Excessive force cost me $300

Sometimes things just pi$$ me off. We have a GE front load washer. We need to keep the door open. If we close it it will mold around the seal.The door was in my way last week, and I closed maybe a bit too hard. No I slammed it closed. The next day it would not start. Everything is electronic now days I didn't have a chance repairing it. The GE repair man just left after replacing the door switch. I kind of figured that was the problem, but didn't want to take a chance on a 150.00 switch that can't be returned if it didn't fix the problem. Anyone else done anything like that? Stan

WOW, whats wrong with this picture? A door switch costing $150. You could pick up a nice used dryer for that.
Or was it $20 for the switch, and $130 for the install?

Rick

(quoted from post at 10:13:42 11/05/12) WOW, whats wrong with this picture? A door switch costing $150. You could pick up a nice used dryer for that.
Or was it $20 for the switch, and $130 for the install?

Rick

Click to expand...

$0 to bend the arm on the switch, $150 service call in Commyfornia.

Made the mistake of using an appliance repairman once.

Same outcome - huge bill for a cheap fix.

Never again.

Parts are just way too cheap and readily available, even through amazon.

Of course, I also stay away from the fancy units. The only controls on a washer or dryer that I ever use are: "ON" and ... well, just ON, they turn themselves off.

Aside from that first visit - never had a problem I couldn't fix.

No. Never............to a dishwasher. I did take a pipe to a tractor muffler one time though. Man, I felt good after that!

though to answer your question.

I did throw a wet t-shirt at a friend of mine once just messing around - he dodged it, and it hit the rear window of his car.

Somehow the force of it was enough to shatter the entire window.

Never thought for a minute you could break a car window with a t-shirt.

Ooops.

The door switch went on my Frigidaire front loader about six months ago. A new switch was about $25.00 it took just a few minutes to put it in.

Excessive force cost me a few bucks too---I had bet on LSU to win. Unnecessary roughness penalty took the wind of a promising Tiger scoring drive.

Well, you know what they say, JR- some guys can break an anvil with a rubber hammer! LOL

I didn't slam the washer door- I pulled on it, not realizing you had to push a button to open it, and broke the handle. But a scant 13 bucks and a 2 phillip screw installation later, I was back in business.

Was grumbling about the button to open deal, and appliance guy said "Fine to just open the top, on top loaders- but they had to do the button deal on front loaders, to keep the 4 year olds from opening it while its running and filling the laundry room with water." Don't know if he was implying that I was dumber than a 4 year old of not, but I guess if the shoe fits. . .

Also wasted 95 bucks on a service call on a dishwasher a few months back. The little lights on the control panel were lighting up randomly, and it wouldn't respond to any of the buttons. Guy got there, asked if I had tried turning off the breaker, then turning it back on. No. So we did. And it worked perfectly when turned back on. He said its like re-booting your computer when it gets hinky. He also said he has been after the "home office" to mention that before scheduling a house call, but they always "forget"- probably because they want the 95 bucks, IMHO.

He did turn out to be the son of a dairy farmer that was a customer of mine when I was with PCA 35 years ago, so we got to reminisce a bit, in what turned out to be a fairly expensive conversation.

Loading hogs? Nah, I never used excessive force while loading hogs. I just kept my cool when a 280 lB. jumping hog had it's front leg over my shoulder while I was pushing it back into the loading chute. I never slammed the cab door hard enough to knock out the glass, Nah! Jim

Here is how it worked service call 100.00 installation charge 85.00 (took 10 min or less)part 130.00 So it was closer to 315.00 I thought I was making big bucks charging around 100.00 an hour for mowing. Stan

Thats what I fear. I have a newer washer/dryer like yours. They are great when they are working, and when they break I hope I can fix it.

You're right. I might need to raise my tree spade rate too.

Rick

I had to put new vinyl line our the outdoor clothes line last week, just over 20 bucks. Oh well, first one lasted 8 years.
Yes we have a dryer, it get's used maybe a half dozen times a year. Everytime I hear it running I want to run out to the exhaust vent and catch the dollar bills it seems to eat in electricity.

I swung a golf club at a tree and the club broke. I felt good for about a tenth of a second, until I realized it would cost $35 to repair. That was quite a few years ago. I smacked the upper part of the grill on my C when it refused to start. It seems to have forgiven me, cause it almost always starts now.
SDE

Not really excessive, but misdirected force. I reached out to lower the sun visor in the car. Instead of pulling the back edge to flip it down, for some reason I grabbed the end of it and tore it right off the bracket.

More like 30 cents to dry a load. But you gatta cut back wherever right?

We wash 3 to 4 loads per week. So if you average it out at 3.5 loads per week for 8 years at 30 cents per load then I saved $436.80. Deduct the 20 bucks for the new line and it seems I saved a bit over 400 bucks or 50 bucks a year.
But seriously, I prefer the smell of the clothes when they are hung out. Blue jeans are always nice and stiff just like I like them. Oh, and I bet our dryer will last a lot longer than most with so little use, that is if I don't slam the door shut!

One time I swung a hammer too hard when I had my thumb in the way... okay, maybe more than once...

When the boy I helped raise was about 8 he had gotten onto my last nerve one evening while we were down in the shop. Can't remember what, exactly, I was doing but I had a framing hammer in my hand and was kneeling on the floor upstairs. To emphasize the point of what I was telling him to do..for about the fourth time...I hit the floor. Didn't realize I hit it as hard as I did but I now have a nice, round hole in the 3/4 OSB that I can use to spy on the downstairs...

When I was little Dad and Mom got into an argument. Dad went out the back door, headed to the shop to cool off, and slammed it. Mom yelled after him to, 'slam it hard enough to break the glass next time'..........So, being the ever cooperative, willing to please man he was, he opened it and slammed it again...........There is still a piece of plexiglass in place of the bottom glass pane to this day........

Yes, I have been known to take out a little frustration by giving some poor object a good whack. Usually hurts my hand more than anything else.

Basic appliance repair is made pretty easy nowadays by the accessibility of parts and exploded diagrams online. The hardest part is sometimes just figuring out how they're supposed to come apart, and even that is pretty simple once you figure out which panels are snap in and which are held by hidden screws.

Fixed my mother's dryer a few weeks ago - it was making a helluva racket. She was ready to order a new dryer, turned out to be the shaft mount hole on drum fan had rounded out. Cost me a half hour to get it apart, $17 for the part + $7 shipping, 20 minutes to put it back together. With something like that, I figure what do you have to lose? If it's going to be trashed if you don't fix it, the worst that can happen by having a look is you wasted a little time. And even that's not wasted if you learned something.