My kettle and coffee machine were both on their way to the tip before I intercepted them. Both have worked perfectly for a couple of years now.
our car was intercepted on the way to the scrapyard. It isn't the most reliable one we have but it's been extremely useful at times (4wd with a towing hitch). It's currently being resurrected for about the 5th time (dead battery and some worn seals this time). Our freezer was my mother's, we've got two fridges, one was the in laws' and one left behind by a tenant when we rented our house out for a year or two (this is a recurring theme for us). The dishwasher was also left behind by a tenant. It replaced one that we'd kept going for 20 years. This one is only about 15 years old - just a pup. The washing machine we bought new, 10 years ago. The old one is in the garage, needing a new heater element. It'll probably come back in to use when this one dies - that's the usual pattern. We have two of most things, one being out of commission at any one time. There's another dishwasher around somewhere - OH's shed, I think. Drain pump packed up, if I remember right. The toaster was left by a tenant, the kettle was my mother's. This lap top computer was hers as well. (I always turn off automatic updates, btw. It is definitely an automated way to break stuff so you have to buy new ones. I wish I could work out how to stop the phone doing it but I haven't found the switch yet.).
We get the spares online. The hard bit is usually tracking down the right reference numbers for parts. Then either OH or I fix things, so we don't pay for labour. Having a running spare for everything makes that easier - allows time to do the research, order the bits and have a fiddle about to fix them.
We rarely have money to buy new things at the time things break, so we have got used to making do. Most people don't like living with tired old bashed up things and would be horrified at our Heath Robinson kitchen. There are days when I think I'd love to have new shiny stuff, but it all works so I can't justify to myself (never mind to OH) buying new things.
Gardening on the edge of Exmoor, in Devon
“It's still magic even if you know how it's done.”
My instinct is to repair rather than replace but sometimes the replacement is more efficient in energy use and efficacy. I speak as a person who mended a scart plug with a matchstick
It's often very hard to know where the balance lies between embodied energy - what it takes to make a thing - and operational energy - the amount a more efficient, newer one might save. How long does the new one have to work for until it 'pays back' the energy required to make it. These days, the normal life of a lot of things is shorter than its embodied energy payback, so you can only justify buying a new one if you can then keep it going beyond it's 3 or 5 year warranty period.
As long as you don't mend your fuses with a 6 inch nail ....
Gardening on the edge of Exmoor, in Devon
“It's still magic even if you know how it's done.”
When I started doing support work on PCs (computers not policemen) in the early 1990's the Windows operating system came on 6 x 1.44 mb floppy disks, and only 3 of those were required for the basic install. The computers had 20mb hard drives and 8kb of memory. Those machines could run Word and Excel perfectly happily.
New computers have literally thousands of times larger hard drives and memory, the applications are full of 'bloatware' but most of us don't use any more functionality than we did back then. New versions of software are produced purely as a money making exercise rather than there being a need.
@KT53 I do so agree, my current laptop is running on windows 7 it can be a bit slow to start up but otherwise works fine. I am no computer expert but I worked with someone who was ex RAF & he explained that most military tech is at least 10 years out of date because it has to be so rigorously tested first. The other statistic that I have heard & re-quoted are the Voyager space probes, which have worked for 25 years beyond their design life in the most hostile conditions (deep space, 3 degrees above absolute zero, extreme radiation belts, debris fields etc ). They operate on the power equivalent of a fridge light bulb with circuit boards similar to those in things like the Sinclair ZX or the BBC micro. So it can be done. We had a lot of work done in the house about 12 years ago, unfortunately a lot is wearing out at the same time. I have repaired taps & things but tracking down the spares is not easy. My inclination is to repair but so often it is just not possible.
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We get the spares online. The hard bit is usually tracking down the right reference numbers for parts. Then either OH or I fix things, so we don't pay for labour. Having a running spare for everything makes that easier - allows time to do the research, order the bits and have a fiddle about to fix them.
We rarely have money to buy new things at the time things break, so we have got used to making do. Most people don't like living with tired old bashed up things and would be horrified at our Heath Robinson kitchen. There are days when I think I'd love to have new shiny stuff, but it all works so I can't justify to myself (never mind to OH) buying new things.
“It's still magic even if you know how it's done.”
I speak as a person who mended a scart plug with a matchstick
As long as you don't mend your fuses with a 6 inch nail ....
“It's still magic even if you know how it's done.”
"You don't stop gardening because you get old, you get old because you stop gardening." - The Hampshire Hog
“It's still magic even if you know how it's done.”
We had a lot of work done in the house about 12 years ago, unfortunately a lot is wearing out at the same time. I have repaired taps & things but tracking down the spares is not easy. My inclination is to repair but so often it is just not possible.