Your large electronic appliances cost you a lot of money and you just want them to work when you need them and then never think about them again. Unfortunately, like any other heavy machinery, large appliances are prone to breaking down and failing outright when we need them the most.
Appliance repair services can be prohibitively expensive to the point that some homeowners will skip out on appliance repairs outright. If you have a home appliance that’s breaking down on you, you may not have to call an appliance repair service. Home appliance repair is easier and more accessible than you might think. All it takes to perform a home appliance repair is some know-how and a few tools.
That said, there are instances when performing a home appliance repair isn’t advisable. Sometimes, hiring a home appliance repair service is your best bet even though it might cost more than you want to spend. Replacing your appliances is typically going to cost more than having them repaired, and an honest appliance repair service will tell you when it’s time to replace a faulty fridge or dishwasher rather than wasting money on appliance repairs that are just going to break down again.
Home appliance repair is a broad subject; after all, each appliance around the house works differently and thus requires different kinds of services to repair. If you want to save the money on a repair company, learn about some of the common problems you might encounter with any given appliance and what you can do about it.
We’ll try to cover only the appliances that you can repair yourself. Oftentimes, appliance repair involves electrical parts that aren’t safe to handle without proper training and certifications. In these cases, you will need to hire an appliance repair company’s service to come to your home and help.
Refrigerator Repair
There are all sorts of problems that might cause your refrigerator to operate at a suboptimal level. Common problems with refrigerators include loud and obnoxious sounds, ice maker issues, the temperature being too hot or too cold, water leaking from underneath the appliance, and the refrigerator or freezer door not fully sealing upon being closed.
If your fridge is making loud noises, first check that the ice maker is operating properly and making ice. If it isn’t, you might be hearing the fridge attempting to make ice without water. Check that the water connection running into your refrigerator is hooked up and isn’t blocked. Then check that the water line to the refrigerator itself is open and running.
The problem may also be the refrigerator’s condenser or evaporator fan motors. Replacing fan motors on a refrigerator is possible to do yourself, but this sort of appliance repair is generally beyond the skill of most homeowners. Call an appliances repair specialist to help with replacing electronic components in your fridge that are making too much noise.
Another common appliance repair that isn’t really a repair at all is fixing ice buildup. As the freezer door is left open, the appliance warms up and humidity builds causing ice to form when the door is closed again. This is another problem that can be caused by a faulty seal that needs a repair.
The only thing to do is to shut off the appliance entirely, let all of the ice melt, and clean it thoroughly. Make sure you clean out any fans and vents that might be dirty which impede the flow of air through the appliance. If you start the appliance again and it continues to overproduce ice quickly, you’ll need an appliance repair service to help.
Dishwasher Repair
Your dishwasher keeps your cookware clean and food safe for you and your family to enjoy day in and day out. This means that your dishwasher probably gets heavy use, and that means it’s going to break down occasionally.
The most common dishwasher problems are actually the result of improper use and care of the dishwasher. Using the appliance properly and taking good care of it means you shouldn’t have to call an appliance repair service to fix unnecessary breakdowns in your dishwasher. Most commonly, dishwashers leave residue on dishes after a cleaning cycle, leak water onto the floor of your home, or gives off a disgusting odor.
If you notice a foul smell coming from your dishwasher, the first thing to do is thoroughly clean out the inside of it to remove any food particles that have gotten stuck in the nooks and crannies of the appliance. Next, clean the screen at the bottom of the dishwasher. If you haven’t done this before, you’ll be shocked at just how dirty it’s gotten since you installed it.
For streaks and spots on your dishes, first consider whether you’re actually loading the dishwasher properly. The appliance is designed to use a certain amount of soap and water to handle a certain amount of dishes. Overloading the appliance is a surefire way to ensure that it doesn’t completely clean your dishes even if the mechanism itself works just fine.
Check for any debris or grease that might be blocking the door gasket and the strain screen. Also, check the sprayer arms and spin them manually to make sure they move freely. If they’re stuck, you may need to remove debris or even lubricate the sprayer.
Washing Machine Repair
When it comes to a faulty washing machine, there isn’t a ton that most homeowners can do to repair things on their own short of calling an appliance repair service. The cost-benefit consideration of appliance skews the more expensive an appliance is, and your washer and dryer are two of the costliest devices in your home. Yet, without them, you’ll find yourself spending tons of money at the laundromat week in and week out.
Among the most common problems you’ll run into with your washing machine is that the appliance won’t drain. With the fancy 21st-century technology built into most washing machines today, sometimes the appliance can detect the problem on its own, but sometimes you need to reset it. Try performing a reset by shutting the machine off at the power switch, waiting for a minute, and turning it back on. If the appliance doesn’t start to drain itself, you might have a clogged drain hose.
Cut the power to the machine entirely (unplug it) and check the drain hose. If it’s damaged, it should be replaced. Then, take the hose out from the back of the machine. You might have to get out your trusty screwdriver to do this. Then, run hot water through the hose to loosen whatever’s clogging it up. If the water won’t flow through the hose, try using a snake or even just a long, firm stick to push out the clog. If any part of the hose is punctured or tattered, even as a result of you unclogging it, you’ll need to replace the drain hose.
Dryer Repair
Almost even more frustrating than a broken washing machine is a broken dryer. After all, if your washer won’t start, you can take your clothes somewhere else to be cleaned. But what if your dryer fails while you’ve got a tall pile of wet clothes coming out of the wash?
Usually, the biggest complaint appliance repair services see with dryers is that they take too long to dry clothes. Don’t call repair services to help with simple problems like this. The classic issue here is that the lint filter is too full. If you’ve cleaned the filter, make sure to clean the slot where you insert the filter, as well. This will allow the air to flow more freely in the dryer. Additionally, it’s important to keep the lint filter clean for fire safety reasons.
If your appliance won’t turn on at all, there are several issues that might be causing it to fail. Before calling appliance repair services, check the power supply. Make sure that it’s not burnt out, and check the circuit breaker to verify that you haven’t simply blown a fuse. The door switch on the appliance could be another culprit.
If the door switch on the dryer isn’t latching, the appliance won’t start because it thinks the door is open. See if you can clean any lint or debris out from around the handle. If it still won’t latch, you might be able to service it yourself, but you may want to call an appliance repair specialist to help as they’ll have special tools for this kind of unique job.
Hiring hep for your appliance repair shouldn’t be the last resort when you aren’t sure what to do. Appliance repair is complicated, and trying to perform appliance repairs as a layperson is not only challenging, but it can be dangerous. Leave the appliance repairs to the pros when you can. But don’t rule about your ability to perform simply appliance repairs like the ones described here.
