How long should things last?

[ponytug]

^^^
Did the flashlight still work?

That was my first thought, too! The old batteries were zinc- carbon, non-alkaline, so dead, but they hadn't leaked. Two new D-cells, and "TaaDaa"! It worked.

It is on the backup shelf pending time to put an LED bulb in with a few more lumens.

All the best, Peter

 

[MossRoad]

That reminds me. The house came with the original appliances. Say mid-80s. The dryer always had this clunking sound that I chalked up to out of round / old bearing. After we had had it for fifteen years, one of the thermal sensors went, so I bought two new ones, and opened it up to replace thermal sensors. Piece of cake, ten minute job. The icing on the cake was a D-cell flashlight that someone had left inside the dryer for me.

No more clunking! I do wonder how many decades the flashlight was in there.

We also always leave the washer and dryer doors ajar.

All the best, Peter

A year ago I was watching a service tech replace the detergent dispenser system on a one year old front load washer. He dropped a screwdriver down the front of the machine so it was in the bottom right front corner of the machine as you face it. He had to disassemble half the machine to get to that corner to fish it out. Added a good hour to the job.

Fast forward to last week, different service tech, that same detergent dispenser went out again, and, they had to change the bellows (big rubber ring) that acts as the door seal and gasket as well (mold). The guy removed the top, and about 5-6 screws and the entire front of the machine lifted off. I noticed easy access to the area where the other tech dropped his screwdriver. Would have been a 5 minute job.

 

[grsthegreat]

A year ago I was watching a service tech replace the detergent dispenser system on a one year old front load washer. He dropped a screwdriver down the front of the machine so it was in the bottom right front corner of the machine as you face it. He had to disassemble half the machine to get to that corner to fish it out. Added a good hour to the job.

Fast forward to last week, different service tech, that same detergent dispenser went out again, and, they had to change the bellows (big rubber ring) that acts as the door seal and gasket as well (mold). The guy removed the top, and about 5-6 screws and the entire front of the machine lifted off. I noticed easy access to the area where the other tech dropped his screwdriver. Would have been a 5 minute job.

Yeiks…on a 1 year old machine. That’s horrible. I believe my kitchenaid dishwasher is now 5 years old, and has worked flawlessly. Super quiet also. But i do monthly cleaning cycles using affresh tablets (do this for both washer and dishwasher). I started to do this after i started to notice hard water buildup in unit. Since running this cycle monthly, no buildup any more. Stainless surface is super clean.

 

[MossRoad]

Yeiks…on a 1 year old machine. That’s horrible. I believe my kitchenaid dishwasher is now 5 years old, and has worked flawlessly. Super quiet also. But i do monthly cleaning cycles using affresh tablets (do this for both washer and dishwasher). I started to do this after i started to notice hard water buildup in unit. Since running this cycle monthly, no buildup any more. Stainless surface is super clean.

Unfortunately, these new high efficiency washing machines require a lot of service. So do the new refrigerators. The name rhymes with phirlwool.

 

[Larry Caldwell]

We are around year 13 on our home now. Installed all LED bulbs and almost all are still origional. At that time they were expensive and most had metal housings and heat sinks. I remember wondering how the mfg companies would make any money if the bulbs lasted 20 years. They must have figured it out. I used mostly LED bulbs for our wedding venue when we remodeled 6 years ago. I am always replacing a few it seems like on these newer LEDs.

30 years in our house. I installed CFLs when we bought, and still have maybe a dozen of the originals. I replace them with LEDs as they fail, and have had no LED failures. Six years since I built my shop, and have had half a dozen 4' LED shop light failures.

 

[JasperFrank]

For me there are two questions being presented here.

How long should something last,
and how long should something be supported.

I have rarely had something that didn't last.

What I face, on nearly all fronts, are things that have been orphaned.

And they are orphaned at a much higher rate than they have worn out.

I am a bit strange in the sense that I have to maintain matching sets of things; like locks, and lights fixtures, and switches, bath fixtures and drawer handles, and doors and such. The orphaning of things really bugs me, cause, I can't replace the one failed item with something that doesn't match the others.

 

[Dftodd]

A year ago I was watching a service tech replace the detergent dispenser system on a one year old front load washer. He dropped a screwdriver down the front of the machine so it was in the bottom right front corner of the machine as you face it. He had to disassemble half the machine to get to that corner to fish it out. Added a good hour to the job.

Fast forward to last week, different service tech, that same detergent dispenser went out again, and, they had to change the bellows (big rubber ring) that acts as the door seal and gasket as well (mold). The guy removed the top, and about 5-6 screws and the entire front of the machine lifted off. I noticed easy access to the area where the other tech dropped his screwdriver. Would have been a 5 minute job.

Knowledge of what your working on really helps

I have one tech in my shop that i've about given up on. He's dumber than a stump.

If you tell him something to make his job easier..... he does the opposite.

He was replacing a starter solenoid the other day. I told him it's a 3 wire solenoid. So it grounds through the case. Do Not Hook the ground to the "I" post.

Small posts were labeled S and I. That means start post, and accessory post.

He comes back to me 20 minutes later complaining that the solenoid is bad.... it's not working.

I didn't even leave my office to go look at it.

I replied "You hooked the ground wire to the I post!!!!! Now..... do what I told you to start with and move the ground wire to the flipping frame bolt!!!!"

His reply " well it looked identical to the one I was replacing!!!"

My reply "just because it looks the same, doesn't mean that it is the same!!!!"

The posts are labeled, i've explained what they mean multiple times.

He's done some other really dumb stuff this week, so my my boss and I both have been all over his butt....

He's the only tech I've ever worked with that is fixing to get a demotion to "Yard Bi#ch" And made to start all over again.

 

[kenmbz]

I have that with window gaskets, they stopped making them, but the windows themselves are in great shape. Just the gaskets crush over time.

 

[Oaktree]

He's the only tech I've ever worked with that is fixing to get a demotion to "Yard Bi#ch" And made to start all over again.

Sounds to me like it's time to hand him his walking papers.

 

[jjeff]

Fix it once probably cuz of my misuse of it anyway. Fix it twice its nearing its end life. 3x I get to destroy it with my mini x before I take it to the scrapyard. Recently blew the third discharge pump on my washing machine, still full of water of course plus the display on circuit board was no longer functioning. When I'm done releasing my frustrations on that contraption it should fit in the trunk of my winter beater for transport to scrapyard. On the positive side, Wife really likes her brand new washing machine.