Cheap appliance repairs

Repair your stove for $2.00 or less

So here is a real story I have to share, that will allow you to repair your stove for $2.00 and save the day as well.

I think this is one of the strongest memories I have where is was a down right shame to have to send out an invoice for material and labour, where the material cost .75, and the labour was a 1/2 min charge @ $35.00.
This begins with a call to a house where the bottom element in an electric stove ceased to work. Your first reaction may be, “I have no friggin idea”, but listen up….it’s easy.

A couple of things to check come to mind, but lets give you a quick course in how the stove is powered. Most, if not all electric stoves run on what we call 240v (volts). Some may call it 220V, but in my world that means the same thing. In a nut shell, this means that the stove requires two power legs coming from the main breaker panel. In order to provide 240v, each “leg” carries 120v each. So, in the panel you will have a circuit breaker that is typically rated at 50a (amperes), and is called a double, or two pole breaker. These may look like two separate breakers, but the handle on each breaker have a tie bar, and are “tied” together so they work together. Confused yet?
Nah….haha. There will also be two other conductors, one for the ground wire, and another which acts as the neutral wire. For this particular problem, we need not be concerned with these, but they are no less important to the proper function of the stove.

Anyway, all the stove’s elements, the four on top, the bake and the broil elements ALL run on 240v. There is 120v also used in the stove, but this lower voltage will only run the timers, clock, lights and any other accessories.

Ok….first: Lets do a quick check. If ANY of the other elements work fine, then there is nothing wrong at the breaker panel, or with the circuit breaker supplying the stove, or the wiring from that breaker to the stove. That’s a good thing!

If none of the elements are working, check to see if the 2-pole 50amp breaker in the panel has “tripped”. This means that something has caused the breaker to heat up, or overload, and has automatically turned itself off. The handle on the breaker may look like it’s in a normal position, but I doubt it is. Take hold of the handle and switch the breaker all the way to the off position, then snap it all the way back on. It should “snap & lock” into that position. You may feel a little resistance which is normal. These units are spring loaded inside. If it goes back into position without tripping again, go check your stove.
If you turn the breaker back on, and it trips again, OK, maybe we will call an electrician.

I will dig deeper into some things you can still do before you call, but that will be in another post.

If you were to look into the oven and do a quick inspection of the elements, whichever one is NOT working, one thing to look for is an obvious “blow-out” of the element. This will be hard to miss as they blow up pretty good and you should see an area that looks melted, or bubbled up, or it may have actually separated. So this is simple, your element is shot. I will explain how to change the element in another post, but with this call, we had checked that first and all was good.

So lets assume that everything there is ok, as well as getting back to the simple fix.

The element looks ok, the breaker seems ok, so what’s left? How about the fuse? Ah, yes, this stove has fuses. Small 1″ diameter glass Pyrex fuses. These are available in various amperages based on its use. In a stove, you may have 15A, 20A, and 30A fuses. The oven elements run on 30A fuses. Two of these fuses will protect each 120v leg of the element, and together provide the 240v required to heat the elements. If ONE of these is burnt, the element will NOT work.

IMPORTANT:

Turn the breaker off at the panel to prevent a shocking experience.
Unless your brave or stupid, do NOT be foolish and work on this when it’s “live”. There is plenty of power here to cause serious harm, and a $1.00 fuse just isn’t worth it.

On most stoves, the fuses are located under a panel that flips up and is also where the fluorescent lamp is located that illuminates the cook top.

A visual inspection may lead you to the problem fuse. As these are glass fuses, you can actually see inside them and visually see if the fuse material inside is burnt or broken. If so, you have found the problem. By visiting your local hardware store, you can buy an exact replacement. There are a few different types of these fuses, so be sure you let them know what the application is. Other fuses of this type are used in older panels, other motor load applications, and so on. All you want is a basic 30A glass screw-in fuse. Be sure not to be sold on a fuse labelled “time-delay”. Wrong fuse. Wrong wrong wrong. The ones we want are called “one-time” Glass (Pyrex) fuses. Some refer to them as “plug fuses”. That’s all you need to know.

Be sure to bring your pocket book, as these guys are hmm about a buck each.

On a last note, I usually change both 30A fuses at the same time. Over a period of time, and with the constant heating and cooling that a fuse is subjected to, they do fatigue. Changing both at the same time will prevent the older fuse blowing shortly after you have installed the new one.

For the cost of $2.00 and a drive to the hardware store, you have just made the boss a happy camper and saved yourself time and money.

So as the story goes, we identified the 30A fuse that was burnt, pulled one out of the supplies we brought and presto, the turkey dinner is back on.

As far as the contractor goes, it was an easy fix. They always like those types of calls. For the homeowner who didn’t know any better, they are more than happy. But now you, with what you just read, would not be as pleased knowing you could do it yourself.

