When an appliance starts throwing error codes, you might think you are in for an expensive professional repair! There’s another option.
Some appliances are more or less necessary to survival these days, like a refrigerator. Others, like dishwashers or laundry machines, save us a lot of time and personal labor. These appliances can be a significant investment in terms of money, but the time and effort they save is kind of priceless.
If there was just one initial cost to an appliance and you were set for life, that would be great. Unfortunately, like everything else in this world, appliances have a useful life span and eventually break down. And then you go through the rite of passage known as Finding Out How Much Appliance Repairs Cost. If your hair turns white when you get a repair quote on an appliance, don’t despair. There is a much cheaper option for many appliance repairs.
Why Repairs Can Be So Expensive
What’s frustrating about repairing an appliance is that it’s essentially paying money to get back to zero. This is the situation you were in yesterday when your dishwasher wasn’t blinking an inscrutable error code and making a weird grinding noise. And the money you are paying can be significant. The average cost to repair a major appliance like a dishwasher or clothes dryer is about $175. Some appliances like an oven can cost as much as $500 —which means the repair can cost as much as a new unit.
There are many reasons for these costs. Companies have to manufacture and warehouse replacement parts for a long time after introducing an appliance to the market, and that costs money. And the older the appliance gets, the harder it can be to find those parts, making them even more expensive. Then there is the labor, which averages between $50 and $150 an hour. That means that with some repairs, you are already going to be $300 in the hole without even paying for a replacement part.
With some appliance parts your only option will be a repair professional or a replacement model. Many modern appliances malfunction because of failed control boards. The control board can be one of the most expensive parts to replace. You can get control boards repaired through the mail for less than $100.
How To Mail In The Control Board
Step one will be to identify the specific control board you need repaired. You will need the model number of your appliance. Once you have the model number, you can look up the precise part number of your control board, then go to a mail-in repair site to check on availability and price. Typically, repairs cost a flat fee between $70 and $100, plus shipping. This can turn out to be a lot cheaper than hiring a professional.
Of course, there are a few things to keep in mind:
- Handiness. These sorts of repairs require you to be handy enough to identify the part you are looking for, remove it from your appliance, and the put it back.
- Certainty: Be sure to diagnose the problem correctly.
- No guarantees. The repair sites don’t make any promises of success and you might spend $100 on shipping only to be informed it can’t be repaired.
Keep in mind that if you are handy enough to pull a control board from your appliance, you are probably handy enough to replace other parts on your own.
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