If one of the appliances in your home breaks, you might be tempted to try to fix it yourself instead of calling an electrician so that you can save some money. Here are three reasons why you should not take this approach.
You could sustain an injury
If you have little to no experience with electrical appliance repair work, there is a chance that you may end up injuring yourself if you try to fix your broken appliance. For example, if you dismantle and inspect the electrical appliance to try to determine what the source of the problem is and you then accidentally leave the item's live wire partially or fully exposed when you then reassemble the object, you could then get an electric shock the next time you use the appliance. This could leave you with a burn on the area of your body that came into direct contact with the appliance and could also result in both tissue and cardiac damage.
Conversely, if you hire a qualified electrician to repair your broken item, there will be virtually no risk of them making this type of dangerous error.
You could increase the risk of an electrical fire breaking out in your home
If you make a mistake whilst repairing your appliance which results in that item short-circuiting when it is subsequently plugged in, there is a chance that an electrical fire may break out in your home. If you or another member of your household is not in the property when this happens, the fire could spread and inflict major damage on your entire home. This damage could cost an enormous amount of money to fix.
As such, whilst the DIY approach may save you money in the short term by sparing you the expense of hiring an electrician, it could have devastating and very costly consequences in the long term.
You may end up accidentally breaking the appliance
If you don't know much about appliance repairs, you could potentially end up turning a minor fault into a major one that results in your item being damaged beyond repair. For example, if you accidentally splash some water droplets onto the wiring after disassembling a kitchen appliance and you fail to notice this before you reassemble the device, it will probably short-circuit as soon as you plug it in. This could not only put you at risk of electrocution but would also almost certainly break the appliance.
When it comes to renovating a home, there are a lot of things you can do, and quite a few you should not! I am renovating my first home, and I have learned a lot simply by watching home handyman videos. However, when it comes to electrical work, I am limited by both safety and legal restrictions. My electrician will do the brunt of the rewiring work, but I am using this blog to help you identify causes of electrical faults; so you can bring to the attention of your own electrician. I will also discuss the basics of home electrical systems, such as what circuit breakers do, so you have a better idea where to start looking when the power goes out.