19 Dec
2006
19 Dec
'06
2:03 p.m.
Tony Duell wrote:
I can either spend $10 on a set of rubber parts and
take an afternoon
putting them in (at which point, said VCR will be good for another 2
years)
Only two years? I'd be surprised if typical use wouldn't let it last for a lot
longer than that, say five at least.
or I can spend $89 and take an afternoon going to the
shop,
bringing a new unit home, and figuring out how to connect it up and use
it. At which point I have a device assembled with lead-free solder,
soldered at too low a temperature, so it gets dry joints within a few
months. With plastic mechanical parts made from the cheapest plastic
imaginable that make a freebie toy look solid. I'd be lucky if that $89
machine lasted for a couple of weeks after the warrenty period...
Absolutely. I need to sort my player out actually, as it's started not
rewinding the tapes all the way back in before ejecting them, but I'd much
rather figure out how to service it myself and get the parts than I would get
a completely new one.
Time is not free - but the choices tend to boil down to:
1) Take older well-built product which does exactly what I need, and spend a
small sum in parts and maybe four hours of time to make it good for another
five years.
2) Spend a larger sum and eight hours of time shopping around for a
replacement (which probably *doesn't* do exactly what I need), then throwing
it out and repeating the exercise ad-nauseum every couple of years because
it's virtually impossible to service the modern version.
That's without the environmental issues; the amount of good-quality repairable
stuff which just gets thrown into a hole in the ground really p*sses me off -
but that's another story :)
There are parallels with all sorts of goods, whether technical or not. For
anyone reasonably capable at doing general repairs to things, the second
option just doesn't add up in the long run.
cheers
Jules