What should I check before calling out an appliance engineer?

Appliance engineers are expensive largely because of the travel, and a large proportion of visits end at something the householder could have found. That is not a criticism — the checks are not obvious unless you know them. The other half of this is that a call-out is not always the right first call at all: an appliance under warranty should go to the manufacturer, and one that failed unreasonably early may be the retailer's problem under consumer law. Working through both before dialling routinely saves the cost of the visit.

What you'll need

• The model and serial number from the rating plate
• Your proof of purchase, and the warranty terms
• A torch, and a bowl and towel for draining a filter

Step by step

1. Check the warranty and your rights before booking anyone.Under warranty, the manufacturer's own service line is the right call and there should be no charge. Out of warranty but failed early, you may have a claim against the retailer under the Consumer Rights Act — up to six years in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, five in Scotland. Also check home emergency cover on your insurance and any packaged bank account, because people routinely pay for repairs they were already covered for.
2. Prove power is reaching the machine.Plug a lamp into the same socket. Check the switched fused spur above the worktop as well as the socket behind the machine, check the plug fuse, and check nothing has tripped at the consumer unit. A dead socket is one of the most common causes of a wasted call-out.
3. Check the water supply and the drain.The isolating valve behind a washing machine or dishwasher, which gets knocked closed surprisingly often. The inlet hose filter, which clogs with grit. The drain hose for a kink or a blockage, and the standpipe or trap it discharges into. A machine that will not fill or will not drain is very often one of these.
4. Check the door, the catch and the locks.Doors that look closed but have not latched, a worn catch, a child lock, a control panel lock, a delay start set by accident, or a program paused mid-cycle. Machines are routinely reported dead when a door is a millimetre from shut.
5. Clean the filter, whichever machine it is.Washing machine pump filter behind the flap at the bottom front, dishwasher filter in the base, tumble dryer lint filter and condenser, vacuum filters, dehumidifier and air purifier intakes. A clogged filter causes a startling proportion of reported faults, and clearing it takes minutes.
6. Read the fault code and look it up.Most modern appliances display one. Search the code with the model number — manufacturers and repair sites publish the meanings, and it frequently identifies something you can fix. If you cannot fix it, the code shortens the engineer's visit and sometimes lets the service line send the right part with them.
7. Try a reset before assuming a fault.Switch off at the wall for ten minutes and switch back on. Some machines have a specific reset sequence in the manual. Look for a thermal cut-out reset button on heaters, dryers, waste disposal units and some kitchen machines. This clears a genuine share of one-off electronic faults.
8. Check the installation if the fault is new after a move or a refit.Transit bolts, levelling, a hose crushed behind the machine, a drain hose pushed too far into the standpipe causing siphoning, or a machine jammed against a cabinet. A fault that appeared immediately after installation is nearly always the installation.
9. Write down exactly when the fault happens.Which programme, at what point, every time or intermittently, with what noise, and what has changed recently. An engineer arriving to a precise description diagnoses faster, and an intermittent fault described precisely is far more likely to be found than one described as it sometimes does not work.
10. Ask the right questions when you do book.What the call-out charge is and whether it is deducted from the repair cost, whether it is payable if you decline the repair, whether parts are extra, whether they carry common parts for your model, and what guarantee the repair carries. Ask before agreeing, not on the doorstep.
11. Decide the repair-or-replace question before the visit, not during it.Know the appliance's age and roughly what a replacement costs, so that when the engineer quotes you can decide immediately rather than under pressure. Repair generally makes sense below about half the replacement price on a machine that is not near the end of its expected life.
12. Have the numbers ready when you call.Model number with any suffix, serial number, purchase date, fault code, and your description. Every one of these will be asked for, and having them turns a fifteen-minute call into a three-minute one.

Tips

• Photograph the rating plate and keep it with the receipt. It is the single thing that most speeds up any appliance conversation.
• Search the fault code together with the model number rather than alone. The same code means different things on different manufacturers' machines.
• Ask whether the call-out charge is deducted from the repair before booking. Some firms do and some do not, and the difference is worth knowing in advance.
• If the appliance is under three years old and out of warranty, raise it with the retailer before paying anyone. Durability claims under consumer law are often successful and cost nothing to make.

Common mistakes

• Booking a private engineer for an appliance still under warranty — Manufacturer repairs under warranty are free, and an unauthorised repair can void the remaining cover. Check the warranty before making any call.
• Not checking the filter first — It is minutes of work and it resolves a large share of reported washing machine, dishwasher and dryer faults. Engineers report it as one of the most common wasted visits.
• Calling without the model number — The service line cannot book the right engineer or send the right part without it, and the visit may be wasted or repeated.
• Agreeing to a repair without knowing what the appliance is worth — The decision is easier to make calmly before the engineer is standing in the kitchen. Know the age and the replacement price in advance.

Questions people ask