Kenmore tech support for water heaters.

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Terry

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Kenmore tech support for water heaters.

Previous customer of mine that I had sold TOTO toilets to, called me about her Kenmore water heater that had been installed six years ago by Sears. It had not been heating since the 12th of December. It was now the 24th. Three techs on three separate trips from Sears had come out to work on the electric water heater. Still no heat, and the 4th appointment was set up for the 30th of the month. She was heating water on the stove to wash with.

My son Jamie and I went out there Christmas Eve day. I put my ear on the side of the tank and heard nothing. I checked the elements; something the other techs did. Checked the wiring with the diagram; that looked fine. Pulled the cover at the top and checked the wire nuts. The ends of the wires did not match up. I slide the wires until the ends matched, and wire nutted up. Flipped the breaker back on, and putting my ear to the tank, I could hear the top element working.

Three hours later she was at 125 degrees and climbing. :)

While I was there, I installed the T&P relief line that the original installer had left off, installed a new ball valve and marked which side was hot and cold for the next installer when this tank needs replacing. I think it's going to be me next time.
 
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Jadnashua

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Service work takes someone with a head on their shoulders, and is willing and able to use it! Especially on a simple electric WH, there was no excuse the first guy couldn't find and fix the problem. Course, it was sloppy workmanship the first time it was installed. Wire nutting leads together isn't all that hard, but one step some fail to do is to pull on the wires individually to make sure you have them all engaged properly, or use a crimp type, but you still have to check if you can't visually verify.

Just shows not all techs are created equal, and finding a good one is such a pleasure. Congrats, Terry, on being one of the good guys...
 

Master Plumber Mark

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sears service techs are MORONS.

good for you Terry.... did you plaster your plumbing sticker
on the side of the sears heater so they would remember who to call??

Sears Techs are Morons
that is probably why they work there in the first place.........
I wonder what they charged for each trip out???
around here its $117.00

That is pretty lame that they could not even
check the top thermostat with a probe to seeif they
are getting 220v to the heater....

we see a lot of this here in indy... they claim to be able to work on
water softeners but never actually get the job done right on the first trip....

of course the Sears Gas heaters are bacisally a Whirpool heater these days
so they are gonna be trouble too...




 

DonL

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Sears Techs are Morons
that is probably why they work there in the first place.........


I worked for Sears in the Muncie Service center near You for many years. I serviced Indianapolis in the day.

You should not post a Blind statement, unless you know the technician that had their head up their ass.


Happy Holidays.
 

Master Plumber Mark

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I worked for Sears in the Muncie Service center near You for many years. I serviced Indianapolis in the day.

You should not post a Blind statement, unless you know the technician that had their head up their ass.


Happy Holidays.



I would not take this personally..
me is just having fun......

we always hear complaints
about the Sears repairman who cant get the
cheap sears water softener to work correctly..
and its the same thing with their water heaters..
folks call us all the time becasue they are fed up with
the sears guys.......
and we change out both. the heaters and softeners all the
time once the customer is through throwing money at them
or they are tired of making another appintment next week to
get hot water ......again......

what usually flips the customer out is when
the sears guy comes out to inspect a leaking water heater for $117.00
and after the customer took the day off for them, they state
that the heater is in warranty and one of their subs will come back out
over the next week and change out the heater....
and of course they have to take another day of work..

that is usually when the cussing starts....


so was it 2 or 3 different guys that came out before Terry
showed up and figured out the problem....??


nothing but love ......merry x-mas
 
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DonL

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When I started for Sears they had a very intensive comprehensive test that you needed 90% to pass and get a job. And you needed a Indiana state licenses. If you did not repair at least 10 units a day you became unemployed. 8 completes was about a normal day.

You had to wait until someone died to get on full time with benefits. Screw the benefits give me the money.

It is true that now a days good technicians are hard to find. They do not give a shit, just want a pay check.

I had a very low recall rate when working in consumer repair.

It is great that Terry is taking up the slack for Sears.

Terry could do contract work for them, but the money paid for contract work makes it not worth the effort.

My father took over the Montgomery Ward service work for all of Indiana when they closed. Worked out of Anderson. Never really made any big money, but made a good living.

