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Sweden Wants to Fight Disposable Culture with Tax Breaks for Repairing Old Stuff

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Re: Sweden Wants to Fight Disposable Culture with Tax Breaks for Repairing Old Stuff

#311

Post by Animats »

tgsovlerkhgsel wrote: post #306
Animats wrote: post #300

There are downsides to repairability. It means more fasteners to come loose, and more connectors to give trouble. It means more bulky devices; you can't cram everything in as tightly if it has to come out later. I restore old Teletype machines, which were designed to be 100% repairable. You can take them apart down to the individual parts and put them back together. Everything is attached with screws and lockwashers.…

Are those museum pieces, or are there some insane industries still using actual Teletypes?

Museum pieces. It's a hobby.

Re: Sweden Wants to Fight Disposable Culture with Tax Breaks for Repairing Old Stuff

#312

Post by a-no-n »

My MagSafe adapter has probably 5 packets of Sugru, both preventative (anti-drop and strain-relief) and repairs, on it and some two-part epoxy to fix some minor nicks in the small cable. The one of the cable winding "wings" just broke, but it still works. I might buy a second in 2018.

Re: Sweden Wants to Fight Disposable Culture with Tax Breaks for Repairing Old Stuff

#313

Post by mlinksva »

logfromblammo wrote: post #160
hlandau wrote: post #112

This is a very nice move to see. Other people have discussed washing machines below, but there's even more to say on them. Washing machines used to have long warranty periods. Nowadays they tend to be sold with a 2 year warranty, which I believe in the EU is the required minimum. And these manufacturers (Bosch, for example) even have the gall to claim that their products are high quality and that this warranty period…

I am only aware of one brand of washing machine that explicitly claims to be designed to be repairable by the end-user--Staber. I have never actually owned or used one before, so I'm not sure how fit for purpose it may be otherwise. I have successfully repaired other brands of washing machine, dryer, and refrigerator, though. It isn't that difficult, but obtaining the replacement parts is absolutely ridiculous. The f…

An alternative to mandating standard designs is to mandate open designs -- royalty-free licenses and documentation must be adequate for third parties to manufacture and improve all parts.

Re: Sweden Wants to Fight Disposable Culture with Tax Breaks for Repairing Old Stuff

#314

Post by dvtv75 »

At this time, I am fighting with a Samsung Syncmaster 2333SW Plus. It started fading to white every time blue was displayed, then it would overflow back to a normal image and fade to white.

I'm told this is a fault in the t-con (timing controller) board - some people have noted it's just a bad solder connection, so I'm going to have a look before I replace the board.

I have a donor screen that I got apart (the 2333HD) in about four hours, but the 2333SW Plus... I've been trying for at least 12 hours to get that thing apart. (I've sanitized this post.) The sides of the casing are free, but the top and bottom edges just won't let go, and I can't afford to break the internal clips.

I honestly can't decide between RageGuy and Samir's rage at the printer not printing properly.

Re: Sweden Wants to Fight Disposable Culture with Tax Breaks for Repairing Old Stuff

#315

Post by tmptmp »

Teever wrote: post #67
yodsanklai wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not only a matter of ability, but also of opportunity cost. For instance, when I was a teenager, I always fixed my bicycle by myself. Nowadays, I guess I could do it if I had too, but I prefer to pay $50 and have somebody else do it for me. Same goes for washing machines or similar appliance, I'm sure many people could manage to fix them by themselves by spending enough time, but is it worth it?

I agree but I think it is worth considering what the opportunity cost of letting those skills atrophy. Can you still fix your bicycle? Like if you had no money or were stuck somewhere distant could you still do it? Is it just because you're older now and have income that you pay someone to do it or is it something society in general does? Do children's parents just get someone to fix their bike or throw it away and g…

>>What does it cost us as a society when a generation loses those skills?

This. This is a lot to do with today's society. We don't seem to appreciate the problem at all. People just think that they can throw some money at someone and get the things repaired and so they don't need to learn anything.

Society as a whole may have to bear a huge cost, and by the time they realize this they might have already lost their time.

Manufacturers are a lot to blame but today's lifestyle of "it's just a matter of few bucks, so why waster time?" is also to blame.

