When appliances attack

Meanwhile, he kept hearing a faint voice…

“Get out of here, Finchley! Get out of here, Finchley!”

We have a 23 year old Whirlpool fridge with an ice maker and water dispenser. The water filter is in the back of the fridge which is a pain to replace.

Over the years I’ve replaced the water solenoid valve and defrost timer. And I clean the coils every year.

We’ve looked at newer ones since they look nicer, and also due to increased capacity and energy efficiency. But decided not to replace since it still works and due to the numerous issues we’ve heard from our family and friends with their new refrigerators.

Sorry about the issues you’ve had jeff51 - that sucks!

Never saw anything like those water sensors before. What a great idea!

Just random thoughts…

Yeah, water that’s not absolutely necessary can be a pain in the ass. Ages ago, we had fixed-length tubes to feed the toilet that at some point developed a pinhole leak. Replaced with a “steel reinforced” flexi-hose. Great, ’til it popped near the crimp. I thought I heard what sounded like someone using a spraycan (I got hearing like a bat), went to investigate, and saw a lateral mist of water being shot from the hose. K, water off, replace hose. Okay so far.

Gf heard way way too many horror stories about fridges springing leaks, that her last fridge, she refused to connect it to a water supply. Uses a Brita or whatever, so the pitcher’s always in the fridge, cold as needed. Gonna need ice, toss in some trays. Can’t keep ice in there for too long before it takes on a nasty stank and an even nastier taste.

Where I worked, we had a hot/cold water machine and the holding tank was supposed to be low-maintenance. Ha! Playing with my light, I opened the top lid and shined down into it. Ay-yi-yi! Beige floaty-thing that was wending its way around various nooks and crannies. I named him “Leetle Creecher” (lotta Russian dewds at work, so why not?). Whenever anyone’d go for the water when I was around, I’d be like, “You sure you wanna do that?”, then show them Leetle Creecher. Finally, someone called someone who cleaned’n’bleached the innards.

So yeah, if you want ice and cold water from the fridge, I’d make sure to check the innards to see what’s growing in there.

Maytag washer? Top-loader with a submarine screw for a propeller at the bottom. Probably over 50yo by now. Motor replaced once. When I move, I’m taking it with me, period. No retarded computer is going to be dictating how many teaspoons of water I’m allowed to use. If I want a full tub of scorching hot water for just a pair of sox, that’s my choice.

Toaster went bye-bye. Inner coils didn’t light up anymore, so if I wanted bread to be, like, toasted on both sides, I’d have to do one round, eject, flip 180°, go another round. Problem is that it likely didn’t get hot enough anymore to trigger the “timer”, so you could happily char-broil one side while the other was left untouched. I did that for a while ’til the ejector spring stopped springing as much, that I’d have to go fork-fishing to get the english muffins out sometimes. Fun. When I got some EMs that kinda preemptively broke into pieces and I ended up fishing out muffin-nuggets instead, it went into the garbage whole. With the muffins.

Microwave oven hasn’t nuked in over 2yrs. Haven’t tossed it, as I like the clock and timer. Lights up, turntable spins, fan whirrs, but no nuking. Bulky, so might toss it and get a regular clock/timer thingy, but it’ll be nowhere nearly as convenient as the one that’s there.

Those water alarms saved my arse once. The pump relay welded shut and the pressure rose high enough to shoot out of the water heater pressure relief valve.
And those braided supply lines leak when they feel like it.
My favorite is a brass valve that just up and decides to crack after sitting there just fine for years.

Devices used to be shipped to customers with schematics. Now some companies refuse to provide schematics even to third party repair shops. Or they make deals with manufacturers not to sell parts to anyone but themselves. Greedy companies want to sell new devices and be the sole source of repair. That’s bad for consumers and bad for the environment. What incentive is there for a company to make products that last if they make money off of them failing too?

Recently New York State passed a Right to Repair law and I hope more states follow. I hope everyone will excuse the technically political link. I don’t think this is a partisan issue that will cause any arguments.

Yes, sometimes we can force the manufacturers to comply

Right to repair.
That’s why I won’t own any John Deer product until they change (or most likely forced to) change their policies.

Those little water sensor thingies are new to me also. Unfortunatly nobody was home when the fridge decided to pee all over the floor.
But I’m going to pick some up for future adventures.

