Funny thing is I once swapped a whole board on a dryer that turned out to be a loose wire I bumped while pulling the old one out. Felt real smart standing there with a $180 part in my hand and a dryer that never had anything wrong with it. Heat cycling cooking those little fuses makes way more sense than half the electronics advice floating around out there.

The math isn't off, you just used the wrong table. Your 1/4 inch joint is 1/8 inch tighter than their standard, which means more bricks per square foot. 3 percent is about right for that difference. I've seen guys short a whole pallet on big jobs because they used the 3/8 spec on a tight joint mortar mix. The bigger catch is when the wall has curves or corners, that's where the table really falls apart, not on a straight run. Your supplier's sheet is fine, you just have to know which version of their numbers actually matches your day on the wall.