The Future of Repairing ... (list those soon to be extinct..)

[KNS]

Originally Posted by Scuba Steve

This is the way I feel about the house sometimes. Which leads me to...

Neighborhoods. We're friends with several other young couples/families who are only interested in living somewhere 0-5 years old. Once their place reaches that magic age they get the itch to move because they're building bigger/better, the water heater and everything else aren't old and scary, and even though they have no kids/none are in school yet they heard that they're building a new school farther out that way. I doubt this is a new phenomenon though, just something I've noticed.

The husband probably instigated this habit as he was terrified that his wife might ask him to fix something around the house and it would be revealed that he was useless.

[Danimal16]

Originally Posted by ossiblue

Shoe repair. Used to be a fairly common business. When was the last time you got your shoes resoled?

All the time. Redwings, Allen-Edmonds and old Alden's. Funny thing is that I have not purchased a pair of dress shoes in over 20 years. But you pay for the higher quality. One of the best was the old E.T. Wrights, great shoes, to bad they are gone.

[RANDY P]

Carbs and distributors.

rjp

[dagriff]

There may be some things repairable at home in the future, but who will be able to repair them? The generations that grew up with the "disposable" products have no clue.
(btw. did you see Leno giving Falon advice on buying an old-timey car? "Don't go back past 2012". Because Falon has no mechanical clue).
My two boys grew up with me fixing stuff when they were young 'cos we were broke.
To their friends incredulity, they still try fixing stuff before they rush out to buy new.
My eldest's idea of new from last week "Dad, just bought a new boat" See photo!



Related quote: "Like an Irishman's knife. 3 new blades and 4 new handles, but it's still as good as new".

[Jrboulder]

Well the pool pump motor at my parents house started making noise. The pool guy wanted $350 to put a new probably Chinese piece of junk in. I went over and took a look and the shaft seal failed and killed the front bearing. I looked online and found a father son shop that specializes in overhauling pool pump motors. $100 and should have it back tomorrow.

[Don Ro]

About 20 yrs. ago my old Kenmore dryer (then old from previous house owner) began to make a bad noise.
Took off the back panel and the drum was oscillating on its shaft...bearing totally gone.
Mic'd the shaft and went out to the garage and found some copper tubing with similar ID, turned it down on my drill press, cut it off, greased it up, and replaced.
Quiet once again. It lasted me another 8 - 9 yrs.
Replaced the dryer when I sold the house - just to update the appliances.
.
I like to fix things - it puts me in touch w/my creativity - a relationship I have with Muse.

[Scuba Steve]

Speaking of dryers, our 10 year old Kennmore stopped drying. It spins when you hit the button but no heat. There are two identical relays inside so why not swap them to give it a test. Hit the start button, let it go and it stops. It's nice and toasty inside though...

A new relay from Amazon is on its way for $15.

Also the battery charger for the Bosch cordless drill quit charging. When I searched the charger model number one of the hits was someone saying to crack it open and check out the 180K resistor inside. Sure enough it was burned up. Another $2 order off Amazon and a new 10 pack of resistors should be in the mail soon. The charger is a BC 130 if it matters.

[Don Ro]

About the same time my Kenmore dryer's brother, my Kenmore washer, stopped working.
I went to a used appliance joint to look at buying a used washer.
The owner also repaired appliances and told me that the problem was likely the "Wig-Wag" unit.
Bought one from him for $12, replaced and got another 8 - 9 yrs. of service.
.
Wig-Wag Replacement on Washers

[Ayles]

Fixed my furnace yesterday with a new ignitor. A couple guys I work with (young tech folks) were absolutely baffled that I would even try. I said the part in question has literally one bolt holding it in so why not give it a try.

People just aren't that resourceful, which is shocking considering the volume of information available in your pocket.

[aschen]

I always like to try and fix stuff, but it gets harder and harder to justify with as cheap and disposable as things are getting. Even fixing things these day makes it easy to treat things as disposable.

They clutch in my wife's Accord AC went out last week. A new clutch from honda was only 20% less than a remain auto-zone unit. It was hard to justify the extra work so I just installed the whole new compressor. The same is true of tvs and other appliances, if you can repair them it almost always means replacing a board instead of diagnosing the individual components.

I recently saw a video recorded in the 80s that still had the advertisements. TVs and camcorders were in the thousands. Microwaves, VCRs, and very small tvs were $400-800.

I think we spend just as much on electronics these days as we did 30 years ago, we just buy 35 items in a year instead of 4. Im not sure if this is progress or not. I like the internet but Id be fine with out alot of today's modern" Niceties"

[june82000]

The clutch pedal in my DD Acura RSX hit the floor on the way home from work the other day. Jam shifted it home and $57 later I had a new clutch master cylinder and slave cylinder. Problem solved. Car has 280k on the odometer and still runs fine. Called the shop and they would have charged me over $600 for this.

[scottmandue]

Originally Posted by ossiblue

Shoe repair. Used to be a fairly common business. When was the last time you got your shoes resoled?

We still have a shoe repair shop in our town, however you are correct, new shoes are pretty much a disposable item.

+1 on automobiles, I have never been much of a wrench but the old 60's and 70's cars I could do some basic maintenance and with a screw driver, channel locks, and duct tape usually limp home.

Nowadays? Not so much

[stinkindiesel]

IT guy here at work was throwing out a bunch of 21" Samsung LCD monitors becuase "they quit working." I said load 'em up in my car. Quick Google and I now have 15 nice pretty monitors for the price of $30 worth of back-light power supply caps. Everyone in the office got a dual monitor set up when the company was to cheap to spring for it. Still have a few left over around the house as spares.

Had an air conditioner blower motor go out this summer. I checked the obvious stuff (start/run caps) and called the A/C service guys out. The wife wasn't going to swelter until I got around to digging into it. Unit would run fine in the morning when it was cooler, or for an hour or so when it was first turned on in the afternoon. After the service guys came out a few times and started some expensive guessing at what might be wrong, I pointed out that I had two identical units and they could swap parts back and forth for free to isolate the problem. I ended up swapping the blower motors after they left, and later that night, the failure recurred on the second unit. Quote from the A/C company for a new blower motor was $850 (the speed control is built into the motor). I pulled the bad speed control board, replaced three leaky electrolytic caps, and was back in business for about $5.00. If I'd have just taken an hour off work instead of calling the A/C guys, I could have saved the $200 they charged to come out and scratch their heads.

Gary