What’s that puddle underneath the refrigerator? Why is the garbage disposal making that noise? Why won’t the burner on the stove boil water?

Modern conveniences that don’t work frustrate and annoy us. But, thankfully, not everything that goes wrong requires an expensive visit from a repairperson. I learned this happy fact many years ago.

It had been a bad month for the Ostrow budget: my car needed four new tires, the old furnace needed a new motor, and record snowstorms had the plow guy working overtime on our long, hilly driveway. I didn’t need another repair bill when my electric oven stopped working. So I decided to try calling the maker of my range, to see if someone at the source had a solution.

It was a revelation. Not only did the service rep who answered help me figure out what was wrong—a bad heating element—but she told me I could easily fix the problem myself. Through her I ordered the part with my credit card; two days later, with the part delivered by parcel service, I got on the line with another service rep, who talked me through the repair. In 10 minutes, I had a working oven.

While some repairs are best left to trained professionals, there are plenty of little problems you can solve yourself, with the aid of a friendly help line, Internet information, or just a bit of common sense and a few directions you find here. It will restore your faith in modern convenience!

When an appliance isn’t doing its job to customary standards—the refrigerator’s not keeping food cold enough, or there are troublesome small puddles where the dishwasher hose meets the sink drain—you’ve got to assess the problem, and figure out what’s wrong before things get worse.

If you’ve got a use and care manual for your appliance, you’re already on your way to a fix. But if you don’t, you’ll need to find out the model number of your appliance before you call a manufacturer for help, or to download a copy of the manual from the Internet (see Appendix B for some popular manufacturer 800 numbers and websites). The model and serial numbers are stamped or printed on a metal, plastic, or paper label affixed to the appliance.

Here’s a list of the locations where the model/serial number is often found on appliances. It may vary a little from maker to maker, but it’s a good place to start:

Every use and care manual has at least one table labeled “troubleshooting,” which lists common symptoms of problems and their possible causes. Using this table is always a good place to start your diagnosis. Often, manufacturers list not only the symptom and its cause, but also the cure. Reading your owner’s manual is like a free repair clinic.

Always begin troubleshooting appliance problems with what my kids like to call the “duh” questions (meaning, if you don’t do this first, have your brain checked):

It’s smart to look for obvious oversights before you pursue more strenuous solutions.

I once called an electrician because I thought all the power was out in our new addition. He got to the house and showed me the circuit breaker in the main panel that controlled the sub-panel for the addition. I had flipped it off by mistake the day before when someone’s hair dryer flipped a breaker on the main panel! That was an expensive error on my part—no one had labeled this controlling breaker (see Chapter 13 for directions on how to avoid this blooper).

Because so many people now use the Internet, manufacturers’ websites are equipped not only with downloadable manuals, but with their own appliance repair pages and parts stores. You can do a lot online to service your own appliances without calling a pro.

If you need the encouraging voice of a live customer service person, this is still available from several manufacturers via a toll-free call, though you may have to wait on hold for a bit. Having someone “talk me through” my first appliance repair built my confidence; it may also help yours.

Please note: appliances have different designs, and really old appliances may have different features than newer ones. If your appliance doesn’t have the features referred to in the repairs below, please contact the manufacturer. These are general instructions that may not apply to every make and model of appliance.

Refrigerators last a long time, and you can keep yours humming by paying attention to any troubling symptoms. Here are a few problems you can solve yourself.

The ideal temperature inside the fresh food cabinet of a refrigerator is between 36˚ and 38˚ F. For a freezer, the temperature should range between -5˚ and 5˚ F.

If you think your refrigerator and freezer are too warm or too cold, test them by putting a thermometer in the refrigerator and freezer cabinets for a couple of hours each, and check the readings. If they’re high or low, try adjusting temperature controls up or down to reach the correct temperature.

If the temperature controls don’t handle the problem, you need to consult a pro.

If the seal of your refrigerator door is loose, cold air is escaping and your appliance will run more often than it should to maintain the proper temperature. Check the gasket between the door and cabinet by inserting a dollar bill and closing the door. The bill should come out, but you should feel a bit of resistance.

If the gasket isn’t snug, and looks dirty or crusty, try cleaning the gasket material with warm soapy water, then rinse. You can also lubricate the gasket with a little petroleum jelly. If this improves the seal, you’re done. If the gasket is hopelessly dried out and cracked, you’ll need to replace it (a pro will do it right). Some people will try fixing a gasket themselves, but the gasket material isn’t cheap, and you may have trouble achieving a sufficiently tight replacement seal; amateur jobs are often weak at the corners.

Dirty condenser coils can make the appliance run overtime. You should clean them once or twice a year.

