6 months ago when our $400 dishwasher broke and had to be replaced, I made a dumb move. Not being very technical with appliances I took the lazy way out and, out of fear, bought a new one.Looking back, I had a couple of cheaper options:
-Scrap it and go buy a new one - My dishwasher was only 3 years old, yet, I chose this option which was by far the most expensive.
-Have someone come out and fix it - I did try this path, but after calling several repair shops, I learned it would take $250-$300 to fix it. I figured that spending $300 on a used appliance was a waste of money and that 6 months later, something else would break anyway.
-Fix it myself - This never even occurred to me because I have a hard time replacing the batteries in the TV remote. That was a huge oversight. I visited AppliancePartsPros.com
So the lesson here is, do not buy out of fear and do not be intimidated by a little repair. At the site I mentioned above, I was able to get the parts and a DIY instruction manual that helped me along.
Happy fixing and more importantly, happy saving!