I’ve had several water heater leaks. Always managed to make it to the sunken living room. Hell of a mess.
Time before last, I put in a huge drip pan.
“Let’s see you overflow that sucker you SOB”
Years later came home to another flood.
Whisky Tango Foxtrot

The tank was fine. The Frellling input hose had cracked and was spitting water onto the wall 3’ across the Util. closet.
Down the wall to the living room again. But this time it also ran into one of the bedrooms because it found a new path from the spray.

They conspire against us.
And why o why put the washing machine shut off behind the washing machine so when it leaks you have to move the washer!

I did fix this by routing a set of valves off to the side where they are easy to reach. Never had a leak since.
All the Best,
Jeff

I heard about that one. I’d say that’s government working as it should—protecting people from predatory practices by corporations.

Speaking of predatory practices, are you aware of the situation with loot boxes in videogames? They are essentially unregulated gambling.

For anyone that doesn’t know, some newer games allow you to purchase boxes of random in-game loot with real money. The digital items in the boxes have fixed rates of chance to appear and those rate are rarely disclosed (this is slowly changing). As a “normal” adult this is no big deal, I have no interest in gambling and I can recognize a bad value proposition and avoid it. The problem is that these systems can target kids in ways that gambling usually can’t and are also intrusive to adults who might be struggling with gambling addictions. I’ve heard people admit to spending thousands of dollars on free to play games…I think a lot more regulation is required.

Problem with right to repair hearings before congress etc. is that the company reps flat out lie and there is often no one available to call bullshit on their BS.
Who they going to listen to? Someone from a company that spent a few hundred grand in campaign and other perks.
Or somebody who is trying to tell them that soldering a wire or changing a part does not make the (whatever) into a potential IDE ready to wipe out entire counties and make you wear out of fashion clothes to boot.
Hopefully the battle will slowly swing in the consumers favor.
All the Best,
Jeff

This guy has been very active in the Right to Repair.
Also has interesting vids on fixing unfix-able Apple products.

I know of Louis! I wish every state had it’s own Louis Rossman—the outlook on Right to Repair would be a lot brighter.

Nobody mentioned wayer pressure. Many municipal water systems operate at too high a pressure. We run our own well and limit it to 40 psi, which some consider low. But 40 psi is kinder to sutomatic valves and hoses. Friends in the city have twice, or more in some places.

Yeh, Louis Rossman is big on R2R. Good stuff.

Timer broke on toaster oven so it wouldn’t turn on . My right to repair !

appliancerepairclinic.comrepair

That was helpful. Think it might have been low water pressure.

Now I’ve got to figure out how to get rid of the awful STANK that the freezer compartment has acquired after the flooding.
Got it filled with baking soda tubs - not doing any good.
Can’t defrost it again until we have someplace to move the like $700 worth of meat to.

Water got everywhere when it flooded and froze.
Couldn’t open the door for 3 days after unplugging it because of the ice accumulation in the bottom (side by side).
Amazingly, the fridge side is odor free.

Any suggestions?
All the Best,
Jeff

Sometimes plastic is just a sponge for stank.

AriZona tea jugs, OJ jugs, any kind of (sturdy) jugs I might wanna use to store foodstuffs, the stank just Does Not Come Out.

Scrubbed with detergent and scalding hot water repeatedly to make sure all remnants are flushed out.

Soaked with bleach to oxidise whatever’s in there left over.

Vinegar per tips on duh web.

Dusted with NaHCO3, as well as aqueous solutions.

Left soaking in each stage for weeks.

Yeah, you can open any of ’em and still smell the tea, OJ, etc.

for odors

Had a freezer that held a bad stank. Pulled apart the liner (hidden screws under the door ledge) and had a time cleaning the styrofoam of mildew and the heater element area of some built-up crud. Put it all back together and was fine. YMMV – some of these newer fridges are sealed foamed-in walls but the defrost cavity is probably the culprit.

Addendum; the PVC used for the liners has microporosity and will soak-up odours. As LB pointed out, not much can be done but lamplighter’s ‘Gonzo Odor Eliminating Rocks’ may be a solution.

Sounds like you get along fine without your microwave, but I fixed the neighbor’s over-the-range model with similar symptoms by replacing a small diode behind the control panel. Only cost a few bucks and was easy to get to by removing a few screws. We disassembled to investigate, and got lucky that the diode was right up front and obviously burnt. There was even a schematic tucked behind the top trim panel. :partying_face:

BTW, I love my old-timey top-loader with a mechanical timer. I know several friends who have replaced fancy front-load units after just a few years because the ’puter bits go wonky and the price of parts means they aren’t worth fixing.