Household Appliance Maintenance: Share Your Successes and Failures

[D2Cat]

re: Planned obsolescence I guess……
Think about it..
you have but ONE sale for 50 years, if you make something built right.....
but
4,5, or many more sales, when you make it inferior......

so to stay in business you need lots of repeat customers, so CONvince them they need the new or the old isn't worth fixing and you'll be a zillionaire.

Or, add more bells ans whistles because our society is trained to like them!!

 

[RCW]

re: Planned obsolescence I guess……
Think about it..
you have but ONE sale for 50 years, if you make something built right.....
but
4,5, or many more sales, when you make it inferior......

so to stay in business you need lots of repeat customers, so CONvince them they need the new or the old isn't worth fixing and you'll be a zillionaire.

Jay - certainly rhetoric statement on my part.

I started this thread in part because I’ve done more home appliance repairs recent years than I recall in my lifetime.

Some is due to lack of appliance repair people, but the larger part is damn things don’t hold up like they used to. Made like crap.


While common Whirlpool appliances with many nameplates, many of the parts of our washer and dryer are NLA after 15 years. Wasn’t so in the old days.

Planned obsolescence….

 

[PoTreeBoy]

Yep, everybody's preaching 'sustainability' and 'green' in a disposable economy.

I dumped at the Houston landfill a couple of times, it may have been the highest point in the county. At the gate, you could barely see the tractors. After you switch-backed to the top, they were D9's and scrapers.

 

[Wull]

Latest failure in the house was the cooker hood extractor fan. Capacitor had burnt out and after testing the motor it was showing that the neutral (com) had failed, after stripping it down I found the thermal fuse had failed. I bypassed this so I could test all the other windings and they are all good.

So I’ve ordered another thermal fuse and capacitor, after that’s arrived I’ll build it back up. Nice little repair for £10

 

[lynnmor]

after stripping it down I found the thermal fuse had failed.

I had a microwave with a failed transformer. After de-winding it I found a fuse deep inside that failed. There was no saving it and no parts were available so another appliance bites the dust because of a dirty trick. Had I known what the problem was I could have installed a fuse externally across two of the many wires.

My current failure is an old Kitchenaid dishwasher that needs a door gasket, of course there is none available on this planet. Now I guess I am supposed to trash all of the kitchen appliances since a new disposable dishwasher isn't available in the same color.

 

[johnjk]

The failures in our house are the Samsung kitchen appliances purchased in 2017. Ice maker failed in 9 months, Samsung sent a new seal for it. Replaced and it failed again at 12 months. Couldn’t get a response from Samsung. I totally disassembled it and found multiple points where external moist air could enter. Bought some food grade silicone and went to town. Worked again for 3 more months. It now sits disabled, a worthless POS. For a fraction of what a replacement unit, not an upgrade costs, we have a counter top ice maker.
Second failure was the dishwasher. Our two dogs did a better job than that. Finally got tired of the thing and put in a Bosch. Pricy but it cleans everything with half the detergent and even the plastic comes out dry. Knobs on the range broke where they slip over the gas valve shaft. Brushed metallic replacements were over 200. Chrome were 40. Chrome it is and the ones that were not broken went in to a box as spares.
On the success side are the 15yr old LG washer and 10yr old Whirlpool dryer. Annual cleanings and they keep rocking. Probably won’t be able to get parts when something does break. I have a 30 yr old beverage fridge and an 35yr old upright freezer in the garage. Both still rocking hard. Picked that fridge up from an estate sale for $5 about 12 yrs back. No ice, no water. Just a fridge. The freezer was from my Dad’s condo. I moved it in for him when new. No one wanted it since he had not defrosted it in years.
Finally I used to have an old flat screen TV from the MIL. She wanted new because it would not turn on randomly. We bought her a new one and I got to haul the old home for disposal. On a whim I took it apart to see what was in there and discovered a blown electrolytic cap. If I remember there were 6 caps of the same style. I ordered six new caps for .75 from an electronics warehouse and after som soldering, I had a fully functioning flatscreen. It died in the 2019 lightening strike. Parts after that were around 500 and I could not buy all that I needed.

 

[RCW]

My redneck patch resealed fine. Did a load this morning without issue.

I can relate to the ice maker- have a new one on my toolbox to replace the broken one in the refrigerator. I think it’s number 3 or 4…..grrr. It’s a Maytag, so Whirlpool.

