How long do appliances last?

Everyone wants a number: how long should a fridge last, a washer, a dishwasher? Published figures exist, and they are useful, but they are averages from different studies with different methods, and they disagree. This page sets them side by side, says where each comes from, and explains how to use them when you are deciding whether to repair. None of these figures is a RepairWell measurement or a promise about your appliance.

Published life expectancy by appliance

The table below collects figures from three kinds of source: the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) study prepared for Bank of America Home Equity in February 2007, the InterNACHI home inspectors' life expectancy chart, and consumer cost guides and Consumer Reports. Figures are in years.

Where these numbers come from, and their limits

NAHB, 2007

The NAHB study is the source most often repeated, often without its date. It was prepared by the NAHB Economics Group for Bank of America Home Equity and published in February 2007. It gives a single average for each component. The report itself warns that life expectancy depends on the quality of installation, the level of maintenance, weather and climate, and intensity of use, and that appliances are often replaced long before they wear out because newer styling and technology become more desirable. It describes itself as a general guideline only. Appliances have changed a great deal since 2007, with more electronics, inverter compressors and high-efficiency washers.

InterNACHI

The International Association of Certified Home Inspectors publishes a life expectancy chart for home components, used by inspectors to give buyers a sense of what may need replacing. Its appliance figures closely track the NAHB numbers, with wider ranges for some items. InterNACHI states that its figures assume regular recommended maintenance and normal wear and tear.

Cost guides and Consumer Reports

HomeGuide and Angi publish lifespans alongside repair costs; they are useful as a cross-check but do not publish their method in detail. Consumer Reports' dishwasher figure of about 10 years comes from asking more than 20 manufacturers, and its washer statement likewise reports what manufacturers say. Consumer Reports' own member surveys add a different kind of evidence: around 20% of washing machines and 16% of dryers bought between 2011 and 2021 broke or stopped working as intended within that period, and about 21% of dishwashers broke or stopped working as well as they should within five years of ownership.

How to read a lifespan figure

An average lifespan is the middle of a spread. Some machines fail young; others run for decades. Knowing that dishwashers average about 9 or 10 years does not tell you whether yours is near the end at 8. Three things tell you more:

• Condition. A washer with quiet bearings, a sound suspension and a clean door boot at 11 years is a better bet than one with a rumbling drum at 6.
• Which part failed. A door switch or a fan is an isolated failure. A compressor, a tub, or a control board that has failed twice points to a machine near the end.
• Parts availability. A repair is only possible if the part is still made. For some models, key parts disappear within a few years; for others they last for decades.

Reading 2007 figures in 2026

Two cautions apply to the most-cited numbers. First, the NAHB averages were gathered before much of what is in today's kitchens existed in its current form: electronic controls on almost every appliance, variable-speed compressors in many fridges, and high-efficiency front-load and top-load washers. Newer designs fail in different ways, and not always sooner or later than the old ones. Second, the NAHB and InterNACHI figures describe US homes. Canadian households use the same appliance brands and many of the same models, so the figures are a reasonable guide, but they are not Canadian measurements.

The more useful question is usually not "how long should it last" but "what is failing, and what else is likely to fail soon". A lifespan figure cannot answer that; an inspection can.

Signs an appliance may be near the end

None of these proves an appliance is finished, but each is worth mentioning when you book:

• The same fault returning after a repair, or a second major part failing within a short time.
• Rust through the cabinet, tub or frame, as opposed to surface marks.
• On a fridge, a compressor that runs almost constantly while the cabinet stays warm; see fridge running constantly.
• On a front-load washer, a loud roar during spin that points to the tub bearings.
• A cracked glass cooktop or oven cavity on an older range where the part is no longer listed.
• Parts that the manufacturer has discontinued for your model.

What shortens or extends appliance life

Most published maintenance advice is simple and aimed at the parts that fail most often:

• Washers. Consumer Reports advises keeping the washer level, not overdoing the detergent, cleaning the dispenser, running the tub-clean cycle, wiping the door gasket on front-loaders, and replacing cracked or brittle fill hoses.
• Dryers. Clean the lint screen before every load, use rigid metal duct rather than accordion-style foil, and have the duct cleaned at least once a year, per Consumer Reports. A restricted vent makes the dryer run hot and wears heating parts. See dryer vent safety.
• Dishwashers. Consumer Reports recommends scraping rather than rinsing, cleaning the filter, cleaning the door seal, dealing with hard-water residue, checking the spray arms and not overloading.
• Fridges and freezers. Keep the door gaskets clean and sealing, keep the area around the condenser clear, and set the fridge at 4 °C (40 °F) or lower and the freezer at -18 °C (0 °F) or lower, the temperatures Health Canada recommends for food safety.

Our preventive maintenance and appliance care guides go into more detail.

Using age in the repair-or-replace decision

Many cost guides pair the 50% rule with an age cut-off: HomeGuide, for example, suggests a fridge under 10 years old is worth repairing if the repair costs less than half of a new one, a washer under 7, and a dishwasher under 8. Those cut-offs are reasonable starting points, but they treat every repair on a machine of a given age as equal. They are not. A $150 part on a 12-year-old dryer with good bearings is a different decision from a sealed-system repair on a 12-year-old fridge.

Our written finding gives you the facts that make the decision specific to your appliance: the cause, the price, the condition of the rest of the machine, and our verdict. The repair or replace guide walks through the method, and the cost pages for fridges, washers, dryers, dishwashers and ovens and stoves cover the common repairs for each.

Questions

Related

• Repair versus replacement
• Fridge repair cost
• Washer repair cost
• Dryer repair cost
• Dishwasher repair cost
• Oven and stove repair cost
• Preventive maintenance
• Appliance care guides