sick and tired of new scrap appliances.

[jamespowers]

My Bens are Style 2, made from 1927 to 32, and the mainspring barrel is held in place on the frame with three screws: take the back off, loosen the case screws, lift out the innards, undo those three screws, wiggle the barrel out, wiggle the new one in, rescrew, put the works back into the case, screw the back back on, and you're done, easy breezy lemon squeezy. The worst that can happen to these models is for the pot-metal base to crack and chip -- nobody makes reproductions of these, so you have to improvise with epoxy and paint if the rot strikes.

I have had the base go on me before. I know that is the biggest problem. :eusa_doh:

 

[vitanola]

My Bens are Style 2, made from 1927 to 32, and the mainspring barrel is held in place on the frame with three screws: take the back off, loosen the case screws, lift out the innards, undo those three screws, wiggle the barrel out, wiggle the new one in, rescrew, put the works back into the case, screw the back back on, and you're done, easy breezy lemon squeezy. The worst that can happen to these models is for the pot-metal base to crack and chip -- nobody makes reproductions of these, so you have to improvise with epoxy and paint if the rot strikes.

Ah! i have a couple of those on a shelf in the cellar. Never found a good painted one, though, and the nickle bases when they begin to crack aren't very easy to repair well, unless one decides to paint the thing. Does you clock have one of those nice gold dials? Have wanted one of the gold dialed clocks for some time now, as I've always found them to be very attractive.

 

[LizzieMaine]

Ah! i have a couple of those on a shelf in the cellar. Never found a good painted one, though, and the nickle bases when they begin to crack aren't very easy to repair well, unless one decides to paint the thing. Does you clock have one of those nice gold dials? Have wanted one of the gold dialed clocks for some time now, as I've always found them to be very attractive.

Very much so. Mine are an almost-matched pair from the crackle-finish painted Deluxe series, in "Old Rose," a sort of musty pink. Both have the gold dials, and the Baby has luminous numbers, although after 80 years they don't glow very bright. The base on the Baby has pot-metal disease as well, but the clock itself is perfectly reliable, and I've never had it out of its case in the years I've owned it. (There's a repair-shop date from 1936 scratched on the bottom, though, so it's been worked on at least once.) The Big was found with a broken mainspring -- I fixed the old one for a while by punching a new hole in the end, but I found an exact replacement on eBay for about ten bucks and put that in a while ago.

I only use the Baby as an actual alarm. The Big would give me a coronary if I had to hear it every morning, but sometimes I do use it as a kitchen timer.

 

[AtomicEraTom]

Another friend compalined to me his HDTV broke this week. My 1984 Zenith is still going strong!

 

[vitanola]

Another friend compalined to me his HDTV broke this week. My 1984 Zenith is still going strong!

I'm going to have put a picture tube brightener on our RCA 9-T246 soon, and will eventually have to replace thentube entirely. So far I've had to service the set three times since I rebuilt it in 2004. One tube (a gassy 6SN7), and two faulty Chinese electrolytic condensers.

Getting back to alarm clocks, for some years, now, the Better half has been awakened each day by a Westclox "Waralarm", a specially simplified clock designed to use minimal amounts of scarce materials. These clocks were made to be cheap (OPA maximum price of $1.65) and were intended to last only for "The Duration".

 

[DecoDame]

There doesn't seem to be an ideal place to put this...this seems near enough, since it's an appreciation of vintage quality and the desire to reuse vintage appliances...

We have a Chambers B gas stove that was my partner's grandmother's. Obviously, much sentimental attachment to it. It's traveled with us from state to state and we happily used that "tanker" of a stove for some years after inheriting it. Then it was giving off alarming amounts of gas smell (I thought) and I insisted we hold off using it until we could get it properly looked at, for safety's sake.

We've been in the midst of on-going house renovations, so that project got shuttled to the side and we've made due with hot plates and toaster ovens a depressing amount of time now. That poor Chambers has been a very large and very heavy art piece in our kitchen!

So, point being: Does anyone have a line on someone who repairs vintage gas stoves, who also services the Ohio area? Ideally, I would want one of those Safety Systems that "Old Appliance Club" was offering (if I can still get it, now that they folded), and get it cleaned and generally checked out.

There are general repairmen who claim they could muddle thru, but I want someone who really knows their stuff and doesn't wing it - both for it's ultimate safe performance (I'm a bit paranoid about gas) and the fear that a well meaning newbie might damage it.

Would love to get it in good working condition again and be able to use it daily!

 

[V.C. Brunswick]

Yesterday I was getting rid of an old TV. When I lifted it up the plastic housing practically disintegrated and I cut my finger on a jagged piece of plastic.

