Tackling an appliance repair by yourself can be a nervewracking ordeal, but there are many sites that can help a do-it-yourself repair much easier. It can be a real money saver, especially if the broken part is something that is not difficult to fix for a DIY’er.
Is it worth Fixing the Appliance?
One of the first things before attempting an appliance repair is to figure out the age and value of the appliance in question. If you are dealing with a 15 year old low price stove or 20 year old refrigerator, most likely it will not be worth fixing. This past fall, I had several appliances break within a few months of each other. I opted to fix some and replace others.
Gas Stove Example:
My gas stove which was approaching 8 years old had an issue with the igniter and six weeks later a gas control section. I was able to figure out the igniter issue by doing some trouble shooting via online tips. The igniter was an easy replace, and after a $25 part from amazon and 30 minutes, the igniter was fixed (see links below).
The gas control section was not something I wanted to work with as it was beyond my skill set (especially dealing with gas). My local gas company had a look at it and confirmed it was the gas control section. The very honest gas technician let me know it would be at least $500 to repair ($350 part and $150 labor) and it was not worth it. I instead went shopping and found a new gas stove for not much more then repairing the old stove.
Dishwasher Example:
My dishwasher started having issues draining the water after a wash cycle and seemed to be struggling to pump water. The dishwasher luckily was relatively new and provided an error code as to what the issue the dishwasher thought the issue was. I looked up online to verify the error code and it was most likely a dishwasher drain pump issue. The replacement video showed that I needed to remove the dishwasher but the installation was not very difficult and the part was $45. The replacement took me about 1.5 hours as I was careful moving the dishwasher, etc. After replacing the pump, the dishwasher worked like new.
Conclusion
Figuring out the most probable issue your appliance is experiencing is the first step (see sites below). The cost of the replacement part needs to be weighed against the current value of the appliance. In my gas stove case, spending almost as much as a new gas stove on repairing it made no sense. My dishwasher, on the other hand, was well worth the $45 part to have it running like new especially since it was a higher end dishwasher and newer.
Repair Websites
Some of the sites I use to check on troubleshooting, parts and installation videos.
- https://www.repairclinic.com
- https://www.partselect.com
- and of course your favorite search engine
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