c/appliance-repairers

Spent 6 hours diagnosing a Samsung fridge ice maker, ended up being a $12 thermistor

Last Wednesday I was out in a suburb near Portland, this family's ice maker had been dead for weeks. Checked the basic stuff first, water line was fine, valve was clicking, but no ice. Pulled the whole auger assembly apart, tested the motor, checked the board for error codes, even swapped the control board out of my van just to rule it out. Six hours man. Six hours of head scratching and watching YouTube videos in their driveway. Turned out it was the thermistor in the ice bucket, the one that tells the control board it's cold enough to dump the ice. Reading slightly off, not dead, just off. Put a new one in and it kicked right on. Now I'm wondering if I should just swap those out first on Samsung ice makers even if they test okay? What's your guys' cutoff for when to just throw parts at it versus keep testing? I usually hate shotgunning parts but sometimes it feels like the cheaper move time-wise.

Heard a landlord say dishwashers just need to 'clean dishes' and I had to bite my tongue

I was at a supply house in Portland last week picking up a heating element for a Whirlpool, and this landlord in line was complaining about a tenant's dishwasher not draining. He said 'it still cleans dishes fine, what's the big deal about a little water left in the bottom?' I almost butted in but kept my mouth shut. The thing is, standing water in a dishwasher isn't just annoying, it leads to mold, bad seals, and eventually a dead pump if the float switch gets gunked up. I see this all the time where people ignore the slow drain and six months later they need a whole new unit. Do you guys ever bother explaining the full consequences to customers or just fix what they ask for and move on?

Finally got a decent test bench set up in my garage

For years I used to diagnose washers and dryers by just laying them on the floor with cardboard under them. It was murder on my back and took twice as long. Last month I built a simple 2x4 frame bench with a plywood top for about 60 bucks in materials. Now I can actually stand up straight while testing a spin cycle. Anyone else find a cheap way to improve their workspace?

Hit 500 washer drain pump replacements this week and it got me thinking

I finally looked up the failure rate on Samsung fridge compressors

Was digging through service records the other day, probably 200 or so calls I did last year. Realized about half of them were Samsung fridges with bad compressors. Looked up the actual stat online and found a repair forum thread saying the failure rate is over 30% in the first 5 years. That number blew my mind, I knew they were fussy but not that bad. Anyone else seeing this kind of pattern with certain brands?

Rant: Took a fellow tech's advice on frost-free fridge door heaters and wasted a whole day

A guy I met at a supply house told me to just bypass the door heater on a Frigidaire frost-free to save time. I tried it on a job in Elmhurst last Tuesday and sure enough, the customer called back 9 hours later saying the door seal was frozen shut. I had to go back and wire the original heater back in, taking 2 extra hours. Has anyone else had a shortcut blow up in their face like that?

Spent $450 on a fancy multimeter and I regret it

Bought a Fluke 87V because everyone said it was the gold standard, but my cheap Klein does the same job for fridge compressors. Anyone else find the extra cost just buys bragging rights?

Showerthought: Should we even bother replacing dryer thermal fuses, or just bypass them?

I've been in this trade for 12 years now, working mostly out of a van in Portland. I keep running into other repair guys who just bypass the thermal fuse on dryers when they're in a hurry. They tell me it's fine because the high limit thermostat will catch it anyway. But I've seen two house fires in my career that started from dryers with bypassed fuses, and both had working high limits. The manufacturers put them there for a reason, right? On the other hand, I've also replaced fuses on dryers that blew again within a week due to a real airflow restriction that the customer refused to fix. So which is it - are we being too careful or are the bypass guys just taking unnecessary risks? How do you handle the customer who says they'll fix the vent later but you know they won't?

Always used a multimeter to test fuses until a senior tech showed me the light bulb trick

After 2 years of pulling fuses and checking continuity, this old guy in Phoenix just clips a light bulb across the circuit. If it lights up, the fuse is good and the load is the problem. Way faster, anyone else use this method?

TIL there's a right way and a wrong way to pull a fridge water line

Overheard a plumber at the supply house yesterday telling a guy he sees more crushed water lines from appliance guys than actual plumbers. Said we yank them too tight or don't leave a service loop. Been doing this 10 years and never thought about it. How many of you actually leave slack behind the fridge?

Had a chat with a landlord yesterday that made me question everything I know about dryer vents

So I was pulling apart a dryer for a clogged vent last week in Denver. The landlord was watching me and said something like "you know that lint screen being clean doesn't matter if the vent run is over 20 feet with two 90s." He was right, I never really thought about the ductwork design before. I was just blaming bad cleaning habits when the real problem was the physical setup. Any of you guys found that vent length or bends cause more issues than people realize?

Genuinely confused about whether to replace a control board or just re-solder a relay on a 5 year old dryer

I had a Samsung dryer that stopped heating last week, just totally dead. My usual move is to order a new control board for like $180 and swap it in, takes maybe 20 minutes. But a guy in my local parts shop said I should try re-soldering the relay on the board first, says he does it all the time for $2 worth of solder. I gave it a shot, messed up one trace, board is toast, now I'm out the board AND my time. Some of my buddies swear fixing the original board is the only way to go, others say never waste an hour on a repair that might fail again in 6 months. What do you all do when you run into this, replace the whole board or try a component level fix first?

