DIY Tips to Repair Your Home Appliance

DIY Tips to Repair Your Home Appliance

Although there are certain times when no matter how hard you try to remedy the situation yourself, you just have to call a residential electrician, like Static Electrics, there are many home appliance repairs which you can do yourself successfully.  Here are some tips on how to repair your home appliances:

Electric Range Burner

You can solve most electric range burner problems yourself and save yourself money on an expensive service call.  For example:

1.  Replace a bad burner or socket

The first thing you should do if you suspect your oven burner has gone bad is to test the burner by switching the burner that isn’t working with one that you know does work.  If that burner won’t heat up, then the problem is either with the burner socket or the infinite switch.  (The burner prongs plug into the burner socket.)  Connections within the burner socket can burn out and this will, of course, fail to provide power.  If the prongs appear to be burned, inspect the socket.  If the socket looks charred or burned, replace it.

A word of caution:  Always unplug your electric range before you work on it.

2.  Extension Cord Repair

Having to replace a heavy-duty extension cord, perhaps for the purpose of data installation, can be a costly endeavor because the price of heavy- duty extension cords has soared in recent years due to rising copper prices, so rebuilding old, damaged ones with new plugs or receptacle ends is a really good idea.  Don’t worry, you don’t have to call Static Electrics it’s a simple job you can do yourself.

First cut off the old plug, then make a shallow cut lengthwise through the outer jacket, then lightly score around the cord until you can remove the jacket.  Don’t push the blade in — just score the rubber jacket gently until you can tear the rubber off, to avoid accidentally cutting into one of the wires.

Strip the wires (look for a stripping gauge on the plug or in the instructions), then separate the wires and screw them into place.

Close the plug and screw it together tightly so the cord is locked in.

3.  Replace a phone jack

A dead line or static on your phone can be caused by a bad wall jack, perhaps damaged during data installation. You can learn how to replace it in 10 minutes.

When your phone stops working or there is static on the line, your phone jack may need to be replaced.  Remove the two screws on the back of the jack and disconnect the old jack.  If the ends of the wires don’t have any corrosion, you can reuse them, but if that’s not the case, then cut them back but not too far, and strip off 1/2 in. of sheathing.  If the wires from the wall and the jack are the same color combination, then all you have to do is match them up.  If they don’t match, see the chart.  Don’t mount the new jack to the wall without first making sure the bare wires don’t touch each other.

4.  Fix a flickering light

Do you have bulbs that burn out quickly, lights that flicker, or a light fixture that just doesn’t work even though you know there’s power coming to it?

Turn off the power to the fixture and use a non-contact outage tester to be certain the power is off.  Then reach into the bulb socket with a flat-blade screwdriver and carefully pry up on the tab that’s centered at the bottom to restore good contact with the bulb.