Where did we get away from having things repaired?

debodun

debodun

SF VIP
Location
way upstate in New York, USA
In the "good old days" if you had a non-working appliance, you took it to a fix-it shop or called a repairman. There seemed to be several in even a moderately populated community. Now if something breaks it's "trash it and buy a new one."
 

The cost of small appliances came down in price, so that sometimes it made more sense to buy a new one rather than paying a fairly high fee for repair. That happened to us with our microwave, after having it repaired twice.
 
It's so true, and one thing that IMO stand out for me the most is today's lesser-than quality compared to back in the day.

In our house (my childhood home) everything was fixed, repaired, patched, taped, stitched, tacked, and welded, and then and ONLY then did my parents look at replacing something.

For years I remember people kept their old refrigerators in the basement as beer fridges, and they continued running for decades, not just a handful of years.

Now a days, most everything - if it isn't made out of plastic, it has cheap plastic parts, so nothing lasts and everything breaks. It's such a shame and irritates me something awful.
 

Even if you know how to fix something, finding the parts can be impossible.

My husband tries to fix everything, usually successfully. Not with the coffee maker today. Just out of warranty.

He came from a home where things were repaired. His sons wouldn’t have a clue because he didn’t teach them. Why, because they had no interest.
 
I think that things you buy are engineered to only last just so long and fail so you spend. It's called planned failure.
 
The chuckaway society?

Not me though, I've still got a fridge that must be getting on for a hundred years old, it still works perfectly, but I'm getting too long in the tooth to keep pedalling to power the generator. ;) 😊
 
We've got an old Montgomery Ward chest freezer in the basement that we bought in the early 1970's....and it still works, and I've never had to fix anything on it. Today, I feel pretty good if we can get 8 or 10 years out of a major appliance before I have to fix something or buy a new one.
 
well when they started making it more expensive to repair than to toss that is when our throw away society began. cheap products don't last. products that do last aren't purchased as much so there's less money to be made. i'm not paying $600 for a washer from china that's crap and then paying twice that when it needs repairs.
 
DIY Performance Automotive
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I always find it interesting when you buy something and they ask if you would like to pay to extend the guarantee. If the original guarantee is for one year are they making the assumption that it will go wrong after that year?

Many years ago I bought a small CD player. It had a year guarantee. I was asked if I wanted to extend it to 3 years. I pointed out that the cost of the extension was more than the cost of the player so why would I do that as I could just purchase another one. He seemed 'befuddled'. Maybe they get commission if they sell extended guarantees.

Having been raised by grandparents, I am from a generation of 'make do and mend'. I think that many skills have been lost and so it assists the throw away society.

I personally love the challenge of fixing things or using 'defunct' items in a creative way if they can be. N.B (I'm not a hoarder) :giggle: :giggle:
 
MarciKS said:
well when they started making it more expensive to repair than to toss that is when our throw away society began. cheap products don't last. products that do last aren't purchased as much so there's less money to be made. i'm not paying $600 for a washer from china that's crap and then paying twice that when it needs repairs.
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Exactly .. the lasting quality just isn't there anymore.
 
My father repaired everything. He had worked as a car mechanic in his early years and then in a machine shop later on. He could make parts and fix things everyone else had given up on. He even built his own table saw. He never had to buy lawn mowers or snowblowers because everyone in the area he lived knew him and would bring them their old broken down ones instead of throwing them out. He fixed them all!

My boyfriend fixes a lot of his stuff too. He was a race car driver and knows how to work on stuff. He was going to replace his gas dryer because he thought it was broke for good........but he took it apart and it works. So he canceled the one he ordered from Lowes. This dryer belonged to his mother and is way over 30 years old.
 
Independent repair shops are rare to non-existent in my area, and some products like many shoes with molded and glued rather than stitched-on soles are made to be thrown out rather than repaired when trouble arises. Stores selling appliances push their "service contracts" as they are big money-makers for them, with costs to maintain the contract increasing every year until soon you've invested the cost of a new item in the contract... :(
 
Pinky said:
Exactly .. the lasting quality just isn't there anymore.
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Well it's not profitable. If you only buy a washing machine say every 10 yrs. as opposed to every 2 maybe because they break down that's more money in their pockets. Screw the financial welfare of us poor pitiful human beings.
 
Don M. said:
We've got an old Montgomery Ward chest freezer in the basement that we bought in the early 1970's....and it still works, and I've never had to fix anything on it. Today, I feel pretty good if we can get 8 or 10 years out of a major appliance before I have to fix something or buy a new one.
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Don, I've got one of those old Monkey Wards chest freezers, too Just keeps on going and going and going.
 

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