My family has lived in the same house for about 15 years. It was empty of appliances when we moved in. I have repaired or replaced every appliance, some multiple times, including the water heater and furnace.

Something I've learned is: There's a huge proliferation of repair info online. Folks love fixing things and blogging about it, or posting videos. And the parts aren't ridiculously hard to find.

We had one recently, where our washer was leaking water onto the floor. A handful of video's later, I figured out that we were just using too much soap, and the suds were somehow getting into some vent tube. Less soap, leaking gone.