The Disappearing Art of Maintenance(noemamag.com)
noemamag.com
The Disappearing Art of Maintenance
https://www.noemamag.com/the-disappearing-art-of-maintenance/
245 comments
As I enter my mid 30s and am now a year into taking care of my late father's house, I have come to realize that maintenance can really take up so much of your free time that it often feels like its never ending. Its as if when one thing is fixed or "refurbished" the next thing breaks or changes its behavior immediately right after. It can be overwhelming to overcome all this entropy.
Seems as if the only way to really reduce a maintenance burden is to simplify your life more and more including the things in your life. But then you are still having to take care of your body and if you have a family others as well. I can understand a society that has FOMO will put maintenance on the backburner. There just isn't enough time to have your cake and eat it too in our modern world it seems.
Seems as if the only way to really reduce a maintenance burden is to simplify your life more and more including the things in your life. But then you are still having to take care of your body and if you have a family others as well. I can understand a society that has FOMO will put maintenance on the backburner. There just isn't enough time to have your cake and eat it too in our modern world it seems.
It is never-ending if you're doing it well, and want to keep your "thing". Maintenance isn't an improvement, or a project, it's just what you do to keep your thing serviceable. I would say most of society is geared toward project work, with rapid turnover in all areas of life. Cars, phones, devices, even leadership and communities come and go quickly, which coupled with FOMO like you've pointed out, makes it hard to care about maintenance.
In the software world, we see this acutely, we know from experience that our projects are lucky to see 3 years of use before they're ditched, from failure or from a rebuild. In the agency world, my work can be gone in less than 12 months, when a clients new Creative Director or Head of Digital wants to leave their mark with a new site or app.
There is beauty in use and maintenance though, there is type of wear you see on well-used infrastructure that sees regular maintenance. It's worn, but clean, and in working order. Use and wash a handrail enough times and it'll end up polished. A well used bike-path looks worn down but it's free of debris. A well-maintained bicycle might have worn paint but doesn't creak or squeak, that kind of thing. I saw it a lot in Japan, some of their infrastructure looks worn and outdated, but it's all clean and serviceable. It's worn because it lasted so long, thanks to being well maintained.
In the software world, we see this acutely, we know from experience that our projects are lucky to see 3 years of use before they're ditched, from failure or from a rebuild. In the agency world, my work can be gone in less than 12 months, when a clients new Creative Director or Head of Digital wants to leave their mark with a new site or app.
There is beauty in use and maintenance though, there is type of wear you see on well-used infrastructure that sees regular maintenance. It's worn, but clean, and in working order. Use and wash a handrail enough times and it'll end up polished. A well used bike-path looks worn down but it's free of debris. A well-maintained bicycle might have worn paint but doesn't creak or squeak, that kind of thing. I saw it a lot in Japan, some of their infrastructure looks worn and outdated, but it's all clean and serviceable. It's worn because it lasted so long, thanks to being well maintained.
I remember visiting my sister when she graduated with her MBA and the stone steps in many buildings showed clearly decades of use. They were clean and the handrails were in the good repair. Nice university.
Maintenance should be outsourced a lot more. As in get pros to come and fix things.
Maintenance doesn't seem much in demand in the US in a residential/consumer context, probably because it is expensive and other reasons like the grandparent comment: > We simply do not appreciate Maintenance people...
Maintenance and service is much more common in India. There are young and old folks in a thriving industry for repairs and maintenance. You will see they are super knowledgable in their vocation and they get stuff fixed well and quick.
Though I do think these industries are shrinking in India - i.e "catching up" to the West. In the US, middle-class probably only services cars and heavy equipment at home. And more things are manufactured to not be maintained but replaced - a weird example is mattresses and pillows.
Of course there must be a lot more servicing happening in non-residential contexts, both in the West and in India.
> simplify your life more and more including the things in your life
This is such an underrated hack. Can't find it now - but think there is a Naval tweet about how getting rid of things is a huge help for creating peace in life.
Maintenance doesn't seem much in demand in the US in a residential/consumer context, probably because it is expensive and other reasons like the grandparent comment: > We simply do not appreciate Maintenance people...
