Tip Dude hasn’t repaired electrical appliances for a long time. Of course, that’s mostly because Tip Dude had been able to find used appliances that other people don’t want and systematically replace all of his older appliances for free. But maybe something just stopped working and you don’t feel like shelling out $100 for a new one? There are some simple faults you can check that might give your appliance a new lease of life:

Note: This article is about repairing electrical appliances, not complex electronics such as computers or stereo systems.

• Is it Dead? - Home appliances and electronics fail for many reasons. With surprising regularity, the failure actually isn’t in the appliance, but in the power source. Before you decide that an appliance is “dead,” be sure to test the outlet with another appliance, preferably something simple like a desk lamp. If the desk lamp works and the appliance doesn’t, then you have a dead appliance. Otherwise…
• Check The Power Source - The power might be off for a variety of reasons: (a) the power strip might be turned off, (b) a miniature residual current circuit breaker (RCCB, like the ones you have above the kitchen counter top) might have popped, (c) the fuse might have blown or (d) the load limiting circuit breaker might have popped. Check all those. You can bypass the power strip by unplugging it and plugging the appliance directly into the wall outlet. Check the outlet for a small set of “test” and “reset” buttons (sometimes white, sometimes red and black); if you have these, you have an RCCB - make sure everything is unplugged from it and then depress the “reset” button. If several outlets in one room aren’t working, check the fuse box or the main breaker panel for a popped breaker. Usually, a popped breaker means you have overloaded the circuit (heater, fridge, microwave and hair-dryer all running at the same time?) Occasionally, it could indicate a more serious fault such as an internal short. Turn off and unplug all appliances, then reset the breaker and see if the power comes back on. If the breaker keeps popping and would not reset, you have a serious fault in your home’s wiring: call an electrician.
• Unplug Before Opening The Appliance - First of all, identify the type of appliance you have. Some appliances truly have hazardous voltages in them and should absolutely not be opened unless you know exactly what you’re doing. In particular, TV sets, computer monitors and microwave ovens should not be opened by the consumer. As a general rule, if it does something besides heating, cooling, making light, spinning, or is a computer tower, you probably shouldn’t open it. If it’s one of those, you can unplug it, open it, and take a look at it. In some cases, it will be immediately obvious what is wrong. Never plug an appliance into the wall outlet while the covers are open!
• Is It Burned? - You will recognize burned appliances by an terrible acrid smell, and maybe melted plastic or a large blackened area inside the box of the appliance. Melted plastic indicates the appliance had gotten very hot or had actually started burning. Large blackened area indicate a “flashover,” when electricity jumped from one part of the appliance to another even though the parts aren’t supposed to be touching. Burned appliances are usually not worth repairing. If they absolutely need to be repaired, they command the attention of an appliance repair professional (haha, how many of those are left?) because the faulty component needs to be removed, connections painstakingly tested and new part installed in its place. Just by looking at it, you’ll know how likely you are to be able to repair it yourself.
• Are The Power Connections Loose? - The next thing to check is the power connections. A multi-meter (you can buy one at Radio Shack) can come in handy, but it is not required. Usually, for home appliances that have a loose power connection, someone probably yanked on the cord too hard and you will see where the connections are supposed to be. If some of the power connections appear to have come off, just solder it back on. If there are screw-on type terminals inside the appliance and the wire has slipped out, reattach the wire. If some wire was frayed or gnawed (Check out Tip Dude’s Top Ten Tops - Getting Rid of Mice), you should cut off the damaged portions of the wire and reconnect the two ends. When joining wires, do not use electrical tape; use a proper terminal block or use heat-shrink tubing - buy those at Radio Shack or Home Depot. When re-joining leads, make sure you have the correct leads. How can you be sure? You can usually follow the wires around, look at what shape the wire was bent into, or look at a circuit schematic that may or may not be printed on the inside of the appliance. You can’t be absolutely sure, though. If you don’t know, ask someone who knows. If you don’t know, don’t do it.
• Is the Switch Busted? - If it’s not the power connections, it might be the switch. Usually, a switch fault would cause the appliance to randomly turn on and off, and then all of a sudden it would fail, resulting in a dead appliance. You can open the switch and see if the metal contacts have worn down. If that appears to be the problem, you can temporarily bypass the switch using terminal blocks and see if that was the problem. If that solves it, order the correct type of replacement switch and effect repair.
