Do you fix/service things or replace?

[Rouge]

Growing up in the household I did everything was tinkered with or fixed from as early as I can remember.

And because of this I have ALWAYS done the same.

When my fridge shelf broke in half I contacted the replacement parts centre (as recommended by my fridge company) and bought a new shelf, in metal so it would never split again.

When I melted my Food Processor Bowl, I bought a new one.

When I lost my electric knife blade, I contacted the supplier and bought a new one.

And today I serviced my Dyson

I remembered how a few friends of mine replaced their Dyson's due to lack of suction (I'm talking 7 years on). Whereas I'm absolutely certain after fixing mine, they've thrown out a perfectly good machine that just needed a good clean!

So it made me wonder... am I the only freakazoid that hates to throw anything out when you can quite possibly fix it yourself? Or are there others out there that like to tinker as much as I do?

Although it has got me in trouble before... I won't deny it. I remember when we were without an oven for months as I took off the spring loaded door to clean it, and couldn't get it back on... whoops!

I just wonder if this has also lead to our disposable lifestyle?

[Liz]

Depends if the repair will cost more than replacing it I think that leads to a disposable lifestyle more than anything. Things are getting cheaper because they're being made in China and labour here to repair or service things costs a bomb.

I don't tinker myself, but will price services or parts to see whether it's worth it. Which reminds me.. I need to get a new power cable/thermostat thingy for my frypan!

[Astrid]

Depends. Depends on the cost of replacement parts, labour if needed and now we are out of town, it the service guy will come out here. I suppose we look at how much more life the item will have after fixing, the cost of fixing, compared to the cost of a replacement. (the joys being trained in accounting and being married with someone who now looks at maintenance/asset replacement for a living )

Things we can fix easily ourselves we do so, DH is quite handy that way, I am not so much. These days we try to repurpose what we can, mainly for outside stuff. DH loves a good tip scavenge.

On the topic of Dysons, MIL scored an upright one a few years ago from a lady who said hers was not working. MIL's partner cleaned it with an air compressor and now it works beautifully, it is just missing one of the tools.

[human bean]

We will fix it if we can and if it's cheaper than replacing it. Nothing beats the satisfaction of standing back and knowing you fixed it yourself

[peanutter]

definately depends on the cost (and other expense ... time, etc) of fixing.

if I can fix it myself, I will.

if I can have a tinker with a reasonable shot of figuring out what's wrong and fixing it, I will.

if I can skill-share with a friend (you abc, I'll xyz ...) I will.

if I'll be paying $50 for someone to look at and maybe fix it, and a new one costs $30 (like my DVD player...) then no, when I get sick of it playing up (or when it meets the final death) I'll get a new one.

[onthefly]

it really depends. since being with my DH I've become more inclined to fix. Our old vacuum had a really weak hose thingy that kept breaking and DH had to cut it ANd repair at leat 6 times. It's very, ver short now. When the cover spring went I decided that was enough, though Dh wanted to put a bungy cord on it

[Ginger]

my dh is the absolute king of fixing things. seriously, he can fix anything!!

he fixed my front loader washing machine 3 times before it eventually blew up and we had to buy a new one

now my dishwasher is not working, so he's going to have a look at it and see what he can do.

so in answer to your question, we will always fix before we replace. i don't think i'd be the same without such a 'handy' dh though...

[Rouge]

Do you ever contact the company that made the appliance, or better yet check you tube to find how to fix it?

We fixed our Dryer this way too.

[Jennifer13]

We had a Dyson that we passed on to someone else and replaced, but in our defense, it never seemed to work that well from the beginning. The replacement has no dramas.

We've replaced some things before they were broken, to upgrade or get new features. We've always passed on our replaced items to someone who could use them. Of the few things that have broken, mostly we just replace, eg microwave (no point, only cheap to start with, didn't get an expensive one to replace, and the old one was over ten years old by the time it wore out), portable CD player (it was about 17 years old when it died). Mostly I think we just use things until they are so old that even finding replacement parts would be a challenge.

We've also been the happy recipients of many a freecycled item if we've had to replace as well - you can't beat free instead of repair or replace!

[Just Me]

Same as everyone else - depends on the cost of fixing it Vs the cost of replacing it.

We have fixed our camera, dryer, dishwasher but replaced our washing machine, microwave etc

I think when I was growing up things were more built to last and everybody repaired. We live in a very disposable society where items were not made to be fixed as much as they are made to do the job for a set amount of time and be replaced because it is so cheap to replace them but the parts on their own can cost twice as much as a new item. But even looking at printers and things like that, it is cheaper to buy a whole new printer than to replace the ink in a printer on its own.

I think now that we have been married a few years though and we aren't starting out anymore, when things are breaking, we are spending the extra to make them more the type of item you would repair rather than replace - hopefully this will mean better value for money in the long term though. When we were first married, we didn't have much money and had to buy a whole house of furniture, so we got what we could afford which means that it was cheap and didn't last very long (or second hand and we intended to replace it when we could afford to). I think when I was younger, there was no cheaper option. Things were made well and could be repaired and if you couldn't afford new, you bought second hand.

[Astrolady]

Yeah depends on the product as well. I tried to fix my steam mop, but the same issue kept happening so I will have to buy a new one. In no rush though just borrowing a friends for now. We threw out our microwave cause we worked out it was 18yrs old and had done it's time

Most of the electrical products we've bought have done really well time wise. If something does break it usually doesn't work when we've first tried it out (this normally happens on b/day's or xmas lol), so it gets taken back and replaced.

[Astrid]

I tend to look up the manual to see if there is something easily done, go to the manufacturers website or sometimes google.

In the past we blew a heap of money trying to fix a printer. It cost a heap to buy new cartridges (the older they are the more they seem to cost), then to buy in a specialist head cleaner that did not work in the end. When we bought a replacement, we realised that we could have bought 2 for what we spent trying to save the old.

When is comes to white goods, we call MIL's partner, as he repairs them for a living. He gives us an idea of what we can do and if it is worth it. Pity they are in a different state. Next visit we are asking him to bring his toolkit

[onthefly]

DS likes taking things apart so he can fix them. He's really good at getting the screws out but loses interest after that

[Phteven]

I'm a fixer wherever possible.
I can't afford to be replacing stuff all the time so I'm also a buyer of more expensive stuff that can be fixed rather than cheap stuff that will need throwing out.

[Laranna]

We fix things if it's cheaper than replacing or make do until it is absolutely fallen apart/completely dead.

[helle]

My husband is a fixer, he can fix anything. It gives me the irrits because sometimes a girl just wants new things!

[Rouge]

I'm a fixer wherever possible.
I can't afford to be replacing stuff all the time so I'm also a buyer of more expensive stuff that can be fixed rather than cheap stuff that will need throwing out.

That's me too!

[Tinks]

For me it depends on whether it's cheaper to fix or replace the item.