Maintenance and service is much more common in India. There are young and old folks in a thriving industry for repairs and maintenance. You will see they are super knowledgable in their vocation and they get stuff fixed well and quick.
Though I do think these industries are shrinking in India - i.e "catching up" to the West. In the US, middle-class probably only services cars and heavy equipment at home. And more things are manufactured to not be maintained but replaced - a weird example is mattresses and pillows.
Of course there must be a lot more servicing happening in non-residential contexts, both in the West and in India.
> simplify your life more and more including the things in your life
This is such an underrated hack. Can't find it now - but think there is a Naval tweet about how getting rid of things is a huge help for creating peace in life.
I've found that the problem is, the pros typically won't do a better job than I would do myself. In fact, I got my uncle to fix my fridge after numerous places simply said "we don't repair fridges" (despite being an "appliance repair" company), another place thought it was a certain failed component, another thought it was a different part -- until they replaced that part and found that another part had a problem.. then they found the ACTUAL cause of the problem, a clogged tube. Which they don't/can't fix. Meanwhile, I find a video of a guy literally working on side of the road in India who clears this tube nearly effortlessly in like 5 minutes. "Professionals" are often just "a company that happens to officially do the thing you want", but the degree of craftsmanship is frequently absolutely pathetic. Oh yeah, one of those fridge repair places scratched the hell out of my floor by dragging the fridge without placing a protective plexiglass/plastic down first. It's like no one cares to do a good, thorough job anymore.
Ouch rough experience. And probably those appliance repair charged you so much more for the quality of service or even to just show up and take a look.
Preventative maintainability of modern things seems so low - either tech is over complicated or has short lifespan or take too much effort/time/money. Maintenance also requires a network of appliance service companies tied up to the OEMs - and frankly they should be selling subscriptions and coming by to service appliances proactively - kinda like our dentists. The incentive structures are probably not right for this.
Preventative maintainability of modern things seems so low - either tech is over complicated or has short lifespan or take too much effort/time/money. Maintenance also requires a network of appliance service companies tied up to the OEMs - and frankly they should be selling subscriptions and coming by to service appliances proactively - kinda like our dentists. The incentive structures are probably not right for this.
Yeah so far every place is like "it's not worth it to fix"... it's like... really? It's not worth getting a $4k+ fridge working again with a few $hundred of parts and a couple hours of labour? Let's just throw it in the trash and drop another $4k+ to replace it with a "similar" fridge (which then doesn't match the other appliances in the kitchen)! This mentality of "just buy a new one" is so prevalent everywhere :(
And the fact that human time is always the more expensive portion of any maintenance work.
Sure, some things it makes sense to trust in those more skilled than you, with the proper toolsets and experience to finish a job correctly and back the result with a warranty, like larger vehicle maintenance tasks, plumbing, and major structural home remodeling.
But... so many things are not worth the premium that it boggles the mind.
Changing a light switch? 10 minutes and a screwdriver is all you need to save a $75 house call.
Replacing a door handle? 10 minutes and a screwdriver is all you need to save a $75 house call.
If you are willing, able bodied, and strong enough to handle the appropriate tools, then you owe it to yourself and your wallet to handle the things that you can handle and take the money you save and use that to help cover the things you cannot.
Sure, some things it makes sense to trust in those more skilled than you, with the proper toolsets and experience to finish a job correctly and back the result with a warranty, like larger vehicle maintenance tasks, plumbing, and major structural home remodeling.
But... so many things are not worth the premium that it boggles the mind.
Changing a light switch? 10 minutes and a screwdriver is all you need to save a $75 house call.
Replacing a door handle? 10 minutes and a screwdriver is all you need to save a $75 house call.
If you are willing, able bodied, and strong enough to handle the appropriate tools, then you owe it to yourself and your wallet to handle the things that you can handle and take the money you save and use that to help cover the things you cannot.
When I started as a CS graduate, I was thrilled to be on a complex project as a lowly maintainer. I dove into that code and learned how stuff worked. People avoided those areas because it was too dirty, scary or hard sounding. That's the story of my career. Pick a popular project and be a fish in big pond or pick something others stayed away from and own it.
Our future is going to be a shitstorm of breakage. Covid should have taught us a lesson but we're going to go on while infrastructure (physical and virtual) starts to break and no Top 10 grad is going to want to touch it. You're not going to have a choice about plumbing or roof leaks - nobody is coming for a week and you are on your own.
