Man, I love the Interwebs.

From basic gunsmithing to car maintenance to appliance repairs, what used to require calling in and paying a professional now just takes watching a video or reading a forum post.

Case in point: Tonight, I went to wash a load of laundry, and discovered that my few-year-old washer was sitting in a puddle of water. I jumped on the Web, and quickly turned up a website pertaining to common issues with that family of washers, including instructions on how to remove the cover, and a discussion of common leak sources on those washers.

After checking a few of the culprits mentioned, I was able to identify that part of the cold water inlet valve assembly had failed, which was causing water to drip out steadily. Constant drips over the past few days led to the puddle under the washer.

A quick trip to Amazon for an $18 part with free two day shipping, and now I'll have my washer back up and running a few minutes after the part is delivered on Friday afternoon.

Not that long ago, such an ordeal would have require calling an appliance repairman, scheduling an appointment to have him come out and diagnose the issue, having him order the part, scheduling another appointment to have the repairman come back and install the part, and finally paying him a big markup.

Several hundred dollars, a week or more of waiting, plus two days off work, or a half hour on the Web and an $18 part. I'll take the latter, please.

I love the Interwebs.

We have a Kenmore washer & dryer, 1996 vintage. I’ve had water in the floor, no spin, and a few other things go wrong.

The 1st thing I do is evaluate then take apart what I can, look at the interwebs too. I do think we are over due for replacement, but it’s always been a relatively simple fix.

I’m not against calling in the ‘professional’ help, but just to have them park in your yard the bill is over $100.

Agreed. The vendors' ability to provide you with basic or complex repair knowledge is a fair trade for the sales of their products.

The internet has found a decent use beyond time wasting.

RMD

Never count your winnings while you're sitting at the table.

Having had much experience with Murphy's Law, I'd wait until the right part shows up and the repair is successful before passing out attaboys.

Agreed. Sometimes it takes a lot of searches and you have to piece information together from various articles, forums and videos but it’s worth it. I can’t even begin to guess how much money I’ve saved doing my own repairs to cars and things around my home. Thousands of dollars for sure.

Yes sit it sure helps,fixed the drive clutch on my Kenmore a couple of years back for $ 12.00
Learned on u tube a new trick with a ultra sonic cleaner on small clogged up engine carburetors and anti freeze as a cleaner.

Based on info and videos found on the internet, I've had good success repairing and working on things like appliances, cars, and electronics, home wiring and plumbing, etc. Key is to make sure you order the right part.

I've also benefited in the same way.

As a side note, I've found these guys to be a solid help.

https://www.repairclinic.com/

I have a kenmore dishwasher that I've used repairclinic.com 4 times to keep the machine from being scrapped.

Maybe 200 dollars in parts over the past 5 years but well worth it.

I also like that they keep track of the obsolete part numbers and give you the new replacement part numbers.

Before the internet, when something was discontinued, finding the new replacement was a hassle.

I just replaced the support struts on my wife's Odyssey for $25 in parts from Amazon and a YouTube video, and 10 minutes of work, as opposed to around $200 and hours wasted waiting for the car to be worked on at a garage. Additional benefit of showing my son how to do it.

I just email Brad. He’s been an asskicking source for the forum for years....

Brad hasn't been active on the forum for ~6 months. I considered emailing him, but I figured that indicated that he'd rather be left alone.

Plus, I was able to find the info I needed without much trouble anyway.

quote:

Originally posted by RogueJSK:
Brad hasn't been active on the forum for ~6 months. I considered emailing him, but I figured that indicated that he'd rather be left alone.

Plus, I was able to find the info I needed without much trouble anyway.

Brad mentioned that he might be going to law school so I assumed that was why he has been absent from the forum.

Great guy, miss him.

I agree. I have fixed both a dryer and washing machine from watching YouTube videos. I fixed a gas dryer with an eight dollar part for the solenoid. That would’ve easily cost $150-$250 to have a repairman come do. Agreed just order the part on Amazon. Easy as 123.

Just last month, I used youtube to fix the drain filter on my washing machine. It was simply clogged. I googled the error code that came up. I was so proud of myself, I was tempted to post a thread about it.

It's been the first mechanical troubleshooting and repair I've done in decades. I would have been clueless without youtube.

Used youtube about a year ago to fix our washer when it stopped in the middle of a wash, full of water and wouldn't begin the spin cycle.

Video showed me how to troubleshoot it and I determined the lid switch was bad. Ordered from Amazon Prime, replaced the switch and "off to the races".

Then about two months ago my MIL had a similar issue with her washer. Same problem, and I fixed that too. (She looked a little shocked when I actually fixed it. )

I'm sure I saved a metric butt-load of money and it's nice to keep learning new stuff at my age.

FWIW, I fix appliances.

My business model is to get the model number off the machine, ask the customer what the problem is, ask them a few pointed questions about specifics to dial in the issue.

Then if it is simple, I tell them how to do it over the phone for free, even where to find the parts if needed.

If not, I show up, on time and ready to do the repair with parts in hand.

So, I try to be honest and charge the customer for ONE visit, and even then I am not expensive with flat rate pricing.

So many "repair people" are giving us a bad name. Not prepared, double bumping with extra chargeable additional visits.

Thumbs up to all you folks that take the matter by the horns and fix your stuff!

quote:

Originally posted by doublesharp:
Never count your winnings while you're sitting at the table.

Having had much experience with Murphy's Law, I'd wait until the right part shows up and the repair is successful before passing out attaboys.

The part just arrived, was installed, and the washer function-checked, with zero problems.

I can now officially pass out attaboys.

Attaboy!