Economic question

[Ken]

These are pretty reliable with no complex failure prone electronics!

View attachment 536552

Egon do you have the window card to tell the ice man how much is wanted/ needed.
ken

 

[ultrarunner]

Our biggest problem is lighting hitting the power line. then into the house and what ever protection you have is gone. in 22 years at this location the power meter has a protection module and it goes about every 3 years. and when is gone the surge takes every appliance connected. bushel basket of phones, modems,
stoves ,dishwashers and the washing machines and dryers sometimes goes same instant.

Then call power co. not there fault , Telco blames the power line no warranty covers lightening. there little line protectors for computers are a laugh the cover blows off goes across room and smoke is released after the computer give a strange IRK then a WHEEZE releases its smoke .
Electrician suggested a ground grid to spread the surge. ground rods with #8 copper attached in grid fashion if there is a gopher in the grid when surge hits would be cooked in a instant.
A month ago .clear sky no wind and power transformer on pole exploded blowing cover loose splashing oil on grass. everything in house was gone if attached to power. Co says not there fault. Lightening. could not say where.
I'm thinking if there could be a separation of the power coming in to a local generated power there would be less failures.
ken

When I lived in Austria up in the mountains there were some wicked lightening storms... all the homes have lightning arresters and/or lightning rod... the old ones are the ones with the lightning rods... the newer ones use the all the copper gutters and downspouts bonded to ground rods... very simple and I guess effective.

Public buildings like churches will have a large copper wire surface run of eves, peak and corners...

Also... just about everything is underground... above ground poles are very rare... less problems with storms, ice, auto accidents, etc..

My old Telco Engineer friend would say... until someone can find a way to put the smoke back in throw it away...

 

[TractorGuy]

I don't know what to tell you. My electric stove is 34 years old and still going strong. Freezer going bonkers at seven years - never heard of such a thing. Freezers should go 25 to 30 years. My first microwave went 26 years and I replaced it with the exact same brand/model.

Your units may be top line but they apparently are still crap.

Doesn't happen any more. My first Maytag washer and dryer were 25 years old and still working when I bought new ones. I put ALL NEW Maytag appliances in my house only to find out Maytag had sold to Amana and NONE of them were actually Maytag. The washing machine died just a few weeks out of the 2 year warranty and was junk from day one. We still have the stove, microwave, and dishwasher but the fridge, washer, and dryer are gone. I am actually on my 3rd refrigerator in 25 years. Had Kenmore (made by GE), Maytag (made by ???), and now a Whirlpool. The Whirlpool fit, finish, and function are okay but the ice dispenser is a huge POS. You pretty much have to leave it on crushed or the cubes will accumulate in the shute and fall out on the floor in 20 minutes. 3 service calls and multiple adjustments on cube size has not solved the issue.

For washers and dryers I now buy the lowest cost machine I can find. I presently have Roper machines made by Whirlpool and so far so good. $250 a pop so if they fail I go to Lowes and grab another one.

 

[EddieWalker]

I try to fix it if I can figure it out. Youtube is has been great at understanding what I'm getting into. Usually I google the problem, the brand and model and see what comes up. Some things like my Samsung TV where a common issue that some people got lucky with just tightening up the cables, but most had to replace the TV. I've fixed my Kitchenaid dishwasher a couple times now and plan on taking it apart again this weekend when it's raining out to see if I can get it going again. I find appliances to be very frustrating.

On a job last year my clients hired a repairman to fix their freezer. It was a big freezer that cost them a couple grand, so they didn't want to buy a new one, or deal with getting rid of it and getting the new one into their pantry. The repairman told me that he's super busy all the time, and that he makes two or three jobs a day at $100 an hour for his time. It does make me wonder what it takes to get into the appliance repairman business!!!

 

[sd455dan]

With my 4 year old dishwasher the mother board was bad.all cycles worked, but you had to manually push button to advance to next cycle. Parts were 80% of cost of new machine. I replaced it. Microwaves are usually not economic to have repairman fix

Agree there- (most) new appliance control boards are the make break for me, switches sensors motors/pumps not so much. priced the board for our Kenmore (Whirlpool) front load washer, over $300...

but not always, 60" LG HD plasma TV quit, 20 minutes on youtube ordered a board for $17 on ebay and back in business in 5 days.

 

[goeduck]

Our biggest problem is lighting hitting the power line. then into the house and what ever protection you have is gone.

I am lucky in that I have underground power from the pole to the house and then the poles are only about 1/3 the height of the adjacent trees.

 

[goeduck]

I won't buy "high end" anything. I see it as paying more for more things to go wrong.

Totally agree, plus the high end models are often the lowest selling models which means less debugging by the public. I like commonly sold models that have the best repair knowledge base and the lowest failures due to the volume. Not always the case but if it is a high volume model chances are the manufacturer was forced to come out with fixes for common failures because not doing so cost them too much under warranty. That is how I think anyway.

 

[Creamer]

Agree there- (most) new appliance control boards are the make break for me, switches sensors motors/pumps not so much. priced the board for our Kenmore (Whirlpool) front load washer, over $300...

but not always, 60" LG HD plasma TV quit, 20 minutes on youtube ordered a board for $17 on ebay and back in business in 5 days.

Sometimes you can get the boards repaired. For my double wall oven we had a touch panel issue and it was 10 years old and they did not make the part anymore but i found a firm in Texas that could repair them. So instead of a new $2500 oven I took the control panel out and shipped it off for two weeks and the total was about $250 including shipping.

 

[Creamer]

I don't know what to tell you. My electric stove is 34 years old and still going strong. Freezer going bonkers at seven years - never heard of such a thing. Freezers should go 25 to 30 years. My first microwave went 26 years and I replaced it with the exact same brand/model.

Your units may be top line but they apparently are still crap.

Where did you find a good 26 year old microwave? I know after a quarter of a century they were not making the same model.

 

[3930dave]

For washers and dryers I now buy the lowest cost machine I can find. I presently have Roper machines made by Whirlpool and so far so good. $250 a pop so if they fail I go to Lowes and grab another one.

As has been posted, hopefully the lower cost/higher volume ones are better validated, and have less to go wrong.

But yes, once they fall into the Bic Lighter category, it hurts the wallet less when scrapped.

Rgds, D.