Who'd have thought? You may have been around when I posted this about our dryer breaking down in January. Then, we were able to replace it with a free one, even though I was pining for a cherry-red, front-loading model. After a few months, it broke down, and I talked about that here. We were able to fix it, amazingly, as dryers don't seem too challenging to understand, once you figure out how to open them. So we were able to keep the free one after investing in a $14 part.
A few days ago, one of our sons just happened to mention that they had noticed the clothes in the dryer were still wet - the clothes they had put in a couple of days prior. They informed me - the dryer is broken, mom. Oh great.
How far do you push a free dryer? When do you throw in the towel and get a 'new' one? When do you throw in THAT towel and buy a really 'new' one from the store that gives guarantees and delivery and hauling away of the old one (or old ones in our case)? Those were the tough questions in our household this weekend.
I was ready to bite the bullet and get a brand new one. I'm tired of taking on other people's problem appliances. Why should I have to learn how a blower wheel works when other people get to watch their laundry spin round and round in their brand new front loaders? Grrr.
Earth to Jill... Remember why you started this blog in the first place??
Um... Yeah. So I started to do some research. The machine just wasn't starting up at all - no juice whatsoever. It could be many things, but we had to start at the door switch. Having learned recently how to open the dryer front, I took it off and quickly found the switch in question. Having unplugged the machine (of course), I removed the switch and set about looking for a replacement. Two appliance parts stores later, we found the part. Now to go home and find if this was the problem.
The part fit perfectly, with a little squeezing of some pliers, and low and behold... it started up. It's been drying all day now - and yes, we re-washed the stinky boy load and everything is just fine now. (Gotta give them kudos for trying to do their own laundry, right??)
What items have you fixed when you could have replaced?
4 comments:
Hi Jill,
You try to fix everything before we replace it..hubby has to try anyway...
I'm glad he can fix so many things, cars included!
Deb :)
I understand your frustration! Sometimes it seems so much easier to go buy the new thing! You should definitely listen to that podcast that I posted about today! It really made me think about my perspective on things.
The way I always reason with it is this: How many used dryers can you buy for the price of one new dryer? A cheap new dryer costs around $300. How many used dryers can you buy for that? My last dryer cost me $60 on Craigslist and it was almost brand new. So, my reasoning is I can buy 5 used dryers for the same price as one cheap new dryer....Not to mention how many cheap dryers I could buy for the realllly nice dryer I would reallllly want....
But the point is not wanting to begin with, isn't it? What if you didn't have a dryer at all? What if you couldn't afford to buy one? How would you dry your clothes?
Jill, I admire at how "handy" you are! I know nothing about electricity and fixing machines! After thinking about this post for awhile, I realized that dryers (and all appliances for that matter), are a luxury. What would our world be like if we all went back to the clothesline? Yes, it might take longer for our laundry to dry, and yes, they might have that crisp feeling, but oh the smell of air-dried clothes makes me smile! Just a thought...
I'm impressed you were able to fix your dryer. I am not handy at all but wish I was. I would love to be able to do car maintenance and repairs.
Love the picture of the burning dryer.
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