What’s Your Best Advice for Small Appliance Repairs?

Deciding whether to fix a broken appliance or just get a new one can be pretty tough in our disposable society — especially when you have a stack of blue-and-white coupons for 20 percent off at your nearest big box store, and when you don’t even know where to get started. (It’s not like you can just bring it back to the store, 10 years later, or leave it on your windowsill and wait for magical elves to come fix it. You can’t, right?)

So, we’re wondering, what have you done when you’ve found yourself with a non-toasty toaster or a non-mixing mixer? How do you determine if it’ll cost less (in terms of time, money, and effort) to just get a new one? If you should just take a hammer to the old one and smash it to pieces? Or if it’s worth fixing? If it’s worth fixing, how do you even go about it?

Do you call the manufacturer? Do you spend 239 hours watching YouTube videos? Do you buy replacement parts from a weird website and end up with your very own success story? Do you bring a heap of jumbled pieces to your car mechanic (what? He’s handy!)? Do you have a go-to book that basically answers every single question you could ever have?

We want to hear from you. Tell us what broke, how you realized the problem, and how you fixed it. (Or tell us when you realized the appliance was winning and it was time to throw in the towel.)

We’ll either promise not to judge you or we’ll be very impressed by you! And if you have some mind-blowing tip, you could be featured on the site.

• What to Do If Your KitchenAid Stand Mixer Breaks
• When Should You Try a DIY Appliance Repair?
• Our Microwave Broke: And I Don’t Think We’re Going Back
• When/How to Repair vs. Replace Broken Tech & Appliances from Apartment Therapy