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Air Con: $1697 for an on/off switch

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Re: Air Con: $1697 for an on/off switch

#211

Post by liminalsunset »

kmoser wrote: post #103
irjustin wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

knowing a lot of these companies. it wouldn't really matter if it fell inside of the warranty. they would simply screw a lot of people over until there's a class action lawsuit (or whatever equivalent is in that country) where they get a slap on the wrist for not honoring warranty claims.

My A/C unit is fairly new but there are signs the condenser unit fan is starting to go. Since it is still under warranty for parts (not labor) I thought I would be able to just get a replacement fan and install it myself. But no, the manufacturer will only deal with a "certified technician," who of course charges an outrageous amount of money (many hundreds of dollars) to replace the fan. When I asked the technician…

Just as a data point for those in Canada (maybe US, but I'm not sure if it's the same company), I have a Senville unit, bought from their website, and they sent a replacement plastic (yes, it's a plastic bead in a piece of rubber) bearing for the indoor fan for free with shipping free too a few years ago, after providing the unit's serial number and the original name on the receipt. The unit was in-warranty. They claim that you have to have the unit professionally installed to get the warranty, but nobody asked for this at any point (could have been due to triviality of the part). Either way I was pleasantly surprised by the willingness to provide parts, even though the documentation of part numbers and models/generations on their site isn't super clear.

It's now out of warranty, but most of these units are built by either Gree (some Trane, Tosot, Gree, some Lennox iirc) or Midea (MrCool, Eco-Air, Senville, Pioneer, Carrier), so searching for the "canonical name" of your system can be helpful in finding parts. (usually, its of a pattern like "M5OG-48HFN1-M", can be found with meticulous googling for catalogs). There is a lot of parts commonality between units. You have to be creative with finding parts on AliExpress as they go by any number of names that you wouldn't expect, and a lot of this stuff is bought by eye (or random dimensions, of which there are some canonical ones for each part) and not by part number unfortunately.

Re: Air Con: $1697 for an on/off switch

#212

Post by jagheterfredrik »

pzlarsson wrote: post #120
datahack wrote: post #100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You think this is bad? Try swimming pool equipment.

I think home EV charging equipment is heading in the same direction as well. Very few have local and open APIs and instead depend on the vendors cloud service for control.

Agreed, I couldn’t find a reasonable choice and ended up making https://github.com/jagheterfredrik/wallbox-mqtt-bridge

Re: Air Con: $1697 for an on/off switch

#213

Post by ossyrial »

happyopossum wrote: post #73
SOLAR_FIELDS wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Reminds me how, in USA, it’s the only civilized nation I’ve been to where you must have a prescription to purchase contacts and glasses. Everywhere else I’ve been will just sell you whatever magnification you need at the pharmacy. Obviously there is some acceptable line here, but I think the States handles this decently well enough. In Austin where I live you can get what is called a “homeowners permit” in a lot of c…

> Reminds me how, in USA, it’s the only civilized nation I’ve been to where you must have a prescription to purchase contacts and glasses Anecdotally this is far from true. Canada, Australia, the Netherlands, and the UK for example require a prescription for anything more complicated than reading glasses. There are plenty of reasons why, mostly summed up by your comment about “whatever magnification you need” - eyegl…

> [...] the Netherlands, [...] for example require a prescription for anything more complicated than reading glasses.

I have never needed a prescription to get (non-reading) glasses in the Netherlands. In fact, there are webshops where you can purchase any pair of glasses (obviously, you have to enter the values of an eye examination).

Re: Air Con: $1697 for an on/off switch

#214

Post by yuye »

zeroflow wrote: post #207
yuye wrote: post #184

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Seems those tablets die not long after the warranty expires. I'm willing to bet money on that it's planned obsolescence, especially considering their "technology keeps moving forward" bullshit.

I'm offering you a different viewpoint: They made the analysis, how long the flash will live and saw, that it will make it out of the warranty period. Thus they did not opt for more durable and expensive flash and/or software change. I've seen this myself before. One process step before release of the control module was a write cycle analysis to make sure the unit will live for at least 10 years (i think) before the…

>Thus they did not opt for more durable and expensive flash and/or software change.

Opting out of a more durable solution when you know the device will break right after warranty is still planned obsolescence.

