Why do I own a ratchet with all kinds of weird attachments? I will tell you as I reveal my latest DIY home fix discoveries for things that leak….
When appliances leak. You can:
1. Choose to live with water all over the floor
2. Call Sears or someone like that and pay a lot of money to have them fix it, or
3. You can find youtube videos and go on searspartsdirect.com and order parts and DIY it
I was a number one-er for months, living with water all over the kitchen and basement floor. I was also a number two-er for most of my life, but after a friend helped me install a dishwasher a couple years ago, I thought about becoming a number three-er. Putting together baby swings, crib, dresser, stroller and installing car seats pushed me over the hump. I now ENJOY reading manuals and assembling and dissembling things. Yeah, I’m weird.
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LoWreck, Drummer for Petty Morals
I talked about the leaky appliance thing at our last Charms gig with my friend LoWreck, the drummer for Petty Morals. She said, “It’s alllllways the gasket!”
The difference between me replacing my fridge and washing machine gasket and LoWreck replacing her fridge and washing machine gasket is that I’m 33 weeks pregnant and LoWreck is a gorgeous workout machine who could potentially compete in bodybuilding competitions. I’ll probably be able to give most people a pretty realistic picture of how difficult this stuff is.
The gasket on the washing machine was the first project. It was torn and water kept leaking into our sump pump hole, producing a mildew smell. When Joe shop-vacced the water out it revealed that there was a dead mouse in there. Um, time to fix the source of the leak. And bleach the shop vac.
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The Charms’ tour van
Some of you may be experts at this. Speaking as a first timer, replacing the washing machine and fridge gaskets seems to require:
1. A basic intellectual ability
2. Above average patience and stamina
3. Moderate strength, until the gasket/brace part, at which point you need 2 people or one LoWreck
It also requires a bunch of tools that you would be unlikely to have in the house unless you had had to replace a headlight on your touring van. I would also have liked this list to include a few beers, but I’m pregnant, so I left that off for now.
I found a video online about the general process of replacing a washer gasket and headed down to the basement with my computer w/ youtube video cued up, a phillips head, flat head, and a pair of pliers (for what I wasn’t sure, but I thought maybe pliers would come in handy…they didn’t. In fact none of the aforementioned tools came in handy). Let me add that it was 11pm when I got a bee in my bonnet to fix the washer. Kid was asleep and it would be a quick fix, according to the video!
One step into the video, I encountered a hexagonal bolt who, as it turned out, had 39 cousins who lived on this washer. WTF do I do about these? I remember this little dark green case under the sink that we had always kept in the van on tours in case we needed to replace a headlight. Let me tell you…this very small green case has about 50 attachments of all sizes for hexagonal bolts, star-shaped screws, yada yada. It also has a ratchet that you attach these to if you need to get into an awkward space. The toolkit looks something like this:
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A toolkit resembling our touring toolkit
See that thing with the black handle and straight metal piece coming out on the right side? I don’t know what it’s called, but it takes out this one common size of hexagonal bolt that seems popular on most appliances. Oddly, it didn’t work on all of the seemingly same-sized bolts so I had to use the ratchet with attachment. I think this is how they frustrate you into calling the Sears repair people. My determination to get this gasket replaced by sunrise was no match for these hexagons. I got the back, top, detergent dispenser, and door off. I guess I got a little over enthusiastic because the door didn’t really need to come off. Hey, I was following the video!
The next obstacle was a 6-pointed-star-shaped screw that lives on the inside of the door of the washing machine. Someone told me these are called ‘security screws’. If anyone knows why a washing machine needs security, please comment below. Do people steal detergent dispensers from machines at laundromats?
After removing all of the parts I was supposed to remove and the door I didn’t need to remove (be warned that generic DIY videos don’t cover all of the intricacies of your particular appliance), I faced the task that required the most strength and stamina–putting the new gasket on. The gasket and brace is a two person job. Don’t let the video dude snow you into thinking you can hold the part of the gasket you’ve put on while you stretch the last bit and fasten the brace. The other side always pops off. I had to get Joe involved at 2 am. Maybe LoWreck could do this on her own, but even that expert dude in the video tutorial doesn’t look like any match for the gasket. They must have doctored the video.
After some tugging and swearing, Joe and I got the gasket/brace on, I put the dispenser, top and back covers back on and guess what? I only had 4 bolts that I couldn’t remember where to reattach. Not bad for having removed about 40!
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Security or ‘Tamper-proof” Screws
A few weeks later, my next project was the fridge gasket. To be brief, I was totally prepared for the hexagonal bolts this time. This was much more time consuming than the washer for some reason, but anyone with a few hours on their hands could do this project. The fridge is no longer pouring condensation out the bottom and all over the floor and rug every day. Mission accomplished.
Then today I learned something really interesting about leaky faucets. LoWreck, I know you like to surprise your husband when he gets home from work with sexy DIY plumbing fixes and a négligée so pay attention to this tip, girl. If you shut any main valves off and a faucet doesn’t work after you turn them back on, take the aerator off and try the water again. It can get gunked up when you turn valves off and on. Once you remove and the gunk comes out, you can put the aerator back on and the faucet will likely work again–ours did. My plumber should run the government because half the time I call him with what seems like a huge issue/project, he breaks it down and gives me this super simple solution that costs a fraction of the time and money I thought it would.
So if you plan to do any home appliance fixes, don’t get intimidated by ‘security screws’ and call the Sears guy. Just buy one of these toolkits pictured above, go to searspartsdirect.com, and have a few beers and a négligée (ladies, for the most part anyway) ready for when you’re done.
Image may be NSFW.
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Image may be NSFW.Clik here to view.
