Dryer drum not spinning turned out to be a $0.50 belt instead of the motor I almost bought

Spent two hours diagnosing a loud squeaking and no spin on a Whirlpool from 2017 only to find the belt was just stretched and slipping, not broken, and a local parts house in Lincoln had the replacement for under a dollar while I was about to order a $150 motor online - anyone else ever misdiagnose an easy fix and almost waste money?

3 comments

3 Comments

the_alex14d ago

My record for misdiagnosis is thinking my furnace was toast when all it needed was a new flame sensor. I had already picked out a $3,000 replacement unit online before my brother-in-law walked over, spent ten minutes with a piece of sandpaper, and had it running again. Makes me wonder if there's some secret club of repair people who just laugh at us normal folks. My wallet sure has taken some hits from my own overthinking, that's for sure.

baker.christopher14d ago

@theas28 that relay thing happened to me too but with my washing machine... I spent a whole weekend convinced the control board was fried, had it pulled out and was pricing replacements online. Turned out it was just a noisy relay on the circuit board that was still working fine, swapped it for a few cents from an old computer power supply and it ran perfect for another three years. Makes you wonder how many parts get thrown away when it's just a little thing like that.

theas2814d ago

Oh man this reminds me of when I thought my car's AC was totally shot and needed a $400 compressor. Turns out it was just a $15 relay switch that was fried. My neighbor laughed at me for like a week straight after I told him how long I spent googling symptoms.