My 12 year old washer finally quit, and I fixed it for $18 instead of replacing it

The drum started making this awful grinding noise last Tuesday, right before my wife's work clothes needed washing. I pulled the front panel off and found the spider arm had cracked, a common issue on that model. A $18 replacement part from a parts shop in Akron arrived in two days, and I swapped it out in about 3 hours with a socket set. Has anyone else bothered repairing an old appliance lately, or am I just too stubborn to pay $700 for a new one?

2 comments

2 Comments

the_cameron20d ago

Hell yeah, you got the good kind of stubborn. That $18 fix means the machine owes you nothing for another decade, and honestly, the new ones are built so cheap these days you'd probably be doing the same repair in three years anyway. The math only works out for the store if you're afraid of a little grease. I've got a dryer from 2009 that I've replaced the belt and the thermal fuse on, two separate times, and each time it cost me less than a single service call would've been. It's not about the money for me at this point, it's about beating the system. These companies want you to think a washing machine is a disposable item like a phone, but it's really just a motor, a tub, and some hoses. If you can turn a wrench, you're basically a maintenance guy for your own house.

casey34219d ago

Wait, so your washing machine's skeleton broke and you fixed it with a part cheaper than a pizza? That's not being stubborn, that's just refusing to get robbed by the appliance store gods.