You’ll need the following:

The condenser coils are sometimes located on the back of the appliance; to clean these, use the brush attachment on your vacuum cleaner. You’ll also need a friend to help you move the refrigerator away from the wall. Be careful, it’s heavy!

If the coils are not on the back of the appliance, you’ll find them at the bottom of the appliance, behind the little grill panel below the door(s). For coils in this location, use the vacuum’s crevice tool.

If water collects in the bottom of the refrigerator cabinet, you may have a clogged drain. The drain is a little hole, usually found under the vegetable bins, that drains condensation into the drip pan under the appliance, where it evaporates. If it’s not obvious where the drain is located, refer to your appliance use and care manual. (Some drains can only be serviced by a pro; if you can’t find the drain, call a repairperson.)

If you see water pooling near the drain, you’ll need to clear the passageway. Sometimes food or debris gets caught there and creates a clog.

You’ll need the following:

Once you locate the drain hole, insert the tube down through the drain hole. Clear any debris. Fill the turkey baster with warm water and squeeze the baster tube so the water runs down the drain hole. If the drain is still clogged, call a repair pro.

If the refrigerator is properly positioned, the front of the appliance will be just slightly higher than the back, so the door swings shut easily, by itself. If it’s not positioned correctly, your door may hang open, which wastes energy and money. To correct the problem, you have to adjust the appliance’s front feet.

You’ll need the following:

Water gathering underneath the refrigerator is a troubling symptom, but often, it’s not a sign of serious trouble. It could be caused by a couple of conditions.

The drip pan usually sits on top of the condenser coils, under the refrigerator.

If you have an icemaker, the supply line may be leaking somewhere along its length.

Most dishwashers are installed under the kitchen counter and are a major pain to repair, unless the problems are quite minor. The pro route is preferable for most problems. Here are a couple of defects you can deal with.

Usually, the drain hose for the dishwasher connects to the kitchen sink drain at a junction just above the trap. Installers usually connect the flexible dishwasher drainpipe to the copper or PVC drain with a clamp. You can tighten this clamp if the connection gets drippy, or replace the clamp. It’s a job just like the emergency leak repair described in Chapter 10.

Other leaks in the hose, which will require hose removal, and taking the dishwasher out from under the counter, should be left to the pros.

Many dishwashers have built-in mini garbage disposals to handle the debris left on dishes. Others do not; they have filters that must be emptied regularly, or the dishes won’t get clean and the dishwasher tub may start to smell.

Read your dishwasher use and care manual. If you have a filter in the tub, the manual will show you how to remove and clean it—an operation that usually takes less than a minute.

Washing machines that are properly installed are usually sturdy creatures that deliver clean clothes year after year without much trouble. One of the most widely reported problems with washing machines is that the hoses leak, or they may fill slowly. You can deal with these problems when you read Chapter 14.

However, the other major complaint about this appliance is that, on occasion, it starts to move around of its own accord, usually during the turbulent spin cycle. How do you get your washer to stop “walking”?

This is another foot problem; you’ll need to level the appliance. To adjust washing machine feet, you’ll need the following:

If you can tilt the washer forward with your own strength, fine. If not, ask a friend to help. If you want to take the lazy person’s approach to a washer that walks, level the back feet (see the following instructions) and put a rubber mat under the front feet. I have friends who swear this cures the problem.

I’ve never had a relationship with a garbage disposal. There were none in any of the apartments I lived in, and my homes in New York and Maine are serviced by septic systems; disposals are a no-no.

So I researched fixing one with my sister, who had an old, extremely loud disposal in her last house. With three kids who put all kinds of things in the sink, hers often jammed. I don’t want to publish the long list of stuff that got stuck in her disposal, but the appliance was still working when her kids were finally grown and she moved to a smaller house. So, she’s a disposal repair expert!

Occasionally, something that shouldn’t will drop into the disposal: a spoon, a coin, a plastic action figure. The grinder starts up, but the motor will just hum, because the grinder blades won’t turn. Or the thing shuts off completely via its built-in circuit breaker (which protects the motor from self-destruction).

To fix a jam, you’ll need the following:

Sometimes, appliances just wear out. In Chapter 18, you’ll see a listing of various appliances and their life expectancies. While a new appliance may be pricey, professional repair is also costly, and you have to weigh the value of a repair against the potential costs/benefits of replacement.

Many appliances—washing machines, dishwashers, and especially refrigerators—have become much more energy efficient. The money you can save by retiring an old, energy-gobbling appliance and replacing it may justify the added expense over the cost of repair. See Appendix B for some helpful information on making the replace/repair decision.