Text of Hand Tools Needed for Appliance Repair

Potential students often ask about the hand tools, or tools that are needed to repair appliances. Now over the last 40 years, I've evolved my own personal methods for what tools I carry and I want to acquaint you with my choices. Now there are a couple of ways to go about this. You can start off like this, with a couple of thousand dollar tool case. First class stuff, Snap On, as you can see, that's pretty nice. Get the Snap On man to stop by every week and get you some tools. Typical automobile mechanic spends maybe twenty, thirty grand on a set of tools. This is my own automobile set. But the appliance business is not like this. This is all I carry into the house when I repair appliances. And you may be amazed to learn, that this simple, little leather tool kit will fix three quarters, if not more of all that you're going to see in a house. So let's take it piece by piece and start with the most popular, your favorite tools and go to the odd balls last. These two guys are going to be your heavy users, the Phillips tip, long shank screwdriver and the flat standard screwdriver. These are not even Snap On tools, they're just high quality tools. Your next most favorite are going to be the 1/4 nut driver and the 5/16 nut driver. Those four will take care of an awful, awful lot of repairs. With these two guys thrown in on newer stuff, particularly the imported stuff. These are torx drivers, a 20 and a 15. They have the little torx tips on them. The next most popular are the insulated cutters and needle nose pliers. Pretty much, so far, it should be stuff that most homeowners are familiar with, except perhaps the torxes. Now this is the channel lock pliers, these are a fairly large size. Universal for pipes, bolts, anything, these are a well worn set I've used for decades. This will be your friend, your voltmeter and ohm meter. This does come with the kit, as one of the components of the tool part kit. Now we're starting to get into the lesser used stuff. A little WD-40 in the kit, is very handy. The two stubby 1/4 and 5/16, a stubby Phillips and a stubby straight. You'll find yourself in tight circumstances occasionally where you may need those, particularly on refrigerator condenser fan motors you need the stubby Phillips - these guys. An adjustable open end wrench, very helpful, many cases when you don't feel like going out to your truck and getting any kind of a drive socket. Now this is a little bit of a raggedy tool, it's been around a long time, but that's a wire stripper and crimper. And a medium Phillips, comes in occasionally, often enough that I do carry it into the house. Now we're into just the handy, odd ball stuff. Electrical tape, thermostat for dryers and refrigerators, a razor knife, and a piece of wire for jumping ice makers (just a little hunk of junk wire, that you need occasionally). Cable ties come in very handy for lots of purposes. Many mechanics carry a standard tool kit, like you see here. I gave it up years ago because they tend to get heavier as the months go by, as you put more junk in them, and you just get tired faster. My preference is this style. That way it starts getting full of junk, you've got to empty it and throw the junk in the truck, or throw it away. Couple of other things that are very helpful is I religiously use a knee pad, I've gotten old and I want my knees to last, and a trouble light. This is a rough surface bulb and nice long flexible extension cord for getting underneath equipment and looking around. Much better than a flashlight and the fluorescent ones, least in my opinion. Clip board, you want to collect your money. Invoice, place to keep things nice and neat and tidy, your refrigerator magnets. This one's an old timer I've used for more years than I want to remember. Now here's a picture of me a few years back, you see you can carry a clip board, your tool kit, knee pad, and trouble light all on one arm. Knock on the door, open the door, shake hands, whatever. You're all set to go. This is the easy, fast way to do it. It's very efficient, very lightweight and it's not very tiring.

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