Category: home appliances

Being handy can be helpful if your home appliances breakdown out of the warranty period and you can find a source to get the right home appliance part to fix it. Many companies offer after-market sales of parts and many consumers are not afraid to open them up and attempt their own repairs.

Depending on the appliance and your level of expertise and willingness to disassemble a home appliance to determine which part needs replaced, doing the work yourself can often save you money on the labor cost on repairs. When deciding, remember there may be one home appliance part that will allow easy installation and another that will be extremely difficult.

For example, in standard coffee makers, there is a thermostat with an element that works similar to a fuse. If your coffee maker overheats, this fuse will burn out rendering your coffeemaker useless. The home appliance part to fix this is fairly inexpensive and if you have any ability with hand tools can be replaced in a matter of minutes. However, if your coffeemaker was bought on sale for $10 or less, it may be a better idea just to replace it with a new one.

There Can Be Danger In Parts Replacement

One thing to keep in mind if you decide to replace a home appliance part on your own is if it is an electric part, improper installation can make the appliance unsafe for operation. Additionally, if you choose to disassemble an appliance and replace a home appliance part while the unit is still under warranty, you probably just voided the remainder of the warranty.

Manufacturers are sticklers on their products being repair by people not authorized by the factory to perform the repairs and will sell you a home appliance part mainly for those times when the warranty has expired. They understand that unauthorized repairs by untrained people can make an appliance danger to operate. If the repair is not affected properly it could even lead to it being a shock hazard.

However, if you are going to repair your appliances on your own, it is wise to only use factory authorized parts to insure they work properly and are designed to physically fit into the appliance you are repairing. Often times, a home appliance part made by another company may fit into your appliance but due to variations in voltages or other factors, may not allow your device to work properly.

Not many people realize it but home appliance manufacturers rely on you, the consumer, to make money and stay in business. It sounds fairly straight forward but there s more to it than just offering a good product. There s advertising, consumer surveys, consumer reports and many other factors that go into determining whether or not a home appliance manufacturer succeeds or fails in today s global market. The first thing a home appliance manufacturer will do when they release a new product is they will test it on people who are likely to use it.

Product Testing

A home appliance manufacturer will conduct product testing on new products to determine if people find them easy to use, convenient and worthy of owning and putting in their homes. They ll do this by either asking people in stores or on the street or they may even come to your door. They will let you try the product and then will ask you questions as to whether or not you found that product worthy of your standards.

For instance, let s say that a home appliance manufacturer just came out with a new microwave. They ll find people who use microwaves on a daily basis and they will have these people use their new microwave. They will show them all the latest functions and they will let the people play around with them. By asking them how they liked it, they can get a great idea of how the general public will like the product once it s offered on the shelves. If, however, the test group doesn t like the product, then it s back to the drawing board to improve it so that, next time, they might find a winner.

Advertising

Home appliance manufacturers need to know how to reach their audience to make people who may use their product know that it exists, know where to find it and know how much it s going to cost them. They ll do this by advertising on television commercials, newspaper ads, magazine ads and they ll even do it with mailers that you get in your mailbox. Sometimes, these mailers and other advertisements will offer special deals to those who respond to the ad. This lets the home appliance manufacturer know whether there is a great demand for their appliance or not.

All of these are great ways to see if a new product holds up to the competition but these are only a few of many. As times change and technology gets better, there s always going to be a new, revolutionary product that s sure to reach a large market. You never know, you may be asked to participate in a test group of one of these home appliances. Then, you can let that home appliance manufacturer know just how good, or bad, their appliance truly is.