Must Buy New Refrigerator Due to a Broken $50 Part Thats No Longer Available!

[Neptunus Rex]

In a mini rage right now.

Woke up Monday to find the fridge warm, freezer still cold. Moved everything in it to our spare in basement. Spent a couple hours last evening isolating the problem to a bad evaporator fan. Pulled the part out and went to the parts store.

$50 fan motor discontinued!

Granted, the fridge is 22 years old, but damn!

[Rockstar]

Google is all knowing and wise. Run the part number on the internet you might find it or it will cross reference over to another part number or manufacturer. After that if you cant find it I reckon you'll have get a new ice box.

[GoldenRivet]

There is a guy that lives a few miles from here... his back yard is full to capacity of refrigerators, washers, dryers, freezers, dishwashers and the like. He just about makes a living selling parts off of them that are either no longer available or simply cheaper to get from him than anywhere else. Perhaps, either in your area there is an old man like him. or certainly online you may be able to find used parts for your appliance.

that is a problem however - discontinued parts and appliances.

I fear i am getting due for a new washing machine soon.

I have a home buyers warranty that i renew every year, it covers all of my appliances for mechanical breakdown. We had to use it for the built in vent hood microwave shortly after we purchased the home. circuit board went out. they replaced it and sent a guy with the part to install it. took him 15 minutes and only cost me a $20 deductible. good investment if you ask me. They did mention that if the part was discontinued the would have no choice but to replace the microwave. perhaps thats what such a company would do in this case?

[Neptunus Rex]

Originally Posted by Rockstar

Google is all knowing and wise. Run the part number on the internet you might find it or it will cross reference over to another part number or manufacturer. After that if you cant find it I reckon you'll have get a new ice box.

Did that, no luck. I did find some used motors, but you don't know what you will get and if it will last a day, month, year blah, blah blah.

Wife wants a new one.

The annoying thing is can't find the broken part unless you go in. The freezer on this one is on the bottom. Not an easy thing for someone my size (6'3") to get down there and then into it. Remove the ice maker, remove the back panel and spin fan by hand-bearings ok. Turn the thing on, fan does not move. (compressor ran very nicely!) Unplug it and remove the fan (without cutting myself on all those nice sharp edges.) Fan in hand, meter the coil, no conductivity. Turn fridge on, measure fan lead voltage, all good. Bad fan motor winding.

All that to find out motor not available any longer.

Frustrating after going through all that.

[Reece]

Just part of life, in the last 2 years we had to buy a new replacement split air conditioner, new hot water tank, new microwave oven and a new fridge!!
Life sucks sometimes, not that I mentioned the $5,000 in repairs to my car and motorcycle!!

[Eichhörnchen]

Out electric storage-heaters have always given us the same trouble but luckily the engineers have usually managed to find parts online or cannibalise old ones. Until now, that is, so we're having to address an entirely new set-up, as these things seem to be built with planned obsolescence.

A friend told me a couple of weeks ago that he knows of at least one washing-machine manufacturer who installs a computerised device with a timer that will cause the machine to fail after a pre-programmed number of washes. Now that sounds like an 'urban myth' I know, but this guy is very savvy and he's a mate, not just a bloke down the pub. I thought that topped everything for callous cynicism.

[Skybird]

Okay, after 22 years I see little reason to complain. I assume your anger is more caused by the working hours you put into it, only to find out. Get a breath, get a drink - and laugh. So it goes. Life is still good.

[Skybird]

Originally Posted by Eichhörnchen

Out electric storage-heaters have always given us the same trouble but luckily the engineers have usually managed to find parts online or cannibalise old ones. Until now, that is, so we're having to address an entirely new set-up, as these things seem to be built with planned obsolescence.

A friend told me a couple of weeks ago that he knows of at least one washing-machine manufacturer who installs a computerised device with a timer that will cause the machine to fail after a pre-programmed number of washes. Now that sounds like an 'urban myth' I know, but this guy is very savvy and he's a mate, not just a bloke down the pub. I thought that topped everything for callous cynicism.

Certain Canon printers, anyone?

Planned obsolescence I take as a de facto fact. It gets implemented by using carefully selected cheap single components of inferior quality, wanting them to fail early, but not too early, usually in the electric controls. By choosing one tiny thing worth 12 cents instead of using a better version of it worth 16 cents, the fail is preprogrammed.

Filament light bulbs of the old style could burn multiple times as long as the usually claimed 1000 hours. When they entered market, they burnt for at least 5- 6 thousand hours. Once the market was saturated, producers sat together and thought about how they could keep sales number sup. The answer was to build thinner filaments that endured only 1 thousand hours. Meanwhile, in the company HQ of General Electrics they have a bulb from the time of Thomas Edison that burns since Edison's times, day in, night out, without interruption.

We see the same phenomenon with washing machines and dish washers, and many other household electronics. The living time goes down, not up.


Planned obsolescence is a fact. Until you do not want to know about it.

Replacement intervals also get shortened by pushing additional features and making people wanting them. Even if nobody missed them before.

[vienna]

Originally Posted by Eichhörnchen

Out electric storage-heaters have always given us the same trouble but luckily the engineers have usually managed to find parts online or cannibalise old ones. Until now, that is, so we're having to address an entirely new set-up, as these things seem to be built with planned obsolescence.

A friend told me a couple of weeks ago that he knows of at least one washing-machine manufacturer who installs a computerised device with a timer that will cause the machine to fail after a pre-programmed number of washes. Now that sounds like an 'urban myth' I know, but this guy is very savvy and he's a mate, not just a bloke down the pub. I thought that topped everything for callous cynicism.

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