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01/28/2004 Entry: "Mad props to Steve and Jim"

Steve Carroll is a local appliance fix-it man. He used to run a used appliance showroom, but he was doing so much service work, he closed the shop, and is now doing full time service. I'm not sure how we originally met, but we knew each other, and when he joined Kiwanis, it was cool. (I wish he'd come back to Kiwanis--he was a hoot at the meetings!) So a couple of weeks ago, my washer went on the fritz. I called another tech place, but they were to busy to get to me. The next day, the washer worked again, so no big deal.

Fast forward to Monday this week. It's fritzed again. No biggy, I figure it will fix itself the next day, like last time. :-) No dice. So then I thought maybe it was cold. Both times it happened, it had been really cold, and the basement's not really heated. So I put the portable heater on it. That wasn't it. So I called the other fix-it shop again. The tech guy was at a conference, and wouldn't be back until Monday. Monday??? Anyway, I started lookingfor Steve's number. Since the shop's closed, it was hard to find his number. I couldn't find it on the online yellow pages either. So I looked up his old account at work, and tried that number. It worked. I left a message.

He just called me, and we had a little small talk. He then asked what was up, and I explained it to him. He said "Try the lid safety switch. Do you hear it click?" I didn't. "Sounds like the safety switch is gone," he said, "as it should click. What brand of washer is this?" It's a GE. "GE's safety switch activates on wash and spin. So if it were gone, it would fill with water, and nothing would happen."

That's exactly it!

He then lead me through the entire process. over the phone, of opening the washer, bypassing the switch, and PRESTO it worked! I told him "I feel so Macgiver, hot wiring a washing machine!"
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Also, thanks to my buddy Jim for hooking me up with a case of individual Pringle cups. There's only one left! Thanks Jim!