On your knees - I look at my classmates now and consider HS sports to be child abuse. My coworkers talk about their kids surgeries. Those 4 or 5 people boarding your plane in wheelchairs now? It's going to be 3X that in a decade. But that'll be fine, because you'll have to wait a couple hours for the rare pilot to show up.
Our future is going to be a shitstorm of breakage. Covid should have taught us a lesson but we're going to go on while infrastructure (physical and virtual) starts to break and no Top 10 grad is going to want to touch it. You're not going to have a choice about plumbing or roof leaks - nobody is coming for a week and you are on your own.
On your knees - I look at my classmates now and consider HS sports to be child abuse. My coworkers talk about their kids surgeries. Those 4 or 5 people boarding your plane in wheelchairs now? It's going to be 3X that in a decade. But that'll be fine, because you'll have to wait a couple hours for the rare pilot to show up.
>Our future is going to be a shitstorm of breakage. Covid should have taught us a lesson but we're going to go on while infrastructure (physical and virtual) starts to break and no Top 10 grad is going to want to touch it. You're not going to have a choice about plumbing or roof leaks - nobody is coming for a week and you are on your own.
Its already happening. It feels like a slow collapse. I am trying to maintain my 16 year old car because it is low milage and I just don't want to pay the absurd prices for a new car until maybe next year (especially a Mazda which I like but not at that price). My trusty mechanic has had so many labor issues that while he provides me good service even he is slipping. I've been teaching myself car repair so I can do more and more myself because I know it will be done right and with extreme care.
I see the same happening to local hospitals and doctors offices. I've had to bring parents there or go there myself a few times this year and I can clearly see the degradation in service. I can't do anything about this compared to the car other than take really good care of myself and hope for the best.
Same applies to all of retail. The quality of all mass market stuff just seems worse and worse as time goes on. I was observing this while having a bagel and coffee from Dunkin. Everyone is just flat out "over it".
Its already happening. It feels like a slow collapse. I am trying to maintain my 16 year old car because it is low milage and I just don't want to pay the absurd prices for a new car until maybe next year (especially a Mazda which I like but not at that price). My trusty mechanic has had so many labor issues that while he provides me good service even he is slipping. I've been teaching myself car repair so I can do more and more myself because I know it will be done right and with extreme care.
I see the same happening to local hospitals and doctors offices. I've had to bring parents there or go there myself a few times this year and I can clearly see the degradation in service. I can't do anything about this compared to the car other than take really good care of myself and hope for the best.
Same applies to all of retail. The quality of all mass market stuff just seems worse and worse as time goes on. I was observing this while having a bagel and coffee from Dunkin. Everyone is just flat out "over it".
> I've been teaching myself car repair so I can do more and more myself because I know it will be done right and with extreme care.
Is there a book you’d recommend? I want to learn car repair as well.
Is there a book you’d recommend? I want to learn car repair as well.
I had the urge to get into car repairs (despite not owning one) and so far Youtube and Google has served me well to do some simple repairs/maintenance.
While manuals are good, there is nothing better than a video precisely showing how it's done. Even better if it's a good quality video where the author explains all the details you might not know that are not mentioned in the manuals because a mechanic reading those manuals is supposed to know that.
I also love ChrisFix videos to acquire some general knowledge about repairs/maintenance, but if you can find videos for your particular model and job, it's much better.
While manuals are good, there is nothing better than a video precisely showing how it's done. Even better if it's a good quality video where the author explains all the details you might not know that are not mentioned in the manuals because a mechanic reading those manuals is supposed to know that.
I also love ChrisFix videos to acquire some general knowledge about repairs/maintenance, but if you can find videos for your particular model and job, it's much better.
I HIGHLY recommend the Chrisfix Youtube channel. This guy just goes above and beyond in providing an entertaining format to do many of the easy fixes and maintenance item on your car. He deserves every subscription he gets. The videos are so entertaining, I just watch them even if I don't have anything broken on my car.
