Shoutout to the old guy who showed me a trick with a zip tie on a fridge door

I was on a job for a fridge that wouldn't seal right in a house over in the Maplewood area. The customer said the door was sagging and letting cold air out. I was ready to order a whole new hinge assembly, which would have been a $120 part plus my time. This retired repairman, Mr. Jenkins, lives next door and came over to see what the fuss was about. He told me to grab a heavy duty zip tie from my truck. He looped it around the top hinge pin and the door frame, cinched it tight, and heated it with my lighter for a second to lock it. The door aligned perfectly. I learned that sometimes the simplest, cheapest fix is right in front of you if you just think about the physics of the problem, not just the parts catalog. Has anyone else found a weird one-item fix for a common appliance issue that saved a big repair bill?

2 comments

2 Comments

the_jesse2d ago

Yeah, I read a forum post once where someone fixed a wobbly washing machine by shimming under one corner with a stack of old CDs... the weight distribution was just off by a tiny bit. It ran smooth for years after that. Makes you wonder how many service calls are for stuff that just needs a little creative thinking and not a new part.

amy_bailey862d ago

Totally true, and it's wild how often that works. My old dryer was making a crazy noise and I just tightened one loose screw on the back panel. Felt like a genius for five minutes. A lot of repair techs probably hate those easy fixes because they can't charge much, lol. But it saves you so much money and hassle to just try the simple stuff first.