Appliance repairability is measured in several different ways: whether owners attempt repair, whether a repair succeeds, how long products remain in service, and whether consumers can find parts or technicians. The available evidence spans EU surveys, Norwegian failed-product cases, repair-event records and European lifespan studies, so the figures below keep each population and definition explicit.
Key Appliance Repairability Statistics
The most useful headline figures cover participation, outcomes, barriers, lifespans and consumer expectations:
- 35% of large household-appliance products had a professional repair attempted in a 2021 consumer survey covering EU product categories.
- 32% of small household-appliance products had a professional repair attempted in the 2021 EU consumer survey.
- 30% was the reported repair-attempt outcome for large household appliances in the associated 2021 EU survey category result.
- 27% was the reported repair-attempt outcome for small household appliances in the associated 2021 EU survey category result.
- 54.74% of repairs were successfully completed in 2014 across 40 mixed consumer goods in a preliminary EU Sharepair extract.
- 59.45% of repairs were successfully completed in 2016 across the same 40-product EU dataset.
- 57.72% of repairs were successfully completed in 2021 across the same 40-product EU dataset.
- 22% of failed washing-machine cases were successfully repaired in a Norway survey conducted from December 2018 to January 2019.
- 14% of failed dishwasher cases were successfully repaired in the same Norway survey period.
- 58% of EU-filtered vacuum-cleaner repair-café records were classified as fixed in data accessed on October 12, 2022.
- 25% of small household appliances were reported to lack local repair availability in the 2021 EU consumer survey.
- 26% of small household appliances were considered too expensive to repair or cheaper to replace in the 2021 EU consumer survey.
- 17% of small household appliances were reported to have unavailable spare parts in the 2021 EU consumer survey.
- 52% of interested EU consumers were willing to pay for reparability information in EU impact-assessment evidence.
- €5.53 per year was the average stated willingness to pay among those consumers for reparability information.
- 87% of large-household-appliance cases showed increased stated repair likelihood after remaining-lifespan information in the 2021 consumer study.
- Corded vacuum cleaners remained operational for about 10 years in selected 2019–2023 consumer-organization data from Belgium, Italy, Portugal and Spain.
- Large household-appliance lifespans rose from 11.6 years in 2019 to 12.5 years in 2023 in the same four-country dataset.
Contents
- Key Appliance Repairability Statistics
- How Often Household Appliances Are Repaired
- Repair Success Rates by Appliance Type
- Why Consumers Do Not Repair Appliances
- Repairability Information and Purchase Behavior
- Appliance Lifespans and Replacement Trends
- Repair-Sector Employment, Turnover and Policy Outlook
How Often Household Appliances Are Repaired
Repair-attempt statistics describe participation, not necessarily whether the product was restored. In the 2021 EU consumer survey, professional repair was attempted for 35% of large household-appliance products and 32% of small household-appliance products.
The same study reported associated category outcomes of 30% for large household appliances and 27% for small household appliances. These are survey category results, not technical repairability scores, and the study measured reported product cases rather than every appliance failure.
| Measure | Large household appliances | Small household appliances |
|---|---|---|
| Professional repair attempted, 2021 EU survey | 35% | 32% |
| Associated repair-attempt outcome, 2021 EU survey | 30% | 27% |
| Local repair unavailable, 2021 EU survey | 16% | 25% |
| Difficult to find where to repair, 2021 EU survey | 20% | 27% |
Source: Preparatory study to gather evidence on ways to empower consumers to play an active role in the green transition. The study also found that about 36% of consumers generally do not repair defective products, based on a 2018 European behavioural study cited in the 2021 report; that result concerns defective products broadly, not appliances only.
