Private breakdowns: demand for household appliance repairs has increased in Russia
In the summer of 2025, Russians began to repair broken household appliances more often, instead of buying new ones, representatives of service aggregators and retailers told Izvestia. In June-July, the demand for such services increased by more than 20% compared to the spring months. Experts call this a consequence of the gadget sales boom that has been observed since 2023. Then Russians began to massively buy household appliances of unknown brands of poor quality, and now its life span has come to an end.
Increased demand for home appliance repairs
Russians have begun to change their consumer strategy with regard to household appliances — this summer they are much more likely to try to repair it instead of buying a new one. Representatives of service aggregators and retailers told Izvestia about this. According to Avito Services, in the first two summer months of 2025, interest in the repair and maintenance of household appliances increased by 21% compared to the spring.
— At the height of the summer season, the most significant increase in interest was in the repair and maintenance of air conditioners. In June-July, Russians searched for these services 2.5 times more often compared to April-May, and specialists offered their help 57% more actively, the press service of Avito Services told Izvestia.
But the demand is not limited to "seasonal" equipment, they note. The number of requests for troubleshooting refrigerators and freezers has increased significantly — by 46%. The supply of repair specialists increased proportionally — by 43%. Dishwashers were 17% more likely to be repaired and serviced, televisions — by 11%, cooktops and ovens — by 10%, washing machines and dryers — by 6%, coffee machines — by 4%.
Yule also notes a high demand for the repair of refrigerators and air conditioners. In July, the peak month of interest in such services, the number of user requests for refrigerator repair services accounts for 40% of all requests, and air conditioners — 20%, service representatives noted.
In "M.Video-Eldorado", which develops a service line under the brand "M.Master" records a multiple increase in the volume of orders compared to the beginning of 2025. The largest jump in demand is observed in the segment of smartphone and laptop repairs. The company attributes this to the expansion of its own network of service centers.
However, not all representatives of service companies are seeing an increase in demand for the repair of household appliances and electronics.
— The demand for repair services for machinery and electronics remains stable, while we do not see a strong surge — we have high demand every quarter, — said a representative of Inventive Retail Group (owns, in particular, the restore network:) Lyudmila Semushina.
At the same time, in restore, the revenue of the gadget maintenance service increased by 36%, she added. The company attributes this to strengthening the culture of timely care for gadgets, the so-called "maintenance for appliances and electronics." It can extend the life of devices and avoid full-fledged repairs later, Lyudmila Semushina believes. Customers come to make professional diagnostics, maintenance of gadgets, check the serviceability of all parts, as well as clean them from dust and micro-contamination.
Why are home appliances being repaired more often?
Market participants recorded the previous wave of demand for home appliance and electronics repairs in the fall of 2022. At that time, the demand for the services of craftsmen in the installation, maintenance and repair of household appliances increased year—on-year at Avito Services by 62%, at Yule - by 1.3–1.8 times, depending on the category. Experts attributed the surge to economic instability — many devices of brands that left Russia disappeared from sale, there were problems buying equipment on credit, and people reduced spending on new home appliances in order to save money. But then the demand for household appliances and electronics increased dramatically.
— In 2023-2024, there was a boom in demand for home gadgets in Russia, and now their life span has come to an end. In the absence of technology from leading global brands, people actively bought devices from little—known manufacturers, which initially raised questions about reliability," says Sergey Polovnikov, head of the Content-Review project. — This is not a technique from the USSR or Europe, which could have served for decades. In addition, conscious consumption now prevails in Russia — in general, equipment has become more expensive, and it is not always possible to replace old equipment from bygone brands, so people prefer to fix it rather than buy a new one to replace a broken one.
At the same time, Sergey Polovnikov urges to be careful when choosing service centers and private craftsmen: there is a chance to become a victim of deception or face inadequate quality of services.
In recent years, the incomes of many Russians have increased, and new brands of equipment have appeared on the market, including exotic ones: it often fails faster than the one most users are used to, says Denis Kuskov, CEO of TelecomDaily. Hence the high need for repair services. In addition, consumer behavior has changed now — the days when it was possible to buy a new one instead of broken equipment, at least on credit, are over: users tend to reduce such costs, the expert agrees.
However, he notes that it is necessary to correlate the cost of repairing old appliances with the cost of new ones in advance — repairing, for example, a German dishwasher with the replacement of important spare parts can be comparable to half the price of an inexpensive, but quite high-quality and reliable Chinese one, he concludes.
Repairing old household appliances can be quite an expensive undertaking — scarce spare parts for devices of bygone brands can often cost as much as a new noname device, adds Sergey Polovnikov. But the game may be worth the candle — the equipment of little-known manufacturers is not yet reliable enough to match the old European one.
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