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Why do appliances fail at bad times
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]]>gofar992022-10-04T02:23:17-00:00Re: Why do appliances fail at bad times
https://audioroundtable.com/forum/index.phpindex.php?t=rview&goto=96038&th=23497#msg_96038
All these insurance plans for appliances and vehicle repair are fraught with fine print clauses. Making your time of need a double dose of aggrivation.]]>Rusty2022-10-04T13:03:43-00:00Re: Why do appliances fail at bad times
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]]>gofar992022-10-05T02:48:29-00:00Re: Why do appliances fail at bad times
https://audioroundtable.com/forum/index.phpindex.php?t=rview&goto=96040&th=23497#msg_96040
What bugs me is how many parts are no longer available for some appliances.
Just a few short years ago, I could expect to find every part for all my appliances. I could keep repairing them as long as I wanted.
But that's no longer true. I have an expensive combination stove / oven that I must replace only because one of the parts on the front door is no longer available. It still works, but is ugly because the front glass is cracked.
Same with my clothes washer. The top panel - immediately below the access door - is starting to rust. It is extremely easy to replace. But that part is no longer available.
If these were cheap little things that weren't made to be serviced, I could understand treating them as disposable assemblies. That's the way many things have gone. I hate that, but I do understand the sense in making an assembly so inexpensive it is best to treat it as a disposable part. But major systems that are clearly field-serviceable need to be supported by their manufacturers with repair parts.
]]>Wayne Parham2022-10-05T03:37:06-00:00Re: Why do appliances fail at bad times
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Rusty2022-10-05T16:57:16-00:00Re: Why do appliances fail at bad times
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I remember that lonesome Maytag repairman!
Loved those commercials.
]]>Wayne Parham2022-10-05T17:01:37-00:00Re: Why do appliances fail at bad times
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]]>gofar992022-10-06T02:34:00-00:00Re: Why do appliances fail at bad times
https://audioroundtable.com/forum/index.phpindex.php?t=rview&goto=96045&th=23497#msg_96045
I hear you, Bruce. I much prefer equipment designed and built to last for decades. All of my favorite gear lasts longer than a lifetime. That's how everything was built prior to WWII, and most stuff was built that way up through the 1970s. Most stuff made after that is built to last a few years only, and then discarded and replaced rather than repaired.
When I was young - in my first jobs, while still in school - electronics was still repaired at the component level, but there was a new trend of replacing a subassembly and sending the defective one to a depo that would repair it at the component level. I resisted that 'cause it seemed like "cheating," and almost always repaired things at a component level myself.
When I started my business, my main focus was to design custom communications and industrial control modules for customers like Walmart, Whirlpool and Fedex. But I also wrote service contracts with customers that owned Data General computer systems. I would purchase functional used systems and equipment for use as spares, and when customer equipment broke, I would replace an assembly in the field with spare equipment I owned, and then would bring it back to my office to repair. So I borrowed the depo approach, using it to save time at the customer site.
I can understand the depo approach, and repairing things at an assembly level in the field. I can even understand the economics of making an assembly so cheaply that it is discarded rather than repaired. I don't like that as much 'cause it nudges us closer to the "replaceable junk" mentality that we now seem to embrace. But it does make economic sense for the manufacturers. I just don't like it. It makes everything just plain cheap.
It changes how people treat their equipment too. When people make a purchase of durable equipment - something built to last - they tend to take care of it. But when they buy a disposable item, they tend to trash it.
I think it has even influenced our social mindset. I think it adds to the entitlement and narcissism that's kind of built-in to the culture these days.
So glad I grew up back in the 1960s.
]]>Wayne Parham2022-10-06T14:14:12-00:00Re: Why do appliances fail at bad times
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]]>gofar992022-10-07T01:35:24-00:00Re: Why do appliances fail at bad times
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Rusty2022-10-07T15:27:40-00:00Re: Why do appliances fail at bad times
https://audioroundtable.com/forum/index.phpindex.php?t=rview&goto=96048&th=23497#msg_96048
so I opened it up and replaced the two parts.....it appears to be working properly now. A few days will tell. When I opened it the first time the exchanger was completely clogged with ice. Manually defrosted it. When I opened it today it was getting iced up again. New parts and the temp settings are now back to where they were months ago. Time will tell. I don't want to shell out what a new one costs.
EDIT: Hi Wayne..the spell checker is going bonkers on this one. Several screens of statements. Fortunately it didn't trash the post.]]>gofar992022-10-08T02:16:42-00:00Re: Why do appliances fail at bad times
https://audioroundtable.com/forum/index.phpindex.php?t=rview&goto=96049&th=23497#msg_96049
Thumbs up and fingers crossed!
]]>Wayne Parham2022-10-08T14:11:30-00:00