Money-Wise Mondays - all the appliance tips!

 I had the pleasure to meet a wonderful appliance repairman last week. I really didn't think that I was in need of said relationship, but the stubborn dishwasher had other plans. One busy morning, when I was ready to reload it with breakfast dishes, the stubborn thing died on me. By died, I mean that there was no power to all the switches and I was in desperate need to get it fixed. With homeschool, and all the kids' activities, and new baby due any day, I just don't have the time to stand in front of the sink and wash my dishes by hand. I don't think I am spoiled by not wanting to do them by hand. I actually find washing dishes by hand therapeutic. It's almost like Zen therapy. The smell of dishwashing soap, the feel of bubbles on my hands, the satisfaction of job completed are all very nice, but I just don't have the time for that right now. I need a working dishwasher.

  So, as you recall, I was desperate. Daddy offered to call an appliance repairman the very next day. I jumped at the chance to email him a list of local repairman that would be close enough to our house to come and see what was wrong with it. I found over 15 different repairman in our area and emailed the list to Daddy. It didn't take very long for him to call me back and let me know that the repairman would be coming that afternoon. I was very excited. At this point my dishwasher was taken apart by Daddy in attempt to fix it, and the power to it was shut off. I was eager to get it fixed.
   That afternoon I had the pleasure to meet Keith the appliance repairman. He was a polite, middle aged man with an obvious knowledge of anything appliance related. He informed me that from the description of a problem that my husband gave him he knew exactly what the problem was. He said that it sounded like a thermal fuse in the dishwasher and that it was a common problem. He said that it was an easy fix and that it shouldn't take more than an hour to fix. He really spent more like 50 minutes fixing it. Along the way he showed me why that piece was broken and how to determine if the thermal fuse was gone. He also said that most of the time when he replaces a part for an appliance, the manufacturer sends him a part that looks exactly like the one he is replacing. Once in a while he receives a part that looks completely different, and that's when you know that there was something wrong with the original part, since they felt the need to change the way it was designed. Well apparently, these thermal fuses for KitchenAid dishwashers have changed drastically in their design. Plus he said that he gets called in quite often to change them.

   Keith was also nice enough to check my oven, but miraculously it worked. I cleaned it by hand that morning so I might have bumped something. He said that this happened often; a repairman comes in to fix an appliance only to discover that it now works. I wasn't going to complain since now I didn't have to pay for fixing it.

   After all was said and done I paid Keith 130 dollars. That included his time fixing the dishwasher and the cost of the replaced part. Beats spending 600 dollars plus on a new dishwasher. But the best part was that Keith was very informative and he gave me some great appliance tips that I would love to share.

Appliance tips from Keith the repairman:

• Since the same hot water that is fed to your kitchen faucet goes to your dishwasher it is very important that you open you faucet to hot and let all the stale, cold water drain from the pipes before you start the dishwasher. The reason that it's important is that the dishwasher detergent is not activated until the water reaches 70°C in the dishwasher. If you have not been washing things at the kitchen sink for a while, or have been out of the house, the water that will run first is cold water. Since that is the water that will feed your first wash (prewash) it will be inadequate to properly activate the dishwashing detergent. By the time the dishwasher is filling up for it's main wash the water may be not hot enough either. So opening your faucet to hot water until the water runs nice and hot will improve the way the dishwasher washes the dishes. This little tip has been great. I never prewash my dishes in the sink (if I have to prewash by hand then I might as well wash them all by hand), and for the first time ever the dishes come out sparkling clean! Try this tip, it's worth it!

• There are many chemical dishwasher cleaning products, but Keith suggested that I get a tub of lemon Tang (or Kool Aid) and use it instead. Once a month fill all soap dispensers full of the lemon Tang and run your dishwasher on hottest setting. Since the main ingredient in Tang is citric acid it will cut down on all the grease in the dishwasher and leave the dishwasher smelling lemony fresh. I tried it. I used 3 packets of lemon Kool-Aid and run my dishwasher on hot. My dishwasher was never cleaner. And it cost me pennies. Much cheaper than the 15 dollar dishwasher cleaning product!

• If you have front loading washing machine then using a HE laundry detergent to minimize the suds in the washing machine is a must! Also remember to leave the door to the washing machine opened in between loads so that the washing machine doesn't start to smell. He also suggested using Affresh Washer Cleaner tablets to kill residue buildup and smell, but I have had my washing machine for over 3 years now, and I only use castille soap and oxygen bleach in it with vinegar rinse and I don't have any problems with smell. Vinegar is awesome at getting rid of the residue so that my washing machine is always clean. But if you have to clean your machine once every few months run it with about 3 scoops of oxygen bleach powder and vinegar in the rinse cycle. Affresh has the same ingredients as oxygen bleach, but Affresh is much more expensive.

I hope that you enjoyed these tips for keeping your appliances in a tip top shape. I sure used then since I heard about them and I am glad that Keith was nice enough to share these with me.