Figure out when to either fix or junk an appliance

Your 15-year-old washing machine sounds like a jackhammer on concrete when it spins the water out of your clothes. Is this the end for this appliance? Should you repair the gear box (sometimes called the transmission) for about $325 or replace the machine?

A good rule to follow according to Consumer Reports magazine is to repair an appliance as long as it costs less than half of what it would cost to replace it and provided that you havent been making one repair after another for the past couple of years.

Maybe you can buy a replacement that sells for $600 to $700, and maybe that new machine would be more energy efficient. But Annette Little of Frost Appliance Repair in Phoenix says its unlikely that your new machine could last as long as the old one certainly not for 15 years: I definitely recommend that homeowners always repair machines that are five years or older because these older machines will last longer than newer models, she said.

But when Consumer Reports surveyed about 30,000 subscribers last year about that issue, readers reported repair rates that were about the same for appliances as they had in a similar earlier survey in 2010, according to Celia Kuperszmid-Lehrman, an editor with the magazine.

It seems as if thats impossible, doesnt it? Kuperszmid-Lehrman said. We all seem to think that things are breaking more quickly. But that perception may be due to the fact that when things break down they really break. If an electronic controller stops working, the breakdown is more dramatic.

In fact, readers told the magazine that when products break, they stop working completely more than half the time.

Household appliances with the biggest problems in the first four years of ownership, the magazine said, include side-by-side refrigerators with icemakers (31 percent of the complaints), bottom-drawer freezer refrigerators with icemakers (28 percent), and newer dishwashers (20 percent). Some brands may be worse than others, Kuperszmid-Lehrman said. Of course, Consumer Reports rates appliances and is one possible resource if youre looking for a new appliance.

The magazine also said that while heavy use is often related to a greater share of repairs for washing machines, the age of a washing machine is more important. A washer bought four years ago is four times as likely to need a repair as one bought a year and a half ago.

When appliances break, replacement parts may be hard to come by, Frost notes, especially with foreign-based appliance companies. If homeowners have to wait too long, they often decide to junk the appliance. Very few people would be willing to go three weeks without an operating refrigerator, for example.

Here are some issues to consider in using and buying appliances:

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Figure out when to either fix or junk an appliance