Update(s)

So the dishwasher saga continues.

Repairman #2, who does not look like a Bears Superfan arrives. I give him the part and he sets to work in grim silence. Upon dismantling the door to the thing he pulls out the fried circuit board with a grim expression. He gives a harumphing noise that doesn't really sound like that but that's as close as I can get onomonpedically (I made a new word, take that Freeberg!)

Him: "That's melted pretty bad."

Me: "...."

Him: "The door handle is melted too."

Me: "um..what?"

Him: "The closing mechanism for the handle is right behind the circuit board so you couldn't see it and I guess the first guy didn't take it out so he wouldn't have seen it either."

Me: "And how much is that going to cost me?"

Him: "The part is nine dollars and twenty seven fifty for labor"

Me: "So, because the first guy didn't diagnose the whole problem I'm going to get hit with two labor charges?"

Him: "Yes."

Me: "No. Why should I pay for labor twice when I'm not the one who made a mistake."

Him: "Well, you'll have to call the office."

Me: "You can count on that."

He gets back to work in weighty silence. I pace the kitchen.

Him: "Here's another problem."

Me: "Fantastic. Now what?"

Him: "This replacement board is damaged. This relay is loose."

Me: "@@#$%%^$&"

I ask him how long he's being doing this.

Him: "32 years."

Thirty two years. That's a very long time. Long enough that I'm going to pick his brain.

Me: "What do you think I should do."

Him: "I'm not supposed to advise customers like that."

Me: "OK, if you were me, what would you do?

Him: "Well...if it were me, I'd be thinking about a replacement unit. I can repair this and maybe it will last me another 10 years. But I'll only have a 90 day warranty and when it surges like this you don't know what else was damaged. No way to know. If I were to buy a new one, I'd have at least a 2 year warranty and could even buy the extended 5 year for a hundred bucks."

After much deliberation, I sent him on his way with a refusal of service and asked him to refund my money rather than order yet another circuit board. The cost of repair is now right up against the cost of replacement. I am loathe to spend several hundred dollars on a new machine but am reluctant to throw good money after bad. What to do? I honestly haven't a clue. I ran over to Lowe's at lunch and looked at the models and frankly, they're all pretty similar w/in each price point. I want something that gets dishes clean and if possible is quiet. Those absurdly pie in the sky requirements put me in the $500-$700 range. For a machine that washes dishes. I kid you not.

Now I've got the devil and the angel on my shoulders. The angel is saying "repair it, all will be well. Don't spend the money for a new machine." The Devil says, "buy a new one with an extended warranty. If you fix this one and it dies in a year you'll have spent even more than you would have to replace it." (Frankly, I'm not sure who's the devil and who's the angel in this scenario. Readers are invited to speculate.)

So I'm at an impasse and am stuck with paper plates until I sort this one out.