The DRSNews
Greetings!
Again,
sorry
it's been so l-o-n-g since the last issue! I sincerely apologize
for the low number of newsletters I was able to publish for you last year.
2014 was 'interesting' health-wise for me, as the Lyme and related TBD
saga, though improving, continues...
Published
by subscription only, by Dave’s Repair Service
©2015 All Rights Reserved
KNOW ANYONE ELSE WHO MIGHT
LIKE THIS NEWSLETTER?
If you enjoy this issue,
you're welcome to forward its URL to any friends
who might find it useful, or just send them to
www.DavesRepair.com to
subscribe. No ‘strings’attached!
(There's an unsubscribe link
at the end of every issue's notification email)
***************************************
A Special Welcome to all of
you who’ve just joined us! What a great group
of friends we've made over the years via this project! You guys are terrific!
In this issue:
1) Breaking News:
DavesRepair.com No Longer Selling Common Parts
2) Also re Parts: Generic vs Genuine "OEM" - What's the Difference?
3) New Project Finished: My All-Time Top 10 Best Appliance Repair Tips
4) Cloudy Glassware In Your Dishwasher - A Quick Test
5) A Question From the Blog: Songbirds and Deer (Lyme) Ticks
No extra charge for
typos, they're my gift to you!
Hey, before we get started,
here's a great deal that just arrived from Ebay: A Sears $100 gift
card for just $85! Not sure how long this will last, but that's a pretty sweet
deal, and would
make a nice CHRISTmas present! Just click the card image on the right to go
straight to the Ebay listing! |
|
1) First of all, a huge
THANKS to all of you who have purchased common appliance parts
from me over the many years I sold them, both via Ebay and here on my own
website. I
can't
put into words how encouraging you've been to me, and I've
been blessed
to
have made so many,
many new friends this way. So THANK YOU!
I've been trying to slow down a bit, and have sold the majority of my own parts inventory
to another local dealer, but the links below provide access to
wholesale prices on thousands
of
common - and not so common -
appliance parts.
I'll still be
directly selling some
hard-to-find and vintage parts and a few I fabricate myself,
as
well as vintage service
manuals, etc. I've just started working on the list below,
which will
connect you with a very
reliable wholesaler's store on Ebay,
a family-owned business with whom
I've dealt for over
40 years, and highly recommend.
If you already know your part number(s), just visit
THE
STORE and enter it in the search
box there It's very fast, and you won't beat
the prices!
If you're not sure what part number you need, you can
easily look them up by your appliance
model number either
HERE on
my PartsQuik site (except Sears brand) or
HERE on
the
Sears parts lookup site. Don't order parts from either of those
sites, though! First come back
and search for them via the link below to get the best prices!
VISIT THE
STORE
I'm just getting started linking to individual parts in this store,
so stay tuned.
(Note: you'll find my vintage appliance parts specials
here with tons more to come as
I get time to list them. I still was more of those than I should, and will be
concentrating on
posting them in the coming months)
**********************************************************************
“Show me a thoroughly satisfied man and I will show you a failure.” - Thomas
Edison
**********************************************************************
2) Generic vs 'Genuine' Appliance Parts: I get a ton of questions about
the differences,
if any, between aftermarket, so-called 'generic' parts for
home appliances, and the
version packaged with a manufacturer's brand. I
certainly don't have all the answers
(on any subject!) but have been using
and selling appliance parts for 40 years now, so it
might be helpful to give
you my take on the issue.
I've heard service technicians and parts companies
make general, blanket statements
about one or the other, and as with any
other subject, statements of that nature are
usually inaccurate and pretty
much worthless ('all generalizations are bad'
).
Having been through several manufacturers' technical
training schools over the last 4
decades, I can tell you that, not
surprisingly, they all insist on servicers using strictly
their own 'OEM'
(Original Equipment Manufacturer) parts, but again we're dealing with
a
blanket statement - and appliance makers make a lot of profit from parts
sales - so we
need to dig a little deeper.