Here is a video on how to change every fluid in a typical car, he makes it look so easy and it turns out, its not that hard. This alone can extend the reliable life of most modern cars yet many people skip out on many of these fluids because it seems too hard: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t7JCh7PHoDc
Another great video is the five fundamental things a car needs to work. He eloquently explains how he managed to repair a free car he got just by following a diagnosis procedure that ensures these five items are operational: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PNhuDCVIydw
Some models of cars are much more user friendly than others and every car seems to have a unique set of design quirks that make some parts tricky to work on. Thats where more experienced mechanics must unfortunately do the work. In my case I have learned many common jobs and just leave the more complex stuff to the mechanic(still if you maintain a car well these become less common). If I had a full garage, you bet I'd buy a cheap car and just take the whole thing apart and put it back together to learn how to fix everything. Chrisfix actually has videos on doing more complex stuff like replacing a transmission or repairing rust on your car but its the lack of tools that prevents me from attempting the more complex stuff.
One piece of advice my mechanic gave me was that you want to get a car that is popular with younger people as that results in multiple people uploading Youtube videos on fixing everything on that car.
My main car is a first Gen Mazda 3 and it seems like every nook and cranny of this car is documented on Youtube.
My late father drove a 2005 Chevy Equinox and I have had a lot harder time fixing things on this car because it is just not as well documented.
After watching a lot of the ChrisFix videos and getting the confidence to work on a car ( If I mess up the car I still have other one right?) I bought the Haynes manual for each car. This manual has a lot of essential info and repair procedures for each model. If you can, I'd recommend getting the specific manual for your car.
Finally there was also a campaign years back to create a comprehensive course detailing everything about how a car works. I had pre-ordered the course and it was delivered in 2020. IU haven't started it yet because I just haven't had the urge to(too busy fixing my car with Chrisfix videos and then dealing with other maintenance items around the house). If you are interested in more detailed structured content, check it out: https://www.howacarworks.com/
Here is a video on how to change every fluid in a typical car, he makes it look so easy and it turns out, its not that hard. This alone can extend the reliable life of most modern cars yet many people skip out on many of these fluids because it seems too hard: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t7JCh7PHoDc
Another great video is the five fundamental things a car needs to work. He eloquently explains how he managed to repair a free car he got just by following a diagnosis procedure that ensures these five items are operational: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PNhuDCVIydw
Some models of cars are much more user friendly than others and every car seems to have a unique set of design quirks that make some parts tricky to work on. Thats where more experienced mechanics must unfortunately do the work. In my case I have learned many common jobs and just leave the more complex stuff to the mechanic(still if you maintain a car well these become less common). If I had a full garage, you bet I'd buy a cheap car and just take the whole thing apart and put it back together to learn how to fix everything. Chrisfix actually has videos on doing more complex stuff like replacing a transmission or repairing rust on your car but its the lack of tools that prevents me from attempting the more complex stuff.
One piece of advice my mechanic gave me was that you want to get a car that is popular with younger people as that results in multiple people uploading Youtube videos on fixing everything on that car.
My main car is a first Gen Mazda 3 and it seems like every nook and cranny of this car is documented on Youtube.
My late father drove a 2005 Chevy Equinox and I have had a lot harder time fixing things on this car because it is just not as well documented.
After watching a lot of the ChrisFix videos and getting the confidence to work on a car ( If I mess up the car I still have other one right?) I bought the Haynes manual for each car. This manual has a lot of essential info and repair procedures for each model. If you can, I'd recommend getting the specific manual for your car.
Finally there was also a campaign years back to create a comprehensive course detailing everything about how a car works. I had pre-ordered the course and it was delivered in 2020. IU haven't started it yet because I just haven't had the urge to(too busy fixing my car with Chrisfix videos and then dealing with other maintenance items around the house). If you are interested in more detailed structured content, check it out: https://www.howacarworks.com/
The older cars like the 2005 Chevy Equinox are great for repairs. You can just buy a Chilton or Haynes manual for most of these which gives a complete vehicle tear down and details step by step almost all repairs.
Hard disagree. This car is a nightmare. Off the top of my head:
1. Transmission dipstick requires removing the engine mount to get access and is also held down with a bolt.
2. Various electrical issues with wiring cause premature failure and "gremlin" like issues. You could end up on the side of the road and not be able to diagnose the issue.
