So, just finished this month's Repair Cafe in #Regina.
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So, just finished this month's Repair Cafe in #Regina.
There's a depressing pattern where small #appliances, typically #kitchen stuff, fail after just a year or so. The warranties are invariably one year. Nobody, especially the manufacturer, offers service - "Just buy a new one, it's cheaper" is the refrain. Of course, we're trying to "reduce, re-use, recycle" and keep this stuff out of the #landfill.
Even trying to service them is a pain, and sometimes impossible. The cases/shells of modern stuff are frequently absolute b*stards to take apart, and really new stuff now features "one-way clips" - there's literally no way to unclip the shell after it's been clicked together at the factory. You can't access the latching bit, so you have to force it and break the #clip, and then #bodge it back together somehow.
Mandating a longer #warranty, like in the EU - two years, three? - would help, because stuff would have to be designed better.
The two most frustrating from today:
1) A Keurig coffee maker, used twice, a year old. Got it apart, it had leaked water onto the back of the (massively #overcomplicated) CPU board, and shorted it out. Poof, magic smoke gone, tears in the rain, time to die, etc. Who puts the CPU directly under a join in the #water pipe?
2) A gas-powered leaf blower. Fuel line rotted, but to be able to feed new one through from the carburetor to the fuel tank, you have to take the shell apart - which requires disassembling the engine!
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R relay@relay.mycrowd.ca shared this topic
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So, just finished this month's Repair Cafe in #Regina.
There's a depressing pattern where small #appliances, typically #kitchen stuff, fail after just a year or so. The warranties are invariably one year. Nobody, especially the manufacturer, offers service - "Just buy a new one, it's cheaper" is the refrain. Of course, we're trying to "reduce, re-use, recycle" and keep this stuff out of the #landfill.
Even trying to service them is a pain, and sometimes impossible. The cases/shells of modern stuff are frequently absolute b*stards to take apart, and really new stuff now features "one-way clips" - there's literally no way to unclip the shell after it's been clicked together at the factory. You can't access the latching bit, so you have to force it and break the #clip, and then #bodge it back together somehow.
Mandating a longer #warranty, like in the EU - two years, three? - would help, because stuff would have to be designed better.
The two most frustrating from today:
1) A Keurig coffee maker, used twice, a year old. Got it apart, it had leaked water onto the back of the (massively #overcomplicated) CPU board, and shorted it out. Poof, magic smoke gone, tears in the rain, time to die, etc. Who puts the CPU directly under a join in the #water pipe?
2) A gas-powered leaf blower. Fuel line rotted, but to be able to feed new one through from the carburetor to the fuel tank, you have to take the shell apart - which requires disassembling the engine!
@cazabon gas-powered leaf blowers should be consigned to a low pit in hell.
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@cazabon gas-powered leaf blowers should be consigned to a low pit in hell.
Agreed, but I'm there to volunteer, not make moral judgments. If it's any consolation, I told the fellow I wasn't comfortable removing the cylinder head to try to get the shell apart, because I was afraid I'd damage a gasket or similar. It was bad enough that I had to take the carburetor off. We pointed him to an independent and reasonably-priced small-engine guy.
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So, just finished this month's Repair Cafe in #Regina.
There's a depressing pattern where small #appliances, typically #kitchen stuff, fail after just a year or so. The warranties are invariably one year. Nobody, especially the manufacturer, offers service - "Just buy a new one, it's cheaper" is the refrain. Of course, we're trying to "reduce, re-use, recycle" and keep this stuff out of the #landfill.
Even trying to service them is a pain, and sometimes impossible. The cases/shells of modern stuff are frequently absolute b*stards to take apart, and really new stuff now features "one-way clips" - there's literally no way to unclip the shell after it's been clicked together at the factory. You can't access the latching bit, so you have to force it and break the #clip, and then #bodge it back together somehow.
Mandating a longer #warranty, like in the EU - two years, three? - would help, because stuff would have to be designed better.
The two most frustrating from today:
1) A Keurig coffee maker, used twice, a year old. Got it apart, it had leaked water onto the back of the (massively #overcomplicated) CPU board, and shorted it out. Poof, magic smoke gone, tears in the rain, time to die, etc. Who puts the CPU directly under a join in the #water pipe?
2) A gas-powered leaf blower. Fuel line rotted, but to be able to feed new one through from the carburetor to the fuel tank, you have to take the shell apart - which requires disassembling the engine!
