In the month of September '10 the water inlet valve started malfunctioning. It was unable to stop the water flow. This is a solenoid valve. I tried to access the valve by opening the top panel. I couldn't properly open the panel. Lest I break it while opening, I stopped right there. The service center guy turned up the next day and conveyed that the valve needed replacement. We agreed. He turned up seven days later with the replacement valve and did a fairly good job against a payment of Rs.500 (Rs.250/- for servicing and rest Rs.250/- the valve's cost). My wife reported me in the evening as I came home from office about the repair. I checked the faulty valve and blew it with my mouth through its passage way a couple of times and it started functioning again.
My feeling is: the service man deliberately replaced the valve even after being fully aware that nothing goes wrong with these valves so easily. Actually, the fault was mine. Quite a while ago, I had removed the small mesh filter at the inlet, for greater water flow. The valve got choked due to accumulation of some tough particles inside it. Blowing cleared away everything. I informed the serviceman about my observations on phone. His response was on expected lines. He was unable to take back the new valve.
I have promised myself that in future I am not going to call a service man before full exploring myself about the cause of the fault. As I see inside the machine, except the microprocessor controls, there is nothing much inside the machine that can go wrong. With a bit of practical approach most of the faults can be repaired in-house. If at all any part requires replacement, it's better to collect the part from the service center and replace it oneself. Else, be prepared to burn a hole in your pocket.
