Be Your Own Handyman… When You Can

It seems to me that one of the MANY skills we’ve lost as a culture–especially as a result of our “disposable” goods mentality–is the ability to fix things and otherwise to make do with what we have.

Don’t get me wrong, if I could honestly afford to always call a repairman to fix things for me I probably would. But these days we can’t afford to spend hundreds of dollars to fix something that we can likely fix ourselves.

In this case, we had to repair our Maytag clothes dryer. After a brief Google search using something like “Maytag [model#] dryer not heating” I was quickly presented with a wonderful website: RepairClinic.com.

This is actually a really neat website that offers repair advice (and parts) for any number of appliances that could go belly-up, from your washer and dryer to a refrigerator or stove. Beyond appliances, they also offer advice for outdoor equipment (such as the lawnmower or chainsaw) as well as for HVAC systems and other things I wouldn’t attempt to touch.

In our case, a clothes dryer is among the easiest appliances to repair–or so they say–and as such I decided (with prompting from my wife) to follow the RepairClinic.com advice and wound up figuring out that the heating coil was broken as shown here (I exaggerated the break in the photo to make it obvious):

repair-dryer-1

No problem. RepairClinic.com provides useful repair video tutorials and, of course, sells these parts and for relatively reasonable prices, I’d say. The thing is that we wanted to save as much money as possible and so I did a brief Google product search for the particular Whirlpool product number (Maytag is a subsidiary) and I was able to save about $10 buying from a website that seemed a little shady but ultimately delivered. After about a week and a half of waiting for the new element to arrive we got to work, here’s the new element… isn’t she pretty?

repair-dryer-2

An easy repair, no doubt. RepairClinic.com actually offers quite an array of advice, from testing and replacement videos (meant for your particular appliance) to troubleshooting tutorials, the correct parts to purchase, and probably more that I haven’t even seen yet. The videos even warn you of potential safety hazards and even the anticipated difficulty (from easy to DIY to hire somebody).

Well, at least an hour later and possibly a beer or two we wound up replacing the heating coil. I’ll spare you the gory details and perhaps a few swear words during the process. 😉

The point is simply that we were able to save ourselves quite a bit of money by NOT calling a repairman to fix something that we (I) can do ourselves. Granted, I’m not “Mr. Fix-it” by any means but I’m not completely useless either… and I can follow instructions at times too.

The best part is that with such useful advice as can be readily found online at sites like RepairClinic.com and others there’s no excuse to NOT save yourself plenty of money and maybe even learn a useful skill at the same time.

Of course, if you’re not comfortable attempting such repairs then by all means get some help or hire somebody. After all, the last thing I’d want is for you to seriously injure yourself or others doing something you shouldn’t or repairing an appliance incorrectly.

At the very least there’s no harm in looking into what type of repair may be needed as well as the potential costs and parts involved so that, at minimum, you don’t get “taken” when you call somebody to repair your broken stuff.

That said, it may be useful to also include various home repair books in your library for a rainy day.


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My latest book, The Survival Blueprint: How to Prepare Your Family for Disaster, can be found here: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CJ49Y5X4

Comments

8 responses to “Be Your Own Handyman… When You Can”

  1. Tim M.

    i used repairclinic.com to repair my front load washing machine. I ordered the parts and paid extra for rush delivery. It came quickly. I watched the videos on their website to do the installation, that made it pretty easy. However, the video also discussed other potential problems that my washer also had that I didn’t realize until it was taken apart. I ended up returning the purchased parts for a refund with no problems and trashing the washer. I would recommend repair clinic.

    1. Sadly, my dryer recently had another problem that I can’t fix and now have to replace it. 🙁 Glad to know repairclinic.com worked for you too… I’m sure I’ll use them again in the future.

  2. Snake Plisken

    I sympathize Dan, it’s a real challenge to find the correct parts for modular or mobile homes because they aren’t standardized like residential or commercial buildings. I seldom find the parts I need at Big Box stores but do very well with the privately owned funky hardware stores. And let’s face it, I can spend an afternoon in a family owned hardware store exploring!

    What is amazing to me is how much information there is for DIY’s on the internet. Used to be if you had to change out a part on your vehicle you went to the library and picked up a Chilton’s repair book with illustrations. Now, you can damned near repair anything with a Google search. It is a mind blower for me. And you know, younger folks take this tech for granted. What are they gonna do if the ‘net goes down? Practical hands on experience still rules the day in my book.

    A person does have to have some aptitude with tools and not afraid to get their hands dirty but like Damian said we sure can save a lot of money repairing your own stuff.

    I did learn something pretty cool this past summer. I had bought an F150 and it needed new head and intake gaskets. The kid that was helping me took pictures with his camera phone app when we started pulling off the hoses and dismantling the top of the motor. His pics sure came in handy once the gaskets were in place and we needed to reconnect all the lines. I guess even a young dog can teach an old dog new tricks!

    The only other thing I could possibly add to Damian’s post is to learn how to use a voltmeter. A voltmeter to test AC or DC as well as watts and amperage are invaluable time savers and help in troubleshooting electrical problems. I couldn’t do many of the repairs without it.

    Merry Christmas ya’ll!

    Snake Plisken

    1. You’re quite right that you can find DIY info on nearly anything you need to fix online these days… and, yes, I am old enough to have frequented the library and do have a few assorted “home repair” books still lying around. Even though I haven’t cracked one in at least 10 years I can’t seem to throw them away either because I never know if I’ll need them like you say. As for the picture taking with a phone during a repair job, yes, that’s invaluable. I seem to do it more and more just in case! Take care.

  3. keebler

    as for the Heating element ..wear rubber gloves so you DON”T touch the element—the oils & acids in your hands will cause early Failure of the replacement element.
    also be careful NOT to stretch it to far during installation.
    keeb.

    1. Too late for that! My greasy hands were all over the element. 😉

  4. Dan

    Good job. That’s also a great website. Many times you can find youtube videos and other sites to help also. I had to replace my Kindle battery and found several places to help me through the process.
    One of our toilets was leaking where the tank is bolted to the seats. The gaskets had fallen apart and the bolts rusted. Well using my handy dremel I was able to cut off the bolts and get a kit from Lowes to replace it all. When it came to replace the kitchen sink we called a plumber. Nothing in a double wide matches what you conventionally put in a stick home.
    If one has a septic system and even if you don’t it doesn’t cost much to have several tank kits and the seal ring the seat sits on as back up for your toilets.

    1. I can sympathize about replacing your Kindle battery… I once had to replace my wife’s iPhone screen which required me to literally take everything apart. About two hours later and a few more grey hairs I got it done. Thank goodness for Youtube!

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