Tried using a shop vac to speed up a dryer vent cleaning... bad idea

I was cleaning out a dryer vent last week on a job in Austin and thought I'd hook up my shop vac to suck out the lint faster. Well, the suction collapsed the flexible metal vent hose in on itself and I couldn't get it unclogged for 45 minutes. Learned the hard way that shop vacs are too strong for those cheap vent kits. Any of you guys run into this issue with certain vent materials?

PSA: that LG ice maker board will kill itself if you don't seal the door gasket right

Had a job in Phoenix last month where the evap fan was running nonstop because moisture was getting into the control board from a bad top freezer door seal. Customer paid $280 for a new board before I even looked at the gasket - has anyone else seen this pattern with the linear compressor models?

Pro tip: Don't ignore a funky smell from a dryer vent until it's too late

I was in a basement in Denver last month clearing a basic lint clog when I found a dead squirrel wedged in the vent housing. Now I'm wondering if we should warn customers about animal blockages during routine calls or just handle it and move on.

That old timer who swore by a butter knife for prying off ice maker molds

I laughed at my uncle Frank when he pulled a regular butter knife out of his pocket to pop a stuck ice maker mold off a 10 year old Whirlpool in Cleveland last spring. Darn thing worked perfect without scratching a thing and saved me digging for my real pry tool. Anyone else got a weird tool trick that actually works better than the real thing?

Walked into a repair shop in Denver that had 3 dead dryers all with the same problem

I was picking up a part from a shop on Federal Blvd last Tuesday and noticed they had three identical dryers lined up in the back. All of them were Kenmore units from the same year, all with busted drum rollers. The guy told me he sees at least one a month with that exact failure. Has anyone else noticed a pattern with those plastic rollers on the late model Kenmores?

Spent $400 on a used thermal camera for finding fridge leaks and it already paid for itself

Honestly I was skeptical at first. Picked up a used Flir E4 off someone on FB marketplace. Took it to a job where a commercial fridge was cycling nonstop and I couldn't find the leak no matter what. Used the camera and spotted a tiny gap in the door seal I never would've seen. Fixed it in 10 minutes. Customer was happy and it saved me like three hours of troubleshooting. Has anyone else bought one of these and found it useful for other stuff too?

I finally stopped arguing after a customer showed me my own mistake

I was fixing a Samsung dryer at a house in Arlington and kept insisting the thermal fuse was fine, but the homeowner pulled up a service bulletin on his phone showing a known issue with the vent sensor that I had totally missed. He was right and I had to eat crow right there in his laundry room, which taught me to actually check the manufacturer updates before talking back. Anyone else had a customer school them on something you thought you knew cold?

Just crossed 500 refrigerator compressor swaps and the wear on my hands surprised me

Last Thursday I finished my 500th compressor swap on a Whirlpool fridge out in Davenport. I started counting a few years back just out of curiosity, and seeing that number really made me think about how much physical work goes into this trade. My hands are way tougher than they were five years ago, and I can feel it in my knuckles every morning now. Has anyone else noticed their body changing after a certain job count?

The night a dead mouse made me rethink my sealing game

Last Tuesday I pulled a fridge at a house in Clifton and found a nest of old insulation and a dead mouse right under the compressor. The thing was completely dried out, so it must have been in there for weeks. That got me thinking about how those little gaps in the back panel are basically a highway for critters. Now I always check the base seal and any open vent slots on every unit I touch. Any of you ever find something weird stuffed inside a customer's machine?

Finally gave in and tried a torque wrench on fridge compressor bolts after years of just feeling it out

I used to think torque wrenches were overkill for appliance work until I had a compressor fail on a Samsung fridge 3 months after I replaced it. Customer was livid and I had to eat the cost of a new unit and my labor. Got curious and checked the spec sheet - 45 ft-lbs on those bolts. My calibrated elbow was probably way off. Been using a click-type torque wrench for the last 6 weeks and no leaks or stripped threads yet. Anyone else had a comeback from not torquing to spec?

That customer who refused to pay because I fixed his fridge in 5 minutes

Had a call last Tuesday in Austin for a fridge not cooling. Got there, found the condenser fan blade was just stuck on a bit of ice from a slow defrost drain. Took me maybe 5 minutes to clear it with a heat gun and some compressed air. Guy looked at his watch and said "$89 for 5 minutes? That's robbery." Tried explaining he was paying for the knowledge, not the time, but he wasn't having it. Ended up calling his wife and she actually apologized for him and paid me. Anyone else run into people who think you should only charge by the hour?

Talked to a retired Maytag tech who fixed dryers with a paperclip last Tuesday

I was swapping stories with this guy named Pete at a supply house in Denver. He worked on Maytag machines back in the 80s and 90s. He told me half his fixes were just cleaning lint out of places nobody checks, not replacing parts. Said he used a straightened paperclip to clear a clogged moisture sensor vent on a ten year old dryer in under 2 minutes. That stuck with me because I spent way too long swapping thermal fuses on those without checking the vent path first. Made me rethink how often I go straight for the part swap instead of the simple stuff. Has anyone else had a older tech show you a trick that saved you time?

Had to choose between OEM part and off-brand for a GE dishwasher pump... went with the cheap one