You Wait All Day For The Maytag Repairman...

... And all he has to tell you is that he can't help you.

Wait... Clarification needed...

He tells you he can't help you, and charges you $113.

Really though, not his fault.

See, around January, our dryer stopped drying stuff. After 60 minutes in there, things would still be very wet. Warm, but wet. The Husband and I determined that it was a vent problem. But rather than tell the landlord, we just decided to keep trying to use the machine. We would let things dry in there for about four hours. Eventually, we just started taking everything out of the washer and hanging it on racks.

Well, I decided last week that I just couldn't take it anymore. If The Husband didn't want to tell our landlord (who is very nice and didn't raise the rent on us this year), then I was going to call in the Maytag Repairman.

Instead of going into the office, I worked from home. About 3pm the guy finally showed up. He turned the machine on and looked at the back of it.

"Yeah," he said, "I'm probably not going to be able to fix this."

"How come," I asked.

"See," he began, "your machine is fine."

He took the panel off the front of the dryer and turned the machine on.

"Everything rotates inside the machine, and underneath, you can clearly see that the heating component is working properly. The problem isn't the machine. It's the tube that leads into the ceiling. That tube goes to the building's ventilation system."

He stops the machine and pulls the tubing out of the back of the machine. It's a long white spiral tube that leads from the back of the machine into the ceiling.

He shows me up the tube. It's a little "linty." But mostly, it's black.

"That's mildew," he said. "This tube needs to be replaced. But more importantly, the ventilation system needs to be looked at. If this tube has mildew in it, the system probably has a lot more."

So basically, it's a problem with the building. Which means it involves not just our landlord's apartment, but all the other condo apartments in the building.

I so don't want to tell the landlord, as I know the condo fees for the building went up a lot this year. And the landlord only raised our rent $50. As far as I am concerned, it's better for the environment if we just air dry everything. And I can buy a few more drying racks.

Ugh... It's stuff like this (unforeseen major repairs) that make me never want to own a home or a car. If I had my way, I would send the laundry out to be done each week. But there's just too much of it. That would be way expensive.

Comments

Anonymous said…
I think you should probably let your land lord know. You can de-emphasize it and let him or her know that you rarely use the dryer any ways so you're not in a huge hurry to get it fixed. It's important that the owner know what's going, in case it turns into an even larger issue, like say, gross mold in the ventilation system (ewe, cootie air). I think it can be done politely, without incurring any inconvenience to you. But you should still let him or her know what you learned.
Anonymous said…
I just hate appliance repairs in general. Two weeks ago, my 1-year-old, front-loading, dream of a dryer quit on me. Bad motor. And it was one of those weeks where everything in the house needed to be washed. And this is my fourth set of washers and dryers in ten years. Oh, and I take very good care of my appliances. Grr....
BFW (Tammy) said…
Hey there,
You know the main reason you should tell the landlord? If there IS mold of some sort in your ventillation system, that is NOT necessary safe to breath. Even though I can epathize with you not wanting to burden him, it's really a health issue... nota luxury. You know?

PS - BOY you posted a lot over the weekend. I'm just on this post... I have a bunch of catch-up reading to do!

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