The truth is, many 'generic' parts are as good as,
and actually identical to, those a
manufacturer brands as their own. In many
cases the branded and generic parts are
actually made by the same company,
repackaged with the company logo, and the price
doubled (or worse).
In the interest of trying to keep this simple and as
brief as possible, I'll run through
a few of the most common parts I've had
the best results with over the years. Please
keep in mind that these are my
opinions based on my own experience, so as they say,
your mileage may vary.
We can't cover too many parts in a brief article
like this, but I'll skim the surface of
the most common 'fast moving' ones.
And I'm doing this from memory (always scarey!),
so I'm certain to miss some
of them.
So let's talk about some specific parts. Keep in
mind there are some exceptions to
these, as life is never as simple as it
appears, but the following come to mind.
**********************************************************************
I’ve tried a half-dozen ‘autoresponder’ systems over the years to help
automate my
business, but I’ve NEVER seen one this good! I've used this system for many
years
now, and it saves me many, many HOURS every week.
AWeber will do the same for
you!
********************************************************************** Generally, washer drive belts and couplers
(Whirlpool-built top-loaders), fill valves,
drain and fill hoses, timers,
main motors, and most electrical controls, will always be
fine to sub to
generic parts.
We're actually seeing many more issues with
Whirlpool's newest steel-insert 'OEM'
drive coupler version (rounded motor
shafts, too-tight tolerances), and as I've written
before, have stayed with
the generic, all plastic type. A colleague in the business has
had promising results using the recently introduced generic steel-insert version, but
I'm
still not convinced
they're the way to go.
I've also had problems with and have learned to
avoid: generic washer pumps and
agitator drive dogs 80040 (old #285770).
Generic #4392065 dryer repair kits made for
Whirlpool-built machines taught me an
expensive lesson over the course of
some 2 years before I gave up on them and went
back to genuine "FSP" Whirlpools. Their main issue was/is an out-of-dimension idler
pulley
mounting arm that causes the belt to run way too tightly, causing noise
problems
and
early belt breakage.
After trying to get the company ("offshore",
blue and white bagged) to correct the
issue while I subbed OEM idlers into
the packages, I gave up and went back to the
FSP kits. As far as I can tell
they still haven't corrected the problem with the generic
kits, and more
recently have had quality
control headaches with the drum rollers in the
package.
I scrapped several
hundred 'short' idlers during that learning experience.
Ouch.
I've sold and used many hundreds of generic dryer
elements, with outstanding
results, for a couple of decades now, so that's
another part I normally have no
problem subbing. I've had 2 or 3 cases when
they seemed to have shorter lives
than OEM's, but an element's lifetime is very, very dependent on the amount of
cooling air flowing through it, so
it's hard to tell for sure if those vent systems
were causing the issues.
99% of those I've used and sold have been very good,
and do save some money
- a LOT of money in some cases.
There also appears to be no difference, other than
price, between generic and
OEM branded dryer thermal fuses, cutoffs, control
thermostats, and belts. I've
had excellent results with these. It's hard to
find generic dryer drive motors these
days, but I used those for quite a
few years, also with excellent results.
Generic parts for electric ranges can also be an
excellent source of money savings
in most cases. You'll find little, if any,
difference in bake, broil, or surface units.
Whenever possible, I've used aftermarket surface units and switches (usually
Robertshaw switches), and
they've been excellent. There are one or two tricks
you want to watch with
the 'universal' switch kits (a future article on this may be
in order!), but
the switches hold up very well, as a rule.
Gas oven ignitors present an interesting case. There
are basically two companies
that make them, but I've seen prices for the
identical ignitor vary by as much as
300% (!) depending on the name printed
on the outside of the box.
Norton's 'flat' 501A has been a standard ignitor for
decades, used by most every
range manufacturer at one time. These days we're being switched over to low
voltage control spark ignition [shudder], but there are still millions of these
inexpensive, reliable 'glow-bars' still faithfully lighting oven burners every day.
