This is why I bought Maytag for an appliance… Then 4 years into its 10 “warranty”, I learned that it only covers things with pretty much no chance of breaking during that time and the actual functional bits aren’t covered, like the water pump (washers don’t work too good if the water doesn’t go anywhere).
And the repair cost about as much as I paid for it.
Companies buying companies with stellar reputations and then ride that reputation for every cent it’s worth into the ground… Gotta love capitalism, right?
I got my wife’s broken 4K monitor repaired for the grand cost of £3.50 a few weeks ago.
They were in the market for replacing it anyway because it’s ten years old, but when it wouldn’t turn on it that pushed their decision. Kinda pissed me off, because I was going to get it when the replacement arrived. So I figured it was already fucked, so it wouldn’t hurt to see if it could be repaired.
My boss at work trained as an electrician in the Army, so we opened it, where he immediately clocked a capacitor that was slightly expanded. A multimeter reading confirmed it, so I ordered a replacement. 8p, but I had to buy a pack of five. Add the postage and it came to £3.50.
The repair took 10 minutes, and now I’m the proud owner of a 28" 4K AOC.
That’s great, and learning to repair things yourself can be a great way to keep products running. But most people lack those skills or have acquaintances who’ll do it basically for free.
I’ve done similar to a part on my dryer’s control board, and a GPU’s vram. In both cases, there was no diagnostic needed because the part showed some kind of physical damage. You would be surprised how often things can be fixed for 1% the cost of replacing.
You got it correct there. If it’s junk, open it up, and take a look. It might be obvious. Given the rising cost of stuff like GPUs, this could become more relevant.
I had a mouse chew through the ignition wire on the ignitor on my propane furnace, which blew the board out. It cost me like 400 to do it myself after a repair guy just charged 100 to diagnose it then help3ed me over text swapping everything out. Could have been 2000 for an official repair company and way more for a new one.
Oh that’s a good one. I had a coal stove that had an idle timer (mechanical clock) to keep the fire going when the thermostat wasn’t calling for heat. It stopped working and the factory said they don’t make them anymore, but I could special order a thirty party replacement for $250. I replaced it with an Arduino, a relay shield and a 20 line program for < $10. If I was more electrically inclined, I could have powered it from the stove’s power. Instead, there is a USB cord sticking out the back =]
I could stand to have a look at my washer/drier. The washer works perfectly well, but the drier does nothing at all. It runs, but doesn’t dry. It came with the house and they’re usually expensive to run, so I’ve never really worried about it. But I live in England, where rain is our default mode, so it’s a pain to have washing up on racks in the house all the time.
Does it get hot at all? The heating element is just a coil of metal that can break. They can break easily if you put clothes in it that are too wet (like dripping). Once it breaks, it severs the current, so no heat. There should also be a fuse right next to it. These are all simple continuity checks if you have a meter.
Partly because they’ll know which ones they see least and/or have an easiest time with, but also that the perfect unbreakable machine doesn’t exist; accidents & “acts of god” (as in the insurance term) happen even to the best built appliances. E.g. there’re not many control boards that will survive a lightning strike.
Finally they will know other repair people and will talk shop with them from time to time, not least of all because they also need to buy appliances, and they know this same rule.
Th problem with that is most people don’t repair anymore as it’s often cheaper to replace.
And if it’s good quality without breaking down, why would the repair person ever work on it?
This is why I bought Maytag for an appliance… Then 4 years into its 10 “warranty”, I learned that it only covers things with pretty much no chance of breaking during that time and the actual functional bits aren’t covered, like the water pump (washers don’t work too good if the water doesn’t go anywhere).
And the repair cost about as much as I paid for it.
Companies buying companies with stellar reputations and then ride that reputation for every cent it’s worth into the ground… Gotta love capitalism, right?
I got my wife’s broken 4K monitor repaired for the grand cost of £3.50 a few weeks ago.
They were in the market for replacing it anyway because it’s ten years old, but when it wouldn’t turn on it that pushed their decision. Kinda pissed me off, because I was going to get it when the replacement arrived. So I figured it was already fucked, so it wouldn’t hurt to see if it could be repaired.
My boss at work trained as an electrician in the Army, so we opened it, where he immediately clocked a capacitor that was slightly expanded. A multimeter reading confirmed it, so I ordered a replacement. 8p, but I had to buy a pack of five. Add the postage and it came to £3.50.
The repair took 10 minutes, and now I’m the proud owner of a 28" 4K AOC.
That’s great, and learning to repair things yourself can be a great way to keep products running. But most people lack those skills or have acquaintances who’ll do it basically for free.
And to be fair, an awful lot of products these days aren’t built to be repaired anyway.
I was lucky with this monitor.
I’ve done similar to a part on my dryer’s control board, and a GPU’s vram. In both cases, there was no diagnostic needed because the part showed some kind of physical damage. You would be surprised how often things can be fixed for 1% the cost of replacing.
You got it correct there. If it’s junk, open it up, and take a look. It might be obvious. Given the rising cost of stuff like GPUs, this could become more relevant.
I had a mouse chew through the ignition wire on the ignitor on my propane furnace, which blew the board out. It cost me like 400 to do it myself after a repair guy just charged 100 to diagnose it then help3ed me over text swapping everything out. Could have been 2000 for an official repair company and way more for a new one.
Oh that’s a good one. I had a coal stove that had an idle timer (mechanical clock) to keep the fire going when the thermostat wasn’t calling for heat. It stopped working and the factory said they don’t make them anymore, but I could special order a thirty party replacement for $250. I replaced it with an Arduino, a relay shield and a 20 line program for < $10. If I was more electrically inclined, I could have powered it from the stove’s power. Instead, there is a USB cord sticking out the back =]
You sound a lot more electrically inclined than I, if I had help it would be easy enough.
I could stand to have a look at my washer/drier. The washer works perfectly well, but the drier does nothing at all. It runs, but doesn’t dry. It came with the house and they’re usually expensive to run, so I’ve never really worried about it. But I live in England, where rain is our default mode, so it’s a pain to have washing up on racks in the house all the time.
Does it get hot at all? The heating element is just a coil of metal that can break. They can break easily if you put clothes in it that are too wet (like dripping). Once it breaks, it severs the current, so no heat. There should also be a fuse right next to it. These are all simple continuity checks if you have a meter.
Driers are simple machines. I suspect a dead heating element. It’s probably visually broken.
Partly because they’ll know which ones they see least and/or have an easiest time with, but also that the perfect unbreakable machine doesn’t exist; accidents & “acts of god” (as in the insurance term) happen even to the best built appliances. E.g. there’re not many control boards that will survive a lightning strike.
Finally they will know other repair people and will talk shop with them from time to time, not least of all because they also need to buy appliances, and they know this same rule.
Much better than the plastic garbage no one would ever consider fixing. No appliance lasts forever but many may be serviceable.