Don’t pitch it - fix it!
By: Beverly Allen - August 1st, 2007
Small appliances are mainstays in most homes—
toasting bread, brewing coffee, and making any number of personal grooming tasks easier. So what do you when your favourite gadget is damaged or broken?
The obvious solution is to take it to a repair shop. Unfortunately, that’s not as easy as it once was, in part because it’s getting increasingly difficult to find anyone who does small appliance repair. The bible of 
small appliance repair shops, the Yellow Pages, shows the precipitous drop of these service providers; between 1998 and 2006, listings for small appliance repairers in Ontario fell by 62 per cent.
The dwindling number of mom and pop small appliance outlets has several causes, says Normand Tetreault, Senior Buyer and Service Director for Personal Edge, a Quebec-based company that specializes in both the sales and servicing of small electric appliances.
In focusing on small appliance repair, Personal Edge has discovered a niche market—providing repair options for consumers disenchanted with the disposable consumer culture.
But it’s not easy being in the repair business right now. It can be difficult, for example, to get parts quickly 
enough to provide fast, efficient appliance service, says Tetreault. “Many products are made in China, and it can be hard to get parts, especially when the manufacturers won’t do productions runs of less than 25,000.”
Some manufacturers now choose replacement over repair. “They simply replace a broken item with a new one,” says Tetreault. “Consumers are not always happy about that because there is a movement away from the throw-away society.”
While it’s hard to prove, Tetreault believe that the average life expectancy of small appliances has shortened over the last few decades. That, he says, is driven both by consumer behavior and manufacturing decisions.
People tend to replace appliances now more frequently because they view them as fashion accessories for the home, he explains. “They will redo apartment and want to switch all their appliances from black to stainless steel.”
Appliances are also less robust because of the widespread replacement of metal parts with plastic. “There are all sorts of reasons for that,” says Tetreault, “including the rising cost of metal and the cost of shipping heavier items. Those factors pushed the use of plastic.”
Poorly-made products are definitely harder to fix, says Bill Ashley, owner of Fix It Again Sam in Toronto (911 Millwood Avenue 416-425-7272). He’s been in the small appliance repair business since 1980, and will work on anything from small motors to lamps, which he says many people want fixed because of their sentimental value.
But his trade gets harder and harder to practice. “I can replace a cord, which is a common problem,” he says. “But I can’t get a lot of parts that are model specific for newer appliances.” In fact, says Ashley, it’s often easier to fix a forty-year old toaster than a new toaster. “They’re better made, out of better materials, and that’s always easier to fix.”
While his customers are becoming more concerned about where their dead appliances go, Ashley believes that things will only really change if consumers accept higher prices. “It comes down to money,” says Ashley. “If you think about it, a toaster cost between $20 and $40 forty years ago, and it’s still costs the same. What other product has stayed at the same price?”
So how do you know whether the small appliance you want to buy will be fit for the pit before the end of the calendar year? Here are a few things to consider:
• When buying a small appliance, ask who does the servicing. Find out whether parts are readily available, and whether an authorized service dealer is close by. Consider checking out the dealer by phoning with a phantom query—“I just broke the locking mechanism on my new food processor. How long will it take to get fixed? Do you have the parts on hand?”
• Follow all manufacturers’ instructions for care and cleaning. Taking proper care of your appliance will greatly extend its life, says Tetreault. If you lose your instruction manual, check to see if the manufacturer posts it online. Some companies, like Cuisinart, do.
• Don’t attempt to take apart a small appliance and fix it yourself. Not only are you unlikely to be able to spot and fix the problem, it’s just not safe.
• Look carefully at the warranty. But think twice before buying an extended warranty, which ConsumerReport.org (www.consumerreports.org) routinely dismisses as a waste of money.
Your article actually implies that throwing it away is the most economic and timely method. It is too bad that we live in this throw away society. I agree with what is being said in the article, but no real solution has been offered, even from the repair expert who is limited with what he can do these days.
I have heard more than once from repair men — they don’t make it like they use to.