The only recall a good technician should have is, a Hot Chick wanting to take your work up in trade, even tho she has a service contract. Some Crazy customers would call every month just to get serviced.


Its all Good...
 
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Houptee

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Kenmore products are all made by some other company for Sears, most likely Whirlpool or GE.
The product is probably exactly the same as the name brand version parts wise just different badge on the front.
I saw this when I did packaging machine repair work and went to many factories where things were made like window air conditioners at White Consolidated Industries in Edison NJ (now closed).
They were coming down the assembly line and one team was slapping Kenmore front covers on them the other line was getting White-Westinghouse fronts, same exact chassis. The next time I went there some other brand front cover was being used.
You just need the first 3 digits of the model number for all Kenmore appliances and look it up online who made it.
http://www.appliance411.com/parts/sears.shtml
 

Master Plumber Mark

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appliance repairman have it rough these days....

I understand what you are saying .....

Actually , these days its pretty tough
to be a technician for a place like Sears.... most of the plumbing products,
like the water softeners , are basically a throw away product after about 6 years.

the water heaters are absolutely hell to work on and I truely pity the appliance repair man who thinks he is gonna reapir one of those fivr heaters.....check out this link

http://baheyeldin.com/technology-in...y-help-with-kenmore-water-heater.html?page=22.

then you get into the other products .... We own a LG washer

I cant even find anyone willing to work on our 6 year old LG washing machine.... no one will touch it... the bearings are going out in it and a few places have told me they to just shit-can it and just buy some other brand...:confused: They dont want to fool with it

I know that Sears is carrying some LG products or one with a kenmore name from LG..
and I wonder who gets to struggle with the repairs on these monsters????

Its not fun to work on junk that you know is gonna break down again

..
 

Houptee

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The one guy in that link Mark posted said his model number was 153.xxxxx
I looked it up that's made by State Industries for Sears.
 

DonL

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I am not sure when Sears Claimed to repair all brands, But it was after Montgomery Ward started doing it and getting a lot of Sears business.

I worked on more Sears appliances when at Montgomery Ward then I did when I worked for Sears. Not counting warranty work.

You could buy a service contact from Montgomery Ward to cover a Sears Appliance, Parts were available because most stuff was made by the same manufacturer.

I stopped working for sears when they Installed Viewing Windows in the Shop so that customers could watch technicians repair their stuff, and they installed GPS trackers on the Sears trucks to track technicians.


Working in someones house is a bitch at best. Who knows where the water heater may be installed.


I moved on to make Rocket Motors.
 
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Soapm

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we always hear complaints about the Sears repairman who cant get the cheap sears water softener to work correctly.. and its the same thing with their water heaters.. folks call us all the time becasue they are fed up with the sears guys....... and we change out both. the heaters and softeners all the time once the customer is through throwing money at them or they are tired of making another appintment next week to get hot water ......again......

Not being able to make a Yugo run like a Mercedes isn't a moron of a repairman, he can only make it work to manufacturing specs. A POS will still be a PoS even when doing its best. Changing to a better brand isn't really an option for them. When I graduated college my first gig was fixing TV's for Curtis Mathis. They had several old tube sets with poor picture quality right out of the box. Washed out pictures, poor/faded color and horizontal instability issues. We got plenty of recalls but the sets were working to spec, they were just horrible sets. So we took the tubes from the last call and stuck them in the set for this call and moved on.

It probably worked when they left, but a POS shows its true colors every time...

When I started for Sears they had a very intensive comprehensive test that you needed 90% to pass and get a job. And you needed a Indiana state licenses. If you did not repair at least 10 units a day you became unemployed. 8 completes was about a normal day.

This often leads to bad service, quality often suffers when you got a quota to meet. I understand the management need for a quota, but that doesn't change the facts. Curtis Mathis had guys that specialized in getting the set/chassis out of your house in less than 15 minutes. They often received a bonus for the number of daily calls they made only to find the problem was a simple adjustment or perhaps a bad tube. Nothing like knowing something needs a 3 hour job but you got a quota to meet...
 
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