Buying your own home puts a lot of responsibility on the shoulders of the owners. In a condo, you simply call the office, a technician comes over, and fixes the leaking tap or replaces the broken dishwasher, sometimes without even figuring out what’s wrong with it. Of course, this convenience does cost a few hundred dollars a year (including access to the pool, gym, cleanliness in common areas, and equipment maintenance). In your own home, you are responsible for any breakdowns, whether it’s gas, water, electricity, plumbing, or appliances.
Usually, the washing machine and dryer come “with the house.” Sure, you could replace them immediately, but if they work fine, why bother? Each costs between $700 and $1000.
In the last eighteen months, we have had the following breakdowns: 1) two toilet tanks in the bathrooms, 2) air conditioner 3) dishwasher 4) kitchen faucet 5) and just recently – the clothes dryer.
The typical American in such cases would call a professional. That’s what I did with the air conditioner. I paid $200, but I learned where everything is and how things are connected. They also told me that the price was much below the usual because my device was under warranty, and as I understood, they were still billing the vendor. I included a screenshot from a forum where almost the same job was billed at $1300, but the person declined their service and fixed it themselves for $89. There are plenty of such stories. But generally, a normal price for something like this is around $200. Or buy the part for $15 and install it yourself. Being an engineer really pays off 🙂
Of course, there was zero documentation with the house. None at all. I tried to request documentation for the electrical wiring – there isn’t any. It seems like no one ever has it. Eventually, the capacitor in the external unit of the air conditioner (which is a big dummy bigger than a cubic meter) failed. It costs $15 on Amazon.
And now the dryer breaks. I went to check how much the repair would cost. I read a recent story from our area on Reddit. Yesterday, an appliance repair technician visited a woman, charged $100 for diagnostics, and reported that it was necessary to replace the timer and the thermostat. The next morning, she received an email offering: $195 for labor, $165 for the timer, and $18 for the thermostat. The total comes to $378. Thus, the total cost (including the initial visit) is $500, which is just under the price of a new dryer. She asked if this was even reasonable. Maybe it would be better to just buy a new dryer then.
When our dishwasher broke down a year ago, I tried fixing it myself. Just on a whim, maybe it was something simple. I found the water inlet valve was not working. I bought a replacement on Amazon, General Electric WD15X10015 Water Inlet Valve Dishwasher. The cost was $15. About the same price as the parts for the toilet tanks. Well, the kitchen faucet was a bit more expensive. Back to the dryer.
The thermal fuse had failed. But it didn’t just fail — the ventilation pipe through which the dryer “spits” lint and dust and blows humid air outside was clogged. The cost of the thermal fuse was the same $15.
It’s worth noting that neither the thermal fuse for the dryer nor the water inlet valve can be bought in stores. They are only sold online, but with next-day delivery. Surely in the pre-internet era, various repair companies must have been making money by the shovel.
Hi, I'm Rauf Aliev. 