From time to time it becomes necessary to replace large appliances and recently at one property it was time to replace the very old washer and dryer. After quite a bit of investigation on available units, brands, pricing, warranties, and servicing, I brought our owners a matching washer and dryer for their consideration. They approved the purchase and the units were purchased with delivery scheduled the next week. Tenants were notified (would hate to delay the install) and everyone seemed pleased to keep the pricing the same ($1) even though the units were brand new.

The following week the washer and dryer were installed in under an hour and the old units were hauled away. I ran a load in the washer and let the dryer run a while to double check everything before again notifying the tenants, this time that the laundry room was now open.

Skip ahead a few weeks and I was at the property for a routine check in and noticed a faint odor of gas. I sniffed everywhere and couldn’t pinpoint anything. It seemed to come from the laundry room, but that wouldn’t make sense with a new dryer installed. Maybe the fittings weren’t threaded right or something was bent.

After a trip to Home Depot and purchasing a gas detector I returned to the property to sniff connectors, pipes, everything. This time there was not smell and I the gas sniffer hit once near the dryer and then nothing. I couldn’t get it to hit again.

I returned to the property the next day to check on it and there was no smell. Odd, but grateful that it must have been something else I was smelling.

Now two weeks later I was at the property again and this time the gas odor was strong. I whipped out the handy gas sniffer (doesn’t everyone keep a tool box, drill, and gas sniffer in their car), and this time I found the leak – The brand new dryer. I was able to repeatedly get the sniffer to hit each time in the exact same spot. Armed with some information I was able to schedule a service repair call a few days out. Tenants were notified about the issue and I promised to keep keep them up to date on a timeline for repairs once I knew more.

A few days later the technician was onsite. He let us know that he’d never seen this before in a brand new unit. It didn’t take long to replace the gas valve inside the dryer and we’re back in business! Tenants were notified about the repairs and thankfully we’ve had no issues since.

Now, let’s look at the costs here:

• New washer: $944
• New Dryer: $944
• Install and Removal – $128.00
• Gas sniffer (not passed on to owner): $ 24.95
• Service call and work performed: FREE under warranty
• Property Manager costs: $135 for time spent on site

We tried to keep costs as low as possible for our property owners but unfortunately we were given a broad window for the service call. The technician arrived just outside the end of that time.

I’d like to thank Advanced Maytag in Schaumburg, Illinois. They were extremely helpful when searching for units, handling delivery during a pandemic, and promptly servicing the unit to ensure it was in working order. While we had trouble with the dryer, we recognize that these issues happen occasionally and that it’s not the problem of the seller, it’s the manufacturer. That said, we recommend Advanced Maytag and we receive no gain for this post.