We Fixed the Dryer Today Using Google!

The SIL's clothes dryer has been acting up a bit since we got here. Lately it has been getting worse so when I mentioned it to the SIL, she said she would call a repairman to fix it. I told her to wait while I Googled the problem to see what it could be (always a good idea, especially when dealing with repairmen because you want to be able to give a good description AND know that they are on the right track when fixing your broken item). I Googled the problem as accurately as possible "Kenmore Elite HE3 error message E1 stops drying" and came up with this page. The forum question seemed to describe the problem exactly so I ordered the part online and it came within a few days. With the diagram on the page, it looked easy enough to change out so this morning with replacement part and small toolbox in hand, hubby and I went to work on the dryer. Amazingly it took only a few minutes to change out the part (instead of taking off the duct assembly I was able to reach around behind it and get to the thermistor part to remove and replace it because my hand was small enough to fix back there). Now the dryer is humming along and not shutting off every 10 minutes like it was before. Problem fixed!

Moral(s) of this story: Google has an answer for practically everything because someone out in the world has probably needed to fix what you need to fix. Doing things yourself can save a ton of money (the cost for the part was $35 with shipping as opposed to the $100+ a repairman would have charged). Be careful when doing your own work (ie: unplug things so you don't get electrocuted). Also, it's nice to invite a friend over to help if you have no clue what you are doing (we built a house from the ground up with friends years ago, hubby was an electrician years ago, and I used to repair my car often because #1 it was a piece of junk and #2 I couldn't afford to pay anyone to fix it, so this wasn't an overwhelming experience for us. For people who have never done anything mechanical, it would have been kind of intimidating so help from someone who knows what they are doing is nice).