Photo by Mohammad Esmaili on Unsplash

A Millionaire Who Does Dishwasher Repairs?

#5 in the series: Live Like a Millionaire.

A couple of weeks ago I was disappointed to learn that my dishwasher was not working. The unit was not filling with enough water to dissolve the soap. To add to the problem, the lack of water was not allowing the pump to distribute the water to the spray arms to thus clean my soiled dishes. What a pity! I just hate it when that happens!

This was a little disconcerting to me as the dishwasher was only a few years old and I spent a little extra on purchasing a good brand, Bosch, in the hopes that I would get a little more mileage out of it.

The ability of the washer to clean the dishes was good so I didn't want to just toss it out and replace it. I also found that by adding about a quart of water to the unit it would run fine. But, I had to wait beside the door and add water as each wash and rinse cycle was completed. That was a pain and just was not worth the effort. To add insult to injury, the machine takes about two hours to do a full wash rinse cycle. Hey, I have better things to do such as change my car oil or mow my lawn, both of which would take less than two hours. You can check out those posts here and here.

So I did what any red-blooded North American would do. I googled the problem and searched for a solution.

I found a website that suggested that my particular make and model of washer had the common fault of a failing inlet valve. The valve controls the flow of water into the unit to fill it, and as the valve ages, less and less water enters the dishwasher. Also, this tends to indicate that the valve is about to fail completely and being to leak.

That was enough for me to change out the valve. I found the part on Amazon and it cost me about $30. It took me about 5 hours in total to install and test the valve. I did that over a couple of days to make sure I had no leaks. Yes, it was a bit time-consuming but the last thing I want is a leaky dishwasher as that can really cause serious damage. We were also without a washer for a few days as we waited for the part to be delivered.

I am happy to report my efforts resulted in a dishwasher that runs like new!

I estimate I saved about $300 on repair bills. I understand that for a repairman to come out to do the job he has to be paid not only for his time, but for his tools, parts, and the wear and tear on his truck. These technicians need to be compensated for their expertise, and I don't blame them for that. If they undercharge eventually they will go out of business. They have expenses to pay and need to earn a fair dollar for the service they give, and I get that.

In this case, however, I got a little lucky. I realize that if replacing the valve did not work I would either have to look for another problem, which I might never find, or replace the entire unit. I will rarely pay for a technician to make a service call to repair an appliance as I have found that if I get a new one, it costs only a few hundred dollars more than a repair. That has just been my experience.

Know also that this exercise is not altogether about saving money. I could not stop telling everyone I met over the next few days about my triumph over the broken-down dishwasher. “For only thirty bucks!”, I would exclaim. Yes, I really do get a kick out of doing repairs like that for pennies of what it would normally cost.

Let’s also not forget that by saving $300 in a 5 hour time span I am earning myself $60 per hour, and that income is tax-free. Yes, when I think of it that way I get even more excited.

Doing my own home repairs will never land me an interview on a late-night TV show with Jimmy Fallon or Stephen Colbert. But the feelings I get from doing work like this are probably about the same.

I’m with Sabastian Stan when he said:

“Sometimes it’s okay to give yourself a pat on the back and say, ‘That was cool. That made me feel good.’”

I also attribute this attitude of mind to being a major contributor to becoming a millionaire.

So, yes, I do dishwasher repairs.