Re: Air Con: $1697 for an on/off switch

#215

Post by xvector »

knowaveragejoe wrote: post #189
datahack wrote: post #100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You think this is bad? Try swimming pool equipment.

Both of these examples, and others, sound like an underserved market.

Exactly. This is what happens when a market is so small they can overcharge for terrible technology.

I figure a couple of SWEs could make a startup that completely disrupts these industries with objectively superior technology.

Re: Air Con: $1697 for an on/off switch

#216

Post by dacryn »

pzlarsson wrote: post #120
datahack wrote: post #100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You think this is bad? Try swimming pool equipment.

I think home EV charging equipment is heading in the same direction as well. Very few have local and open APIs and instead depend on the vendors cloud service for control.

I don't know where you live, but in Europe there is a standardized backoffice management protocol that you can link up to basically anything in modern chargers. Except the cheapest of the cheapest.

I have mine running through EVCC.io, setting it up was as simple as throwing that thing in a docker container and figuring out the IP address of the chargepoint.

Re: Air Con: $1697 for an on/off switch

#217

Post by TeMPOraL »

hunter2_ wrote: post #160
refurb wrote: post #137

Earlier quoted context omitted.

1-800 contacts will write a prescription for you with a $20 online eye exam. Optomitrist asks if your current prescription is ok, asks you to stand 20ft back and read a few letters and you’ve got a script you can use wherever.

As will several other retailers, but only in some states. As someone in an excluded state, I considered whether enabling Mock Location on my phone would get me past that check (I think they require you to use a native mobile app, so I assume they use location from that?) but then thought of the method I mentioned earlier instead.

Reading all that, I'm happy my part of Europe is a bit behind the tech curve here.

I mean holy fuck, "native mobile app" and "getting contacts" do not belong in the same sentence in any sane universe.

Re: Air Con: $1697 for an on/off switch

#218

Post by msnkarthik »

It's really impressive to see how determination and a bit of technical know-how can overcome such blatant profiteering by some companies. The effort and ingenuity put into fixing the system rather than just paying for an overpriced replacement are commendable. It's a clear reminder that proprietary smart systems can sometimes backfire, pushing customers to seek alternative solutions or even become DIY experts out of necessity!

Like some of the commenters, I've been thinking about the growing frustration with these kinds of business practices. It really makes you wonder about the balance between smart technology's convenience and the long-term costs they can impose.

What do you think would be the most effective way to encourage companies to offer more consumer-friendly solutions, especially for minor issues like this? Should there be stronger regulations, or is there a market opportunity for more open-source, user-modifiable systems?

Re: Air Con: $1697 for an on/off switch

#219

Post by dandare »

People underestimate the economic side. This person probably earns 6 figures (if not, he should). Fixing this himself probably costed more than $1697 in his time.

Now imagine a service doing this, with a manager and all the overhead.

Re: Air Con: $1697 for an on/off switch

#220

Post by audunw »

zeroflow wrote: post #207
yuye wrote: post #184

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Seems those tablets die not long after the warranty expires. I'm willing to bet money on that it's planned obsolescence, especially considering their "technology keeps moving forward" bullshit.

I'm offering you a different viewpoint: They made the analysis, how long the flash will live and saw, that it will make it out of the warranty period. Thus they did not opt for more durable and expensive flash and/or software change. I've seen this myself before. One process step before release of the control module was a write cycle analysis to make sure the unit will live for at least 10 years (i think) before the…

You're both missing one of the more likely explanation.. that nobody gave much thought about how long the device would last. "It's solid state electronics, it'll probably outlast the warranty anyway".. I can imagine an aircon company puts a lot of effort into analyzing the air-conditioning unit itself to make sure it lasts at least as long as the warranty, with good margin. But I can totally see them winging it on an external control device, which was perhaps even a project they outsourced anyway.

I don't think actual malicious planned obsolescence is as prevalent as many believe. A device breaking right after warranty is not a good strategy to get repeat customers. It's also a huge risk if you miscalculated and you suddenly get a lot of warranty cases. You want a lot of margin there.

I've been involved in the design of a thing myself, where something the manufacturer hadn't clearly communicated - and we just barely caught - could have made the device die just around a typical warranty period for such a device. When we found out, of course we worked on this problem to make sure it didn't die prematurely.

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