What a Maintenance Visit Actually Is
Machine by machine, because "appliance maintenance" means very different things depending on who is selling it.
What It Actually Prevents
Aaron's own answer, including the part where he tells you it isn't as dramatic as maintenance usually gets sold as.
On a refrigerator: coils that make the whole machine work harder
Condenser coils packed with dust mean the refrigerator runs longer and hotter to hold the same temperature. Over years, that's component wear you paid for in electricity first and parts second.
On a dryer: drum rollers that seize
The other half. Rollers that never get cleaned and oiled eventually seize, and a seized roller can take the belt with it. The shafts get cleaned and oiled while the machine is already open.
What maintenance does not do
It doesn't make a machine last forever, it doesn't prevent the random failures that account for most of the repairs on this site, and it isn't worth a recurring plan on most appliances. Anyone telling you otherwise is selling a subscription.
What a Visit Covers
What this visit is not:
A contract. These are one-off visits and there's no plan to sign. If you want Aaron back on a set interval, ask him.
A packaged tune-up on machines that don't need one. Ask about an appliance not listed here and you get an opinion before you get a quote.
A dryer vent clean. That's a separate job with its own price, offered and never assumed.
When It Is Worth Booking
If your dryer has never had one and it's more than a few years old, it's worth doing once. You'll find out what's been building up in there, and the roller shafts get attention they've probably never had. If the condenser coils on your refrigerator have never been cleaned, that's the one to book.
If you've just bought a house, both are worth doing once so you know what you inherited.
If you had both done last year, you don't need us this year.
Not sure it is worth maintaining at all? Read repair or replace→
What It Costs
For most maintenance visits it's just the $100 service call.
The exception is a dryer maintenance visit, which is priced separately because the machine comes properly apart instead of getting a look-over. You get that number on the phone before anything starts.
If a fault turns up during the visit, the fee is credited toward the repair, exactly as it is on a normal service call. So a maintenance visit that finds something real doesn't cost you twice.
Exclusions to the 90-day warranty are listed in full on the FAQs.
How the Visit Goes
Why We Will Not Sell You a Maintenance Plan
Recurring maintenance plans are good business. A fixed monthly or annual fee, predictable revenue, and a visit that mostly consists of confirming nothing is wrong. Plenty of appliance companies sell them and there is nothing dishonest about the model in principle.
We don't, for a plain reason: nobody has asked for one. Aaron does maintenance as a one-off visit, and if you want him back on a set interval you only have to say so.
What we can tell you is where the work is real. Dryers accumulate lint in places you can't reach, and refrigerator condenser coils accumulate dust that makes the whole system work harder. Both have a clear path from neglect to a repair, and both take one visit.
So what we offer is a one-off visit on the two machines where it's real, at the price of a service call, credited against a repair if we find one. Not a plan, not a subscription, and not a reminder every January for work that didn't need doing. One corollary: if you called us for a dryer repair, the maintenance gets done as part of it where it makes sense, quoted before it happens, because the machine is already open. Replacing a belt and leaving seized rollers alone would be poor work.
Sixty-Five Days a Year Above Ninety, and What It Actually Does to a Refrigerator
This is the one local fact that genuinely bears on appliance maintenance, and it is worth setting out properly rather than gesturing at the weather.
The vent itself is a separate jobTrussville is the one town whose utility publishes descaling advice of its own
What Customers Say
Every review Aaron has, live from Google, in the customer's own words and under their own name.
Questions We Get Asked
Which appliances is this actually worth doing on?
Dryers and refrigerators. What happens on each is set out above.
What about dishwashers, washers and ovens?
Worth asking on the phone. Dryers and refrigerators are the two with a routine Aaron described in detail, and the two where neglect leads somewhere expensive. On anything else you'll get his view before a quote.
What does it cost?
Usually just the $100 service call. A dryer maintenance visit is priced separately because the machine comes properly apart, and you get that number on the phone before anything starts.
If you find a problem, do I pay twice?
No. The fee is credited toward the repair, same as a normal service call.
Do you offer an annual plan?
There isn't one to sign up for. Ask and he'll come back on whatever interval suits you.
How often should I have a dryer done?
If it's never been done, once, and then judge from what came out. There isn't a fixed interval worth quoting, and quoting one would be inventing a schedule.
Is this the same as a dryer vent cleaning?
No. The maintenance visit is the inside of the machine; the vent clean is the duct running out of your house. They're often done together and they're priced separately.
Which refrigerators do you do this on?
Mainly Whirlpool, Frigidaire and GE, and freestanding. If yours is something else, ask on the phone.
Can you do it while you're here for a repair?
On a dryer, usually yes, and it often makes sense because the machine is already open. You'll be told what it adds before it happens.
Do you do landlord or property maintenance rounds?
No recurring service agreements for rental portfolios. Individual visits, yes.
Do you charge by the hour?
No. It is the service call, and a dryer maintenance visit is priced separately because the machine has to come apart properly rather than be opened and looked at. You get one figure before the work, not a clock running while you watch.
The brands this comes up on most
Each of these has its own page with the faults, the parts reality and the model-plate location for that badge.
Where We Work, and How to Reach Us
Maintenance visits go wherever the repairs do, which is greater Birmingham and the towns around it. If it's a long way out, it's worth pairing with something else while the van is there.
Call or text (205) 883-9703. Tell us which machines and roughly how old they are.
Calls and texts Monday to Friday, 8am to 5pm. Saturday calls are usually answered; Sunday goes to voicemail.
Every town we cover