• Is It An Internal Short? - A short-circuit is something that is very bad. Short-circuit occurs when the “live” side of the appliance is connected to the “neutral” side of the appliance without a load in between them. Sometimes, a short-circuit causes the appliance to be burned or have a flashover. Short-circuits are usually caused by stray pieces of wire or other metallic particles and dust. Short circuits can also be caused by water damage. Some modern appliances are built with some kind of safety shut-off that detects a short-circuit and just shuts down the appliance, making it appear dead. To check for internal short-circuits, inspect the appliance to make sure there aren’t any stray pieces of wire, staples, paper clips or any area that is excessively dusty with hairballs, dust bunnies and such. Clean the dirty areas with a compressed-air can. Remove the stray wires and conductors. Once you’ve cleaned the appliance, put it all back together and power on. Do you have power? If not, you’ll have to check for other faults - and check if the earlier short has burned any of the circuits and if the damage is reparable.
• Check The Internal Fuse - Some appliances are built with an “internal fuse”. A fuse is a little piece of wire (usually in a glass or ceramic tube) that would burn in a controlled manner if there was a circuit fault somewhere in the appliance. Once this piece of wire burns, it will interrupt the circuit and shut down the device, so that no more damage can be caused by the fault. If you have checked for an internal short and locate the problem, but the device doesn’t come back on, it might be because you need to replace the internal fuse with one that has the same spec. The spec is usually written on or punched into the fuse. Caution: If you find that the internal fuse is blown, and there is no obvious short circuit, the fault might be quite serious. You can try replacing the fuse and the device may work again, but unless you find the root of the problem, it’ll just keep blowing more fuses and probably even do more damage as the appliance tries to run in a failed state. Generally, Tip Dude will replace a fuse once if no fault is found, but if the fuse blows a second time, he will not continue to replace fuses unless the definitive fault is found.
• Is the Heating Element Gone? - If it’s something that heats, the heating element may just be plainly busted. Heating elements usually burn out because of a short or because it’s just old. Sometimes, it is not obvious that a heating element has burned out, because the kind of fault that develop in a heating element could be hidden deep inside the protective tubing or tightly wound coils. Generally, if you don’t find a short or a switch problem inside something like a coffee maker, fan heater, warm mist humidifier, toaster, grill, iron, electric stove, etc., it’s probably a burned out heating element. The problem with replacing a heating element is that you would have to order one that’s specific to that appliance - but before you replace the heating element, it is impossible to know whether the heating element truly is the problem. Parts order are not always easy. Tip Dude generally don’t bother trying to replace heating elements. It is usually about the same cost just to buy a new appliance. (The same tip applies to an electric motor - if the motor is dead on a fan or a vacuum cleaner, for example, just buy a new appliance. It’ll be cheaper than trying to find the exact motor that you need.)
• Is It Even Worth Repairing? - This might be a stupid point to raise, but it is something that some people reading this page may not have considered. Electrical appliances are really cheap now. If you bought a vacuum cleaner for $300 way back when, a vacuum cleaner of a similar spec might be only $80 now, especially if you find it on sale at Target.com, Home Depot or somewhere similar. A crappy one might be even cheaper if you buy it from one of those cheap appliance stores that are constantly springing up all over downtown Manhattan. You might even be able to find a good deal online. (Although, do not expect the cheaper ones to work the same way or have the same quality.) If you’ve gone to the trouble of opening it up and couldn’t find the fault in 30 minutes, you’ve probably reached the point of diminishing return. Before you find an appliance repair professional, why not just take a look in a store or online and see how much you’d need to spend to replace the item? If it is a nonessential item, you might even consider doing without it. (Do you really need that iced tea maker? How often do you really use that fondue fountain?) In Tip Dude’s experience, if it is something that he absolutely needs, it’s probably available cheaply - because the chances are lots of other people absolutely need it, too, and the Chinese have already figured out how to make it cheaply. If it’s something that’s too expensive to replace because it’s a specialty or luxury item, Tip Dude probably doesn’t need it.

What are your best tips for fixing electrical appliances?

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