Repairing or Replacing 'Kaput Prone' Products

Which of your household products are the most prone to go kaput?

It turns out laptop computers, lawn tractors and side-by-side refrigerators -- a disparate trio -- are the most likely to need repair, according to Consumer Reports' most recent Product Reliability Survey, featured in the August issue of the consumer ratings and reviews staple.

The survey, along with the publication's Repair or Replace Survey, showed that the 33 surveyed products -- from appliances and electronics to lawn equipment -- actually aren't breaking down more frequently than they did in the past. When they do fail these days, however, more than half of the products stopped working completely, while another 30% continued to work, just poorly.