Oh, the main suction hose split wide open on the upright vacuum cleaner last night……

 

[wp6529]

My redneck patch resealed fine. Did a load this morning without issue.

I can relate to the ice maker- have a new one on my toolbox to replace the broken one in the refrigerator. I think it’s number 3 or 4…..grrr. It’s a Maytag, so Whirlpool.

Oh, the main suction hose split wide open on the upright vacuum cleaner last night……

I repair anything that I can possibly repair. Ebay finds some used parts for things where either new parts are not available or are overpriced.

On Ebay or Amazon you can also find non OEM replacement parts and in some cases they are better than the OEM parts.

In one case the knobs on my Samsung range were breaking, chromed plastic bits that press onto the D shaped shaft of the gas valve. The non-OEM replacements looked the same, were of comparable quality, cheaper and they fixed the Samsung design flaw by putting a metal reinforcing cap on the end where the OEM parts were breaking.

The non OEM mower deck spindles I got are cheaper, better fit and finish and have the zerk fittings for greasing that the OEM lack.

The good folks in China don't just blindly copy things, they do improve them if there is an obvious improvement to be made.

 

[DaTow'd]

2010 we had a big flood in September . We do a lot of apple pressing and have 4 freezers with many gallons of frozen juice in them. Apple juice is a good trading commodity.

I built our house with the first floor 10 feet off the ground level because we are close to the Bella Coola River . The freezers and heater in the ground level. I heard some strange noise from the freezer room and went down stairs and found 4 ft. of water and the freezers were floating and some were on their sides still running lids open and a lot of the juice containers had muddy water on them .

Next day the water went down- we righted the freezers and unplugged them and started cleaning.

I pressure washed all of them and figured most of the parts are sealed except the electrical bits- I found a supplier on line and got new switches and control boxes for one unit to see it it would work. After a week I ordered more electrical for the rest.
All of them are still working and filled up with frozen apple juice
cheers
Hank

 

[RCW]

The good folks in China don't just blindly copy things, they do improve them if there is an obvious improvement to be made.

Not sure I would agree with "the good folks of China," but I do buy aftermarket parts regularly for several of our appliances. Icemaker for our Maytag (Whirlpool) refrigerator ranges from $60-190.

Had mixed successes with aftermarket, but had similar experience with OEM, which may also be of Chinese origin.

 

[xrocketengineer]

Not sure I would agree with "the good folks of China," but I do buy aftermarket parts regularly for several of our appliances. Icemaker for our Maytag (Whirlpool) refrigerator ranges from $60-190.

Had mixed successes with aftermarket, but had similar experience with OEM, which may also be of Chinese origin.

Speaking of ice makers, several years ago I had to replace the ice maker on our old Kenmore fridge. So I found the part number from Sears and away I went looking for the best price in the internet. I believe that I bought it from Amazon and an original part. It looked pretty much identical to the old one and the limited instructions that came with it mentioned that the wire arm that shuts off the ice production as the bucket fills up, might need to be replaced with the old one, which I did. So, I installed it and it went in with no issues. It worked ok, however the wire arm was allowing too much ice in the bucket but the wife was happy. Several months later, the fridge started making a rattling noise like something hitting the fan blades of the freezer fan. I took the freezer back wall apart and sure enough, there was a big ball of ice surrounding the fan. After removing the ice and reassembling everything, the fridge worked fine again. However, the issue would come back every so many months and I could not find a solution. The only logical information I found suggested that water was getting in the area and there should be none. Since the only source of water was the split pipe that connected from the back wall of the freezer to the ice maker, I decide to replace it. So I got the part number and ordered it. When it arrived I noticed that the pipe was much longer than the original. I could not install the ice maker because the new pipe was way too long. Fortunately, I had taken some pictures with my phone before taking things apart and I noticed that some ice was forming at the end of the pipe, where it would connect to the ice maker. It turns out that the original pipe was not compatible either with the new ice maker. It was too long that it would get almost "dead headed" against the ice maker but not long enough to prevent installation of the assembly. The water would be slowed down by the end of the pipe and some of the water would freeze in the pipe. The ice layer would build up and slow down the water flow until some of the water would spill over on the other end of the pipe, inside the back wall of the freezer creating the ball of ice on the fan. The solution was to cut the new pipe about a 1/4 of inch shorter than the original pipe and reinstall everything back. So far no problems.

