Jerry G. said:
went to a major appliance dealer, and bought a new stove. We had it
delivered within 24 hours, and we were okay again. I did the same for the
fridge as well. The compressor started to fail after about 15 years. We had
a new fridge within a few days. I didn't even bother ask about fixing this
one.
Well Jerry, 15 years from any machine isn't bad!
To be fair, I find "White" goods like fridges, cookers etc almost
always outlive "brown" goods like TVs , stereos, VCRS etc.
'Repairability' varies:
Most fridges round here are dumped because : the door lining/seals
fail, they look tatty, handles and internal plastic mountigs break,
etc. In the case of my folks, the lower door hinge rotted due to
exposure to humidity. My mother- in- law has a frideg with ice
compartment from the late 1970s which is fine mechanically but the
ice-compartment flap is broken, altering the temperature of the rest
of the fridge. But the elctronics in both cases were fine. Wouldn't
like to imagine a price to replace the compressor though, mind
you....When that happens it is probably dump time.
Some microwaves last a long time also: we have a 20 year old toshiba
,still perfect, just had to change the bulb.I've repaired a few on the
cheap by cleaning, replacing switches/mica etc.
So I suppose with white goods, these are worth repairing if you can do
so cheaply by replacing "cosmetic" parts.
I hope that the environmental concerns surrounding this consumerism
will force governments and manufacturers to provide more support and
promote servicing as opposed to dumping. Otherwise we will soon be
living in a toxic landfill. We can't carry on ignoring the waste. We
can buy home entertainment products new for next to nothing, but the
cost in other ways could end up coming back to haunt us.
Dont know how accurate this is, I heard that the increasing growth of
Chinese industry has meant greater scarcity and /or demand for raw
materials, so this could make the situation even more pressing.
Ben