Repair or replace?

Domestic appliances have a rough working life, and where yours sits inside that life matters more than the cost of any single component. A machine still in its early years with one failed part is almost always worth repairing. A machine that has already had two or three unrelated failures is telling you something.

Manufacturers publish very little about expected life, so use what you have: how long you have owned it, how hard it works, and whether the failures are starting to cluster. Three call-outs in a year for three different faults is a pattern, not bad luck.

Mechanical faults — pumps, belts, rollers, brush bars, door catches, hinges — are usually cheap parts and straightforward work. These are almost always worth repairing.

Electrical faults vary. An element, a thermostat or a switch is routine. A main control board is a different order of expense, and on an older machine it is the point where the sums often stop working.

Structural faults are the real deciders. A rusted drum, a cracked outer tub, a split chassis or a corroded cavity in an oven cannot be sensibly put right, and any engineer telling you otherwise is selling you something.

Spares availability is the quiet killer. Common parts for mainstream brands — Bosch, Siemens, Neff, Hotpoint, Beko, Indesit, Zanussi, Miele — stay available for years through authorised suppliers. Discontinued models and less common brands can be a different story.

It is a fair question to ask before any work starts: is the part still made, and how long will it take to arrive? A repair that needs a fortnight's wait for an obsolete board is worth knowing about before you agree to it.

A well-built older appliance repaired properly will often outlast a cheap new one straight from the box. This is particularly true of Sebo and Miele vacuum cleaners, of older washing machines with serviceable bearings, and of storage heaters, which are mostly a heating element, a thermostat and a stack of bricks.

Running costs are the genuine counter-argument. If a very old machine is inefficient enough to show up on your bills — an ageing tumble dryer is the classic case — that goes in the replace column even if the repair itself is simple.

This is the factor people leave out and then regret. A dishwasher can wait a week. A washing machine in a house with small children usually cannot, and a cold house in January certainly cannot.

If a part has to be ordered, ask how long the appliance will be out of action — and weigh that honestly against the disruption. Sometimes the right answer is to repair, and sometimes it is to replace simply because you cannot lose the week.

Old electrical appliances must not go in the household bin. Under the UK's WEEE rules, retailers selling you a replacement have obligations around taking the old one, and Hertfordshire and Buckinghamshire household waste recycling centres accept large domestic appliances.

It is also worth asking the repairer before you scrap it. A machine that is not worth repairing for you is sometimes worth something for parts — and that is a better ending than a skip.