 

[HungaryTom]

Shortened shelf life

I think industry has deliberately shortened shelf life of products - globally.

If you see the US veteran taxicabs of Havana that are still repaired and run since 1956 or our Russian metro that goes since the 1970s in Budapest or the Polish trams that are around since the 1970s and the trolley busses that are operating since Stalin’s 75th birthday or my grandma's 1960s CAPATOB (Saratov) fridge still operational. I use still the very washing machine that we got ourselves in the early 1980s and it works.... Cold war had dual purpose factories where the same amount of material was put in the appliance so that it was as rugged as a tank or a rifle that was manufactured at the same assembly line. Grenades heads have the same caliber as the golden pheasant tomato canned food doses that Anti Personnel Landmines have the same size as the Luncheon meat doses and that the cigarettes have the same 7,62 caliber as have the ammo for AK. A joke about the Soviet factory worker shopping a fridge. The seller checks his coupon which states buyer works in the fridge factory. Why didn't you simply smuggle the parts from the plant one by one and assembled them@home. Reply: - I' ve tried it already, with a T-72 tank as result.

Same goes for the old cherry-red Lada 2105 and even the Mercedes Benz 190 (both nicknamed as Gypsy wagons) where it is not unheard of that taxi drivers put 1 MILLION kilometers in them and they still run. Same goes for Land Rovers or Dakota planes flying in Africa and on an on, all rugged stuff, coming from the mechanical age.

Profit maximizers have discovered at some point in time that quality and too durable goods are good for the consumers only but are bad for them. You know better your own economy when this happened in the US, where did it begun WW2? 1950s? after the Vietnam war? After the end of history i.e. the outsourcing to Taiwan? Than China? than Vietnam?

Same goes for the building industry: pre-WW2 housings palaces build in Budapest were built for eternity, they can be repaired just like renaissance buildings are renovated and still stand while new condominiums housing blocks are dead after 70 or 80 years with some decaying already after a decade of use.

Anyhow it markedly and very transparently begun with the spread of IT and electronics where every half-cooked action is sold for the masses of freaks who are waiting as junkies for the annual release of lets say the latest iPhone that costs the equivalent of a bespoke suit here down under in Magyaristan, and is worth crap after one year or so and in the meantime Heaven forbid that it falls down. The touch-screen phones are a piece of crap IMHO. Lately we discussed w. colleagues about one's girlfriend lost her smart-phone and he wanted to get her an iPhone.
I told that hey for that much why doesn't he get her a gold necklace i.e. something tasteful and valuable which reminds her of him even after 3 or 4 years unlike the crap which is long dumped - they stared at me like if I was coming from another planet- yeah I am 40 and they are in their 20s. Relationships are also dumped with this speed too. If only the partner received that much fondling and glazing eyed attention than those screens there wouldn't be no problems. It is funny to see guys and girls gynecologically stroking the touch-screens w. hypnotized eyes - mind altered manchurian candidates straight from the brain laundry if you go around anywhere. Yeah books were a virtual world, radio, movies too, TV too but now you can detach yourself every minute of your life from the 'real world' by using these e-craps. This is the true opiate for the masses. No religion no drug can do that in this degree and perfection. Maybe the next generation of the product line will include some subcutaneous chips in the human so than users of smart devices could body search each other like baboons do for fleas (debugging each other) and it would be so much more cozy intimate and less alienating. Another topic but I couldn't stop myself - sorry. Durability and value doesn't tell them anything.

I only saw one where my boss dropped it and it had those funny patterns on this Liquid crystal death screen. I am looked at or down as a dinosaur, I couldn't care less, but still use cell phones for making phone calls, which are used and outdated but are rugged. There I don't worry, if they are dropped tossed etc.

Now the consumer idiots buy this FMCG-d cars (many exchange theirs more frequently than the durability of canned food i.e. FMCG of 3-5 years) communication apps and everything that is steered by ephemera-lived electronics. Consequently it must be dumped once it is wrong since it cannot be repaired and gives a nice turnover for the manufacturers. And is manufactured in the same quality sweatshop factories made by slaves.

I really wish the masterminds of this era that their names on their graves should be displayed with their own device or operation system - the true rewarding for "eternity" and spamming the world with virtual crap.

Planned obsolescence. Thanks for teaching me this expression.

P.S.:My granny lives still among her first set of 1940s furniture and all of them function and are nice. I live with inherited furniture which is still nice. I hate IKEA.

 

[John in Covina]

I've had a Canon Sureshot fry, a Sony 8mm camcorder freeze, several receivers, a Sharp TV a Sony 27" TV abn a panasonic Viera Plasme that fried 2X's. Plus a number of small electronis that worked once and never again. ..|.. To the electronics makers for making crap.

