Last spring when we remodeled our kitchen, we bought a dishwasher that we found on Craigs List for $100. It was about six years old, and the retail price was $600. We replaced a 21 year old dishwasher that was loud and ugly and rusty but still working. Our new (to us) dishwasher was amazingly quiet, very stylish, and worked great – until this week. On Wednesday evening, I turned it on and nothing happened. I pushed a few buttons and thought I smelled smoke, so I shut it off and went to bed. My parents were planning to visit us on Thursday, and I wanted to get their opinion on what might be wrong.
When they got here, we pulled the dishwasher out and it took my dad about 8 minutes to find a very fried part of motor. Dang it. We briefly thought about trying to get a new motor, but since we didn’t know what had caused the motor to burn out in the first place, we didn’t want to put a new motor in and have it burn out again.
Since time was of the essence (we had to shut off the main water line to the house while the dishwasher was connected) we decided to go to Home Depot and just buy a new dishwasher. Our fridge and stove are white, so we wanted a white dishwasher. There wasn’t a lot of decision making to do, as there was a grand total of one white dishwasher in stock at our Home Depot. We forked over $350 and brought it home. Thanks to my parents, it’s now installed in our kitchen and working perfectly.
I don’t like buying anything new when there’s an option to buy used. But convenience won out this time. And it is nice to have a warranty on our new dishwasher.
We’re focusing on living very frugally in order to have money saved for a down payment if we decide to go ahead with our idea of buying another house. And it would have been nice to be able to put that $350 into our house fund instead of buying a dishwasher. (We don’t consider a dishwasher to be an emergency, so we’re using money that would have been allocated to our down payment fund rather than emergency fund money. We’d rather delay our house purchase than deplete our emergency fund.) But situations like this remind me of how glad I am that we worked so hard to get rid of our non-mortgage debt over the last several years and that we live below our means. It’s a bummer to have to take a chunk out of the money that we’ll put into our house fund this month. But it would be a much bigger bummer if we were also struggling to pay off consumer debt at the same time (we did have a few of those sort of situations arise when we were working to pay off debt, and they were even less fun then).
If you’re focused on off debt, I promise that the result is worth it. Appliances will give out, emergencies will crop up, unexpected expenses will always show up when you have much better plans for your money. By focusing on needs rather than wants, living below your means, and setting aside money during times when you don’t have unexpected expenses, life becomes a little easier when the unexpected expenses show up.
kriscake says
Our dishwasher was purchased as a scratch and dent and has been a lemon since we got it. It was repaired under warranty quite a few times so I knew exactly what to order when it died again. fixitnow.com has also been a big help. Our last repair was $30 and an hour of my husband’s time.
MrsMoney says
Our dishwasher broke awhile ago, but we decided we’re going to wait on purchasing a new one. I have been doing a lot of dishes by hand! ;)
FrugalBabe says
This is the first new appliance we’ve ever bought. Our washer and dryer were used/refurbished, and our stove and previous dishwasher came from craigslist. If it had been a part other than the motor, we’d have repaired the dishwasher we had. But it was badly burned out – smoke was coming from the motor when we tried to start the machine. I did consider doing without a dishwasher, and then decided that a dishwasher is my reward for making every single meal at home ;)
With all of the used appliances we’ve bought over the years, this is the first time we’ve ever had a problem with any of them. Hopefully our good luck will continue!
Emily says
Babe, it wouldn’t happen to be one of the dishwashers that Consumer Reports is reporting recalled? http://blogs.consumerreports.org/home/2009/01/bosch-recall.html?EXTKEY=I72RSHA If not, google it for recalls (you never know when you’ll get lucky!)
Namaste
AnnJo says
I’ve been amazed at the appliance repairs I’ve been able to do myself in the last few years, using Internet resources like repairclinic.com and companies’ online product manuals.
Last weekend when my dishwasher stopped working, wouldn’t drain and leaked all over the kitchen floor, it took less than an hour to figure out what was wrong and fix it! Great feeling of accomplishment, and a whole morning of waiting around for a repair guy saved.
I’ve ordered various replacement parts from repairclinic.com and been able to repair broken regrigerator shelves, replace burned out stove parts, handles, buttons, etc.
When an appliance has broken parts, I’m tempted to replace it even though it’s still able to serve its primary function, so being able to fix those little things means I’m getting years more use out of things I would formerly have just gotten fed up with and replaced.
Gord says
I’ve often wondered which is cheaper; using a dishwasher or doing them by hand. The way I hand wash dishes, the machine might be cheaper. The way my wife does them, it’s probably cheaper by hand. I do prefer the end result by hand though, so we don’t use ours.
FrugalBabe says
Kriscake and AnnJo – thanks for the repair website links! I’m a big fan of repairing things whenever possible. We put a new heating element in our stove a couple years ago ($35 as opposed to buying a new stove) and have done numerous small repairs on our cars. We change our own brake pads, oil, spark plugs, etc. which is always a lot less expensive than taking the car to a shop.
We were hoping that the problem with our dishwasher would be a low-priced part or a burned-out wire connection, and were disappointed to see that the whole motor was shot (well beyond repair).
FrugalBabe says
Bryan – I agree about not leaving them running when you’re not home. I made the mistake of putting a load of laundry in the washer and then going outside for a while. When I came back in, the laundry room was flooded, and water was dripping through the garage ceiling. We had to tear out a huge chunk of our garage ceiling and replace the drywall and insulation, as well as the bathroom/laundry room floor. Ugg.
And this can happen whether an appliance is new or used, so I’d say the don’t leave home with them running rule is a good one no matter how old the machine is.
Bryan @ Frugal Logic says
I tend to buy new, the thought of a washing machine or dishwasher either a) leaking or b) catching fire, is not worth the money saved by buying secondhand.
I also make sure I never leave an appliance like that going while I am out of the house.
Trixie says
Hello,
I’m sorry your dishwasher gave out –broken appliances are no fun. We don’t realize how much we rely on them until they are not working:)
My husband and I are in the same camp of spending less than we earn and buying a lot of things used so that we have the money set aside for those times when you have to buy something full price at the last minute.
It feels good to sacrifice on certain things so we have the comfort of knowing if a true emergency came up, we could cover it, no problem.
Take Care,
Trixie
Sheri says
Oh, I just had to buy a new appliance, too. My crummy old top loader washer up and died on me, well beyond repair, and while I had 18 loads of vacation laundry piled up! (including some very stinky cloth diapers)
I was able to pay for the new washer from savings rather than our emergency fund, but I still winced at having to shell out for a new machine.
Any you better believe I gave that new machine the workout of it’s life when it arrived!
Enjoy that spiffy new dishwasher!