Sometimes you luck out
 

Last weekend my trash compactor failed, it was about 20 years old. It was running and not shutting off, so I hauled it out to the backyard and plugged it in and it kept running and wouldn't quit, after a minute or so it started smoking and smelling of electrical fire. Good thing it happened when I cycled it. I can see someone pushing the button and walking away and my house catches on fire! My gardener hauled it away for the scrap metal. New ones runs about $850. I mentioned it to my neighbor, we were discussing his kitchen remodel, and he said I could have his 5 year old one for free. So he brings it over, its the right size for the opening, but it has a white front. My appliances have black fronts, I know you can buy new panels from Whirlpool. I google the model No. and I get Sears, it lists the part as "BL/W. I think humh? I pull the panel off and the reverse is a clean, unscratched black panel. Plug it in and I'm done. Couldn't be happier. Sometimes a blind squirrel finds an acorn.

sweet!

Good thing it wasn't white/avacado!

Nice work, Hugh. :)

Black aluminum is cheap.... Would have been cheap to put a new panel in there... Cool for you that you didn't have to though...

Awesome and I bet it lasts another 20 years unlike a "new" one from some Chinese sweatshop that'll crap out in five if you're lucky...

I have to find a black stove top but it's naturally NLA. I'm thinking it'll have to be a new one as part of the kitchen remodel. Ugh. "New" to me does not necessarily mean "better". Actually the opposite is true more often than not.

Glad it worked out!

The best part is you got to watch a trash compactor self destruct! That would be major entertainment around here.
Man if that was mine I'd of had a bunch of my drunked-up hillbilly neighbors driving around it in their jacked up 4x4s shootin' and throwin' beer cans at it until it exploded. That there's good old Saturday night entertainment.

Score.

Nice! Mines not as good but..........our dryer was on it's last leg, While talking to my Mom on the phone, I mentioned that we were going out the next day to buy a dryer. She says, " we just got a new front loading washer & matching dryer, you can have our old dryer, its only about 3 years old".

Sweet, they only live about 45 minutes away.

Steve

73 911 T MFI Coupe, Aubergine

Nice, sometimes good things happen to good people

Excellent!!

When I lived in the finished basement of my first house, I often started a load of wash as I was leaving the house because it was kind of noisy. One I started a load and then got tied up on the computer before I could leave. I heard a pop, a hiss and then spraying water. The braided line from the copper pipe to the washer had ruptured. If I had left the house before that happened, it would have been a total flood.

Pat-quit exaggerating. Everybody knows drunked-up hillbillys are only found in the South.:)

i never understood trash compactors.

why not just a good old garbage can?

I wouldn't have bought one if the house didn't come with it. The only reason I would have bought another one would have been to fill the unfinished hole in the cabinet face.

do you end up with a dense cube of garbage? is it leaky? say someone throws in a ballooned, contaminated can of chef boy r DEE.. do you have to have special bags.

i admit, i never messed with one..and i think i have seen tiny wine fridges that fit that small opening..i think. hehe.

A wine refrigerator would be a good alternative. I use lawn and leaf bags, they're a lot cheaper than compactor bags. Once in a while my wife has stuck a tall kitchen bag in it, and yes they can fail, but rarely in my case. Cans and bottles go in the recycle bin. I was looking at have a door made to match and putting in a wire rack that would hold the regular trash pail and the recycle pail. Would have been about $350 total, but my neighbor giving me the compactor solved the problem. I could see where a compactor would be nice if you lived in an apartment. Take the trash out once or twice a week instead of three or four times a week.

Umm, that does sound fun LOL.

When we moved into our house 15 years ago the original owners left their old trash compactor in the garage. That sucker is HEAVY!. I figured they left it because it was heavy. I soon discovered it did not turn off at the end of a cycle. It was just a limit switch that was out of adjustment. I fixed that and I use it only for aluminum cans. One brick of cans from the unit is worth 5 bucks these days. I just wait until I have 4 bricks and I take them to the scrap yard. It was great for the price!

Don't forget to pay the taxes on your gain Hugh. :D sorry, just had to. :)