"Wait - there's no water in the refrigerator door?" That was my thought last week when I was going for my customary morning glass of water. After a few attempts at pushing the glass into the opening with no desired result, I decided the filter must be expired. That's usually what happened in the past whenever I've failed to change the water filter on time so I naturally suspected that to be the reason.
With that thought in mind, I searched Amazon for the proper replacement filter for our refrigerator and made my order. After 2 days, I merrily accepted my delivery and proceeded to install the new filter. Fresh filtered water was minutes away - or so I thought. Once again, I pushed my glass into the door to cycle the water through the new filter and - nothing. Wait, nothing... what's going on? Upon closer inspection, I realized that the plastic piece inside the door which your glass pushes, called the dispenser lever was, gasp, broken! My thought raced on who I should call and how expensive it would be. After a bit of web searching, I found that replacing the broken plastic dispenser would be relatively easy to replace myself. Now, before making any such repair, one must always consider his or her own skill level/limitations, and most importantly - remember to unplug your appliance before starting any repair. After pondering over my ability and available time, I quickly determined that I could handle this repair. Now all I had to do was find the new part.
We are truly blessed these days with the internet and readily available information for just about everything so I did a quick product search and found the item I needed - once again on Amazon. Two more days and easy refrigerator filtered water from the door would be mine once again. Well, today my dispenser came and I made my repair. I'm happy to report all went as planned and I once again have water available from my door! :)
Me holding the replacement part fresh out of the box.
Controls and mechanisms removed for replacement.
Above are a couple pictures from my repair, along with the Youtube video link:
https://youtu.be/NjtmHOnFm-o I followed to make my repair. The video does not show my actual refrigerator model, but was close enough for me to figure everything out.
In the end, one $20 replacement part and a few minutes of time saved me something between $100 and $200. As a realtor who frequently sells homes to first-time homebuyers, I realize this information might be needed by those looking to save a few dollars themselves. I must stress though how one should never attempt any repair without first considering his or her own ability and knowledge. This is especially important dealing with electrical items. I hope this information helps! Have a great day!
best,
Philip Keppel
REALTOR®
BRE#01875431
Media West Realty
1300 W. Magnolia Blvd.
Burbank, CA 91506
www.TeamKeppel.com
philipkeppel@yahoo.com
818.516.7387 Cell