Re: Sweden Wants to Fight Disposable Culture with Tax Breaks for Repairing Old Stuff

#316

Post by tmptmp »

logfromblammo wrote: post #179
sokoloff wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The availability of tools is far from a given as well. It appalls me how few people will tackle what seem to me to be utterly basic repair tasks. I may be on the extreme end, but I think some people would pay someone to change a lightbulb in their house (and I'm sure a great many DO pay someone to replace a headlamp or tail light bulbs). I'm trying to do my part, ensuring that my kids are exposed to the DIY/maker/hac…

Tools? There is a minimal set of tools that will cover a very large number of common household and automobile repairs. I have had a great track record with nothing but a pair of vice-grips and a 4-bit combination screwdriver (2x flathead, 2x Phillips). Add to that a claw hammer, pocketknife, roll of duct tape, can of WD-40, toilet plunger, needle-nosed pliers, and a few cheap plastic-coated wire coat hangers, and you…

I am a small time DIY'er and a small time fix-it-yourself person. I came to realize the importance of such tools rather late in my life. Greatly appreciated.

Re: Sweden Wants to Fight Disposable Culture with Tax Breaks for Repairing Old Stuff

#318

Post by sokoloff »

pbhjpbhj wrote: post #304
sokoloff wrote: post #272

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The seal that fails is the small seal on the back of the drum that keeps the grease on the outside of the tub and the caustic wash water from the bearing. It runs (with a spring backer) between the fixed part of the machine and the tub at full RPM, with hot, slightly caustic wash water in it. Those simply aren't lifetime seals and can't reasonably be made to be so. It's the seal here: https://www.amazon.com/Front-Was…

Ah, presumably then that's the main source of the bearing failures? TIL, thanks.

Yes, I believe so, in that the typical failure mechanism is the failure of that seal, letting wash water (inherently full of degreasing agents) against the bearing, where it eventually (over perhaps hundreds of wash cycles) washes out enough of the lubrication in the bearing to get steel on steel in the bearing.

From there, the rumble and looseness quickly follows.

The bearings themselves I believe would run for fifty of years in the typical washer duty cycle (~8 hours a week, 400 hours a year, 20,000 hours in a half-decade), if they were running in a typical (non-washing) machine setting.

Re: Sweden Wants to Fight Disposable Culture with Tax Breaks for Repairing Old Stuff

#319

Post by jakub_g »

pjz wrote: post #138
hlandau wrote: post #112

This is a very nice move to see. Other people have discussed washing machines below, but there's even more to say on them. Washing machines used to have long warranty periods. Nowadays they tend to be sold with a 2 year warranty, which I believe in the EU is the required minimum. And these manufacturers (Bosch, for example) even have the gall to claim that their products are high quality and that this warranty period…

Maybe durable goods should be taxed inversely based on the length of the warranty.

That's an awesome idea - but the tax difference would have to be high enough to incentivize people to choose the products with long warranty, and hence to push the companies to provide long warranty.

However, there's too big chance that all the producers might have an unwritten deal to propose the same length of warranty anyway :(

Re: Sweden Wants to Fight Disposable Culture with Tax Breaks for Repairing Old Stuff

#320

Post by rplst8 »

HeyLaughingBoy wrote: post #239
jernfrost wrote: post #230

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Repair services in any western country will be hideously expensive because it can't be automated and has to be paid western wages, while the products themselves are made in an automated fashion with third world wages. For this repair stuff to work, we have to make it easier to do so that people can do it themselves.

It does depend on the product. I have a KitchenAid blender and a KitchenAid stand mixer that I've had to repair. In both cases, the part was purchased for under $10 online and repair only took a few minutes. The alternative was buying a new $300 or $100+ product. Sure, I did the repair myself, but a local KitchenAid service center (yes, they exist!) would probably have done the job even faster. It boils down to cost/…

Sacrificial parts are great design IMO, specifically when they protect a much more expensive part. However, it does bother me that the parts are often very custom and only available from the manufacturer.

I enjoy listening to a conversation where some blowhard talks about was was obviously a shear pin breaking in some mechanical peice of equipment and then replaces it with a grade 8 bolt.

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