How many here do their own minor appliance repairs for kitchen appliances?

Most recently, husband and I have successfully replaced the cap on our rotating lower dishwasher water disperser, and the wave diverter in the top of our microwave. Several years ago ( 2+) we replaced the electric oven coil in the bottom of the electric stovetop range , and unfortunately we have replaced the same oven's light bulb at least three times. If interested , we ( from Alabama ) start with repairclinic.com and enjoy their very reasonable parts service and lately free delivery...ch

I have a company that saves a lot of many on computer and home appliances if you are interested please feel free to email me at [email protected]

sam, aren't you just dying to get out of the heat and humidity of alabama and move up to beautiful old New England? The house next door is for sale, and I could feed you...............:-}

I have a friend who's an electrician, so he should be able to point me to a repair shop. The Kitchen Aide works absolutely perfectly except for this one small thing, where the speed lever moves from stop to a 1 on its own. And you're right about the mom and pop repair--horrible to pay shipping/energy sending something so heavy off to the company.

I'm a fixer for the most part. I've successfully fixed my Maytag front loading washer - which involved replacing some part from the motherboard that required soldering. I've also successfully fixed my dishwasher - which required replacing the touch panel. If the appliance is something I want to replace because I haven't been happy with it's function, then I don't bother trying to repair it.

And if you don't want to repair stuff, before you throw it away, try posting it on freecycle.org. You'd be amazed what people will come get if they don't have to pay for it, and that way you're not cluttering the landfill.

This post is good timing for me. My Kitchen Aide mixer, which is very old--a gift from my mom before I was really cooking, is fritzing a bit. When I'm mixing and turn the switch off to lift the beater/mixer it pauses and then starts again, spewing stuff. A couple of months ago I was cooking (food52 recipe online) and it covered my laptop w/flour.
So now I'm really careful to make sure parts are not moving, and I keep my hand on the "off," but is there anything I can do about this? I am attached to this machine, but will part ways if I must. Everything else is working perfectly with it.

Have you tried eBay for parts? You of course need the exact model and part numbers - can often get the part number from the manufacturer's web site, either from the "parts" area if the web site has one, or a downloadable manual. You can save a lot of money. My father could fix anything and always made us kids hold the flashlight and hand him the parts, and do some of the work, so I understand a lot. But I'd much rather talk someone into doing it for me and cook for them in return. Though I sometimes think there's very little that flux and duct tape can't fix. :-)

Husband is handy with tools and you can find all sorts of helpful info on appliance repair on the web.

We've only kept the dishwasher and range on the Sears repair contract. They are a nightmare to deal with when it comes to repairs, at least in my case. Takes forever to get things fixed. First visit, (good luck getting one soon) is always to diagnose the problem, which they need to order the parts for, which can take weeks. One time, our oven took 6 wks to fix, because they didn't have the part. We made grilled pizza. A lot. And, p.s., you can make a mean pizza sauce in the microwave.

The latch wasn't seating correctly with the 'all is good' switch. We just remounted it and dishwasher works again. My partner is better than me at electronic stuff, and spent last night looking at the switch we pulled and the mounting brackets.
I think we've taken apart almost everything at one time to avoid repair cost. Best one: A 2 dollar thermocouple in the 'fridge vs a 200 plus repair visit.
Everyone should know how to at least how to replace a electrical element for a electric oven.

In my case the key word is "successfully" do their own repairs. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. I watch you-tube videos in some stuff. And in my case the frustration level can get very high.

My Dad was raised on a wheat ranch in Kansas and grew up during the depression and he could fix anything. My daughter's Dad was a chemical engineer from Montana and he could fix anything. I live overlooking a Marina and know a lot of the live aboards and they can fix anything. So I trade cooking for fixing.

Good luck, Sam. Knowing you the job will be successful.