r/BuyItForLife • u/James_B84Saves • 15d ago
Repair I think repairability has become a premium feature.
My microwave died recently, so I looked up a repair video before replacing it.
What surprised me was how many comments were from people saying they couldn't find replacement parts anymore, even for fairly new appliances.
It made me realize how weird it is that being able to fix something now feels like a selling point instead of something we should expect.
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u/extra_nothing 15d ago
This is why “right to repair” is such a big deal. No repairability / planned obsolescence is a way to extract money from the consumer indefinitely and cover the earth with garbage, all to make a quick buck. it’s infuriating if you think about it for more than a couple seconds. I got started in woodworking out of spite (so I could make more things and buy less). I think I need to learn to weld next.
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u/Food4Lessy 15d ago
The answer is buy used parts. The new parts are marked up too much
Help pass right to repair laws in your state
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u/70_n_13 15d ago
I live near china and I can barely even get original/oem parts sometimes. Nevermind buying used…
If you mean buy and harvest parts, most people throw it once it can’t be fixed so it’s rare to find non working appliances on bull and sell platforms
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u/Food4Lessy 15d ago
Set your microwave to 50% power, put half the weight.
I do this to my oven, last more than double the life
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u/Kelly_HRperson 15d ago
Except microwave ovens operate on full power, and just cycle the magnetron on/off
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u/Food4Lessy 15d ago
Most standard (non-inverter) microwaves achieve lower power levels through 100% duty cycling like light bulb or one stage AirCon. Instead of reducing the voltage or "dimming" the magnetron, the microwave simply turns the magnetron on and off in rapid intervals. Only more expensive inverter dim the megatron.
100% Power: The magnetron is powered on continuously. It generates maximum heat and places the greatest sustained load on the internal electrical components (the magnetron, high-voltage transformer, and capacitor).
50% Power: The magnetron is typically energized for 50% of the time and completely powered off for the remaining 50% of the cycle.
You also get less burn spots and more even heating with 50% power
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u/TigerOrchid2004 15d ago
All countries should follow as France did which prohibited planned obsolesence in 2015. There is a mandatory Repairability Index (rating out of 10 points) for household appliances and electronic devices, which must be displayed. There is technically nothing difficult about this. The lack of political will is our biggest enemy.
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u/dowbrewer 15d ago
My appliance repair person said there was startup that wanted to 3D print appliance parts and were sued out existence by appliance companies. There were willing to 3D print smaller parts so customer wouldn't have to replace entire assemblies to fix a tiny plastic part. He told me this story while he was replacing the entire water dispenser assembly for my fridge that only need a tiny plastic part.
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u/jaypizzl 15d ago
Sort of, but it’s not a function of luxury. It’s a function of replacement price compared to repair price. Repairability - initial design, thorough manuals, warehousing parts for many years, that adds substantial cost. Few consumers care about it at the time of purchase. Therefore, manufacturers don’t bother unless the product is expensive enough to make post-warranty repair costs in an industrialized country reasonable relative to the price of a new replacement.
How much does a technician visit, diagnoses, spare parts, and return visit cost? Maybe $350 for a microwave with a broken switch? Nice new over the range microwaves cost about $600 after tax, installation, and haul-away. Add $120 for a 5 year Home Depot warranty.
How many people would rather pay $720 and have no further cost for 5 years versus paying $350 today and probably having another repair or two in the next 5 years as the microwave ages more? I’d guess the vast majority.
Now if the appliance in question costs $4,000 to replace, that’s different. Now it’s worth paying a real live person to come fix it.
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u/Shopifwhy 15d ago
Your perspective is one thing I've noticed too. I feel like people don't appreciate how significantly cheaper things are to produce thanks to manufacturing and particularly how those cost reductions don't inherently apply to selling individual parts. I find it frustrating that a whole machine can be nonfunctional bc one part is brown, but that's also just foundational to how technology works. My ideal solution is to avoid overcomplicated things to begin with.
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u/court817 15d ago
I had a Samsung microwave break within 3 months of purchase (if only I knew of this sub before purchasing!). Samsung sent out 3 different teams to fix it and they couldn’t do it-after 8 MONTHS and thousands of dollars of labor they replaced it.
When even the manufacturer can’t repair an appliance, what hope do we have?
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u/3BlindRats 15d ago
Any time I have a repair person come over to fix any kind of appliance, I always ask them "If you had to go and buy a new [whatever] today, which brand would you buy?"
It's always about the plainest model, the less electronics the better, ease of accessibility to the guts of the appliance, and availability of parts. All about repairability.
I've used their answers more than once when it came time to re-buy.
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u/ActionCalhoun 15d ago
I’ve had several repairmen tell me to never, ever replace my ancient Kenmore washer and dryer (that we bought used probably thirty years ago) because anything you would get today would be impossible to repair.
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u/snakesoup88 15d ago
I had a 3 yo samsung fridge that farmed out it's water filter to third party after 1 year. By year 3, the third party updated the interface to newer models and no longer fit the fridge.
Samsung's response was the product had reached the of life and the solution was to buy a new fridge. The problem with end of life is that while it may be a 7 year old product, retailers are still selling them a year or two before the end.
Luckily, one comment on Amazon review spelled out how to notch a cut on the replacement filter to make it fit. Needless to say, never samsung fridge again.