The generic versions normally
have 'bare' wire connections and ship with ceramic
wire nuts. This is
because there are some 3 dozen harness plug styles in use (an
attempt to
force usage of OEM's), which can simply be ignored and the wire nuts
used
instead.
When it comes to parts for refrigerators, there's
really not a lot to discuss. Thanks
primarily to the 'going green' movement (a complete hoax, but that's for
another
article), new
ones have a 'lifetime' of around 5 years, so there are very few parts
I recommend replacing in one.
That said, I've been impressed with the generic
version of the common Whirlpool-
style icemaker module (original #628366),
which hold up well and are usually much
less pricey than the 'OEM' versions. I can say the same for compressor start relays
(although newer compressor
problems are more common than failed start relays).
One appliance that's nearly become disposable is the
countertop microwave oven,
and it's a shame, because many microwave repairs
are simple and generic parts
for them are, as a rule, of excellent quality. Over-the-range models have breathed
new life into the microwave industry,
not to mention freeing up acres of counter
space across the nation. Even
though their repairs are usually more costly due to
the extra labor involved
in accessing their 'works', parts that most commonly fail
- door switches, HV diodes, capacitors, magnetrons, even fuses - are easily and
less
expensively replaced with generics.
If I may digress here for a moment, I have to
comment on the small appliance
situation today. The poor quality of the small equipment being manufactured now
- mixers, toasters, etc - is disheartening to an old geezer like me. I repair and
overhaul a lot of vintage
Sunbeam Mixmasters and Sunbeam auto toasters here in
the shop these days,
nearly all of them 50 years old or more (amazingly, my Dad
repaired these in his shop back when they were new!). Once reworked, these will
easily last at least
another
decade or more, by design.
This is the way we expected things to be built less
a generation ago, and it's
amazing
how we've been conditioned to settle
for the junk being presented to us
today. It's
unacceptable.
There, I feel much better now, thanks for indulging
me! You're amazing!
3) I recently finished a new project and I'm excited to tell
you about it. It's a compilation
of
the top 10 best tips, tricks, and shortcuts I've ever come up with in my
appliance repair
career. They're listed in order, in an easily downloadable, inexpensive pdf ebook:
4) Is glassware going into your dishwasher clear
but coming out 'frosted' with white film?
Here's a quick way to determine the
cause: wipe the cloudy glass with white vinegar; if it
clears, it’s hard water; if
it stays, it’s etching, often caused by soft water.
**********************************************************************
"I place economy among the first and important virtues, and public debt
as the
greatest of dangers. To preserve our independence, we must not let our
rulers
load us with perpetual debt." - Thomas Jefferson Prov 22:7
**********************************************************************
5) Update: Our mountain is nearly devoid of deer (Lyme)
ticks during the summer months.
We normally don't
see ONE all Summer, starting in
late April when our woods birds began
arriving.
That prompted
this
article on my blog, and I'm still wondering if anyone else
has
noticed
this,
or if my theory's completely off the mark?
***
Thanks again for subscribing to this little project! I
really appreciate it, and truly
hope
it's helpful to you. As I've said many times before, I never share your
contact
data
with
anyone.
Ever.
As always, if you have any
topics you’d like to see discussed here or covered in an
online
article, let me know and I’ll do my best to oblige. And don't forget
those
testimonials!
Many thanks if you've already sent yours in!
May God richly bless you and
yours,
Dave Harnish
Dave’s Repair Service
New Albany, PA
www.DavesRepair.com
"How far you go in life depends on
your being tender with the young, compassionate
with the aged, sympathetic with
the striving, and tolerant of the weak and strong.
Because someday in your life
you will have been all of these."
- George Washington Carver
Click
HERE for the DRSNews
back issues index
(Please don't share this link, it's only for subscribers. Thanks!)
Copyright
2015
www.DavesRepair.com All Rights Reserved.
This newsletter may be reprinted and distributed freely, but
only in its entirety, including this message.
|