What's wrong with it? That's the first big question in fixing broken things. Any broken things! It doesn't matter whether it's a door chime, a barbecue grill, a child's toy, or a computer printer. Troubleshooting—figuring out what's wrong with it—is the most important task. Once you know what's wrong with it, you're well on the way to fixing it—or making an informed decision not to. It may sound obvious, but troubleshooting typically is the step that keeps folks from fixing things easily.
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Once you know what to look for you can test and fix a coffee maker and hundreds of other things in your household.
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Troubleshooting is a problem-solving process with the goal of returning an item to its as-designed state. It doesn't work at all, doesn't work correctly, doesn't work efficiently, or doesn't stop working. You can fix anything if you know how to troubleshoot it. And you can troubleshoot if you understand how it works and how to figure out what doesn't work.
Here's what you need to know to fix it:
- What does this thing do?
- How is it supposed to work?
- What isn't it doing that it should do?
- What's the possible cause(s) of the problem?
- What parts and tools will I need to fix it?
- What are the steps to fixing it?
- Once fixed, does it now work?
For example, a coffee maker, obviously, is an apparatus for brewing coffee. There are two types of coffee makers: drip and percolator. A drip coffee maker is designed to heat water then pump it to drip through the coffee basket and into a carafe. Most drip coffee makers also keep the carafe of coffee warm. That's a drip coffee maker's as-designed state; that's what it's supposed to do.
What does it not do? In our example, the drip coffee maker doesn't keep the coffee hot, though everything else works fine. Knowing how a coffee maker is supposed to work, you will identify the problem to be within the warming element or controls. To check it you need a multimeter for testing these components. Then, following the specific steps in the Fix-It Guide titled Fixing Coffee Makers, you disassemble, test, and, if needed, replace the part. Finally, you can brew yourself some coffee and know that it will stay warm.
That's the Fix-It Process. You'll see it applied to hundreds of consumer items throughout our Fix-It Guides. These guides will help you find answers for each of the fix-it questions. And you can apply it to thousands more—everything that's broken. That's because the fix-it process works for every thing.
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