Most of these kitchens fail electrically, and the appliance still looks fine

Roughly 68 thunderstorm days a year in this part of north Florida. Surge and near-strike transients are the single most common cause of control-board failure we see.

Matthew in 2016, Irma in 2017 and Helene in 2024 each left parts of this area without power for more than a day. The calls that follow an event like that do not all arrive at once — a control board or an inverter compressor that took a hit often runs for weeks before it quits.

Much of Fleming Island was built out between the mid-1990s and the late 2000s, so the built-in appliances fitted at construction are now fifteen to thirty years old. Whole streets reach that age at once, which is why one kitchen often produces three calls in a year.

Built-in equipment has to leave its opening before most of it can be worked on. Cabinet width, top clearance, panel weight, the door casing and the route out of the room decide how a visit runs, so we ask about them before we arrive rather than on the doorstep.

A near-strike does not have to trip a breaker to do damage. It couples a transient into the branch circuit that lasts microseconds — far too short for a breaker, which responds to sustained overcurrent, but long enough to take out a low-voltage board. The tell is two appliances on one circuit going down in the same afternoon, and it is why we measure the supply under load before condemning a part.

The full reading for Fleming Island