My ice maker in a  house I own stopped working......actually I think it quit some time back and the folks living there at the time never told me. So the new tenant moves in and it wasn't working. It must get fixed and quickly. 

Thanks to my neighbor, who was also working on his rental house this morning....and he happens to be an appliance repair man with a shop around the corner, ..... We discussed the issue and he made a few suggestions. Then just as I'm walking away he asks me to check the water inlet to see if it's frozen. 

It was.... I went outside to talk again...... he said to replace the water valve..... the valve was leaking like a dripping faucet and freezing in the tube..... thaw the tube, replace the valve and check it in 2 hours..... sure enough.....!

It's great to have a neighbor like that. Yup... that solved the issue.  He has diagnosed a few appliance issues like that for me..... stove ignitor was the last one and we had to order the part.... he got it for me in a day. 

It's an art diagnosing ice maker problems. I was trained when I worked for A&E by a guy who had been doing it for25 years. I was in awe watching him. It actually scared me away from the job because there wasnt enough time for proper traing. Waaaayyy too much you need to know, and the more technology advances and the government steps in to make things more efficient, the worse it gets.

Glad it was an easy fix on that. They really rip people off on those ice makers. All they have in them is a low rpm timeclock motor, switch, and some thermistors.

the big issue was letting it cool down enough to start working.....

That's like watching water boil or paint dry... so I left for 3 hrs and went back.... to find ice. 

Bub


Glad it was an easy fix on that. They really rip people off on those ice makers. All they have in them is a low rpm timeclock motor, switch, and some thermistors.

We had Sears come out to loo at ours. $475. But.... the guy tells me to go online and get the parts. $40 service call. 


Parts were $50. 


< 30 minutes to install them.


This was Sears. Whoddathinkit?

I replied but it neber showeD UP. SORRY FOR CAPS. STUPID CELL.

I HAD SAID THAT SEARS/A&E ARE THE SAME. ITS ONE OF THOSE THINGS THEY DONT ADVERTISE BECAUSE THEY ARE IN DIRECT COMPETITION WITH A LOT OF THE PLACES THEY DO WARRANTY WORK FOR. 

WE COULDNT OFFER CONTRACTS TO PEOPLE WHO BOUGHT THINGS AT CERTAIN PLACES AND WEIRD STUFF LIKE THAT. WE WERENT SUPPOSED TO SAY WE WERE OWNED BY SEARS. TUAT KIND OF THING. FELT ODD LIKE I WAS MISLEADING PEOPLE AT TIMES.

IT DOES AMAZE ME HOW MUCH THEY CHARGE. I WOULD NEVER HAVE SEARS FIX ANYTHING FOR ME EXCEPT WARRANTY REPAIRS. AND NOW ITS PART OF TECHS REVIEWS THAT THEY HQVE TO SELL SO MUCH A MONTH OR THEY WILL BE WRITTEN UP ... THEN TERMINATED IF THEY DONT IMPROVE.

What people will charge....... it pays to shop around and ask prices up front. 

A&E Charges by 'job code'. Before any work is done you have to approve the estimate. What they dont tell you is, the 'estimate' is labor per job, not per hour. So if the tech gets done in 15 minutes rather than 1.5 hours like the job code charges for, you dont get a break.

Same as when you take your car to a dealership for repair. They charge per job, not hour ... usually ... and that kind of system is never in the customers best interest.

I bought a new refrigerator a few years ago and within a month, the icemaker stopped working.
Called the 800 number in the manual and a guy was out the next day to replace it.
Apparently, that model had problems because he had a new one with him already. Still works like a charm.
 
Bub, I learned on 'Car Talk' that there is a book showing the approximate time a job will take to do so they'll know how much to charge. But they don't take into account who is doing it. The rookie doing your brake job might take hours more than the old guy who's been doing it for 30 years, but they charge the same price.

When it comes to cars.... I got one of those CarMD things as a gift. It scans the codes and then connects to the server and provides estimated costs based on your local area mechanics. When I had the work done... the local guy actually was under the estimated CarMD cost. The main thing is it tells you exactly what is wrong so the mechanic has a harder time trying to convince you that more work is needed. You get a print out that you carry with you to the shop. 

Bub... I do a similar thing in my business... it's called Contracted Price.  I give a proposal to the customer. It's designed to allow me to make some money on the job..... but at the same time it is a "we do not exceed this price" guarantee for the customer. And there have been a few times where I have had to spend more time and or materials to do a job and had to eat that cost. But the end result is a happy customer.