Monday, January 9, 2017

Sometimes You Can Save Money by Fixing Your Own Appliances...

"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