Repair experts: Modern appliances arent lasting as long as previous models

Fancy & fragile Home and Garden More Home & Garden On The House By Jim Weiker The Columbus Dispatch Sunday August 3, 2014 9:11 AM

Appliances can talk with one another. They can track their energy use. They can be controlled by phones.

Now can we just get them to last?

All the technological and energy-saving gizmos added to home appliances in recent years have come at an expense: life expectancy.

The average appliance life span is 10 to 15 years, said Robert Rist, whose family has owned Central Ohio Appliance Repair for almost 40 years. The days of them lasting 25 or 30 years are gone.

According to the National Association of Home Builders, the life expectancy of major household appliances ranges from nine years for dishwashers to 15 years for gas ranges. Other surveys, such as those from the Association of Home Appliance Manufacturers and Mr. Appliance, give appliances a few years longer.

But whatever figure is used, experts agree that the plug gets pulled a lot faster on appliances today than in the past.

Older products might have lasted 15 years before a repair, said Dana Smith, who owns the Dayton and Lima

Mr. Appliance franchises.

Weve talked with people who say they just spent $3,000 on a range and cant believe it doesnt work, and we hear how the old one lasted 20 years without a single repair.

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Repair experts: Modern appliances arent lasting as long as previous models