Author Archives: Samurai Appliance Repair Man

Announcing Fixitnow.com Appliance Repair Radio

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subscribe to our podcastYep, we not only jumped on the podcasting bandwagon, but we got all tangled up in the wheels and now the bandwagon rolls with a peculiar thunkety-thunk sound.

We started a podcast about the world of major appliances: industry news, tech tips from the manufacturers, product reviews, purchasing information for consumers, and we answer listener emails. We call it Fixitnow.com Appliance Repair Radio, or FARR, for short. In case you’re wondering who the “we� refers to, the lovely and gracious Mrs. Samurai co-hosts the show with me.

You can subscribe to FARR either at our podcast website or through our iTunes listing. Give a listen, we’d love to hear your comments, good or bad, no matter, just so long as it’s honest. Tell us what you liked… or didn’t as well as suggestions for improving the show.

Nanny-State Alert: New Hampshire Contemplates Licensing Requirements for Gas Fitters

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There’s another Nanny-bill up for hearings in Concord.  This is House Bill 1711 which, in keeping with the current fashion trend, is named after a little girl, Amilia’s Law.  The bill seeks to require licensing for tradesmen who work with natural gas or propane. The language of the bill is broad enough to include any tradesman whose work involves gas in any way: plumbers, appliance repair techs, construction crewmen, excavators, and carpenters to name but a few.

The gist is that the Luhrmanns were having some remodeling done. As part of the demolition and cleanup, a carpenter accidentally cut a propane line while doing some demolition (it’s not even clear he was aware the line was cut because the gas was off at the time and the noisy, dirty nature of doing demolition work). Family comes up (from Massachusetts), turns on the gas and the furnace and BOOM.  Everyone escaped except their little daughter. For more information read, “Parents call propane bill a lifesaver,” by Kathryn Marchocki, in the Thursday, Jan. 26, 2006 edition of the Union Leader [link].

The story is tragic but the solution is, yet again, moronic. Even if this bill were in force at the time of the accident, it would NOT have prevented this disaster! The carpenter doing the demolition would have had no reason to seek such training. And, as mentioned, it’s not even clear that he was aware that he had cut the gas tube.  

The sponsor of the bill, Bonnie Mitchell, was on Against the Grain with Gardner Goldmith on WNTK Talk Radio, 99.7 FM, 1490 AM. I called in while she was on to speak with her.

Mitchell confirmed that this bill, opportunistically named Amillia’s Law, would not have even prevented the Luhrmann tragedy. Yet this bill is named after the Luhrmann’s daughter who was killed in a house fire caused by the cut gas line. Mitchell also stated that some members of the Legislature have been trying to pass this law since 1990 and that it’s been regularly defeated. So what’s really going on here is that some politicians in Concord are exploiting the Luhrmann’s tragedy to use it as an emotional vehicle to attempt to pass, yet again, a hugely unpopular and stupid bill.

So what’s really behind the push for this bill? Well, let’s see: what do bureaucrats and politicians love above all else? That’s right: Money! And, as you’d expect, this bill is all about increasing revenue for the state bank account– more money for them to spend on other feel-good programs. HB 1711 includes testing “fees” (read: taxes) for both Master and Journeyman gas fitters as well as annual licensing “fees” (taxes). The exact amount of the license tax is to be determined by the State Fire Marshal who, not surprisingly, supports this tax increase.

Anytime government messes with the free market, it produces “unintended consequences.” The unintended consequence of this bill will be to restrict the number of servicers that customers may call for gas service. It will also result in longer delays in getting service for simple things like converting an appliance from natural gas to propane. And these services will become more expensive and a lot less convenient.

And here’s another point:  I carry one million dollars worth of liability insurance.  If we have a clear and present danger from bad propane connections lurking in every household, then why hasn’t my insurance company required me to have a gas fitter’s certification as a condition of my insurance policy?

Hearings on House Bill 1711 are on Feb 9. You can read the text of the bill here.

If you live in New Hampshire, contact your representative and ask him or her to dump this bill. HB 1711 is bad for business, bad for consumers, and bad for New Hampshire.

The Samurai Makes Housecalls!

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Broken appliance? Tired of dealing with know-nothing, parts-changing monkeys? Wouldn’t it be great to find expert service you can trust?

If you have the supreme good fortune of living in New London, NH, or in one of the adjacent towns, then, yea verily, the pot-bellied, buck-toothed, cross-eyed Buddha hath grinned down upon you because the Samurai makes housecalls!

Call
(603) 526-7129

  • Professional services are rendered flat rate. My fee is a flat $125 for most repairs. The fee is higher for some installations or appliances but, if this is the case, I would quote this up-front. In addition to my professional service fee, I also charge $25 per trip, including the first trip. And, of course, there’s the charge for any parts that are used, which you can look up ratcheer.
  • If, in my expert, professional opinion, the repair is not worth doing or if the needed parts are no longer available, then you would only pay the trip charge.
  • I can usually schedule a two-hour window for my arrival at your house so you’re not waiting around all day.
  • All repairs are fully guaranteed for 90 days, parts and labor.
  • For your convenience, we accept checks, cash, gold, silver, platinum, palladium and winning lottery tickets for payment.

