Don't Despair, Just Repair

Not that cheap appliances are necessarily durable. "Thirty years ago they didn't really make super-cheap . . . appliances. They do now," the former general contractor said.

"If you're willing to pay $1,000-plus for a refrigerator or $700-plus for a dishwasher . . . you'll still get something that'll last for 20 to 30 years. If you spend only half that amount, expect to get something that'll last only 10 years or so."

For the record, the Association of Home Appliance Manufacturers, a Washington trade group, gives the approximate life of a dishwasher as 13 years, 14 for refrigerators and 17 for ranges.

"But are they giving you the typical lifespan of an appliance or how long people keep them before sending them to the trash heap?" asked Robert Krughoff, president of Consumers' Checkbook, a nonprofit research organization that rates goods and services in the metropolitan area and in other cities.

Lifespan estimates tend to become self-fulfilling prophecies. People look at the numbers and wonder if a broken appliance is worth repairing, Krughoff said. "I'm not sure that's the way those data should be used. Sure, people throw out an appliance after 15 years, but that doesn't mean it was dead. That doesn't mean yours wouldn't last another 10 years."

Bottom line, he said: "If you like it, get it fixed."

The most frequently requested repairs are, in fact, pretty simple, said Lefever: icemaker malfunctions; clogged gas jets on stoves; dishwasher leaks and broken glass and foreign objects caught in the pump; and various electrical problems.

Big-ticket items, where Lefever would be inclined to suggest replacement, include problems with a refrigerator compressor, or a refrigerant leak; replacing computer oven controls and glass cooking tops; and replacing the complete pump, motor or electronic control system on a dishwasher.

"Unless you get a reasonable repair quote, you should question whether you want to fix them or not," he said. "But if you have an $1,800 refrigerator that matches the kitchen and has custom panels, a $400-$500 repair might make sense."

With most appliances, "there's some non-central feature that will usually break," said Woodyard. "Like with a refrigerator, it's usually not the compressor, the core of the refrigerator, it's something else: plastic drawers fall apart or a water problem shorts out a wire. And you become disenchanted with the thing--not that it's not fixable at a reasonable price."

Or maybe you're just ready to be disenchanted, looking for an excuse to get something new. Just as with cars and computers, appliances come with ever-sexier features. Then there are those covetable brands that drip status, even when they're not quite the performers they're cracked up to be.

"The Sub-Zero is a very nice refrigerator, but the competition, GE and Amana, have the same desirable features and have even exceeded Sub-Zero in some areas," Woodyard said. "But there's still the cachet of the Sub Zero . . . and top-end European appliances. . . . They're perceived as high end and high quality. . . . It's like buying a Rolls-Royce."