In item 52, Rane indicated that ease of repair influenced his perception of
quality.  That is interesting and it brings up the following question:

For a large expense item, would you be willing to accept lower quality if the
price were considerably less than a competitive top quality item?  Let's say
for example that the lower priced item could be repaired for a reasonable
cost.

Are there considerations under which you would knowingly pay less for the
lower quality item?  

(As an example, if you looked up two products in "Consumer Reports" and they
listed one choice (expensive) as having a low frequency of repair, and the
other (cheap) as having a high frequency of repair, could price influence you
to go for the cheap one?)

15 responses total.

When I use Consumers Reports to make a purchase decision, I value
"low frequency of repair". I do that because I interpret the measure
as referring to repairs that *require* a return to the dealer (i.e.,
I can't do them). However when something (inevitably) goes wrong, I
then consider the device to be of higher quality if I am able to
repair it. I think there must be an element of my being pleased
with myself, and hence by transference with the device, rather than
being angry with the device. 

Repairing my own stuff was a good money-saving option a few years ago when
I had more time and less money.  I'd get busted things and fix them, for a
very low cost.  Nowadays, I have somewhat more money and a lot less time, so
I really do like things that don't need repair as often, even if they cost
a bit more.  

I argee with scott.  However, I still enjoy fixing things and do so when
the opertunity presents itself.  I conside design a form of art.  There
is good art and poor art as well as design.  I gravitate towards good
design and lowest cost.  I will comprimise on size, fancy do-nothings and
some creature comforts as well as being the most recent, current, model.

(The last two (2) times I tried to respond to this, the system crashed
in the middle of my typing. I hope that the quality has improved.....)

In order to calibrate each other's limit on repairing things, describe
your recent repairs. Mine was of a coffee-maker, where the seal of the
plastic tubes to the aluminum tubes of the heating element had loosened,
it was leaking, and the aluminum got very corroded (because I waited too
long). Cleaning up the corrosion, GOOP, and two hose clamps, fixed it.
It was possible to fix because it was easily disassembled.

I've fixed coffee makers that way.  I've also fixed coffee percolators by
replacing thermostats, etc.  Found my stereo speakers on the curb when all
the students moved out one year; fixed the tweeters.  Contstant fixing of
lamps, etc.  Bought a second-hand stereo receiver, did some work on it.  A
lot of that is historic, though.  Recent fixes include keeping my bicycle
running with various small repairs, not much else...

This response has been erased.

Current project is a NEC VCR which runs too slow and won't play back
pre-recorded tapes.  Guess I need to get a Sams for that.  Repaired and
restored a nice solid oak desk for my son that I picked up at U o M Prop.
Dispo.  I have two Motorola Radios I'm going to bring into the 440MHz Ham
band.  One for voice and the other for 9600+ baud packet.  The lamp in our
kitchen came out of someones trash.  Looks *very* nice after some minor
changes to the hardware and re-wiring.  Repaired the TV rotor a couple years
ago and it's acting up again.  Bad design.  Was made for a climate where it
never gets below 30F!  A cassette deck, an amplifier.  Couldn't fix the $7
receiver I got at a garage sale: It had taken a bit of lightning down the
antenna leads and bits and pieces of traces had been vaporized.  The guy had
told me that it worked :-/  Ive fixed far too many computers, modems,
printers, etc.  Same goes for kids toys.  None of our 7 bikes have ever been
to a bike shop.  I use to do 90% of my own car repairs but can afford someone
with the proper equipment now.  Still do the stuff that doesn't require
specilized tools or a lift.  Yep, did a coffee maker too, though I/we don't
drink the stuff.  Fixed my folks 15 year old microwave.  Fixed and recharged
a refrigerator here at work.  I also build a lot of stuff from scratch. 
Repaired, modified and rebuilt the ARROW's remote RF link. (Yea, I know.  It
has a thermal drift problem when it gets cold...)
 
Rane, the ARROW needs a new technical director.  Interested??!!  Scott.  You
have a ham license? 

Kind of hard to beat Klaus' list! Leaving out all the "glue jobs", I'll
add to my list of recent jobbies: replaced water valve on dishwasher;
built X-10 signal bridge; fixed auto-stop on my daughter's tape player (I
don't know what I did, but it worked 8^}); destroyed iron in trying to
replace cord...(how'd that get in there?!). Collectively, these little
repair jobs can represent some saving of money and, probably more
important, less trash and saved natural resources. 

Klaus, you have done a great job as ARROW technical director. I couldn't
come near matching it, both for having less necessary knowledge and not
enough time. 

Nope, I'm not a ham.  Not sure if I need yet another time-sucker for a hobby,
either.  ;)

I've done quite a bit in fixing musical equipment, including amplifiers, etc.,
and have built preamps from scratch.  

Klaus, do you get the MCM catalog?  Lots of useful TV/VCR/small appliance
parts listed.

This response has been erased.

I haven't done much recent repair stuff, which is probably a sign that I've
actually gotten to the point of owning stuff that tends to work.  Most of the
little stuff I've done lately has been the sort of five minute job where I
don't even remember what it was a day or two later.  One of these days, when
I have time, I need to take apart my tape deck and see if I can figure out
why it will only record on one channel.  Back when I had more time I used to
do all of my own bike work, but lately it's seemed that even though I have
the technical skill, I'm much happier paying to get big things done than not
being able to use the bike for the several months it takes me to find time
to finish what I'm doing.

I remember when I was in elementary school, and had lots and lots of free
time, I used to really resent things that didn't break a lot, since it was
fun to fix them, or at lest to take them apart and realize too late that I
couldn't get them back together.  If none of my stuff was broken I would get
upset, because then I didn't have an excuse to fix something.  Now, I'm much
happier with things that work, so that I don't have to mess with fixing them.

Have your demagnetized tht tape recorder's heads lately? Which reminds me,
I have two tape players that aren't recording or playing right....

Yep, I get the MCM catalog.  I ordered a head for my VCR from them.  Turns
out that wasn't the problem though...

I haven't demagnetized the heads.  It didn't occur to me to do that, since
it very suddenly went from recording on both channels with fairly good
quality, to not recording on once channel at all, but recording on the other
channel just fine.  Is that a symptom of needing the heads demagnetized?

Usually you get increasing distortion as time goes on. By the time one
gets around to demangnetizing, though, the improvement is certainly
"suddenly"! 

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