A separate EU impact assessment tracked successful repairs across 40 popular consumer goods. The preliminary Sharepair extract recorded 54.74% in 2014, 55.34% in 2015, 59.45% in 2016, 53.43% in 2017, 54.42% in 2018, 52.83% in 2019, 54.22% in 2020 and 57.72% in 2021.
| Year | Successfully fixed, EU 40-product dataset |
|---|---|
| 2014 | 54.74% |
| 2015 | 55.34% |
| 2016 | 59.45% |
| 2017 | 53.43% |
| 2018 | 54.42% |
| 2019 | 52.83% |
| 2020 | 54.22% |
| 2021 | 57.72% |
Source: Commission Staff Working Document accompanying the proposal for a Directive on common rules promoting the repair of goods. This is a preliminary mixed-product extract, not an appliance-only repair rate.
The impact assessment used a projected annual repair-rate growth assumption of 0.28 percentage points per year on a 2014–2021 basis for a projection to 2037; that is a model assumption rather than an observed future outcome.
Repair Success Rates by Appliance Type
Appliance-specific outcomes vary by product and denominator. A Norway consumer survey from December 2018 through January 2019 measured successful repair as a share of failed-product cases, while repair-café records describe selected cases brought to repair events.
| Appliance or category | Outcome | Population and period |
|---|---|---|
| Washing machines | 22% successfully repaired | Failed cases, Norway, Dec. 2018–Jan. 2019 |
| Dishwashers | 14% successfully repaired | Failed cases, Norway, Dec. 2018–Jan. 2019 |
| Freezers | 12% successfully repaired | Failed cases, Norway, Dec. 2018–Jan. 2019 |
| Refrigerators | 8% successfully repaired | Failed cases, Norway, Dec. 2018–Jan. 2019 |
| Freezers | About 60% successful | Attempted repairs, Norway, same survey |
| Refrigerators | About 32% successful | Attempted repairs, Norway, same survey |
The Norway figures are consumer-reported outcomes among owners who reported a failed product; percentages may not sum exactly because of rounding. The conditional freezer and refrigerator rates apply only to owners who opted for repair, so they are not equivalent to the all-failure percentages.
Source: ETC CE Report 2022/6: An Overview of Europe’s Repair Sector.
Open Repair Alliance records, filtered to EU data and accessed October 12, 2022, provide a different view of repair-event outcomes. 58% of vacuum-cleaner cases were classified as fixed, 17% as repairable, 23% as end of life and 2% as unknown.
Large home-electrical items were classified as 50% fixed, 18% repairable and 30% end of life.
These records are not a population failure rate: they represent selected repair-café or repair-event cases, and “repairable” is separate from “fixed.” The unknown category should remain distinct rather than being treated as repaired or failed. Source: ETC CE Report 2022/6: An Overview of Europe’s Repair Sector.
Why Consumers Do Not Repair Appliances
Access, information, price and parts availability all appear as reported obstacles. In the 2021 EU consumer survey, local repair was unavailable for 16% of large household appliances and 25% of small household appliances.
- Consumers said it was not easy to find where to repair 20% of large household appliances and 27% of small household appliances in the 2021 EU survey.
- Repair was considered too expensive, or replacement cheaper, for 15% of large household appliances and 26% of small household appliances in that survey.
- Spare parts were reported unavailable for 11% of large household appliances and 17% of small household appliances.
These are survey-reported reasons among product cases, not quoted market prices or measured geographic shortages. The small-appliance figures are consistently higher for each listed barrier, but the evidence does not establish why the categories differ.
The study’s repair-attempt synthesis also separated independent and professional attempts. Independent repair attempts were unable to obtain spare parts in 4.2% of cases, compared with 1.5% of professional repair attempts in the 2021 study synthesis.
Source: Preparatory study to gather evidence on ways to empower consumers to play an active role in the green transition. The 4.2% and 1.5% figures describe a specific contributor to failed attempts, not all parts shortages.
Repairability Information and Purchase Behavior
Consumers report interest in information, but the evidence distinguishes stated attitudes, willingness to pay and modeled behavior. EU impact-assessment evidence estimated that around 52% of interested consumers were willing to pay for reparability information, with an average stated amount of €5.53 per year.
