Repairing Your Appliances

Posted on: 8 February 2016

Although throwing away a leaky or completely nonfunctional fridge may be quite a temptation, there are usually other options than sending it to a scrapyard. A repairman can often help you get your fridge up and running again at a much lower cost than you'd be likely to pay for a new model from the store. Here are three situations in which you should summon help for repairs instead of turning to the nearest landfill or recycling facility.

1. It's only a few years old.

One of the big factors in considering whether to allow your refrigerator's continued existence is what its life expectancy is. Recent models of refrigerator are often less durable than those from the twentieth century, so if your fridge is around 10-15 years old it may not be worth your while to get it repaired. But if your fridge is under 10 years old, you should consider getting it fixed in the expectation that it may still give you many years of service.

2. It's energy efficient.

If you have an old fridge, it's probably not very energy efficient. Great advances in efficiency have been made over the last decade or so of refrigerator production. This means that if your fridge is nearly a decade old, you may be able to easily find a new one that only takes half the energy and will save you money each month on your power bill. However, if your fridge is fairly recent, its energy efficiency works in its favor.

3. The problem is easy to fix.

Once you've gotten a appliance repair person, like those at Collier County Appliance Service, Inc., out to see your fridge and have a rough estimate of the parts and labor costs involved in the potential repair, you can really get down to crunching the numbers. If the repair is likely to cost half or more of what a similar model would cost, it's hard to justify choosing the repair. However, many refrigerator issues are simple and easy to fix. For example, leaks may be caused by a frozen defrost drain or by hardened rubber seals that are quick and easy to replace. Inefficient cooling may be caused by an obstructed fan blade or dirty condenser coils. If one or more of these problems apply to your fridge, it's unlikely that the repairs will make a big dent in your budget. 

These three signs can help you determine whether your fridge is worth repairing or not. If you decide to replace your fridge after all, remember to make the environmentally friendly choice when disposing of it. The coolant contained in the unit is an environmental hazard and needs to be correctly disposed of. Be sure to find a disposal service that will properly remove the coolant and then recycle the fridge rather than taking it to a landfill.