What to check before you call an appliance technician

Start with power and water

More visits than you would think end at a tripped breaker, a switched-off wall outlet behind a machine, or a water supply valve someone closed during unrelated plumbing work.

Check the breaker for that circuit, check that the appliance has power at all, and on anything that takes water, check that both supply valves are open. On a dishwasher, also check the switch under the sink, which gets knocked off by hand more often than anyone admits.

None of this is condescending. It is the first thing the technician will check too, and if it turns out to be the answer, you would rather find it yourself.

Write down what the machine is doing

The first question on the phone is the brand, and the second is what the appliance is actually doing. Specific descriptions shorten the diagnosis and sometimes change which parts the technician brings in the van.

Useful: when it started, whether it happens every cycle or only sometimes, what the machine does right before it fails, any error code on the display, any smell or sound that is new.

Less useful, but people say it because they are being helpful: a guess at which part is broken. Tell us the symptoms and let us do the guessing. Guesses in the description have sent technicians down the wrong path before.

Find the model number

The model number determines which parts exist for your machine. Without it, a technician is working from a photograph and a likely assumption.

Where to look: inside the door frame on a dishwasher or washer, behind the bottom kick plate or inside the fresh-food compartment on a refrigerator, on the frame under the oven door, on the back or side of a dryer.

Photograph the plate with your phone and read it out when you call. It takes a minute and it can mean the right part is already in the van.

Clear the way

The technician needs to reach the machine and often to pull it out. Clearing the cabinet in front of a dishwasher, the counter around a range, or the path to a laundry closet turns part of the visit back into repair time.

If the appliance is leaking, put down towels and turn the supply off, but leave the evidence. Where the water is coming from is diagnostic information.

Tell us before the visit if another technician already opened the machine, if there are pets who should be shut in another room, or if the visit is at a property where somebody else holds the key.