An apology for the blog-like nature of this thread.
With my powerwasher going out:
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/off-topic-discussions/613198-how-did-i-destroy-my-powerwasher.html, this has been my month of navigating incorrect data systems.
I'm hope other Pelicans can learn from this.
The repair company(which came yesterday) was refered to me over the phone by Maytag customer service.
He found the copper pencil line dryer had corroded and broken.
I confirmed.
"Whirlpool should never have run those lines through the water. I've seen a lot of similar repairs."
I'm unfamiliar with what constitutes proper refrigerator engineering, but this seems like an obvious design flaw by an experienced company.
I googled Maytag refrigerator recalls, and there was a 1.6 million recall due to fire hazard. None for my model.
This is not to pick on Maytag/Whirlpool, I'm sure other brands have had problems.
Whirlpool does have a 5 year parts-only warranty on most components within a "sealed system", but repairs have to made by an Authorized Service Agent. Getting the phone representative to verbally confirm this warranty was like picking teeth.
I was told that repair company wasn't authorized as of the beginning of this year.
Apparently Maytag's data system hadn't been updated, so that $70 service call was wasted.
Receipt in hand, I told her the exact purchase date(2008).
In their system they had my purchase date listed as 2007. I had purchased a Hotpoint(GE) from Lowes around that time, so perhaps that bad data got transfered to Maytag's system.
Whatever the case, having the original receipt was crucial.
I scheduled an authorized service appointment.
The earliest date will be next friday. Ten days!
At least the parts are covered.