I’m about to have to tell a client that the reason their beautiful Samsung refrigerator is no longer keeping things as cold as it should is in part due to the fact that they chose the wrong refrigerator for their particular kitchen cabinet setup.

To explain, all refrigerators have to have some sort of mechanism to blow air across the coils to remove the heat it extracts from the interior of your refrigerator. Some are designed to do this from the front. Generally, these are the best models for an enclosed installation.

What does that mean? An enclosed installation is one in which the cabinetry surrounds, wraps and literally, encloses the unit. This means that there is very little air flow to the back of the refrigerator. This is fine as long as the refrigerator was designed to function that way.

This problem is, as I’m looking at right now, some refrigerators rely on air moving through and across the back of the machine. To put this kind of a machine in an enclosed installation will cause it to have a short life because the compressor will have to run a lot more to do it’s job. This will cause it to go bad prematurely.

So be sure to check when you’re purchasing a new refrigerator whether it’s meant to be free standing or enclosed. In most cases, you will find a warning on the sticker that contains your model and serial number.

This is one I always get in the weeks before Thanksgiving. A client is excited about the Holidays and planning their meals and getting their kitchens in order and part of that is cleaning the oven.

And usually everything is okay but then sometimes when they go into self cleaning mode the door won’t unlock when it ends.

Which is where we find today’s client, an old customer of mine. Her Samsung is locked and she can’t get in. Lucky for her it is a problem I see all the time and can usually take care of in one call, like today.

In 45 minutes time I have her oven open and her kitchen back in business. If you’re having the same issues, I’ll be glad to help you out as well. 843 568 5936

This particular client was in panic mode when I got her call. She rents out a condo on Wild Dunes Resort and one of her best clients was coming in the morning for a 10 day stay.

Unfortunately, her Whirlpool stack washer dryer combo was having a huge issue, the washer was not draining completely and the finished laundry was sopping wet! This kind of issue can stress anyone out, however this client was particularly high strung and I could tell it was really taking it’s toll on her.

Upon diagnosis I discovered that the drain pump had been completely stopped up by a plastic bag. She immediately identified it as one of the dog’s poop bags, (luckily an unused one) that her husband had left in his pocket when he did a load of laundry.

After removal, I was able to get the machine back online and working properly and alleviate her anxiety over the situation. She swore she would always make him check his pockets from now on. I wished her good luck, I can change mechanical behavior in most cases, but human behavior is beyond me!

If you’re having similar problems and anxieties, please give me a call, I’ll be glad to help

I get a call in the morning from a lady who is upset! She had been cooking a roast the night before and needed to pour off some of the fat from the pan and had decided to pour it in her garbage disposal.

She soon discovered that this is not the best place to dispose of grease because after dinner she loaded up the dishwasher and it woudln’t work.

Because she had called before 12 I was able to get her on the schedule for that day, I can do that most of the time, sometimes I am too busy to do so.

When I got there, I discovered that the grease had run down the drain hole for the dishwasher (most dishwashers drain through the garbage disposal). What had caused the problem was that when it cooled, the liquid had turned solid for about a foot.

The drain pump in the dishwasher simply didn’t have enough power to push this big of a clog back into the garbage disposal.

Without going into the boring particulars about how I cleared the drain, I was able to clear that same afternoon and get her life back to normal. I love being able to do that.

Even better she called one of my clients who had referred her to me and told her that “I really knew my stuff” and that I was very good at what I do. That pleased me even more because I like making people who refer me look good.

If you have an issue you need help with, please give me a call, I’ll do my best to make you as happy as these two clients were!

Most of my work these days is purely functional, yet sometimes I still do small remodel, handyman and home improvement projects. I figure, I’m there, I have the tools; why not help my clients out with as many of their needs as possible.

I learned appliance repair in my Father’s laundromat business. At 11 I was taught how to make electrical cords by fabricating the plugs and then attaching them to Wascomat commercial washers, I can remember doing a hundred at a time. By the time I was 17 and driving, I was doing maintenance on 8 laundromats all over Charleston.

As young men do, I left that trade and wandered through many others, the one relevant to this article was high end trim carpentry and historic renovations. One of the highlights of this era to me was getting to rebuild the kitchen in the Calhoun Mansion.

However, as the years went by and it became harder on my body to move and set up all the construction equipment required to perform this work. So in 2012 I went back into Appliance Repair and here I am.

Still, I like to still keep my skills sharp by doing occasional home repairs. The latest is a bathroom upgrade for a client who has used my services for several years. He would have done it himself, he told me, except that he had pinched a nerve in his back and was not up to it.

So over the course of the next two afternoons I pulled out his old damaged toilet then replaced both the toilet and added a new pedestal sink where the old had been. When finished it felt really good to have done something that made a room not only more livable, but also prettier.

So if you’re in need of home repairs or improvements, give me a call, I’ll be glad to help.