I saved $400!

I have the Neptune washer and dryer. We got them around 8-9 years ago. It's the front loader and I really do like them. I cram anything in there I want/need to. Plus with the front loaders they tend to get the clothes almost dry at the end of the wash cycle. Well not dry dry but much more dry than a regular washer.

A few months ago my door would not unlock by itself when it was done washing. I would have to manually push the off button then wait for a few minutes for it to unlock. Irritating but still usable. However, I could not just stick a load in the washer and go run errands. I called around and service calls were roughly $100 (it varied from $60-$120). Then parts on top of that. I figured if it still worked I wasn't going to pay that much for a service call... unless after awhile it drove me crazy. I'm cheap like that.

Last weekend the Door Locked light was on when the load was done. I pushed the off button but it did nothing. I had to unplug it and wait for it to cool down for the door to become unlocked. Maybe it's time to call a service guy now. Next load the door was unlocked when the load finished. I was somewhat excited, thinking maybe it fixed itself. That is until I started taking out the clothes. They were soaking wet. The washer never went into spin mode. I turned it to "spin" and start it up. A few minutes later the clothes were still soaked. Oh well, I stuck them in the dryer. The dryer has a sensor to see if the clothes are dry. I'm sure it ran for a long while drying those clothes. I thought maybe it was a fluke so I tried another load. In fact I did 2 more. Same thing. It never spun the clothes dry.

I did some research online and called around to service places again. I know there is a 'repair kit' that is sold online for my washer. Not from Maytag of course. But you have to be able to solder to fix it. I can't. I figured I would look around for a new/used control board. The part that needs to be fixed is on the control board. There is one common place this board fries. Mine was burnt. It is caused by a faulty wax motor. Service people want $325 for a new control board and $40 for the wax motor plus $70 or so for the service call and $50 to take apart the washer. Um, I don't think so. I was thinking about ordering the repair kit for $35 and then finding someone that could solder. But what if I couldn't? I looked on Ebay for control boards. They were $70 on up to around $200. Still cheaper than a local service place. I found one for $85 with the wax motor and $10 shipping. Score!

I got it today in the mail. I put the parts in and put my washer back together. Fingers crossed and I started a load. Guess what? It works great again! Forget those expensive service guys!!

Pete was impressed and said he didn't think he would have tried it. It's the cheap-skate in me.