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Case study #1: A couple years ago, the AC/heater unit stopped working at one of our rental properties. It is a PTAC wall unit, similar to the ones that used to be prevalent in hotels. My father and I installed it only a few years prior. We call a repair guy out. He says the control panel needs to be replaced. $900 to repair it, or $3,000 to replace the unit. WTF? I know the unit only costs about $1,500 at the time, and to replace it literally takes about an hour--it just slides into the existing hole and plug it in. Trust me, it was way more work to run the electrical and cut the hole in the first place. As for the control panel, I found a replacement on Amazon for ~$100. It took me less than 15 minutes to replace. It has worked ever since.

Case study #2: About a month ago our front-load washing machine started making really loud noises on the spin cycle. A couple weeks ago, it stopped spinning completely, so again we call out a repair guy. He looks at it for about 30 seconds, and is confident the bearings are shot. Quotes $850 to repair it because it is a pretty labor-intensive process, taking the whole machine apart to get to the bearings. I start doing some research - apparently this is a pretty common problem for front-load machines to have a seal fail and ruin the bearings. I watched a couple videos on people repairing them. I found the parts - only about $75 for the 2 bearings and the seal. I decided "[expletive] it, the worst thing that could happen is I screw it up and we end up getting a new washer anyway." It was certainly labor-intensive and took me about 5 hours, but it is now running smooth as silk for $75 plus my time. I figure an experienced repairman with the right tools could do it in less than 3 hours - probably more like 2.

Simply ridiculous. No wonder we have such a throw-away society, when repairs are so outrageously overestimated.

The place I used to work about 7 years ago charged around $130/hour to fix computer problems, so the washer dryer doesn't seem that outrageous to me. I'll try to fix something if I think I've got a decent shot, but we had that same issue several years ago and at the time I wanted nothing to do with it. I researched it and it was difficult to determine whether I was finding the right parts, and mostly I wasn't comfortable doing it. It was old enough that we just decided to get a top loader since they don't have those issues.

I assume there's a big upcharge on those parts too.

It wasn't super easy to find the exact right parts. Luckily one of the videos I watched was for my exact model, and they showed the exact bearing models needed. Samsung stopped selling them as OEM parts, but thankfully bearings are somewhat universal - you just have to make sure you spec them out completely the right way. It took me about an hour of searching and confirming I had the right ones on the way.

The most difficult part was getting the tub out after getting everything taken apart. It hangs on a couple springs but it weighs a freaking ton, tilts way towards the back, and is at a really awkward angle to wrestle out of the frame. Probably would have been way easier had I had a helper or two. I spent at least 2 of the 5 hours wrestling with getting that tub out and then back in.

Popeye_Card wrote: ↑

September 13 21, 3:02 pm

It wasn't super easy to find the exact right parts. Luckily one of the videos I watched was for my exact model, and they showed the exact bearing models needed. Samsung stopped selling them as OEM parts, but thankfully bearings are somewhat universal - you just have to make sure you spec them out completely the right way. It took me about an hour of searching and confirming I had the right ones on the way.

The most difficult part was getting the tub out after getting everything taken apart. It hangs on a couple springs but it weighs a freaking ton, tilts way towards the back, and is at a really awkward angle to wrestle out of the frame. Probably would have been way easier had I had a helper or two. I spent at least 2 of the 5 hours wrestling with getting that tub out and then back in.

Lol. Sounds like I’d have beaten the [expletive] out of that thing before I could fix it.

Popeye_Card wrote: ↑

September 13 21, 3:02 pm

It wasn't super easy to find the exact right parts. Luckily one of the videos I watched was for my exact model, and they showed the exact bearing models needed. Samsung stopped selling them as OEM parts, but thankfully bearings are somewhat universal - you just have to make sure you spec them out completely the right way. It took me about an hour of searching and confirming I had the right ones on the way.

The most difficult part was getting the tub out after getting everything taken apart. It hangs on a couple springs but it weighs a freaking ton, tilts way towards the back, and is at a really awkward angle to wrestle out of the frame. Probably would have been way easier had I had a helper or two. I spent at least 2 of the 5 hours wrestling with getting that tub out and then back in.

Your experience doesn't sound terribly common - not everyone has the time, inclination, good fortune etc. to be able to repair something like that themselves.

Although...our AC unit developed a weird noise about a year ago. Called out one of KSHE's most regular advertisers, and they charged me $100 for a "service" and then told me I really needed to replace the entire unit at a cost of $4200. Like, urgently. Didn't bother, and of course it's run entirely without issue since then.