OEM part? Liars.

So like many of us here, I try to fix my own stuff instead of calling a repairman who may well bungle the job while charging me double or triple for the repair than it's worth, or just giving in like so many typical Americans today and buying a new one instead.

We have a Samsung washer and dryer and they've been really good overall. Only repair necessary since they were new 10 and 8 years ago respectively was the dryer heating element 2 years ago. The best price I found last time was from Walmart but it just failed again less than a week ago. Only getting 2 years out of the aftermarket part for 1/3 the price basically equated to what the new part lasted - 6 years. So, I decided to look for an OEM replacement this time and pay a little more to get better life out of it.

Found a complete unit on Amazon that was purported to be OEM and was only about $15 more than what I paid for the aftermarket part last time. Wanted to get it in time for this weekend's laundry day so I paid $10 extra for expedited shipping. Got it yesterday, great, SO looking forward to lying on my side doing that job again. Only one problem... it wasn't OEM. It was about 1/4" longer than the original (I replaced the heating element inside the original sheet metal last time), the rounded dimples to align it in the receiving end of the duct inside weren't rounded, they were squared off on one side, and the tab to lock it into the inside duct was both longer and had a longer 90° lip on it as well. She said "send it back", to which I said "you really want to go to a public laundry to dry the clothes, or hang them on the clothes line we took down 5 years ago between the house and big pine tree?"

So after struggling with it for a while, trying to fit it before discovering the difference between the two shapes was enough that it wasn't ever going to work and slicing a half inch long, literally 1/4" deep gash in my right hand on the nicely-sharpened stamped sheet metal of the body of the dryer while trying... I had to completely disassemble the new one and put the element, terminal block and assorted components and wiring into the old metal housing while trying to keep a band-aid on my sweaty hand and the gratuitous blood leaking out from getting all over everything I was working on.

I do not mind accommodating a value once in a while by making things work that aren't perfect, it's the world we live in these days and all of us know it all too well. What really pisses me off is the LIE that it was OEM when the metal coloring and finish didn't even come close to looking like the original, much less the stamped metal shape that prevented it from actually fitting into the associated components inside the dryer. And the even more aggravating part is that YOU CAN'T TALK TO ANYONE WHO GIVES A CRAP ABOUT IT, nor to anyone who can actually tell someone who has the authority to do something and who cares enough to do it. Or to anyone in management who would tell someone in purchasing/logistics about a lying scumbag supplier because everyone along the way is making money, which OF COURSE is the only thing that matters.

At least it $%&*#@! works now.







I should have taken more pictures but by then I was too pissed and wanted it finished. Oh yeah, here's why I bought it to begin with. By part and model number. OEM my ass. You can bet Bezos doesn't cheap out on the suppliers he uses for his space efforts, especially the one he's planning on riding in.

I've seen too many to count OEM products sold online, that say xyz, or Honda for example - then when you look who makes the part it will be Windgetmatic, or the like.

There's an appliance repair website that is part forum, part how to videos and offers parts for sale. When my dryer went out I used their forum, videos and part to repair my machine. Been several years and no issues.

Damn, I should have realized. Of course, having done the job before and this time buying what was supposed to be an OEM part, I didn't ever think it would go like it did today.

Bastards (can I say that?)
Is your hand okay?
And you can always tell us about it, not that we can do anything about it, but we’ll listen. And I’d offer you a beer if you were closer. That sucks, but glad it’s fixed.

Had a similar issue with a water pump for our washer, but no injuries.

tomeben said:

Is your hand okay?

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Yeah, you can say it but only because it hasn't been added to the censored list. The hand is okay, except for the fact that it's behind the right forefinger knuckle in that area between finger and thumb so it's guaranteed to break open at least 50 times in the next 6 weeks it will take to heal after I remove the dead chunk of skin on top eventually. And I've had a low platelet count for well over a decade and no one knows why, so I don't clot like I used to. Glad my mechanical days for a living are long since passed.

ancientdad said:

Yeah, you can say it but only because it hasn't been added to the censored list.

Click to expand...

… he replies as he adds it to the censored list. [emoji41]

Glad you’re hand is okay. Sounds to me like you bought yourself a 6 week break; as long as it’s healed by your riding trip, which would be THE reason to be sure you heal well.

