My washing machine died on a Tuesday and I didn't panic

Our old washer finally gave out last month in the middle of a load of jeans. Water everywhere and the drum just stopped spinning completely. Instead of running out to buy a new one on credit, I grabbed my toolkit and watched a 10 minute video. Turned out it was just a broken belt that cost me 12 bucks and 20 minutes to swap out. Anyone else fixed a big appliance yourself and felt stupid for almost dropping serious cash?

3 comments

3 Comments

finleycooper7d ago

Man, you got lucky with a belt. Half the time it's the control board or the motor and that's a whole different story. Good on you for checking first though, most people would have tossed it without even looking. That said, you probably should have unplugged it before you poked around in there. Not trying to be a downer, but getting zapped on a wet floor would have made that 12 dollar fix a lot more expensive.

hernandez.morgan7d ago

I bet half the people who unplug first end up with a dead battery in their multimeter and can't even check the voltage properly. Plus if you're on a concrete floor in rubber soled sneakers you're probably fine as long as you don't grab both terminals at the same time.

cameronb526h ago

Dude yes! My dryer started making this godawful screeching noise like a dying cat. I was already looking up new ones on my phone while it was still running. My buddy told me to just look up the noise on YouTube first. Turned out the drum rollers were all seized up and worn down. Took me an hour and maybe 30 bucks for the parts off Amazon. Felt like such a knucklehead for almost dropping 600 on a whole new unit when I could've just lubed a couple wheels. Now I check everything twice before I even think about buying new.