after fixing mine last year, I'd say to fix it, it's actually a lot easier than I thought. I after I opened it and took everything out of it and saw how it was put together, there's very little actual parts that aren't assembled as a unit. Meaning, I buy the unit and replace it as a whole. IE: I'm not going to take apart a motor and find what's wrong with it, I just buy entire motor.
After giving my dryer a new fuse/timer/belt and it only costing me about $110 (timing control was $100 for the part). And a I get pretty much a new dryer. I don't know about the washer, I have yet to take that apart.
Whirlpool from what I read online when I was looking to take it apart is that they are easy to assemble so easy to take apart too. I don't know about other brands but I can't imagine them being all that different. The controls might be different but that's an entire piece so you can replace them all together if needed.