Hey everyone, it’s Whatever Wednesdays, so today is a short post about “Appliance Woes“.

Stock Photo from: Pixabay

Appliance Woes?

Yea. The joys of home ownership continue…

I have a long list of items that I need to fix in my house, but then there were things that I had hoped would last a little longer, and so weren’t on my list. These would include my refrigerator, oven, and washer/dryer. They came with the house and they seemed to be in good condition.

However, things are not always what they seem. My refrigerator has been having issues with keeping stuff cool, so I had appliance guy come out who works on Whirlpool refrigerators. After some looking at it, he came to the conclusion that my water filtration system was leaking and would need to be replaced. In addition to that, the reason why refrigerator was having problems keeping things cool were because the control board was beginning to go bad or my compressor was beginning to go bad. Either way, fixing the water filtration system and control board (or compressor) was simply going to cost more than just buying a new refrigerator.  So he suggested I just buy a new fridge…

In addition to that, he recommended that I change out my water valve before I buy a new refrigerator since mine was old.

Moving on…

Since he was there already and my dual ovens are Whirlpool, I had him check it out too. The bottom oven of my dual ovens has stopped working, and I’m assuming it’s the original oven from the house from back in 1992. After doing some tests, the conclusion was that the relay for the second oven was broken. It could be fixed… but the part doesn’t exist anymore, at least not through Whirlpool. He said he could try to get one through Ebay, but they may or may not work — and it may not be worth it. Top oven still works fine, so just use that for now — but eventually, I’ll need a new oven as well.

By the way, this appliance guy was great and I would recommend him. I found him on yelp – Ace Appliance Service, a family owned business. The son, Justin, and another guy, came out and did a good job. Very friendly and hard-working. They deserve their 5 stars on yelp.

So now what?

Well, since I needed to get my water valve changed in preparation for a new fridge, I called out a plumber to change it out. He put in the new water valve without a problem. He also helped me problem solve a few things in the other bathroom in regards to water pressure. He’ll be coming back later on to replace stem in one of my shower knobs.

Once again, another great guy I found on yelp – Low Cost Drain Plumbing. His name is a John. He’s a very friendly guy, works hard, no nonsense, will tell you what you he can do but also what you should do. Long story short, he said he probably could go through and fix the water pressure of my master bathroom sink, but it’s more cost effective to just buy new faucets and have him install them so they’ll last longer. So there’s another thing on my list of things to buy and have installed (at some point).

Anything else?

Yea man… when it rains, it pours.

So, I was told to get my washer looked at because apparently it had a recall on it. So I called Samsung to come out and get it fixed. They contract with a few local companies here to get it done so they came out and did the recall. Apparently there were issues with my washer having its lid fly off, and the recall was to secure the lid better. So getting that fixed was needed. Luckily, after they do the recall you get to have an extra year warranty, which is nice.

So then a little after the recall was done, I started hearing a “grinding noise” every time the washer would start a new cycle. I was expecting that Samsung would just send someone out again to take a look at it, but maybe “grinding noise” is a code word for “this washer is dead” or something because they offered a refund instead.

However, in order to get the refund, you have to provide pictures of you removing the decal from the washer and a cut power cord from the washer. Only after you submit that to Samsung does it go to refund. Currently, I am waiting for the refund to process so I can get a little bit of money back and buy a new washer. Hopefully we can get a new washer in pretty soon and not have to go a laundromat… but you never can tell.

As an aside, Samsung has been pretty good about honoring the 1 year warranty I got… so far. I’m still waiting for my refund, but things seem to be going smoothly, fingers crossed.

Whoa… everything all at once huh?

Pretty much…. but wait there’s more!

I have copper gutters on my house. Which are nice because they have a long lifespan and resist corrosion. However, finding someone to fix them if you have a problem is really hard. For the most part people like to install copper gutters, but not service them. I assume my copper gutters came with the house, and are from 1992. I haven’t had any problems with them until just recently.

As with all rain gutters, mine tend to get clogged by stuff so I have to clean them out once in awhile. However, the last week or so we had some heavy rain and of course that is when one of the gutters got clogged. So in the rain, I unclogged it, and then of course, the elbow joint of the downspout from the gutter started leaking. Maybe I never saw the leak before because there wasn’t enough water volume, or maybe it just cracked when I unclogged it. Either way, I now had an elbow joint that needed to be fixed.

Unfortunately, like I said, no one wants to maintain/fix copper gutters. They recommended I find a handy man to do the fix, so I got a hold of a friend of the guy who does my roof who works with copper gutters and had him come out and take a look. As expected, that elbow joint needed to be replaced and soldered. He also was going to check all the bends in the gutters to make sure there were no other leaks beginning anywhere else. In addition, some of the copper nails which hold the gutter to the house needed to be replaced and/or knocked back in. As I write this, he’s doing all that stuff for me right now.

Anything else?

Yea.

From my (limited) understanding, appliances nowadays don’t last seem to last very long anymore. I think you can only expect a refrigerator to last 5 years or so nowadays, even though supposedly they last 10-13 years. Apparently, washers are also supposed to last like 8-12 years. However, in my limited experience (and anecdotes from friends) the newer washers aren’t lasting that long, maybe 5-7 years.

Now, I don’t really like extended warranties, especially when it comes to cars. However, perhaps it might be worth considering in expensive appliances like a refrigerator or a washer, especially if you’re spending more than $1000. You can usually get an extended warranty for $100-200 depending on how much your appliance costs. I’m sure it’s some complex formula based on the type of appliance, failure rate, name brand, price, etc.

I’m not saying you should get an extended warranty, but it might be worth considering in this specific instance. Like I said, anecdotally, the failure rate of the new appliances seem to be decreasing.

TL;DR

The joys of home ownership continue…

Here is my list of recent (and ongoing) fixes.

Hopefully I’ll have a new refrigerator, new washer, and fixed gutters soon.

When it rains, it pours.

-Sensei

Agree? Disagree? Questions, Comments and Suggestions are welcome.

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