Our washing machine broke last week and the first thought was to buy a replacement but I wanted to at least attempt a repair first.
The machine would still fill and empty water, but the dishes remained dry and there was a burning smell. So, I unplugged it, tipped it over and popped open the bottom cover.
Aside from the controller, the dishwasher was very simple: a drainage pump, a circulation pump, a heating element and some solenoid valves. A multimeter showed the (main suspect) circulation pump still had continuity which narrowed the search down to the pump’s starting capacitor. Seven euros and a few days later and it’s back in action!
The simple fix really gave me a sense of joy and satisfaction. It feels great to extend the use of something that I already have rather than need to consume more.
Can anyone relate? Any good repair stories?
I’m a big fan of the right to repair movement.
Also sometimes it feels like cheating the system. A new purchase will be postponed.
Back when I had a printer I have bought ink refill kits off of ebay and refilled the empty ink cardridge with a syringe. It worked well and I could extend the lifespan up to three time for each cartridge. After the third refill cycle I had to buy new cardridges. Meanwhile the manufacturer re-designed the label and switched the colors on that label - imagine it like this: when looking from above the compartment of the cartridge, the colors were: cyan - yellow - magenta. After the re-design of the label the colors were: cyan - magenta - yellow, indicating that the locations of said colors were different. When refilling with a syringe it happened that now the wrong ink was applied (magenta got mixed with yellow and vice versa), rendering the cartridge unusable. I was forced to buy the expensive original ink. Anyway, the printer later became unrepairable when a tiny piece of plastic broke inside the printer because I was moving it into a different place. I don’t own a printer anymore.
Another time I replaced the battery of my 2010 macbook pro, along with a RAM upgrade an a cleaning of the fans. I used the tutorial on ifixedit. I also bought their tool set - which I can strongly recommend when working with delicate hardware.
And then there was this super cheap bluetooth mouse which came without a power switch. As long the two batteries were inserted, it was ON! I managed to place an old switch from an old computer tower case at the underside of the mouse so the mouse could be shut off without losing battery charge. I still have that mouse as an emergency backup. Given its price the left click switch has been worn off after just one year of usage - it somtimes double-clicks.
Repairing things can be good for the budget and also good for the enviroment - but it makes you a bad customer ;-)