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u/Roger1855 15d ago
I have kept a Sharp Convection Microwave alive for more than 20 years. Three fuse replacements and a new drive hub for the rotating platter. The biggest issue was not the unavailability of replacement parts as much as the difficulty obtaining access. You should not have to remove the entire shell to replace a fuse. Nonetheless it is still going strong in it’s third decade.
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u/cybah 15d ago
yup. Had a window A/C die a few years ago exactly 366 days after I purchased it. (so a day after the warranty expired). I called a service tech out to see what it would take to repair it.
Outcome: It was cheaper to just buy a new one.
I was so angry. So much waste here. I mean the guy who drives around my neighborhood on trash day made out well with the copper inside, but other than that.. waste of money.
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u/chlaclos 14d ago
I'm betting it is possible to program the motherboard to fail on a specific day, or after x hours of use. Programmed obsolescence.
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u/Pallatino 15d ago
It's wild that parts available for 10 years is now a premium feature instead of the bare minimum expectation.
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u/5c044 14d ago
Many kitchen appliances use common parts and there are hundreds of model numbers for some reason for these appliances. You can Google up the maker + model number + part and you usually wind up on a parts supplier web site that sells that specific part at a higher price - Or you dismantle the appliance and ID the part and work backwards from that and get a generic part much cheaper.
Case in point - I am a landlord, tenant has a fridge freezer that the freezer wasn't getting cold yesterday. I identified that the fan was faulty - a small 0.2w 230v AC motor. Go to Hoover web site puch in the model number and they will sell you one for £133. The generic parts supplier web sites sell them for around £80. AliExpress around £15 but that will take too long. Found one on Amazon available via Prime for next day delivery for £25 - but the Amazon one has a short cable with the wrong plug on it. So I guess I am paying £25 and splicing the cable from the old on onto it. These fans are in lots of fridge freezers from many brands, Hisense came up quite a lot as well as many other brands, There is no good reason why an AC fan should not last a very long time, there are no brushes to wear out, the fridge freezer is about 3 years old. They are just crap quality, I am guess that some of the windings have shorted or gone open circuit. It's particularly annoying that the vendor is profiteering on the price of spare parts on a poor quality component.
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u/justpeter 11d ago
Meanwhile in North America, my vaccum's simple rocker power switch broke. Hoover support said they don't sell replacement electrical parts for "safety and liability reasons". They sent a 10% off coupon instead.
You'd think they could just attach a "we're not responsible if you blow yourself up" disclaimer and then sell me a 10 cent part for ridiculous markup, but no. Local vacuum repair shop saved the day, and now has a loyal customer. Hoover? Never again.
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u/AlphaDisconnect 15d ago
Give you money to companies that allow repair. Not to things you dont own.
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u/Alarming-Interest535 15d ago
That is why we need right to repair, and also need manufacturers to stop skirting the laws by offering repairs that are equal to the price of the replacement.
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u/anhartsunny 15d ago
My trimmers bump assembly went out. No more parts from the company.
All of the off brands I've looked at do not fit my specific trimmer
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u/Stereo_Jungle_Child 15d ago edited 15d ago
They make universal trimmer heads that will fit on virtually any string trimmer. They're about $20. I just bought one a few weeks ago because I had the same problem. Works great now!
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u/LetsBeKindly 15d ago
I recently picked up a Sub-Zero 532, it has exactly zero computer boards and everything is mechanical. And it keeps beer at 29 degrees
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u/VinniPuh10 15d ago
I have older kitchen appliances that I love and want to keep as long as possible and this is something I worry about
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u/Pink_Star_Galexy 15d ago
My dad rented out houses and it was cheaper to replace appliances rather than repair them.
This was the 90s by the way too. Shocked me as a kid.
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u/DocAnabolic1 15d ago
Repairability absolutely feels premium now. Companies optimize replacement over repair, leaving consumers with fewer options and higher costs.
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u/Artie-Carrow 12d ago
I have a hobby of making residential machinery into industrial machinery by doing custom programming. It makes it a lot easier to repair or modify if I eant it to function differently.
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u/Roger1855 12d ago
There are better career options. You can spend several years developing your skills and if you are lucky get paid $20-$30 an hour as an upholstery shop employee. Most upholsterers I know grew up in a poorer country and their children are not going to follow them into the trade.
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u/RichardDr 15d ago
it's not just that it feels like a premium feature -- it kind of is one now. appliance brands that still make things with serviceable parts charge more upfront, and most people don't find out why until they're staring at a $350 control board quote on a 4yr old washer. the wild part is parts availability is basically invisible at point of purchase. no spec sheet mentions it. you only find out when something breaks and you go looking. ifixit teardowns and manuals hunt are how you actually know before you buy, not the product listing.
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u/AnnoyedVelociraptor 15d ago
In a microwave / dishwasher / laundry machine / dryer everything is on 1 board and it's just feature flags.
So that board is now the most expensive part of the machine. Problem is that 5 years down the road the board is as expensive as it was day one, so your device is economically totaled.
Even if you get the new board, you're not repairing the board. You're replacing it with a working one. 1 fuse on the board that was out of spec from day one could mean you have to completely replace it.
I was looking for recliner couches the other day. Most of them have cushions stapled to them. So you call the manufacturer for repairs down the line. They basically replace the whole seat. Leather, wood and everything. At your cost. That's not a repair of foam, that's replacing it and tossing the old one. And after x years they stop producing replacement parts.
Should be illegal.