Oh, ALSO...
One of the things brought to me was a toaster that wouldn't stay "down", but otherwise worked fine. This is a semi-common problem - I had another #toaster with the same problem at the last Repair Cafe.
And this one... the manufacturer secured the bottom base to the chassis with Torx screws (fine) ... but SECURITY Torx screws. If you're not familiar with these, they're regular Torx screws but there's a pin that sticks up in the middle of the fastener head, so regular #Torx drivers won't go into the head. You need special #drivers with a hollow bit to go over that pin.
Now, I have "security" Torx drivers because fuck you, you don't get to lock me out of something that belongs to me [1], but this is ridiculous. It's a CDN$40 two-slot toaster, not some #unobtainium magic technological wonder. It's one great "Up yours!" from the #manufacturer to the #consumer and the #environment.
Name-and-shame time: it was a Black and Decker (they can pay me if they want me to use their vanity typography to refer to them). This is another of those brand names that maybe used to mean something, but now is just marketing. There are a *lot* fewer #factories making toasters than there are brands selling toasters. They just tick boxes on an #OEM's feature list to get "their" product.
[1] It's easy to get the drivers these days, so they don't have much effect, but when they first came about almost no one had them, so it was a major pain in the ass.
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R relay@relay.publicsquare.global shared this topic
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Oh, ALSO...
One of the things brought to me was a toaster that wouldn't stay "down", but otherwise worked fine. This is a semi-common problem - I had another #toaster with the same problem at the last Repair Cafe.
And this one... the manufacturer secured the bottom base to the chassis with Torx screws (fine) ... but SECURITY Torx screws. If you're not familiar with these, they're regular Torx screws but there's a pin that sticks up in the middle of the fastener head, so regular #Torx drivers won't go into the head. You need special #drivers with a hollow bit to go over that pin.
Now, I have "security" Torx drivers because fuck you, you don't get to lock me out of something that belongs to me [1], but this is ridiculous. It's a CDN$40 two-slot toaster, not some #unobtainium magic technological wonder. It's one great "Up yours!" from the #manufacturer to the #consumer and the #environment.
Name-and-shame time: it was a Black and Decker (they can pay me if they want me to use their vanity typography to refer to them). This is another of those brand names that maybe used to mean something, but now is just marketing. There are a *lot* fewer #factories making toasters than there are brands selling toasters. They just tick boxes on an #OEM's feature list to get "their" product.
[1] It's easy to get the drivers these days, so they don't have much effect, but when they first came about almost no one had them, so it was a major pain in the ass.
@cazabon I think I would look for a mechanical solution, maybe a piece of sheet metal or rod to hold the mechanism down until the toast is done.
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Oh, ALSO...
One of the things brought to me was a toaster that wouldn't stay "down", but otherwise worked fine. This is a semi-common problem - I had another #toaster with the same problem at the last Repair Cafe.
And this one... the manufacturer secured the bottom base to the chassis with Torx screws (fine) ... but SECURITY Torx screws. If you're not familiar with these, they're regular Torx screws but there's a pin that sticks up in the middle of the fastener head, so regular #Torx drivers won't go into the head. You need special #drivers with a hollow bit to go over that pin.
Now, I have "security" Torx drivers because fuck you, you don't get to lock me out of something that belongs to me [1], but this is ridiculous. It's a CDN$40 two-slot toaster, not some #unobtainium magic technological wonder. It's one great "Up yours!" from the #manufacturer to the #consumer and the #environment.
Name-and-shame time: it was a Black and Decker (they can pay me if they want me to use their vanity typography to refer to them). This is another of those brand names that maybe used to mean something, but now is just marketing. There are a *lot* fewer #factories making toasters than there are brands selling toasters. They just tick boxes on an #OEM's feature list to get "their" product.
[1] It's easy to get the drivers these days, so they don't have much effect, but when they first came about almost no one had them, so it was a major pain in the ass.
@cazabon They put those same "security" torx screws in Dyson devices for no good reason.
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@cazabon I think I would look for a mechanical solution, maybe a piece of sheet metal or rod to hold the mechanism down until the toast is done.
It's normally caused by dirty or loose contacts that control power to the electromagnet that holds the lever down against the spring. Just cleaning the contacts and/or bending them a bit so they make a better connection usually fixes it. But you have to get it apart, first, which is not difficult, but which this pointless choice by the manufacturer made more of a pain than it could have been.
