Another Example of Our "Disposable" Society

[tulenutn2o]

How about the new energy star appliances? Doesn't make sense to me to buy new and save a little in electricity, only to have to replace entire appliance after it's planned life cycle(or less) because repair parts are so darn expensive. Older appliances may use a little more juice, but they can be repaired. I think once people start to look at price over say 20yrs(durable goods) they would see this. In fact, I once saw a study that had been done on this very subject. Older appliances won. Instead of energy star, I'd like to see cost to own/replace over a longer lifespan. Years ago, I worked for an appliance manufacturer. Life cycle for washing machines was 20yrs. plus(I have one that is 30+ yrs old). Then the industry went to 13 years planned life cycle......And so goes the story. Needless to say, company is now part of an appliance monopoly and you can no longer get that quality in a machine. They changed the interpretation on what quality meant. I guess I'll just be the Maytag repairman of yesteryear with all kinds of time on my hands.

 

[dmccarty]

We have a store in town called Batteries Plus. They seem pretty reasonable on prices and usually have things in stock. They have locations in TX. Might be worth a look.

Bing Bing Bing.

I have gotten a new battery for my APC UPS at Batteries Plus. We have four UPSes. Seem like every time I buy a new desktop I get a new UPS since the power requirements keep increasing. My first APC UPS is at least 15 years old and the first battery died many years ago. I just kept it.

Eventually I decided to replace the battery and use this UPS to protect our DSL modem and router to keep our network up in an outage. Most outages only last a split second but getting the network back up will take a few minutes.

The battery I bought for that UPS died a few months back. I would guess it was close to three years old.

I have moved stuff around so another UPS has the capacity to handle the DSL modem and router.

But to talk about throwaway.....

Epson sells refurbished printers. At the time I was researching printers, the printers had new ink cartridges. Some of the printers are being sold at a price point where people are buying the printers to just get the ink cartridges. The ink cartridges are worth more than the printer. The buyers are tossing or donating the printer.

Later,
Dan

 

[Bird]

We have a store in town called Batteries Plus. They seem pretty reasonable on prices and usually have things in stock. They have locations in TX. Might be worth a look.

Go back to post #10. We have two Batteries Plus stores in the area. One of them is where I've gotten batteries for my cell phone, and they do seem to have batteries for just about everything. They're not bad prices, but they aren't cheap either. Nice folks though at the store I've used.

 

[MossRoad]

Bing Bing Bing.

I have gotten a new battery for my APC UPS at Batteries Plus. We have four UPSes. Seem like every time I buy a new desktop I get a new UPS since the power requirements keep increasing. My first APC UPS is at least 15 years old and the first battery died many years ago. I just kept it.

Eventually I decided to replace the battery and use this UPS to protect our DSL modem and router to keep our network up in an outage. Most outages only last a split second but getting the network back up will take a few minutes.

The battery I bought for that UPS died a few months back. I would guess it was close to three years old.

I have moved stuff around so another UPS has the capacity to handle the DSL modem and router.

But to talk about throwaway.....

Epson sells refurbished printers. At the time I was researching printers, the printers had new ink cartridges. Some of the printers are being sold at a price point where people are buying the printers to just get the ink cartridges. The ink cartridges are worth more than the printer. The buyers are tossing or donating the printer.

Later,
Dan

I have an Epson printer with separate ink cartridges for each color and black. If I buy them new at any office supply store, the color cartridges are about $13.00 and the black is $39.00. So that's $78.00 for ink.

I found a website called clickinks.com that had my cartridges refurbished for, get this....

One of each color and three black for about $36.00.
If you buy two of those deals, you get the third one free.
So, for $72.00 I got 3 of each color cartridge and 9 black cartridges for $6.00 less than one of each at the office supply stores! :confused2:

I got them and they work just fine. Pretty crazy.

 

[MossRoad]

Here's another thing I pointed out to my family this weekend...

In all of the stores around here, grocery, pharmacy, local or national chain, they have started selling these little glass jars of canned fruit for a dollar. One dollar. They have two generous servings in them. They are distributed by a U.S. company. Closer inspection reveals the fine print which says they are a product of China. Now, all safety, environmental, political, health concerns aside.... and even with free labor....

How in the heck can they grow, harvest, process, make the heavy glass jars and metal lids, package and ship from China to Indiana for one buck? The jars are extremely thick, heavy glass (leave the lead and cadmium comments out) and have to cost a bunch to make. I just cannot fathom how they can do it at a profit, even if the labor was free.

By the way, I won't let my kids eat the Chinese canned fruit, just because they are still growing and I don't want to take a chance on harming them if this fruit turns out like the Chinese contaminated toys, McDonald Shrek glasses, drywall, etc.... but they are tasty! :laughing:

 

[tallyho8]

I have an Epson printer with separate ink cartridges for each color and black. If I buy them new at any office supply store, the color cartridges are about $13.00 and the black is $39.00. So that's $78.00 for ink.

I found a website called clickinks.com that had my cartridges refurbished for, get this....

One of each color and three black for about $36.00.
If you buy two of those deals, you get the third one free.
So, for $72.00 I got 3 of each color cartridge and 9 black cartridges for $6.00 less than one of each at the office supply stores! :confused2:

I got them and they work just fine. Pretty crazy.

Even more unbelievable, I get NEW cartridges for my Epson printer on Ebay. Black ones are $1 and change and color ones are $2 and change. Free shipping with order of 24 and of course, they are made in China.

 

[ultrarunner]

I just pulled the invoice from my 1/8/10 Battery Purchase

Power Sonic PS 1270 (12v 7amp)... $17.50 ea plus tax... and free disposal of the old battery.

I could have got away 30% cheaper by using an off-brand battery... I like Power Sonic... so I pay the premium.

 

[Bird]

I just pulled the invoice from my 1/8/10 Battery Purchase

Power Sonic PS 1270 (12v 7amp)... $17.50 ea plus tax... and free disposal of the old battery.

I could have got away 30% cheaper by using an off-brand battery... I like Power Sonic... so I pay the premium.

If I could have gotten a battery at that price, I'd still be using my old UPS.

 

[crusty 1]

Speaking of throw away,I don,t recall seeing any TV repair shops lately,but I think I,m a glass milk jug guy livin in a cardboard worldDave

 

[Bird]

Speaking of throw away,I don,t recall seeing any TV repair shops lately,but I think I,m a glass milk jug guy livin in a cardboard worldDave

I don't know about the older style TVs, but they do still repair the flat screen HD-LCD TVs. My 40" Samsung came from Best Buy and I bought the extended warranty, which usually is not a good deal, but I'm even on the deal this time because I have had a service man come to the house, spread a furniture pad on the floor and replace (solder) two capacitors.