My Maytag Repair Man - Part 2

Can you hear the alleluia chorus???????

I HAVE A WORKING DRYER!!!!!!!!!!!!

Long before the dryer went kaput, we had started taking the washer & dryer off the pedestals that raised the openings to waist level. We had managed to get the pedestal out from under the dryer, but then ran out of steam (story of our lives, I swear). While the dryer was out of commission (and out of the laundry room), I wanted to get the washer off its pedestal - if anything deserves to be on a pedestal, it's me! My husband recently had hernia surgery and can't lift anything heavier than 25 lbs so his assistance in lifting a 100 lb wash machine is virtually nil. I wiggled the washer back & forth until I got it about half way off the pedestal.

Then, I started the "tip & swing" method to try to get it onto the floor. This was not working because the metal pan under the pedestal kept moving with each swing. Turns out there is a metal flap on the bottom of the washer catching on the pedestal frame; which, in turn, was making the metal pan move. Good thing my de-herniated husband was there to hold the flap while I tipped & swung the wash machine one more time. Finally, the washer was on the floor! I moved the pedestal to our room so I could stand on it and be worshipped as the laundry godess.

I was getting the pedestal thing out of the way because once the dryer was back in the laundry room, it would have been much harder to remove. Our neighbor, Emerson, was coming back over to assist with the dry repair, but he had to wait until his daughter was tucked into bed for the night. I wanted to have as much done as possible so we didn't keep him too long - it was a work night after all.

The dryer part arrived this past Saturday - I had been without a working dryer for almost three weeks!!!

For the most part, Hubby and I got the belt back on the drum & looped everything back into place. After sorting through the little numbered & labeled snack baggies of screws, I attached the back panel. Emerson arrived and I let him mostly take over. Of course, he had the part replaced & the dryer back together lickety-split. We pushed the dryer into the laundry room.

Dryer plugged in - check!
Press "Start" - check!
Drum turns - CRASH!

We had plugged it in, pressed start & nothing happened. At least the drum turned before!!! Emerson took off that back panel to check how we had looped the belt back in & discovered that we had forgotten to hook up the power supply to the motor. Duh, nothing is going to work without a motor.

Power supply to motor - check!
Dryer plugged in - check!
Press "Start" - check!
Drum turns - check!
Dryer produces heat - CRASH!

I almost cried. Emerson took the top of the dryer apart to get to the control board we replaced and found the wiring harness carrying power to the control board was also damaged. He fiddled around with it so there was a good connection and closed her back up.

Dryer plugged in - check!
Press "Start" - check!
Drum turns - check!
Dryer produces heat - check!

Silver lining:
1. I CAN DRY MY CLOTHES WITH A MACHINE!!!! I don't think there is anything else to say.

My Hose Experience

Months ago, I planted flowers in the front of the house. Typical spring-time activity, right?

I needed to water those flowers, but I've always gotten dirty, dragging a hose though the mulch in order to water so I bought this cute little hose pot and a red hose (to match the house). I planned on hooking the regular hose, which ran thru the mulch, up to this - my hose would remain pristine on the porch in its little pot.

So I planned to go drag the hose reel out of the garage, hook it up to the side of the house, run the hose along the foundation & hook it up to the pristine red hose.

In the winter or perhaps very soon after we moved into our house (Sept 2007), my husband moved the hose reel into the garage, without the hose on it!

I rolled my eyes, attached the hose, wound it up, and wheeled it over to the faucet. When I got there I realized there was no leader hose. Roll my eyes again & head back to the garage. No leader hose in there either - we needed to get a new one. Whoo who, a trip to Home Depot!

With the flowers already planted, I hooked the hose directly to the faucet & moved on with my plan.

Did you notice that I was writing this post in September? Well it's time to replace the spring flowers (mostly dead by now) with fall flowers. So I got rejuvinated in my hose reel challenge. I got out the teflon tape & the leader hose I bought in the Spring and started with my pristine red hose.

