David, I never have extended warranties, as you say they're not worth paying for.
The first freezer I bought had the option of a five year extended warranty for £100 - the cost of the freezer was £105 so I took the risk of a £5 loss. I only know of one instance where an extended warranty was worth the money, as a colleague took an extended warranty on his washing machine, and three months before the extended warranty ran out the drum came off the bearings during the 1500rpm spin......
Hi, I do have a 3 year warranty on a Kettle and an Espresso machine as we live in a very hard water area, and previously had kettles' elements burn out after less than a year, our previous kettle only lasted a few months.. I also replaced the espresso machine under the warranty when the thermostat failed and the machine became alarmingly hot.
I feel inspired reading some of the stories, as a non-technical person that works with technical people (at the IET) I have gained enough confidence to do some minor make do and mend things. Since lockdown started I have changed two switch plates (light switches), fixed the oven, ordered spare parts for the kettle and diagnosed a fault with a heater that I had to return (but got replacement for as it was missing bits).
My inner engineer now looks at things and sees if it can be fixed, or if I can reuse it :)
HI, Keep it up, but sometimes it's hard to accept that something is just not worth repairing any more. I'm happier with electrical things and computers (Retired IT developer/analyst.consultant and electrician) I'm hoping electronica will become more repairable - just replacing the battery in a phone can be a challenge with all-glass phones.
I'm looking for a phone with a replaceable battery, the best bet seems to be the PinePhone, or some of the really cheap Chinese ones (XGody phones are a bit basic but most still have replaceable batteries).
Oh, and I'm 'playing' with my new toy (A 3D printer) and the required software to design (Sketchup and OpenSCAD) and prepare the design for printing (Cura). There are several sites that offer ready made files for printing (Thingiverse.com is huge and all the things are free to download and use. Other sites are available).
Hi, It’s great to see people trying to repair things, but as Technology moves on it seems longevity is no longer in the manufacturers mind and everything is electronic so generally faults are components or control boards or such like. So it’s a case of bin it and move on.?
We managed to get a new pump for our 32 year old Worcester Heat Slave boiler last week. The first fitter who looked at the boiler said it was the heat exchanger which was an obsolete part but we weren't convinced, as my husband whose an engineer thought it was the pump. Second fitter concurred and new pump was ordered and fitted as that turned out to be a general part used on lots of boilers. Dreading the circuit board going though as they are definitely obsolete now. Might have to bite the bullet at some point and replace the boiler as we realise it won't be particularly efficient compared to the new ones.
In my previous home the boiler lasted 21 years, despite British Gas saying it was obsolete when we moved in. Turns out it was an industrial boiler big enough to heat a small factory.
When we move 4 1/2 years ago and had an independent gas engineer to service the boiler, he just said to turn it off as it was dangerous, apparently there was a lot of sooty deposit above the boiler, but not obviously visible.
Most of my repairs seem to be mechanically based. We have a hand mixer food processor combo thing which was not expensive (for Switzerland). It was given something a bit hard to chew and the plastic coupling between the motor and the chopper melted.
I turned a replacement from Delrin, milled the cross and good as new.
A few years later the hand blender bit started screeching so down to the workshop. Dismantling took little time as the cutting blade was swaged onto the shaft. What was inside was not pleasant considering it was for use with food. There was a thin, broken, plastic seal, a cast iron bearing and some sort of spacer that had disintegrated plus a load of clag.
I looked through the parts that I use for my model engine making and found a suitable 6mm sintered bush and a lip seal as well a couple of O rings. A new bearing body was turned from aluminium and the system reassembled. Re-swaging the blade was a little tricky but worked.
Did this make economic sense? No. Did it keep E waste out of the waste stream? Yes. Did I enjoy the challenge? Yes.
I'm a volunteer on a preserved railway where I look after the signalling systems (mostly electro-mechanical). Most of the machines which operate the signals are 70+ years old (the manual is dated 1928 and most of the machines are stamped GWR!) and were installed 30 years ago after being removed by BR. To say they are overengineered is an understatement. We have some which have been operating 24/7 for the past 30 years without a major problem and I have begun to go through all our installed machines and refurbish them to last another 30, though this just seems to involve stripping them down, cleaning and painting and replacing the asbestos rope seal with something better. The motors and coils all test out okay, the bearings just require greasing and my hardest challenge has been finding some leather pads for the clutch brake. The controlling relays -massive glass cased things on a shelf- are of a similar vintage, again so overengineered that in 30 years of regular use I have only had to replace one out of about 20 despite two lightning strikes near the site which took out a number of fuses on the mains and signalling circuits.
Referring to the boiler comments, it would be interesting to compare the lifetime energy costs of -say- a modern gas boiler against one of the older models which lasted 20-30 years. I would include the energy involved in manufacture and replacement in this as it appears that while the older boilers weren't as efficient the new ones do not last nearly as long. So would it be better to have an old boiler, less efficient, but lasts 30 years or a new one, more efficient but requires replacement after 10?
Should we be demanding that manufacturers of appliances design for a life of 20 years or more, either by designing parts that can be easily replaced or using better quality components which will last the lifetime? Yes, I know this will be anathema to most manufacturers and those companies who'd love you to buy a new appliance every six months but just because your iphone isn't the latest must-have model is that any reason to replace it with another which does exactly the same job?
The same reasoning applies to cars. Mine is a 19 year old Honda Civic 1.6IVTec which has done just over 82K miles. I id about 8K oer year pre-COvid, and very little since March (I've on;y filled up twice since then). Using the whole life Materials, energy & CO2 costs, would I be justified in changing for an EV?
