Nobody wants to spend on a machine that is about to fail again. Here are the numbers we work to, and the rule we actually apply in somebody’s kitchen rather than the one that sounds good on a website.
Service lives worth planning around
- Refrigerator, freestanding: 10 to 14 years.
- Refrigerator, built-in column: 15 to 20, and worth maintaining toward the top of that.
- Washing machine: 9 to 12.
- Dryer: 11 to 14, and heavily dependent on the vent.
- Dishwasher: 9 to 12, and less on hard water without a softener.
- Range or cooktop: 13 to 16.
- Wall oven: 13 to 16, and repaired well past it for the reasons in this article.
The line we use
If the repair costs more than half the price of comparable new equipment and the machine is past two thirds of the life above, replacing is the better spend. Both halves have to be true. A fourteen-year-old wall oven wanting a $180 fuse is worth fixing. A six-year-old budget washer wanting a tub and bearing assembly frequently is not.
Note what the rule does not say. Age on its own condemns nothing.
What shortens these numbers around here
A restricted dryer vent. A condenser nobody has cleaned in five years. A garage or mudroom refrigerator running below its rated ambient temperature through a Hudson Valley winter. Hard well water north of the Parkway scaling every heating element it touches. Salt air along the Sound working on coils and contacts. All five are avoidable and all five cost less to prevent than to repair.
If you are weighing up a repair, describe it on the phone and you will get an honest answer, including the one that loses us the work. Call 914-527-5055.
