September 21, 2005
the art of breadmaker repair
 we love our breadmaker as much as one ought to be allowed to love a small appliance. this is especially true since nearly all store-bought bread has sugar in it, which Michelle can't have, so we make our own whole wheat bread. and to make it even more earthy-cool, we use fresh-ground flour thanks to some friends. these days we go through about 2 loaves a week.
so it was with much frustration last night that I discovered that the machine wasnt working (this was after I added all the ingredients to the pan). the electronics and such were fine, and I could hear the motor turning, but nothing was happening. yuck. I dont really feel like spending $200 on a replacement. I figured a gear or belt had slipped, and since I didnt have much to lose, I decided to try my hand at breadmaker repair.
unlike folks like my dad and grandfather and former roommates, I'm not very good at fixing stuff. feeling a head cold coming on, I took a swig of drambuie and stack of cookies for clarity and luck, and brought the dead machine into the living room so I could at least watch the Phillies lose while I tinkered.
I can take things apart easily enough. getting things back together in working order is another matter. unfortunately I had to take pretty much everything apart (besides the motor) to get at the problem, and it was indeed a slipped belt, which was partially off the wheel and jammed up in the works (notice all the technical details here). so I coaxed it back on. now the hard part: can I get it back together, and will it work? here are the guts before I put it all back:
fortunately it wasnt too hard to put it back together. only once did I do things in the wrong order and have to redo it. surprisingly, all the screws were accounted for, although everything is a little askew. but amazingly, it came together. now the moment of truth: will it work?
glory be, it did indeed fire up on the first try! so I took a celebratory swig of drambuie, with a few more cookies, and let the bread bake through the night.
Posted by bobw at September 21, 2005 01:25 PM
Wow. That's quite a tale! I wonder how many people just toss things aside if they're not working when the problem is something incredibly minor like that...
sniff..sniff..you make me proud. I may make you an honorary member of the Georgia Tech SMTA. Your fix isn't exactly high tech electronic components, but it's your spirit that matters to me. love it. You have an engineer's spirit in there Bob.
yeah I'm just happy that I didnt break the electronics
You go!
Next thing you know, you'll be fixing those window up-per-down-er thingys, too! :-)
you're quite a man bob! fixing your breadmaker while swiging liquor. Actually the true masculine experience would have been fixing a carborator while chugging PBR...but if I were Michelle I'd be so so happy and proud!
ha! I dont mess with cars anymore (having tried and failed too many times), although I did have PBR in the fridge, but I didnt think it would go well with my head cold.
and despite the gripping drama of this little story, I dont consider it to be that big of a deal. I'm just happy we have bread again.
Ahhh, Drambui, the fixer's elixer. You must be out of Newcastle. Likker of any sort is not recommended while playing with levels or chainsaws, tho. Dad.
I'm so proud of you huns! Giving it a try at fixing it is enough to make me proud. But its awesome that you made it work too! Yea for yummy bread.
update: the belt slipped again, less than a month later. so I opened it up and put it back on, and decided to order a replacement belt too. and it almost made it through another cycle before slipping again. hopefully the replacement belt will do the trick.
We have two breadmachines. If you want to borrow one, just holler.
final update: I replaced the belt and everything is running fine now. woohoo.
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