alt Hacker Newswhat we miss is a universal control computer to control those washing machines. It is very often that part that breaks and that is "so expensive that you'd better replace the whole machine".
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It is still worthwhile to try to troubleshoot something like a washing machine these days before calling someone to service it, or buying new.
We just had a ~8 year old washer start dying with an error code, with digging it turned out it was the hall effect sensor on the drum motor that needed replacing. Cost $12 and change and was over nighted from Amazon.
What would have been nice if we got a detailed diagnostic code and not just "FE" on the front panel.
I fixed a malfunctioning refrigerator by replacing the control board, which happened to be a PIC16-based device used by many brands. This design is as close to "universal" as you can get, and this generic board was around 20% the price of the official replacement part.
I replaced the heating element - twice - and the control board for the motor on my washing machine.
Never needed to touch the controller board, so my experience is different.
I’ve been having good luck buying pieces of part-outs on eBay for old appliances.
Someone will take a machine apart and list all of the pieces individually. It’s a fraction of the price of a new one. It’s a used part so it’s a gamble, but they can be so cheap I just buy two and have a spare.
With a little work, it's sometimes surprising how easy things are to repair. My TV died a few years ago and just refused to power on. I don't really know much about electronics, but I assumed since there were no lights of any kind that it was probably a bad power supply. I opened it up and it turns out the power supply is a separate board with an easily detachable cable. I ordered a new one for less than $40 on eBay by looking at the part number and it only took a few minutes to replace and saved me several hundred dollars.
I'd imagine someone more familiar with electronics possibly could have figured out what specific component was wrong and replaced only that for an even smaller fraction of the cost.