Washing Machine Repair
Tip It!When I got home from work last night, my wife informed me that our washing machine is broken. It seems to go all the way through to the spin cycle, but then it won’t spin. You can hear the motor whir, but it’s accompanied by a grinding sound and the tub just sits there. My first guess was that the belt had come off. That’s a pretty easy fix, so I decided to investigate. Unfortunately, after getting the front service panel off and looking around a bit, I soon discovered that the belt was just fine — still on, and plenty tight… So what’s wrong?
Based on what I read at this appliance repair site (which is a great resource, and definitely worth bookmarking), it seems most likely that the hardware that attaches the inner basket to the agitator has worn out. While this sounds like a fairly straightforward repair, we’ll be heading out of town on a short vacation in a few days, and I don’t have the time nor the parts to do it myself. Thus, the repairman is coming this afternoon. We’ve been told that the minimum charge for a service call is $55… Anyone care to guess how much this will end up setting us back?
Side note: I’ve decided that now is an opportune time to replace the rubber water supply hoses with stainless steel hoses. The rubber lines don’t last forever, and it’s not pretty when they burst — especially if it happens when you’re away from home! It’s also a good idea to shut off the supply lines when leaving home for added protection against water problems.
Published on July 14th, 2005 - 3 Comments
Filed under: House & Home
About the author: Nickel is the founder and editor-in-chief of this site. He's a thirty-something family man who has been writing about personal finance since 2005, and guess what? He's on Twitter!
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July 14th, 2005 at 8:43 am
Another great appliance repair resource is RepairClinic.com. You can easily identify the problem using thier wizard and order the parts with lots of fast and faster shipping options. I have successfully completed two washer repairs, a dryer repair and a stove-top burner overhaul using them. When it comes down to it, the parts that wear out on these large appliances are often a straighforward, rather easy repair.
July 14th, 2005 at 9:51 am
I’m guessing it will cost you $100.
July 14th, 2005 at 3:26 pm
Second that on RepairClinic.com — their newsletter is good as well. Comes about once a month and has lots of information with minimal ads. If you ever need a part, their Parts Decective is excellent, and all of the pictures for the parts have a scale on them.
Here’s a page from there on washing machine troubleshooting:
http://www.repairclinic.com/0088_11_1.asp