An estimated 50%–55% of consumers would use reparability information to buy products that are easier to repair. The European Commission estimated that this modeled share represented 187–205 million consumers, not a directly counted headcount survey.
A further 61% of participants tended to agree that they wanted better repairability information in an EU consumer study. More than 37% of EU citizens were willing to buy second-hand household appliances in a Eurobarometer cited in the 2019 impact assessment, measuring stated willingness rather than completed purchases.
Source: Commission Staff Working Document: Sustainable products, services and business models.
Information also changed stated repair intentions in the 2021 consumer study. After receiving remaining-lifespan information, repair likelihood increased in 87% of large-household-appliance cases and 86% of small-household-appliance cases.
Those are stated responses to information, not observed subsequent repairs. Source: Preparatory study to gather evidence on ways to empower consumers to play an active role in the green transition.
Appliance Lifespans and Replacement Trends
Lifespan is related to repairability but is not the same measure. Euroconsumers data from consumer-organization members in Belgium, Italy, Portugal and Spain found that household-appliance lifespans increased by nearly 2% between 2019 and 2023.
| Category or product | Lifespan finding | Period and population |
|---|---|---|
| Hi-tech appliances | 5.6 to 6.4 years; about 3% per year | 2019–2023, four-country Euroconsumers data |
| Small household appliances | 1.2% per year overall | 2019–2023, same data |
| Coffee machines | Nearly 6.5 years | 2019–2023 selected small-appliance data |
| Corded vacuum cleaners | About 10 years operational | 2019–2023 selected data |
| Large household appliances | 11.6 to 12.5 years; 1.8% per year | 2019–2023, same four-country data |
The small-appliance category includes vacuum cleaners and other products, while the large-appliance category includes refrigerators, washing machines, tumble dryers and dishwashers. Operational lifespan does not measure repair success or provide a repairability score.
Source: Product lifespans — monitoring trends in Europe.
A JRC repair-centre dataset analyzed for a 2019 study found an average 12.6-year service lifetime for washing machines and 12 years for dishwashers that were not repaired by participating operators. The sample was an independent repair-centre dataset and is not a population-average lifespan.
Source: Understanding lifetimes and failure modes of defective washing machines and dishwashers.
A separate preparatory-study table, using a Belgian consumer-policy source published in 2017 and reproduced in the 2021 study, lists a 10-year use lifespan for washing machines and 11 years for dishwashers. Those secondary table values are distinct from the JRC service-lifetime estimates.
The EU Commission’s tumble-dryer initiative cited average lifespan falling from 14 years to 12 years over the prior decade to the announcement context. This is a specific product-category figure, not a measure for all household appliances.
Repair-Sector Employment, Turnover and Policy Outlook
Repair-sector indicators provide context for the capacity surrounding appliance repair, but they cover the broad EU repair sector rather than appliance repair alone. Employment rose from about 191,000 workers in 2015 to about 203,000 in 2017, then fell to about 177,000 in 2020.
| Indicator | Reported value | Period and scope |
|---|---|---|
| Repair-sector employment | About 191,000 workers | EU, 2015 |
| Repair-sector employment | About 203,000 workers | EU, 2017 |
| Repair-sector employment | About 177,000 workers | EU, 2020 |
| Repair-sector turnover | About €1.3 trillion | EU27, 2020 |
| Share of total EU27 turnover | 1.6%–1.9% | Reported repair-sector series |
The EEA repair-sector indicator reported about €1.3 trillion in EU27 repair-sector turnover in 2020, and repair-sector turnover represented between 1.6% and 1.9% of total EU27 turnover in the reported series. The report notes likely COVID-19 effects and emphasizes the broad sector scope.
Source: ETC CE Report 2022/6: An Overview of Europe’s Repair Sector.
Taken together, the measures show why “repairability” needs a defined denominator. A professional repair attempt, a successful repair among failed products, a fixed repair-café case, a product’s service lifetime and a consumer’s willingness to seek information answer different questions and should not be treated as interchangeable statistics.