Showerthought: I burned $85 on a "universal" control board that didn't fit a single Whirlpool I own
Last month a customer's dryer kept popping the thermal fuse and I was dead sure the control board was the culprit, so instead of waiting two days on the right part I grabbed one of those "universal" replacement boards off a guy on Marketplace for $85. Got it home, pulled the old one, and the harness plugs were about a quarter inch off and the mounting holes didn't line up with anything. I sat on my shop floor in Mesa for an hour with a drill trying to make it work before I finally admitted I was being stubborn. Wasted the 85 bucks, wasted a whole Saturday afternoon, and the customer ended up waiting anyway because I still had to order the real board from the supply house on Monday. The real part was $62 plus shipping, so I paid more to do it twice. My rule now is if the model number isn't stamped on the part, it doesn't come in my van. Has anyone else gotten burned by those one-size-fits-all boards, or is it just me being cheap?
Did your buddy ever try slapping one of those in a dryer and watching it fry the board two weeks later? My buddy runs a small shop out in Tempe and had the same bright idea last spring. He got one of those "fits most brands" boards off Amazon for his own Maytag, spliced the wires all neat, felt like a genius for about a week. Then the drum stopped mid cycle and the board was toast, took the heating element with it. He was out the board, the element, and a Saturday he could've spent fishing. Now he keeps a photo of that melted thing taped inside his toolbox just to remind himself.