DIY Appliance Repair: What I did When My Dishwasher Start Button Stopped Working

When, in the middle of a terrible head cold last week, our dishwasher stopped working I had a meltdown. In my worst display of “first world problem” privilege ever, I actually fell to my knees and wailed. Then I calmed down and asked Dr. Google for advice.

In recent years, Dr. Google has become much more knowledgeable about the intricacies of appliance repair. Back in the dark ages, the internet only provided Beanie Baby prices and Nyan Cat memes. Now the internet’s coverage has expanded beyond the geeky and into the more mundane world of home construction and repair.

What to do when your appliance stops working
So when a major appliance breaks down I would suggest first consulting the Appliance Blog discussion threads. Even if you’re going to hire the job out it’s good to know what the problem might be and how much it will cost to fix. In my case I was able to figure out that the control panel had a bad switch.

The next step is to head to a parts supplier such as Parts Dr. I picked up the control panel for $137 including shipping.

Appliance Repair 101
The last step, actually doing the repair, is where YouTube comes in. You could probably learn to pilot a jet with YouTube instruction these days, and there’s now a decent amount of appliance repair porn to watch. I viewed the thrilling video above multiple times before attempting the repair.

It took less than ten minutes to swap out the control panel. Then I took a victory lap around the living room with much fist pumping. In the end, I probably saved at least $150 by avoiding a service call.

The interior of my Whirlpool Silent Partner III dishwasher has nicely designed modular parts that are easier to access than many other appliances I’ve opened up. But I have to say that, like many modern gadgets, I wish it had fewer features. All those buttons and circuits end up being a repair liability over time. We need to start a #fewerfeatures movement!

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Discover the Magic of Home Milling this Saturday

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In my opinion, way, way too many home bakers don’t know about the benefits of milling your own flour. If you’re in LA this weekend and are interested in getting more intimate with your flour, there’s a fun event at the King’s Roost featuring Paul LeBeau, who will be debuting a revolutionary new home grain mill called the MockMill. The MockMill attaches to your Kitchen Aid and is considerably less expensive than other home mills. Please come, if just to taste what bread made from freshly mixed four tastes like. I’ll be interviewing Paul for the podcast live in front of an audience. Plus you’ll have a chance to meet Guy Frenkel, the baking genius behind this Instagram account. Here’s the 411:

Home Grain Milling Raffle, Meet and Greet at The King’s Roost

Southern California Farmers, Millers and Bakers are meeting up in Silverlake to learn about home grain milling with Paul LeBeau, Managing director of the German mill maker, Wolfgang Mock. We are raffling 2 MockMills along with various locally grown whole grains donated by California farmers. While there is no charge for raffle tickets or the event, we will sell raffle tickets for a third mill and grain basket to benefit the California Grain Campaign, the effort to require 20% of farmers market baked goods to be made with local whole grains by the year 2020.

When and Where:

Saturday, January 28 th , 2-5pm
The King’s Roost
3732 Sunset Blvd, LA, CA 90026
www.kingsroost.com

Organizers:
Guy Frenkel of Ceor Bread, Erik Knutzen of Root Simple, Leyna Lightman, and Roe Sie

Who
Local farmers, millers, and bakers will be there to meet with Paul LeBeau. Paul is the managing director of German based home mill manufacturing company Wolfgang Mock. They have designed an affordable, compact, stone mill attachment for the Kitchen-Aid and, like Roe Sie, the owner of The King’s Roost, they believe that every home should have a grain mill.

Why
To share the benefits of milling fresh flour at home. Benefits like making fresher healthier more nutritious foods for less money, while supporting the local economy, increasing food security and decreasing our impact on the environment.

Where
The King’s Roost in Silver Lake is LA’s first and only urban homesteading store and learning center. We believe it is the only brick and mortar store in the country that carries a full line of home grain mills. We provide classes and supplies not just for milling and baking, but also for chicken keeping, bee keeping, soap and candle making, brewing, fermenting, and aquaponics.

For more information contact: Roe Sie at [email protected]

Bill Cunningham’s Uniform

Bill Cunningham at Fashion Week. Photo: Jiyang Chen.

Bill Cunningham at Fashion Week. Photo: Jiyang Chen.

Some time ago and to much favorable response, Kelly announced her equivalent of a moon shot: the sewing and deployment of a practical, everyday uniform. With pockets, of course. Like most NASA scale projects, there have been cost overruns, delays and setbacks. Hopefully she’ll be getting back to it soon.

One person that did figure out a personal uniform was the late New York Times fashion and society photographer Bill Cunningham, the subject of an entertaining documentary you can watch in Netflix, “Bill Cunningham New York.” Cunningham had an eye for creative people, not necessarily rich or connected, with a sense of fashion. He cared little for the niceties of life, preferring to dine on $3 sandwiches, get around on a bicycle and sleep in his studio surrounded by filing cabinets full of 35mm negatives.

He also managed to engineer a uniform for himself in keeping with his frugal lifestyle, but at the same time, oddly stylish. Wherever Cunningham went you’d see him in a French worker’s jacket or bleu de travail. Reading between the lines in the documentary, it seems like he’d stock up on them when the Times would send him to Paris.

Blue worker’s shirts and jackets have a long history in all Western countries including the U.S. It’s the origin, of course, of “blue collar.” American uniform shops carry something similar but I like the cut and pockets of the French and German versions better (hint to American uniform manufacturers: you should bring back your vintage patterns and slimmer sizes!). Some enterprising Etsy folks have shops devoted to vintage European uniforms. Here’s a French uniform shop selling them for around 18€ (a steal at $20 USD–no wonder Cunningham liked them!).

So enterprising homesteaders, I’m handing you an entrepreneurial opportunity. Buy a pallet of European worker’s uniforms and open yourself a boutique or sell them on Amazon. I’m very surprised no one has tried the latter.

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