It depends how broken it is and the quality of the machine. A little while ago the corner of a brolly sheet (waterproof sheet for kids' beds when toilet training) got caught under the seal, and when the sheet, which is designed to be absorbent so gets very heavy when wet, twisted round and round it ripped the seal out of the door, flooding the laundry. In theory we just needed to replace the seal but in practice the machine was such a stupid design that the repair guy would have needed to take the thing apart to do it so we ended up getting a replacement. I wish I could remember the brand, it wasn't one of the big ones. We did not buy the same kind again.
Conversely our dryer broke down last year and only cost $50 to fix, and was done in 15 minutes. That was a huge relief during a rainy week when I had a backlog of wet nappies to get through before they went mouldy.