3. The transmission on some trims are solid while others are this terrible Aisin unit that used Toyota trans fluid and has a high failure rate.
4. A smaller issue but annoying nonetheless: No easy way to add AUX in to the stock stereo. It is bare bones and they didn't even add any header. :/
The Mazda I referenced predated AUX input but they exposed an input for SatelliteRadio/Cassette/Minidisc and that gives you the option of removing something to replace with AUX. The GM Unit? Nothing.
While I recommend the repair manual in my comment above, in this case the real lesson it will teach you is how much headache you will begin to encounter should you choose to repair this car.
But to clarify, in terms of documentation, there is a lack of Youtube videos going into deep detail about every little issue on this car like the Mazda has. The Mazda has tons of channels covering it. The Chevy? Not so much. The Manual tells you how to fix subsystems but would never cover little things like the window switch not working and the fix being to stuff a bit of a q-tip stick in the rubber pressure button to permanently resolve the issue. The manual would just tell you to replace the part altogether. Thats what I mean by the car being documented inside and out. It has been studied so much that there are actual practical fixes to specific parts.
1. Transmission dipstick requires removing the engine mount to get access and is also held down with a bolt.
2. Various electrical issues with wiring cause premature failure and "gremlin" like issues. You could end up on the side of the road and not be able to diagnose the issue.
3. The transmission on some trims are solid while others are this terrible Aisin unit that used Toyota trans fluid and has a high failure rate.
4. A smaller issue but annoying nonetheless: No easy way to add AUX in to the stock stereo. It is bare bones and they didn't even add any header. :/
The Mazda I referenced predated AUX input but they exposed an input for SatelliteRadio/Cassette/Minidisc and that gives you the option of removing something to replace with AUX. The GM Unit? Nothing.
While I recommend the repair manual in my comment above, in this case the real lesson it will teach you is how much headache you will begin to encounter should you choose to repair this car.
But to clarify, in terms of documentation, there is a lack of Youtube videos going into deep detail about every little issue on this car like the Mazda has. The Mazda has tons of channels covering it. The Chevy? Not so much. The Manual tells you how to fix subsystems but would never cover little things like the window switch not working and the fix being to stuff a bit of a q-tip stick in the rubber pressure button to permanently resolve the issue. The manual would just tell you to replace the part altogether. Thats what I mean by the car being documented inside and out. It has been studied so much that there are actual practical fixes to specific parts.
You completely missed the point. Manufacturer manuals can be hard to come by, but with older vehicles there are often after market manuals that were reasonably priced and quite exhaustive in details down to the proper torque of a bolt.
YouTube generally covers just enough to have destroyed the market for real repair manuals and over half of the top YouTube results are someone that figured out how to do something, but doesn't really know what they are doing so they are like, "Just shove a q-tip in there it fixed it for me." SMH
YouTube generally covers just enough to have destroyed the market for real repair manuals and over half of the top YouTube results are someone that figured out how to do something, but doesn't really know what they are doing so they are like, "Just shove a q-tip in there it fixed it for me." SMH
>You completely missed the point. Manufacturer manuals can be hard to come by, but with older vehicles there are often after market manuals that were reasonably priced and quite exhaustive in details down to the proper torque of a bolt.
No I did not miss the point. Yes the manuals are great for having torque specs and proper steps for diagnosing and replacing components. YOU missed my point: That the steps themselves are terrible for DIY people DUE TO THE DESIGN OF THE CAR. It sounds like you didn't even read my comment in full. I HAVE the manual for this car. It is still a massive PITA to work on this car vs the Mazda (of which I also have the Haynes manual).
>YouTube generally covers just enough to have destroyed the market for real repair manuals and over half of the top YouTube results are someone that figured out how to do something, but doesn't really know what they are doing so they are like, "Just shove a q-tip in there it fixed it for me." SMH
You are really dismissing a lot of additional knowledge that is gained by crowd sourcing with your snarky comment. This particular module controls the buttons for the windows. It is a 300$ part. The fan community figured out it stops working because a 1mm piece of plastic breaks off and stops contacting a rubber membrane. A tiny piece of a q-tip fits the membrane cavity perfectly. The Haynes manual states to replace the whole 300$ part (on a car that is worth only around ~3k since it is 15+ years old). If you want to waste that kind of money go right ahead but for everyone else all of this focus on the car has uncovered interesting fixes like this.