 

[lynnmor]

Speaking of ice makers, several years ago I had to replace the ice maker on our old Kenmore fridge. So I found the part number from Sears and away I went looking for the best price in the internet. I believe that I bought it from Amazon and an original part. It looked pretty much identical to the old one and the limited instructions that came with it mentioned that the wire arm that shuts off the ice production as the bucket fills up, might need to be replaced with the old one, which I did. So, I installed it and it went in with no issues. It worked ok, however the wire arm was allowing too much ice in the bucket but the wife was happy. Several months later, the fridge started making a rattling noise like something hitting the fan blades of the freezer fan. I took the freezer back wall apart and sure enough, there was a big ball of ice surrounding the fan. After removing the ice and reassembling everything, the fridge worked fine again. However, the issue would come back every so many months and I could not find a solution. The only logical information I found suggested that water was getting in the area and there should be none. Since the only source of water was the split pipe that connected from the back wall of the freezer to the ice maker, I decide to replace it. So I got the part number and ordered it. When it arrived I noticed that the pipe was much longer than the original. I could not install the ice maker because the new pipe was way too long. Fortunately, I had taken some pictures with my phone before taking things apart and I noticed that some ice was forming at the end of the pipe, where it would connect to the ice maker. It turns out that the original pipe was not compatible either with the new ice maker. It was too long that it would get almost "dead headed" against the ice maker but not long enough to prevent installation of the assembly. The water would be slowed down by the end of the pipe and some of the water would freeze in the pipe. The ice layer would build up and slow down the water flow until some of the water would spill over on the other end of the pipe, inside the back wall of the freezer creating the ball of ice on the fan. The solution was to cut the new pipe about a 1/4 of inch shorter than the original pipe and reinstall everything back. So far no problems.

I use this guy for ice makers if I need some help.

 

[RCW]

This really pisses me off.

I got the replacement hose for the vacuum cleaner. $10.

Can’t use it because I can’t take cleaner apart.

I’ve got almost every common bit I needed until today.

These look to be a Security Torx, maybe T20? Lord knows....That sucks.

I had a sleeve of security bits in my hand at Tractor Supply a couple months ago….$10.

I guess I should have gotten them….

Shark does this purposely so people will just buy another cleaner..sad.

 

[GrizBota]

This really pisses me off.

I got the replacement hose for the vacuum cleaner. $10.

Can’t use it because I can’t take cleaner apart.

I’ve got almost every common bit I needed until today.

These look to be a Security Torx, maybe T20? Lord knows....That sucks.

I had a sleeve of security bits in my hand at Tractor Supply a couple months ago….$10.

I guess I should have gotten them….

Shark does this purposely so people will just buy another cleaner..sad.

View attachment 119684

I’d try a left handed drill bit that is a little larger than the hex. Then replace with the fastener of your choice.

 

[GrizBota]

My most recent success with a busted appliance was replacing the water pump motor on our 15 year old horizontal drum LG washing machine. It wouldn’t discharge so I tore into it. It was actually pretty simple to diagnose. The pump was making noise while it attempted to discharge. I found a coin in the pump housing. But it appeared the pump impeller had taken abuse for years. I suspect from an errant underwire from a bra, based on having pulled those out of the filter it the past and the grove worn in the center it the impeller fins. I bought an OEM motor replacement with the impeller attached, about $40. Couldn’t buy the impeller separately. The motor was almost the diameter of a soda can and about 2/3 the length of one. The knock off parts were about $15-20. Given my time is worth something to me, I got the OEM in hopes I won’t have to do this repair again, even though it’s more of a maintenance failure (lack of cleaning the filter regularly) than a part failure.

 

[bird dogger]

Here's a few of my oddball small tool kits that have foiled many a manufacturer's attempts to keep you from a repair/replace fix it job yourself. These are used for those odd little fasteners that you find when you're just about at the last piece to remove before getting at the part that needs replacing.

The first is a Sunex 9726 kit that has a nice selection of various types of bits. This kit is probably 15 to 20 years old and shows no wear. And it does get used often. Not too expensive today at around $30. Sunex makes a variety of these little kits.


Another handy kit is this Wiha 75995 kit with an assortment of bits, screwdrivers, etc. in different sizes. A little more spendy at around $70 but the quality of the bits is high. I found this one used on ebay at a great price.


And if you ever need a quality spanner wrench set to work on your optical goodies....this one made by
SK Grimes is top notch. This set has both a set of flat blades and pointed round blades. They can be attached to the spanner bar to both point inwards and outwards depending on the span needed.