The Chatter

$100 for having a plumber walk in your front door on a holiday weekend.

$189 for him tightening a bolt half a turn.

A week of kicking yourself for spending $289 for 15 minutes of a plumber’s time.

 This is what happened to me six years ago and I vowed I wouldn’t be taken again.  I am cheap so I still get upset when I think about that day.  We had company coming so I didn’t have much of a choice, but that was a lot of money for such a little amount of work.

When my washing machine stopped spinning the other day I knew I could fix it.  It was noon on the Friday of a holiday weekend.  I was not going to spend several hundred dollars for that plumber to come out again.

Google is a wealth of information when you have an appliance problem.  I searched for my culprit, “washer stopped spinning mid cycle”.  I got a few possible problems.  Then I searched for my specific Maytag model to see if there were other reported problems of it.  No such luck.

I had to hand wring out the load of laundy in there and scoop the water out with a cup.  The next step was flipping the washer back to see the belt underneath.  The belt was fine, but it didn’t turn like it should.  There were three pulleys and one of them wasn’t turning easily.  I had solved my no spin mystery.  The drain pump assembly was broken.  It is supposed to spin in both directions, but mine only was going one way.

Then it was back to google to find out if I could find the part on the internet.  I always check the internet to make sure I’m not getting taken by the local place.  Unfortunately there are a lot of stores out there that will think they can take advantage of a woman because she doesn’t know what she is talking about.

I called our local supply store and they had my drain pump in stock.  When I went to pick it up they tried to tell me I needed a high intensity one that was twice as much.  I’m glad I did my homework beforehand.  By nine that evening I had the new pump installed and I was doing some laundry. 

 Sure it took me nine hours, my hands have grease imbedded in them and at some point I scratched my hand without realizing it.  I didn’t have to pay for someone else to come and fix it and I appreciate my washing machine so much more. 

 It never hurts to try yourself.  The most important thing is to pay close attention when you are taking things apart.  You need to know how to get them back together!

And now if you’ll excuse me, I’ve got some laundry to do in my fully functional, fixed by me washing machine.