Best Appliance Repair Services of 2023 – ConsumersAdvocate.org

Appliance Repair 101

When an appliance fails, all hell breaks loose. No hot water for that 5:00 am shower before work, having to cook all your meat before bacteria take over your fridge; you name it. It makes you want to run to the nearest Sears and simply buy something new as fast as possible. However, repairing should always be a first option. As weve mentioned, review your warranty and check with the manufacturer first. If they cant help you anymore, make some calls and get a few quotes. Depending on the prices youre given, you can make that final decision: repair or replace. To help with this, theres a rule of thumb that goes around named the 50/50 rule. If your appliance has passed 50% of its life expectancy and your specific repair costs over 50% of the appliances full price, maybe its time to buy a new one.

You may be used to hiring a single technician for everything or trusting your cousins recommendation. However, if you dont want to risk losing a limb while fixing your garbage disposal, you have to be more thorough. This rings even truer if you have a modern or very expensive appliance. There has to be a certain guarantee that the people who enter your house know what they're doing.

This can be a problem because although each company needs a state or municipality business license, there are no federal regulations for repairing home appliancesother than the EPA Type 1 Certification to handle refrigerants. What youll find is trade schools and professional organizations that administer tests that lead to competency-based certifications in order to ensure quality service is as widespread as possible.

Despite this lack of uniformity, there are some certifications and credentials you can be on the lookout for:

Section 608 Type 1 Technician Certification, by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)

This federal certification is mandatory for tradespeople who work with refrigerant-containing appliances such as refrigerators and air conditioners. Its significant, because if someone handles refrigerant-containing appliances without this certification, theyd be breaking federal law and putting you (and your appliance) at risk.

However, you should know that this certification has nothing to do with competency or actual knowledge of appliance repair. Its entirely related to safety measures and the hazardous nature of refrigerants. Some companies or individual repair people will claim to be certified, but only have this credential to their name.

Other types of the Section 608 Technician Certification

Type II and Type III certifications of Section 608 test technicians on safely handling leakages in high- and low-pressure appliances, respectively. This includes HVAC and industrial-grade refrigeration systems that use over 5lbs of refrigerant. A technician can also get a Universal Certification when he possesses all three.

These certifications are a prerequisite for refrigeration-related credentials given out by other organizations.

ASF (Appliance Service Fundamentals), by the Institute of ApplianceService Technicians (ioAST)

The Institute of Appliance Service Technicians works in partnership with FredsAppliance Academy. Their ASF certification is granted through a test thatinvolves overall knowledge of different appliances, refrigeration, and electricaltheory. Freds Appliance Academy is well-regarded in the industry, and even Samsung has sponsored students to take their courses.

Skill Certifications, by the Professional Service Association (PSA)

The PSA gives different certifications for different layers of the industry, frommanagement to customer service to, obviously, technical skills. To achieve theTechnician Rating, participants must take a core module (a basic technical skillstest), a customer relationship test and one of the six specialized modules available: cooling, convenience, cleaning, gas cooking, electric cooking or microwave equipment. By taking all modules, composed of over 300 questions, technicians can be certified as Master Technicians.

National Appliance Service Technician Certifications (NASTeC), by the International Society of Certified Electronics Technicians (ISCET)

The NASTeC certifications are obtained through multilevel exams. Applicants must mandatorily pass an 80-question Basic Skills Examination, and then pass one of the three specialty tests (laundry and cleaning appliances; cooking appliances; refrigeration-related appliances) in order to be certified in any of those areas. If an applicant approves all of them, they are recognized as an Universal Technician.

A reassuring aspect of this certification is that it must be renewed every two years, as opposed to other certifications, which usually only require renewal every four or five years. This translates to constantly updated technicians with access to more recent information.

Factory Certifications

One of the best guarantees you can look for is factory certification. Thismeans that the brand itself has provided continuous training to a technician or anentire repair company. In many cases, smart appliances such as those made by Samsung or LG, or very expensive ones (like Sub-Zero refrigerators) willhave proprietary technology in place, from mechanical parts to electronic software. Its essential that whoever opens up your product is familiar with its particular components and their most recent updates.

Background Checks

Some repair companies conduct background checks on their technicians, a very important step since repair people enter the home, remain inside for hours at a time, and work with very expensive products. Services like Home Advisor run background checks on company owners in order to certify their business. However, if you feel more comfortable knowing every employee has been cleared, be sure to check if the company itself uses any background check services in the hiring process.

You may have frequently heard your parents and grandparents talk about how their appliances used to last longer. You may have also heard horrible stories about modern appliances failing early on and being fixed by the neighborhood handyman, only to fail again in a week. Why is this?

According to Gay Gordon-Byrne, executive director of The Repair Association, the shorter lifespan of appliances is often attributed to the growing amount of electronic components. Electronics are not nearly as durable, they have so many more points of failure, she told us. This also leads to a more difficult repair because appliance technicians are not usually trained to handle this type of electronics, much less software.

Companies continue to include proprietary parts in their products that are not only harder to repair, but either cant be replaced by aftermarket parts made by third parties. Or, like GE filters, will continuously warn you about changing the new, non-GE one you just installed. As Nathan Proctordirector of the U.S. Public Interest Research Groups (USPIRG) Right to Repair campaignputs it, the aftermarket is undercut by the way the manufacturers design these products. He also mentions that original equipment manufacturer (OEM) parts dont last too long either. Computer chips are not physically durable, he said, echoing Gordon-Byrnes statement. This way, companies are able to charge higher prices for spare parts, leaving customers without many options.

Another big issue Proctor brought up is manufacturers direct attempts at impeding repairs. A lot of warranties get voided if you or a non-factory technician opens up the appliance, an issue the USPIRG has been constantly battling with. All these practices, which are causing an obsolescence crisis, as Proctor said, are constantly threatening not just the repair industry as a whole, but the lifespan of household appliances and environmental health.

Although some people in the industry have recently claimed its invention, the word telemaintenance has been used by different armed forces, at least, since the early 90s, and a similar term, telediagnosis, dates back to the 70s. If it seems similar to telemedicine, its because it functions like it toobut with less fainting. It means to service something remotely, to provide maintenance from a distance. And in the era of COVID-19, that sounds just about right.

Now in the hands of civilians, telemaintenance is designed to help with home improvement, electronics, and major appliances. In some cases, its big companies implementing these remote options through proprietary software; in others, its local technicians using third-party services like Streem.

The variety of styles with telemaintenance is similar to that of online therapy, a remote service weve reviewed before. Some companies have a subscription service and you can text a technician at any given moment. Others offer live chat, phone calls, or video conferencing through appointments. With telemaintenance, video is probably the best way to go so that the technician can see the appliance and, hopefully, get an eye on the problem. Video conferencing also allows for more features, like drawing on the screen so nobody gets lost.Home projects have gone up significantly with the unprecedented strain of 24/7 home occupation. Along with citywide lockdowns and the general fear of contagion, the need for services like this has gone up too, and now that weve had a taste, it might change the way we do things in the post-pandemic future.

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Best Appliance Repair Services of 2023 - ConsumersAdvocate.org