Every day at Albion Appliance Service, we are asked whether an appliance has taken a mortal hit or whether with a bit of TLC it can be (economically) nursed back to health to provide more valuable service for a cash strapped family.
We all have appliances in our homes, from fridges to washing machines, to specialist cooking equipment. There was a time when appliances were new and unattainable, but now they are standard in all households.
Some questions to ask:
How old is your appliance?
Sometimes appliances simply need to be replaced because they are getting old. Even if your old appliance is only damaged in one area, you might fix it and then have problems soon after with another area. You might be better off replacing it completely with a new appliance, because age might cause it to break over and over again.
It is also possible that you will not be able to obtain the spare parts for an old model, but your we can confirm this for you. If you are in doubt about whether to fix or replace an old appliance, talk to us.
How expensive is the appliance?
If you have invested a considerable amount of money into your appliance, then you may certainly want to have it repaired, rather than replaced. Many appliances cost thousands of dollars, but only a few hundred to repair. There is no sense in replacing a new and expensive product, if we can get you out of trouble by replacing a simple part. You could soon have it working as good as new, without even noticing the difference.
What type of appliance is it?
Talk to your appliance repairer to see if your exact type, make and model can be repaired. If you have a small set of $10 electronic egg beaters you will be better off purchasing a new set, but if you have something large and valuable, you may find it is a cheaper option to have us repair. And with the environment a big consideration, think of the savings in materials, carbon manufacturing use and carbon miles.
Some Specifics
Is it a washing machine? We would usually recommend repair if the machine is up to five or seven years old. However, depending on the brand and how much use it has had, and who used it – remember the teenagers? – it may be worth repairing at ten years old. The biggest issue washing machines have is that the bearings wear out… a high whining sound starts, and this sound becomes steadily louder over time until the neighbours think you have started renting your property to Brisbane city airport to run their spare 747s. If the bearings have gone, it’s a dumper unless you have a lot of knowledge and time to replace them yourself, because it’s a two hour job.
Is it a dishwasher? These do wear out and quite a lot of the parts become brittle with heat, especially behind the control panel. Once again at ten years we will ask a lot of questions to see if we think this is an economically worthwhile job for you to have us do. Are there lights? If not the electronic board has likely blown and it is usually not worth repair if it is ten years old. Is it not draining? Probably seventy-five percent of the call outs we see for dishwashers are because they are not draining. And more than fifty percent of those turn out to be blockages, not requiring parts. It would be a shame to throw out a good dishwasher if it just needs the drain cleared.
Is it an oven? Ovens just keep on keeping on. There are not a lot of things go wrong on an oven. The two major problems are non-availablity of parts, and rust. As long as we can get parts, and there is no rust we can probably fix most of the mainstream brands good as new.
Cooktops are a little different. The switches and elements can be hard to get for some brands, but once again as long as we can obtain parts they are a much better bet than dishwashers and washers. If it has mono tube elements and one of those is not working, it’s time for a new cooktop sadly as these elements cannot be obtained.
Fridges ….oh oh. Here’s the procedure: If it’s not cold in the fridge, but is cold in the freezer, it is probably repairable, as long as it’s not massively old and your granny gave it to you in 1998 But…. If your ice cubes have melted and there is wet runny ice cream through the freezer, it’s only possibly repairable. This is commonly a compressor issue, or the gas has escaped its shackles and gone to inhabit the stratosphere, possibly causing havoc among the high cirrus clouds.
Your dryer. We have so many people tell us the belt has gone because the drum is not not turning. Its almost certainly not the belt and if it is a capacitor, its a cheap fix especially if you bring it to us and get our wonderful workshop tech, Nicholas, to check it out.
Call us with your questions or to book in, on 36301611
