Appliance hookups and repairs around Logan County

Most appliances need power, water or both, and the hookup is where things go wrong later. A dishwasher needs a supply line, a drain loop and its own power. A washer needs hoses that will not burst and a drain that will not back up. A dryer or an electric range needs a cord that matches the outlet on the wall.

That last one trips people up. Newer houses have four prong dryer and range outlets, older ones three prong, and the cord has to match the outlet. Since most of Luke's work is electrical, he can sort out the outlet side and the appliance side on the same trip.

An ice maker that never got hooked up is one of the most common small jobs there is. Luke has hooked up an ice maker in a customer's refrigerator.

On an ice maker line, a proper shut off valve beats the old saddle valves that clamp onto a pipe. Those tend to drip after a few years, and a real valve makes it easy to pull the fridge out later.

Before anything gets taken apart, Luke checks what feeds it: the breaker, a GFCI outlet that may have tripped, the cord and the plug. A good share of dead appliances turn out to be a power problem rather than the appliance.

When it is the appliance, the make and model decide what the repair is. Some fixes are a single part. Sometimes the honest answer is that the repair costs more than the appliance is worth, and he will tell you that too.

One of Luke's photos shows a new electric water heater set in a utility room with its lines run to it. An electric water heater runs on its own 240 volt circuit, and it needs a relief valve with a drain line piped down toward the floor, so that if it ever releases, the water goes where it should.

A text with these gets things moving.

• A photo of the sticker with the make and model, often inside the door or on the back
• What it is doing, or not doing, and since when
• Any error code on the display
• A photo of the outlet and the hookups behind it if you can reach them