Call (603) 526-7129 anytime for service.

Speed. Skill. Honor.

Samurai Appliance Repair Man Sponsors Gardner Goldsmith’s ‘Against the Grain’ on WNTK Talk Radio

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
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NEW LONDON, NH. Fixitnow.com Samurai Appliance Repair Man is the newest sponsor of Gardner Goldsmith’s radio show, Against the Grain on local radio station, WNTK, 99.7FM in the New London, NH area. The show sports other spiffy monikers such as the Free Market Lunch and the Gardner Goldsmith Experience.

Gardner’s show has been dubbed the smartest show on radio by Samurai Appliance Repair Man, the brains and gluteus maximus behind Fixitnow.com, the wildly successful do-it-yourself appliance repair website with a huge cult following.

“Gardner’s show is the smartest show on radio,” the Samurai told network reporters, while opening another can of Old Milwaukee, “Ol’ Gardner is right there in the trenches every day educating the sheeple about liberty and fighting the battle against this nanny state we live in, this gubmint-on-acid, this ‘damn, dirty ape’ police state.

“In an endless ocean of pro big-gubmint propaganda advocating either socialism or fascism (both of which are collectivist economic systems), Gardner’s show is on the vanguard of an emerging renaissance of radio and Internet shows carrying the message of liberty to the masses.

“People are so steeped in a collectivist paradigm that they are unable to see that many of the tenants they blindly accept are anathema to individual liberty. Things like a national income tax, a broken government education monopoly that we’re forced to pay for, foreign wars of aggression, and government regulation of what we may or may not put in our own bodies vis-a-vis recreational or medicinal drugs are all examples of anti-liberty government programs.”

The Samurai hopes that by supporting pro-liberty broadcasts, such as the Gardner Goldsmith Experience, more people will come to view all government, but especially the Feral Gubmint, as an intestinal parasite which must be excreted out by the cleansing laxative of Truth.

Against the Grain with Gardner Goldsmith can be heard Monday through Friday, 12 to 3 p.m., Eastern Time, on WNTK, 99.7 FM. You can also listen via their web stream (need Real-Player). Gardner’s website is LibertyConspiracy.com.

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Refrigerator Warming Up and Makes an Occasional Clicking Noise

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This is usually a burned out start relay on the compressor. The function of the start relay is to momentarily energize the start winding in the compressor motor and then cut power to the start winding as soon as the motor is running. In the good ol’ days, these relays were mechanical: heavy copper wire wound around a plunger that would open and close in response to current… and they almost never failed.

Most of the start relays on modern compressors are solid state and use a special material whose resistance increases with temperature. So, as current flows through the relay and the relay heats up, its resistance increases to the point that the start winding is isolated from the rest of the circuit, accomplishing the same thing as the old relays. A common failure of these relays is that the solid state material “cooks” and breaks up, staying open and thus never allowing the start winding in the compressor motor to energize. The end result is that the compressor tries to start, usually you’ll hear a humming noise, and then, after a few seconds, the compressor’s overload protector takes the compressor offline with a loud CLICK!

Easy way to tell if the start relay is bad is by simply removing it from the compressor’s control pod and shaking it. If you hear any rattling, it’s fried.

The most common start relays are shown below. Match ’em up to yours by sight. If you don’t see yours, you can use the 3-in-1 start kit or look it up here using your model number.

The other, more ominous possibility is that the compressor itself is FUBAR. You can check this with your ohm meter. Set it on the lowest setting and then measure the resistance between each of the three pegs sticking out from the compressor in the control pod– the same ones that the start relay and overload connect to. Should read something in the low ohms. If the reading between any two pegs is infinite resistance, then one of the windings in the compressor motor is burned out. You should also measure from one of the compressor pegs to ground with your ohm meter on the highest setting. If you read anything, the compressor has developed a path to ground and is bad.

To learn more about your refrigerator, or to order parts, click here.

Appliantology Newsletter, November 2005

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1. New Look and Feel

2. New Blog Posts During October

3. The Samurai Appliance Repair Forums

4. Got Parts?

1. New Look and Feel

The biggest news this month is the total make-over of Fixitnow.com. You can read about all the details in this post but what I want to emphasize here are the key changes in the site as they affect your efficiently finding the appliance repair information you need.

First thing is the new site search box, on the top right-hand side, just below the logo. This is a built-in search engine, not a third-party Yahoo or Google search. That means it’s much more detailed, comprehensive, and up-to-date than a third-party search utility could ever be. Use it! Alot! You can start with a specific search term, such as “Kenmore model 417.36465 dryer will not get hot.” If you don’t get any results or nothing answers your question, then zoom out to more general search terms such as, “dryer no heat.”

Just below the site search utility in the right-hand sidebar is the LivePerson box. If I’m online, you’ll see a face in the box. Click it and I can help you find stuff. For more detailed help, start a new topic in the repair forum. In fact, that’s the first of the three main sections just below the LivePerson box. Let’s go ahead and talk about those.

