The Australian Appliance Failure Index — Spring 2026

The Australian Appliance Failure Index records what Australians buy when a household appliance breaks. It is compiled from completed spare-parts purchases at OZ Appliance Spares and updated quarterly at this address. The first edition covers August 2025 to August 2026 and draws on more than 2,400 purchases from every state and territory.

Most-replaced parts

Share of all repair-part purchases, August 2025 – August 2026:

Door seals lead by a wide margin, and the reason is material rather than mechanical. Rubber ages in every machine regardless of brand or price, so seals and gaskets fail through ordinary wear on a schedule the rest of the appliance does not share. The five categories at the top of this table account for seven purchases in ten.

Repairs by appliance

Washing machines

The door seal accounts for 39.8 per cent of washing machine part purchases, close to three times the share of the drain pump. Of the top five, only the bearing kit is a job most owners would hand to a technician; the rest are routinely done at home.

Dryers

Dryer repairs concentrate on the drive belt, at 40.4 per cent of purchases. A snapped belt is the usual reason a drum stops turning while the motor still runs. Drain pumps appear high on the list because heat-pump and condenser dryers collect water; vented models have none to fail.

Refrigerators and freezers

Refrigerator repairs are electrical rather than mechanical. Thermostats and sensors, together with evaporator and condenser fan motors, make up roughly nine in ten purchases. Compressor failures barely register in parts sales: when a compressor goes, the machine is usually replaced rather than repaired.

Repairs by appliance type

Laundry dominates the repair economy. Washing machines and dryers do more mechanical work than anything else in the house, and their common failures are concentrated in a handful of inexpensive parts.

Repairs by state

Repair-part purchases per person, indexed to the national average (100):

Tasmania leads at 29 per cent above the national rate, with Queensland second. Western Australia sits 15 per cent below. The index measures purchasing behaviour per person; it is not adjusted for appliance age, household size or climate, and it says nothing about reliability in any state.

What a repair costs

The median parts bill for a repair in this dataset is $43. Entry-level replacement washing machines start near $500 at major retailers before delivery, installation and disposal of the old machine, so the arithmetic of repair is not close. A repaired washer also keeps roughly 70 kilograms of machine in service and out of the waste stream.

If your appliance has just failed

The probabilities in this index are practical: most breakdowns are a washer or dryer, and most come down to a seal, a pump, a belt, bearings or a valve. Identifying the machine precisely is the step that matters — the model number guide shows where to find the identification sticker, the error code decoder covers what a fault code means, and the repair guides walk through the common jobs.

Method and limitations

The index is compiled from completed replacement-part purchases at OZ Appliance Spares between August 2025 and August 2026. Purchases are classified by appliance type (99 per cent coverage) and part category (97 per cent). Results are reported as shares and as per-person indexes calculated against ABS estimated resident population. Cells with fewer than 30 purchases are suppressed. Volumes are not published.

Three limitations should be read alongside the figures. The data reflects one retailer’s customers and range, which is weighted toward laundry parts. Purchase volumes grew across the measurement window, so this edition makes no claims about seasonality; those will come when a full year-on-year comparison is possible. And a part purchased is not always a repair completed.

Using these figures

Figures from the index may be quoted with attribution to “Australian Appliance Failure Index, OZ Appliance Spares” and a link to this page. Section anchors on this page are stable, the address does not change between editions, and each quarterly update replaces this page in place. Media and research enquiries, including requests for additional breakdowns by state, appliance or part, can be made through the contact page.

Frequently asked questions

What is the Australian Appliance Failure Index?

A quarterly measure of which appliance parts Australians replace, compiled from completed purchases at OZ Appliance Spares. It reports the most-replaced parts, breakdowns by appliance and by state, and the typical parts cost of a repair.

What is the most common washing machine repair in Australia?

Replacing the door seal. Door seals account for 39.8 per cent of washing machine part purchases in the current edition, ahead of drain pumps at 14.1 per cent and bearing kits at 11.2 per cent.

What is the most common dryer repair?

The drive belt, at 40.4 per cent of dryer part purchases. A worn or snapped belt is the usual cause of a drum that no longer turns.

Where does the data come from?

From completed customer purchases at OZ Appliance Spares between August 2025 and August 2026, aggregated across more than 2,400 orders. Small categories are suppressed and volumes are not published. The method section above sets out the details.

Can I quote these figures?

Yes, with attribution to “Australian Appliance Failure Index, OZ Appliance Spares” and a link to this page. For additional breakdowns, use the contact page.

Disclaimer: this article is general information only and is provided without warranty of any kind. Appliance designs vary between models and production runs — always follow the manufacturer’s instructions, switch off and unplug the appliance before starting any work, and confirm parts against the model number on your appliance’s model sticker. Any repair is undertaken at your own risk and Oz Appliance Spares accepts no liability for injury, loss or damage arising from work performed after reading this guide, to the maximum extent permitted by law. If in doubt, use a qualified technician.