No I did not miss the point. Yes the manuals are great for having torque specs and proper steps for diagnosing and replacing components. YOU missed my point: That the steps themselves are terrible for DIY people DUE TO THE DESIGN OF THE CAR. It sounds like you didn't even read my comment in full. I HAVE the manual for this car. It is still a massive PITA to work on this car vs the Mazda (of which I also have the Haynes manual).
>YouTube generally covers just enough to have destroyed the market for real repair manuals and over half of the top YouTube results are someone that figured out how to do something, but doesn't really know what they are doing so they are like, "Just shove a q-tip in there it fixed it for me." SMH
You are really dismissing a lot of additional knowledge that is gained by crowd sourcing with your snarky comment. This particular module controls the buttons for the windows. It is a 300$ part. The fan community figured out it stops working because a 1mm piece of plastic breaks off and stops contacting a rubber membrane. A tiny piece of a q-tip fits the membrane cavity perfectly. The Haynes manual states to replace the whole 300$ part (on a car that is worth only around ~3k since it is 15+ years old). If you want to waste that kind of money go right ahead but for everyone else all of this focus on the car has uncovered interesting fixes like this.
Get yourself a service manual for the car you own. Make sure it's the one produced for their own dealer mechanics. It'll be pricey, but it'll pay for itself the first job you do yourself.
YouTube is actually pretty good.
Whoever made your car published a huge book for mechanics to use on that specific model. That can also be a great resource depending on the manufacturer
Whoever made your car published a huge book for mechanics to use on that specific model. That can also be a great resource depending on the manufacturer
I would think that this kind of general decline is caused by financialization, value extraction, and new owners that simply do not care. I mean, look at [insert industry name here].
> Those 4 or 5 people boarding your plane in wheelchairs now? It's going to be 3X that in a decade.
Well... have you seen what happens to the 4 or 5 wheelchairs on the other end of the flight? They often remain empty. Looks to me like people are gaming the system to get preferential treatment on plains.
Well... have you seen what happens to the 4 or 5 wheelchairs on the other end of the flight? They often remain empty. Looks to me like people are gaming the system to get preferential treatment on plains.
* planes
> I look at my classmates now and consider HS sports to be child abuse.
It's a serious risk, but the risk-reward is still positive when it comes to the value of youth sports. Do you disagree strongly with this?
It's a serious risk, but the risk-reward is still positive when it comes to the value of youth sports. Do you disagree strongly with this?
I disagree with the risk reward of contact sports, especially if your kid is smaller than average. Anything where the brain collides with the skull is an obvious no (American football, soccer headers, etc).
I would say it's a very americentric world view. There are a lot of cultures who are the opposite. Or who were the opposite and increasingly turned into a more consumeristic society. I'm not a person that is particularly good at maintenance, but compared to friends I've had from London or bigger US and Canadian cities I've seen a lot of people very surprised when I decided to fix things instead of just buying a new one. Even if its just a 20 buck wallet with a broken seam.
I can already imagine a bunch of people here saying to themselves my hourly rate is worth much more than this 20 bucks wallet and yes, so is mine, but there is something pleasing about not throwing everything away at the first sign of wear.
When you say "Humans simple do NOT" what you really mean is "MY demographic does not". Even in the US or Canada that is very much dependent on the area and the demographic you grew up. I am not at all surprised that people who's only goal in life is to make as much money as people in the valley and who buy a new iphone every 1 or 2 years find the act of maintaining things insane.
Unfortunately this problem has seeped through society in which I would call the proliferation of business school graduates who are now at the top of most business chains and who have traded any long term benefit for short term gains.
I can already imagine a bunch of people here saying to themselves my hourly rate is worth much more than this 20 bucks wallet and yes, so is mine, but there is something pleasing about not throwing everything away at the first sign of wear.
When you say "Humans simple do NOT" what you really mean is "MY demographic does not". Even in the US or Canada that is very much dependent on the area and the demographic you grew up. I am not at all surprised that people who's only goal in life is to make as much money as people in the valley and who buy a new iphone every 1 or 2 years find the act of maintaining things insane.