You’ll find the three sections immediately below the LivePerson box to be particularly illuminating. They are:

1) The Awesome Do-It-Yourself Forums
The first section is a link to the World-Famous Samurai Appliance Repair Forums where you’ll get personalized help from myself and other master appliance techs who can help you troubleshoot and repair any major appliance.

2) Appliance Troubleshooting Help
This is a list of links by appliance to the repair help section of our parts partner’s website. They have lots of great illustrations, diagrams, and diagnostic information at their site and you can turn around and buy the part right there. Hey, why reinvent the wheel?

3) Key Pages
These are static pages (i.e., non-blog pages) with commonly sought-after information.

Just below this is the section of Post Categories. Here, you can browse all the posts in a category, such as “Dryer Repair,” “Washer Repair,” etc.

Another change is that future non-appliance repair posts, such as my libertarian rants, Hillstomping Updates, and philosophical ramblings will be posted in my new personal blog, The Zenzoid Files. If you get bored jamming bamboo splints under your toe nails, come check out the train wreck at www.zenzoid.com.

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2. New Blog Posts During October

October was a very heavy month for blog posts, 34 total, and almost all of them focused on some aspect of appliance repair– too many to list or summarize; to list them would be unusually cruel and boring, and to summarize them would be a frivolous exercise in wasting time. But you can easily and quickly browse them yourself by checking out the October archive. Here’s another cool feature of WordPress, the new publishing software I’m using for Fixitnow.com: the monthly archive pages contain summaries of each post during that month, not the complete, full-length post, a la Blogger, my old publishing system. While skimming the archive page, just click on the title to read the full article.

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3. The Samurai Appliance Repair Forums

The Samurai Appliance Repair Forums are rockin’. Here are a few summary stats on the forum for the month of October:

Visitors, total: 2,266
Visitors per day (average): 73
New Posts: 2,705
New Posts per day (average): 87

Lots of folks are going to the repair forum and getting stuff fixed. And they should. It truly is the premiere appliance repair forum on the web with an unrivalled lineup of master appliance techs from all over the world who donate their time to help grasshoppers with their vexing appliance problems.

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4. Got Parts?

I always think it’s obvious that you can buy parts through my website; in fact, I don’t like to be in-your-face about it because it could detract from the ambiance of the site. But I’m always shocked when I find out, usually either in the repair forum or in an email exchange, that someone had no idea that they could buy parts through my website. This just in from the newswires: FLASH– IF YOU NEED APPLIANCE PARTS, BUY THEM THROUGH THE PARTS LINKS AT FIXITNOW.COM.

I know, you’re wondering why you should buy parts through my parts links instead of buying somewhere, anywhere, else. Fair questions, I’ll give you three reasons:

1) The prices are as good or better than you’ll find anywhere else.

2) But on top of great prices, you get world-class customer service and the best return policy anywhere: you can return any part for any reason. Period. Yep, even electronic or electrical parts that have already been installed and, oops!, that didn’t fix the problem (but allow me to remind you, gentle reader, of Samurai’s Ichiban Law of Appliance Repair).

3) My website and repair forum survive because do-it-yourselfers like you buy their replacement parts through my affiliate links. Whether you buy the parts through my parts links or go directly to my parts partner, RepairClinic, it doesn’t cost you any extra, the only difference is that if you go through my links, I get a small commission on the sale. Hey, a few pennies here, a few pennies there and before you know it, I have enough money for a bomber can of Bud.

But, in addition to the foregoing, they really do have some very good repair information over there. For your convenience (because that is all ever think about), I’ve included the list of links to the appliance repair troubleshooting sections at RepairClinic:

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Finally I just want to thank you for visiting Fixitnow.com and making it a part of your Internet experience. There are bizzillions of websites out there and I’m glad you found ours!

~fini~

Welcome to Our New Digs!

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If you’re one of those enlightened and extremely intelligent individuals who visits this site regularly then you’ve noticed the make-over. Yep, I finally got fed up enough with Blogger to convert my entire site over to WordPress. Much greater control over the site, the ability to group posts by category (dryer repair, gubmint, etc.), built-in non-branded site search engine, all PHP and MySQL-based, and dynamic pages which eliminate the need to republish the entire site (almost 1,000 posts!) when I make one little template change.

I’ll still keep the old pages on my server– they’ve all been indexed by the major search engines and there’s no sense in deleting them. If you’re new to this site, you can check out the old look here. Among the changes you’ll notice are the elimination of the main table to get you right into the most recent content; smaller font and fewer colors lending a more polished (dare I say, professional?) look to the site. Also, the site looks and feels best using the open-source browser, Firefox. (WordPress is open-source software, too, by the way.)

One of the many cool feature of WordPress is that you, the user, can start a post. You betcha, just like this post about dishwasher life spans and this one about a dryer that won’t work. To start a post or to comment on one, just register using the link at the bottom of the gray sidebar on the homepage.

Still moving in, though: have to finish categorizing the posts and setting up the static supporting pages. Should be all moved in in another two weeks. The final result will hopefully be a website that is more interactive and that makes it even easier for you to find the appliance repair information you’re looking for. Thank you for your forbearance and patience during this difficult but exciting transition for Fixitnow.com.