 

[fashion frank]

Made to last NOT

I was very intrigued by this thread !

I remember back in 1995 when I bought a new Toyota Camry ( I still have it ) and a buddy of mine who turns a wrench for a living told me " nice car but right around 27,00 miles you will have to replace the timing belt".
Of course I was wondering why he would say that and so I asked hime why and he stated , "they make them that way so guys like me will have a job".

Well guess what at 26,500 it let go all right and I was so pissed that it happened but worse yet i have had to replace it a second time.

My first cars were so easy to work on and as a kid I could buy a car for $50 bucks to $ 100 bucks and do all of the work on it my self .
Nowadays you cant even get your hand in the engine area to fix something not to mention the computer you need to help you figure out whats wrong.

In closing here is something to think about . When I first started driving a gallon of gas and a loaf of bread were both 35 cents , what are they now in regards to price ,aren't they still the same gallon of gas and the same loaf of bread ?

The poster who stated "planned obsolescence" is right on the money.

All the Best, Fashion Frank

 

[DanWebb]

Doesn't it depend what you buy?

Buy Cheap, buy twice.

For example if you want a food Mixer buy a Kenwood Chef rather than some trendy looking thing.

 

[ButteMT61]

We've had people cring when we tell them what we've paid for our appliances. However, we've raised three kids and are now defending the homeland against grandkids and they're still working like new.
Only one appliance we get cheapo versions of, and that's the little mini-fridge the kids use to keep them out of the big fridge. Replace it every 2-3 years.
The Meilé washer/dryer, AGA Cooker oven, and top KitchenAid dishwasher are wonderful. However, as much as I like my Dyson vac, the $100 Hoover I think is better.
Of course the KitchenAid mixer is one of the best appliances ever made.

 

[sheeplady]

We've had people cring when we tell them what we've paid for our appliances. However, we've raised three kids and are now defending the homeland against grandkids and they're still working like new.
Only one appliance we get cheapo versions of, and that's the little mini-fridge the kids use to keep them out of the big fridge. Replace it every 2-3 years.
The Meilé washer/dryer, AGA Cooker oven, and top KitchenAid dishwasher are wonderful. However, as much as I like my Dyson vac, the $100 Hoover I think is better.
Of course the KitchenAid mixer is one of the best appliances ever made.

You have an AGA cooker? Is it gas or wood burning?

I've been thinking about planning room for a wood burning AGA cooker in our next home (it would be a decade or two before we could afford it, so it is planning the space for it upfront) but I have never met anyone who had one personally. We don't have access to gas.

 

[ButteMT61]

You have an AGA cooker? Is it gas or wood burning? I've been thinking about planning room for a wood burning AGA cooker in our next home (it would be a decade or two before we could afford it, so it is planning the space for it upfront) but I have never met anyone who had one personally. We don't have access to gas.

Gas. All 1000lbs of it. Best thing we bought though. It's a bit hot I. The summers - some folks I hear shut them down for the hot months, but we don't. Always on, always ready to cook, bake, boil, etc. and it really doesn't cost us much more than a traditional oven did in gas bills. Cats love to sleep by it too.

 

[sheeplady]

Gas. All 1000lbs of it. Best thing we bought though. It's a bit hot I. The summers - some folks I hear shut them down for the hot months, but we don't. Always on, always ready to cook, bake, boil, etc. and it really doesn't cost us much more than a traditional oven did in gas bills. Cats love to sleep by it too.

That's helpful in the sense that you recommend it, I've read really good things about them. I'm really tempted by the wood burning one (like I said, it wouldn't happen until we had saved the money for it and there are other priorities first) partially because of the narrow clearances- unlike any traditional wood cook stove which takes up half the room.

 

[ButteMT61]

That's helpful in the sense that you recommend it, I've read really good things about them. I'm really tempted by the wood burning one (like I said, it wouldn't happen until we had saved the money for it and there are other priorities first) partially because of the narrow clearances- unlike any traditional wood cook stove which takes up half the room.

We love it. That said, it's not for everyone. No dials, no fiddling. We have the two stove, two griddle model. All four are different temps and are used for different purposes. Once you get used to having no adjustments, the thing becomes the best appliance you could ask for. Thanksgiving turkey for instance. Prep it and put it in the lower warming oven. Let it sit for about 16 hours. Do nothing. Take it out and carve. It's that easy. I was worried it would fall through our floor when the installer came to put it together. The house is a 1906, and luckily, it held. Obviously, once you set it up its there. No moving it around afterwards. It's something that gets the usual kitchen gathering going when people come over - most have never seen or heard of them. I keep coffee mugs in the top as well as a jar of honey for tea. Always hot and very nice once the weather gets cold. Good luck! Sometimes you can find them on eBay!