Unfortunately this problem has seeped through society in which I would call the proliferation of business school graduates who are now at the top of most business chains and who have traded any long term benefit for short term gains.
Things that are maintained usually have more character. That wooly jumper with the elbow patches or that old motorcycle that's had the engine rebuilt. Of course nowadays people will just opt to buy the new version of something that is made to look like it was old and remade. But the old things were usually of better quality materials and the idiosyncratic details of a maintainer simply can't be recreated in something new and mass produced.
Completely agree, but at the same time a lot of people (myself included) criticize Germans for being terrible customers, because they expect things they buy to last a very long time, be repairable and also cheap. I.e. they don't buy often. Contrast that to how Americans are considered to be "good consumers".
> Things that are maintained usually have more character.
This is how I think and feel as well. Custom repairs signal to me some kind of toughness. The item has been battle tested and survived.
This is how I think and feel as well. Custom repairs signal to me some kind of toughness. The item has been battle tested and survived.
Have you ever worked in Maintenance?
I worked on industrial maintenance for 7 years. While some of what you say is true, there's a lot wrong.
> They are usually lowly paid and have low moral because what they work is chore.
Not the case for me or anyone I worked with. The pay was very good. We had skills that were very hard to replace (PLC programming, high-tech press fitting, experience on very large machines that were basically one of a kind, so you can't just take people from other companies that have the same thing or even close). Morale was high because even though engineers and managers don't respect us, we didn't respect them either so we could almost do anything we wanted! Which was ok because we were more needed than they were... one day off for us cost millions to the company if a machine stopped working (an engineer could take a week off and no one noticed).
> They also do not get to enjoy creating new things.
In some shitty companies maybe... I was able to design from scratch large machines that we then proceeded to build and use in production. Really cool stuff that I really loved.
My last job in maintenance let me spend most of my time writing software for the maintenance inventory, which was hard to keep up-to-date and off-the-shelf software for that was very expensive... despite us having fairly simple needs (which is why was able to write it myself using a mix of VBA and MS Access... this was a long time ago). After that, I noticed I could do software and started going to uni for a Compute Science degree. Which I attended WHILE working in maintenance as the job was mostly waiting for shit to happen so I had lots of "free" time. Took me around 10 years in software to start earning substantially more than I used to in maintenance.
I did it mostly to avoid the shit parts of the job: cleaning shit, changing oil, greasing gears and what not... that part was not fun.
I worked on industrial maintenance for 7 years. While some of what you say is true, there's a lot wrong.
> They are usually lowly paid and have low moral because what they work is chore.
Not the case for me or anyone I worked with. The pay was very good. We had skills that were very hard to replace (PLC programming, high-tech press fitting, experience on very large machines that were basically one of a kind, so you can't just take people from other companies that have the same thing or even close). Morale was high because even though engineers and managers don't respect us, we didn't respect them either so we could almost do anything we wanted! Which was ok because we were more needed than they were... one day off for us cost millions to the company if a machine stopped working (an engineer could take a week off and no one noticed).
> They also do not get to enjoy creating new things.
In some shitty companies maybe... I was able to design from scratch large machines that we then proceeded to build and use in production. Really cool stuff that I really loved.
My last job in maintenance let me spend most of my time writing software for the maintenance inventory, which was hard to keep up-to-date and off-the-shelf software for that was very expensive... despite us having fairly simple needs (which is why was able to write it myself using a mix of VBA and MS Access... this was a long time ago). After that, I noticed I could do software and started going to uni for a Compute Science degree. Which I attended WHILE working in maintenance as the job was mostly waiting for shit to happen so I had lots of "free" time. Took me around 10 years in software to start earning substantially more than I used to in maintenance.
I did it mostly to avoid the shit parts of the job: cleaning shit, changing oil, greasing gears and what not... that part was not fun.
The same is true for managers. The manager whose project is late and over budget, but whips their staff into working long hours is seen as a decisive hard charger. On time and on budget projects must be easy and the managers of such projects are seen as weak and unambitious.
> I think in general the human mind treats Maintenance as less important or not important at all.
I think you're probably right.