Plumbing

In a word, plumbing is a topic that pretty much starts at the top, and runs downhill from there. Haha. It also presents many different problems, and varied solutions depending on what it is that needs to be accomplished.

Home Owners

Our homes have a way of presenting things related to plumbing that need to be repaired. Anything from a dripping tap, to changing your own hot water tank. Some tasks are simple while others will require some basic skill sets and patience.

So what kind of things are we able to fix, without calling the “Plumber”?

Faucets:

This is probably the most common. These are easy to repair, the biggest problem is getting to know what parts go with what faucets. There are many manufacturers out there, and they all have their own parts for their own faucets. Just because they may look the same does not mean the parts are interchangeable. A “Delta” faucet may look like a “Moen” faucet, but trust me, the parts do not interchange. Each manufacturer has their own way of doing things. Or maybe you wan to replace the faucet with something more stylish, so now you need to plumb it in.

Sinks:

Ok, a little harder, but far from impossible. Why change a sink? Maybe it rusted out, got scratched or chipped, time to update? Many reasons come to mind, and I know a lot of homeowners just don’t think that they can do this. If you can handle a tape measure and a hack saw, you can re-plumb this sink yourself.

Drains:

I thought I would mention this since we are talking sinks and faucets, as your going to need to plumb one to the other so we get the water down the drain correctly. Most home drain systems are made of plastics, are easy to work with and glue together. In the USA, most are made of PVC while in Canada, they can be either PVC or more commonly ABS pipe.

Appliance Hook-ups:

You might wonder about this for a moment, but lets see what we have. Water for the ice maker in the fridge, washing machine, dishwasher, and there could be others that will require some plumbing before the are fully functional.

If your willing to dig in a little deeper, and with the added skills of having a few repairs under your belt, a lot of other repairs in the home can be tackled. Many tools and skills will lend themselves to other repairs. It’s not like everything is unique and a whole other level of expertise needs to be earned. Once one skill is learned it carries over to the next.

For any repair, always consider safety first.

Oven Element repairs

One thing us boys must do is keep the fire burning. Or in this case, keep that stove working unless your prepared to wine and dine your family. Sure, eating in restaurants is ok, but changing the element in your own stove is a lot cheaper, and you can do it twice as fast.

The cost of an element, either the bake or the broil, are not very expensive. The time it takes to change one, will vary depending of how nervous your are and how skilled you are. Can you hold a screwdriver in your hand? If so, then all we need to do is one more very important step and we can get busy.

TURN THE BREAKER FOR THE STOVE TO THE “OFF” POSITION.!!

Having it turned off ensures there is no chance of getting zapped by some unsuspecting voltage leak.

Remove and replace the element:

Let’s go ahead and change out the oven’s bake or broil element. Not a huge job. Basically two screws out, exchange the element for the good one and two screws back in and you’re done. WOW, really? Yes.

Unless there are other problems going on, it is that simple. It’s been a long time since I had to pull the stove out and pull the back off to repair any wire that has fatigued over time or become brittle. The only difference with the broil element, ( the one located in the top portion of the oven ), is that it has clips to hold the outer edges secure. Newer stoves use magnets for this, and they just pull away from the metal cabinet. So, of course the power is off. Right? I seem to be repeating this a lot, so it is that important. Just because the control for the oven is in the off position doesn’t necessarily mean its void of voltage. Be safe and turn the breaker off.

As we can clearly see, both of these elements are “obviously” broken. Yours may not have this actual break in it, and if not then your going to need a multimeter (voltmeter) in order to “ohm” out the element to see if it is still in good working order.

Take out your trusty Phillips (star, as some call it) screwdriver. Back out the two screws on the back metal flange. Pull straight forward. The element should come out freely, to a point.

There is going to be two wires attached to the screwed connections for the element. Each of those wires (legs, in this case) are carrying 120v, and together we have an element that runs on 240v. Undo these two screws, making sure these do not fall back into the hole where they came; otherwise you’re going to be fishing for them. Good thing the power is OFF! Grab your new element and do everything you just did in reverse. Presto, you’re done. Be sure to button everything up, don’t leave any tools inside, and flick the breaker back on. Turn the oven control on for that element and feel the heat.

Time for this job: 30 min

Amazing, and aren’t you happy you can do it yourself.

Dishwasher Woe’s

No sooner do I begin to spill my stories and try and provide a hands on experience, everyday guy that likes to try and fix stuff slant to this site and my dishwasher goes on the fritz! So I am thinking you will find stories here that will be in “real time”. Haha  This could be interesting.

Well, wish me luck, have to round up a few tools for the task ahead. I’ll keep you informed as I try and give this almost new (2 yrs old) dishwasher a makeover.

• I hope the Boss will be happy.