How much teflon tape does it take to water flowers? I'll tell you:

• I have a quick-connect on the sprinkler head so both ends needed it
• The green hose meeting the red hose also has a quick-connect - two more pieces.
• The green hose at the hose reel has no quick-connect so it's only one piece.
• Leader hose from the hose real - again no quick-connect - one piece
• Leader hose meeting the timer should only be one piece, but what is this??????

The leader hose has a male & female end - normal! I attached the female end to the hose reel, but the male end had a problem. The timer is also a male attachment. I needed a hose repair kit in order to make the other end of the hose female; thus, be able to attach the hose to the faucet. Back to Home Depot!

Back to the teflon tape list:

• Attach the leader hose to the timer - one piece
• Attach the timer to the faucet - last piece!!!

That's eight pieces of teflon tape - good thing a had a brand new roll!

I rolled up the excess hose, turned on the water, went up on the porch & grabbed my sprinkler wand. Nothing happened. There must be a kink somewhere. Nope, there was water spewing out the bottom of the hose reel. Darn-it! Somehow during this process, I had done something to the end of the hose. I needed another hose repair kit. Yay, another trip to Home Depot!

All is now well because I got a repair kit and one of those little pieces of hose with a spring on it to prevent kinking. That little piece has two ends on it (because it gets attached to the hose, it's not a repair kit) so there were two more pieces of teflon tape involved.

I turned on the water again and it spewed out the bottom of the hose reel again!!!!!!! Apparently, I didn't have the connection between the springy hose and the hose reel tight enough. I got that fixed with my handy, dandy locking pliers from my personal tool bag - stole it out of my husband's tools, but he had two & I use it more. Maybe there wasn't anything wrong with the other hose end after all - probably a wasted trip to Home Depot.

Still counting the teflon tape from the first attempted connection, because it was piece used up, I was up to ten pieces of teflon tape. Whew, I could now water the flowers.

Did I mention a storm was rolling in last night? I'm sure everyone driving by thought I was an idiot for watering my flowers before a storm. Hah, got them! We never got more than a sprinkle! Good thing I watered.

So, it takes ten pieces of teflon tape & three trips to Home Depot to water the flowers!

Silver lining:
1. It only took three trips to Home Depot - not bad considering the general concencensence is six trips for a typical repair.
2. I am an expert at teflon tape application & fixing hoses.

My Maytag Repair Man

I'm a newbie to blogging, but I gotta write this stuff down somewhere!

The dryer broke last week - no heat. A neighbor, Emerson, came over and helped my husband disassemble it so they could figure out what was wrong. Good thing Emerson was there; Hubbyb is pretty handy, but this was definitely a job for someone with a little more experience.

Let's just say, I now have a dryer in pieces and a part (hopefully, the right one) on the way. The laundry room is on the second floor of our house - thank goodness; otherwise, I'd have parts strewn about the main living area!

Right now the drum is sitting at the top of the stairs. I never thought there was enough room for a little table in the corner up there, but we've gotten used to the drum being there. Maybe I should throw a piece of plywood and a table cloth on top. There is an outlet so I could add a lamp and some chochkies.

Our laundry was really starting to pile up because I thought Hubby and Emerson would get it fixed and I'd be able to move on. Nope - it's been down since last Wednesday and the part should arrive in 5-7 days from now. So, I've had to improvise. I have laid my daughter's waterproof mattress pads over the stair railing and laid clothes across them. I have underwear draped over hangers and hanging from the hall bathroom shower rod. I don't have a lot of those pants hangers, you know, the ones where the pants are hung at full length, so I've got binder clips holding pants lengthwise from regular hangers.

The upstairs is a sight to behold! You can only imagine!

Silver lining:
1. I've learned to prioritize the laundry so we've all got clean clothes instead of a bunch of clean towels, but nothing to wear. I have more clean clothes hanging in my closet than I usually do.
2. It's spurred us on to finally organize the laundry room. It's pretty tight and storage has been lacking. This project has given us an excuse to actually change that.
3. My husband actually listened to me about getting help with a household repair!!!

I'll keep you posted!