On 2011-11-26, Andrew Gabriel wrote:

Adam Funk writes:

Well, I think what he actually said was something along these lines:
many of them don't break and then they're fine, but when they do,
they're not worth trying to repair (because of the cost of the spare
parts).

The parts that fail are usually quite cheap (e.g. a thermister).
Trouble is that diagnosis and repair is well beyond the
capabilities of most repair technicians, so you'll either
spend a fortune on their time and parts they wrongly replace
by trial and error because they don't know what they're doing,
or they'll just tell you it's beyond repairing, because they
know they can't diagnose the problem.

So he's almost right - they're not worth trying to repair,
but it's because the diagnosis is beyond the capabilities of
the repair technician, not because the parts are expensive.
The end result is the same, however.

We ended up getting a Siemens non-frost-free fridge-freezer (for just
over £400).

The paperwork that came with it included the manufacturer's 2-year
guarantee and a form for purchasing a further 3 years. The generic
form lists prices for various types of appliances, including £74 for a
non-frost-free fridge-freezer and £119 for a frost-free fridge-freezer
--- this suggests that Siemens' own "appliance actuaries" expect
frost-free models to cost 60% more (on average) to repair in years 3
to 5 than non-frost-free ones.