Had a chat with an old timer that made me rethink my whole approach to fridge repairs

I was swapping a defrost timer on a 15 year old Whirlpool last week, and this retired guy who used to work on these things in the 80s watched me for a minute. He said "you know, that part ain't always the problem, usually it's the harness connection running corrosion." I laughed it off at first, but after I swapped the timer and the fridge still acted up, I went back and cleaned those pins with some contact cleaner. Sure enough, it fixed it right up, no new parts needed. Has anyone else caught themselves jumping to swap parts when a simple wire cleanup would do the trick?

2 comments

2 Comments

the_phoenix16d ago

You ever notice how that same trap shows up everywhere? I catch myself doing it with my truck all the time. Throwing money at new parts when the real fix is just cleaning something or tightening a bolt.

oscarmurray16d ago

Throwing money at new parts when the real fix is just cleaning something" - man that hits home. I spent like 60 bucks on a new carb for my lawnmower last month only to find out the old one just had a gunked up jet. A little carb cleaner and some compressed air and it ran perfect. Feels bad man but at least I got a spare part now I guess.

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