That one week in August 2019 was the worst stretch I ever had as a mechanic

I had three straight days of calls where every single thing went wrong, starting with a stuck car at a mall in Phoenix where the ropes were so frayed I had to call for backup. Then the next day a controller board caught fire from a bad capacitor, not even a big one just a little 47uf thing that somehow took out the whole panel. Has anyone else had a run of bad luck like that where you just question if you even picked the right trade?

3 comments

3 Comments

grantp1424d ago

Man that 47uf cap taking out a whole panel is the most insulting kind of failure. I had a run in 2018 where I replaced the same water heater thermostat three times in two days because the wiring harness had a microcrack I couldn't see until I literally took a magnifying glass to it. By the third call the homeowner was looking at me like I was trying to scam him. You definitely start wondering if the universe is just messing with you or if you forgot to sacrifice a socket wrench to the repair gods that morning.

jamie94024d ago

Dude that water heater story is brutal. Three times in two days would have made me lose my mind. Had a similar thing happen last year with a washing machine control board. Replaced it twice before I found a tiny cracked solder joint on the harness connector. That invisible stuff is the worst. By the end I was ready to just throw the whole machine out a window. Sometimes you just gotta walk away and come back with fresh eyes or a magnifying glass.

mark_carr724d ago

I had a buddy who went through the exact same thing with his furnace last winter. He swapped the igniter three times before he found a hairline crack in the circuit board that only showed up when the board got warm. By the third visit his wife was timing him with a stopwatch and he was about ready to torch the whole unit in the backyard. Sometimes the problem hides so good you start thinking you're the one who's broken.