As we get older and wiser (maybe not, maybe just POed) it seems like we have to bend over and exhale more and more. I've bought stuff from AppliancePartsPros.com and so far it's been OK. I've also bought cheap stuff that has not been OK. And factory stuff that hasn't been OK ever. Take my Samsung refrigerator, please.

Someday someone's going to sue an appliance maker for the deep gouges they got working inside a cabinet with very sharp edges. I'll be right there cheering them on.

I use Amazon just to see if the price for a specific item is cheaper, usually isn't. That's after I've looked up the part number on the manufacturers site. So far here I've been lucky and a local appliance parts warehouse has had the part.
Liquid bandage or super glue should hold the cut together.

I went to Samsung and looked for parts sales but it seems they don't want to sell them. This is the only option I could find, and though it says "Parts and Accessories" it doesn't actually show any

https://www.samsung.com/us/support/home-appliances/dryers/electric/no/

As for AppliancePartsPros, on their opening page for dryer parts you can choose your brand but the first time I looked it didn't even show Samsung, had to refresh the page a couple times for the brand to show in the list.

Despite that, if you search by model number it does show they have parts for our model (DV422EWHDWR/AA-0000) but the complete assembly, just like what I bought for $52 plus expedited shipping that was supposed to be OEM, is $151. So, maybe it would have been the correct part but significantly higher priced.

Really, what else is new these days anyway... manufacturing subbed out to a foreign country to get it as cheaply as possible, jacked up retail price then showing their "discounted" price and how much "you save" and it's for an aftermarket part, no matter.

I'm really tempted to reassemble the guts of the old one into the new, ill-fitting housing and send it back to Amazon for a refund.

I get really frustrated with washers and dryers anymore....they just don't last like they used to and I don't understand why it has to be that way. Think of cars.... Virtually every new car manufactured in the past 20 years will go 200,000 or 300,000 miles without missing a beat. That's an improvement from the 100,000 miles when I was a kid. Yet a new washer/dryer pair will be lucky to get 10 years before your skinning your knuckles replacing a pump or a set of rollers. For Pete's sake, our first whirlpool set we bought when our kid were born ran and ran and ran until we got rid of them to "upgrade".

Sheez....dpn't get me started on refrigerators....

Juneaudave said:

I get really frustrated with washers and dryers anymore....they just don't last like they used to and I don't understand why it has to be that way. Think of cars.... Virtually every new car manufactured in the past 20 years will go 200,000 or 300,000 miles without missing a beat. That's an improvement from the 100,000 miles when I was a kid. Yet a new washer/dryer pair will be lucky to get 10 years before your skinning your knuckles replacing a pump or a set of rollers. For Pete's sake, our first whirlpool set we bought when our kid were born ran and ran and ran until we got rid of them to "upgrade".

Sheez....don't get me started on refrigerators....

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Or freezers for that matter, same thing. We bought a new Frigidaire 20 cu ft in late 2014 and it died over a year ago, barely made the 6 year mark. I thought about trying to fix it but I don't know squat about them and this one had practically everything inside it, only the compressor and a relay were underneath in the back. It, of course, had a small electronic display and no adjustment knobs. I finally gave it away after trying to find a reputable repair service in our rural area who could at least give me an estimate, figuring it would probably cost over half the price of a new one or more even if I could find someone worth calling. That's one reason I'm shocked that this Samsung pair is still working as well as they are, but going through a second heating element in only 2 years is aggravating at the least. When we moved to Florida in 1961 from Michigan, all my parents could afford to bring with us fit in a 4x8 covered trailer and the washer they had then was one of those items (no dryer back then, of course). While they were loading the trailer the washer was being dragged up the stairs from the basement and right at the top, slipped out of someone's grasp (can't recall who, I was only 6 and lucky to even be nearby) and it fell back down to the basement. They dragged it back up and loaded it in the trailer, brought it here and had no idea if it would run once we got here. It did and my mother used it for quite a few more years before getting a new one. The all-mechanical stuff back then was more durable.

Been there done that, what a pain in the rear. A one hour job takes 4 or 5 hours. It gets very frustrating for sure.