Saturday, April 28, 2012

DIY Appliance Repair - Is It Worth It?

Let me answer this with an unqualified "Maybe." "It depends" also works.

First, a personal story. About 6 years ago, long before I went to work at Sears selling these beasts, I bought a Kenmore dishwasher (made by LG) at a Sears where I lived in Western New York. Being the macho appliance geek, I declined the 5 year service coverage, assuming (correctly) that I could fix most anything that went wrong.

Sure enough, about 2 years later, the pump motor started to go, so, after trying a couple of things, I popped the hood and pulled out the defective pump motor. Took about an hour. I perused the on-line discount appliance parts site on the net. The least expensive replacement cost $241 with shipping. That was only about $60 more than 5 years coverage would have cost me. I calculated that to build the dishwasher from aftermarket parts would cost about 3 times what the dishwasher would have cost new. Plus my labor, of course (which, according to my wife, is free and worth nearly every penny).

Johnny Cash more or less summed this up in a song quite a few years ago.... You can watch it here. (Sorry about the ad)

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