Broken cooker, fridge, lawnmower or washing machine? Buy a spare part

Miss Thrifty5 November 19, 2009

Next time your cooker, fridge, lawnmower or washing machine breaks, don’t buy a new one. Buy a spare part, and fit it yourself.

We did this a while back, when our fan-assisted oven became a fan-unassisted oven. We couldn’t get the oven hot enough for cooking; this is what happens, when you buy a house with a kitchen straight out of a DIY shop bargain bin. We thought we’d have to pay someone to come and replace the fan element, or buy a new cooker and have someone come and fit that. Both options were disgustingly expensive.

Here in our cushioned First World, we are accustomed to a disposable culture: buying up cheap things, then buying up another batch of cheap things when the first lot fall to pieces. To some extent, however, the recession has put paid to this mindset. Our next door neighbour Colin, a TV repairman, is a good barometer for this. Two years ago he was complaining, bitterly, that people were binning their sturdy old goggle boxes for junky flatscreen jobs; these days, he is once again rushed off his feet with TV repair work.

As for the Thrifty Towers oven: we bought a new fan element from eSpares, turned off the electricity – and my husband fitted it in less than a hour. Bingo! It cost £60; £100 less than a new model.

If you haven’t come across this site before, have a peek as it is very handy. It sells parts for just about everything! White goods, vacuum cleaners, garden machinery, greenhouses, Philips shavers, video gaming stuff – it’s a long list.

There are also eSpares videos to show you how to replace the various bits and bobs, step by step. Here’s the oven fan one.

Image credit: p0piscle.

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5 Responses to “Broken cooker, fridge, lawnmower or washing machine? Buy a spare part

Samara says:

Hi Miss Thrifty,

We’re so pleased to hear that you’ve used our site and it’s saved you money. Fixing appliances yourself is a great little moneysaver that not many people know about. Thank you so much for helping spread the word!

If any Miss Thrifty readers would like to get in touch for appliance repair help I’m on twitter under the username @espares.

Thanks again!

Kind regards,
Samara

November 19, 2009 at 9:58 am

F.G. says:

Wish I’d known about this before I bought the new washing machine

November 20, 2009 at 12:46 am

Emily Highmore says:

Please help Miss Thrifty – moved into a lovely new house a couple of months ago and smashed the cistern lid on the first night. Any bright ideas on where to buy a new lid? Realy don’t want to have to replace the whole toilet!!!

November 30, 2009 at 8:28 pm

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