Told me to push it in from outside and blow everything out the other way. Worked way better than my vacuum and took maybe 3 minutes. Has anyone else tried this trick or got a better method for long vent runs?

Debate: Do you swap a whole control board or just the relay that clicks?

Ran into this last Tuesday on a 5 year old Whirlpool dryer, no heat. Found the relay on the main board was toasted, contacts welded shut. I had a spare relay in my box from a kit I bought 3 years ago. Swapped it in 10 minutes, dryer works fine. But then I got to thinking, is that the right call? My old training guy, Mike from Columbus, would say replace the whole board every time. Says a patched relay will fail again in 6 months. But boards are like $120 and a relay costs me 50 cents. I've done maybe 30 of these swaps over the last year and only had 1 come back. So what do you all do? Patch it or swap the whole thing? I'm leaning towards keeping the relay method but I might be missing something.

Vent: That Samsung fridge ice maker I thought was an easy fix

I went out to a house last Thursday in the suburbs, lady said her French door ice maker was barely making any ice. I was sure it was just the usual frozen line issue, right? Well I pulled the back panel and the ice maker assembly itself was cracked in two places. I tried to rig it up with some epoxy I had in the van but it just fell apart again an hour later. Turns out Samsung uses this really brittle plastic that can't handle the temp changes over time. I ended up having to order a whole new assembly from a parts supplier which took two days to arrive. The customer was cool about it but I looked like a goof for not catching the crack sooner. Has anyone else dealt with those ice maker units just snapping apart for no reason?

PSA: Stop using manufacturer wiring diagrams as gospel on older machines

I was working on a 15 year old Whirlpool dryer at a house in Bakersfield last Tuesday, the model number came back clean but the wiring inside was all kinds of hacked. The diagram said the thermal fuse should be on the blower housing, but someone had rerouted it to the exhaust duct with jumper wires. I spent an hour chasing a no-heat issue based on that diagram before I stopped and actually traced every wire by hand. Found a busted thermistor that wasn't even on the schematic. Ended up bypassing their bad splice job and putting everything back to factory spec. The drum still had a faint burn smell, so I told the homeowner it was time for a replacement. Has anyone else run into a situation where the original diagram was flat out wrong for a machine that old?

Question about that trick for cleaning condenser coils without a vacuum

I was at a rental house in Bakersfield last week working on a fridge that kept tripping the breaker. Pulled it out to check the compressor and saw the coils were caked with dust and dog hair. I had left my vacuum hose attachment back in the truck, 50 feet away through a muddy yard. Out of frustration I grabbed my air compressor blow gun from the pressure washing rig and hit the coils from the inside out. It shot all the crap out the front in about 10 seconds. The fridge started up fine after that and the owner said it hadn't run that quiet in years. I am thinking about ditching the vacuum altogether for coil cleaning. Has anyone else tried compressed air and ran into issues with the dust just settling somewhere else in the room?

That old timer who told me to stop using silicone on fridge gaskets

Bob at the local parts shop swore silicone was the worst thing for sealing fridge doors because it makes the gasket slippery and break down faster. I used it anyway on a job last month and now the customer is calling back about the door not closing tight. Why do we keep ignoring advice from guys who have been doing this 30 years?

That lady in Oak Park taught me about dryer vent lint traps

Had a call last month where the dryer was taking 3 cycles to dry a small load. The homeowner showed me her 'lint trap' that was actually just the mesh screen from a window - she'd been using it for 2 years. Has anyone else seen creative DIY lint trap replacements?

Had a weird fridge compressor hum that turned out to be a loose service valve cap

Was on a call for a fridge not cooling in a rental unit last week, and the noise was driving me nuts. I checked the usual stuff, but it was just a quarter-turn loose cap on the suction service valve causing the vibration. Anyone else run into a simple fix like that making all that racket?

Had a customer in Detroit show me why she always buys the cheapest washer

She told me her $300 machine lasted 8 years before the belt snapped, and she just buys another one instead of fixing it. Now I get why some people treat appliances like disposable items, anyone else see this mindset taking over more jobs?

Got a call for a Samsung fridge in Scottsdale that made me rethink my whole approach

It was a no-cool complaint, and I went straight for the usual suspects like the compressor and fan. After two hours, I found a tiny piece of plastic from the veggie drawer had fallen and jammed the damper door shut. The homeowner said, 'It's been making a weird click for a week,' which I didn't even ask about. Now I always start by asking them to describe every single sound and when it started. Anyone else get burned by skipping the simple questions first?

Showerthought: I heard a customer call a washing machine agitator a 'spinny laundry octopus' and now I can't unsee it.

It happened at a job in Boise last Tuesday, and honestly, that kind of creative misunderstanding makes explaining the actual repair process way more fun, so what's the silliest thing you've heard a customer call a part?

Update: That Frigidaire ice maker call in Tempe took me 4 hours yesterday

I mean, everyone says it's a quick fix, just swap the module. But this one had a cracked water inlet tube behind the freezer wall, and the diagnostic code was pointing to the motor. I had to pull the whole unit out and trace the line with a mirror. Has anyone else run into a hidden leak throwing off the whole system like that?