As another simple example, I like to actually keep a pretty clean house. I know that this frustrates roommates or other people I live with but it actually takes very little work to keep the house clean (I'm honestly a pretty lazy person). My motto is "It is far easier to _keep_ things clean than it is to _make_ things clean later." It is amazing how far just wiping up a mess when it is made goes to keeping things clean. Takes 5 seconds if you do it after the mess is made but 15 minutes if you wait. Or just simple maintenance things like once a week spray your shower with bleach water 15 minutes before you get in (and rinse the walls). (Obviously there's exceptions to the "clean now" "rules" because schedules get tight and that's not always possible. So I just want to make it clear I'm not harassing people. I just don't want a stove top covered in oil or garbage littered in the house)
I think this style of maintenance extends well beyond cleanliness or health. We also probably undervalue it because we're also pretty well known to be bad at future planning. It is basically the Marshmallow Experiment. For cleaning (or most maintenance tasks) the cost is little now but requires effort now while the cost is higher in the future but you're able to put off the effort. Problem being that we view future costs/rewards as smaller than immediate costs/rewards. I always wonder how much faster humans could progress if we were able to more accurately internalize future costs/rewards into our mental models (even just a small improvement).
I think you're probably right.
As another simple example, I like to actually keep a pretty clean house. I know that this frustrates roommates or other people I live with but it actually takes very little work to keep the house clean (I'm honestly a pretty lazy person). My motto is "It is far easier to _keep_ things clean than it is to _make_ things clean later." It is amazing how far just wiping up a mess when it is made goes to keeping things clean. Takes 5 seconds if you do it after the mess is made but 15 minutes if you wait. Or just simple maintenance things like once a week spray your shower with bleach water 15 minutes before you get in (and rinse the walls). (Obviously there's exceptions to the "clean now" "rules" because schedules get tight and that's not always possible. So I just want to make it clear I'm not harassing people. I just don't want a stove top covered in oil or garbage littered in the house)
I think this style of maintenance extends well beyond cleanliness or health. We also probably undervalue it because we're also pretty well known to be bad at future planning. It is basically the Marshmallow Experiment. For cleaning (or most maintenance tasks) the cost is little now but requires effort now while the cost is higher in the future but you're able to put off the effort. Problem being that we view future costs/rewards as smaller than immediate costs/rewards. I always wonder how much faster humans could progress if we were able to more accurately internalize future costs/rewards into our mental models (even just a small improvement).
What's the easiest way to clean? Not make a mess in the first place.
> the Marshmallow Experiment
“The original marshmallow test, it turned out, had a flaw. Exclude some children from better-off families (which seems to make them both more willing to delay gratification and more likely to succeed in later life) and much of its predictive power suddenly disappears.” — quote from an economist piece.
“The original marshmallow test, it turned out, had a flaw. Exclude some children from better-off families (which seems to make them both more willing to delay gratification and more likely to succeed in later life) and much of its predictive power suddenly disappears.” — quote from an economist piece.
Stated another way: kids who have learned they can trust adults around them are more likely to succeed than ones who can't
While this is true, I thought it was the easiest example to give to others. I think we're all aware that people are pretty terrible at estimating future rewards/costs and there's plenty of studies that do show this.
I agree with your analysis of time tradeoffs. On this basis, I rinse & stack dirty dishes. Drives the wife nuts. She doesn't get it.
Get a dishwasher, seriously. No dirty dishes in sight.
This is not something new. It is simply a matter of discipline, and choosing long term rewards over short term rewards.
And people have been choosing short term rewards for many generations and probably all of humanity, even when they know otherwise.
Everyone knows to eat and drink less/better and exercise more, but few do it, because it is not fun.
And people have been choosing short term rewards for many generations and probably all of humanity, even when they know otherwise.
Everyone knows to eat and drink less/better and exercise more, but few do it, because it is not fun.
It's a bit more complicated for the other projects I guess. We never know for sure if the budget is correct or too inflated to satisfy certain interest groups. We don't even know if it is necessary to do X at this moment. Of course we can probably blindly trust the engineers who certified on the reports (because civil engineers are true engineers while software engineers are not?).
This comic seems relevant:
https://workchronicles.substack.com/p/comic-prevention-vs-cu...
https://workchronicles.substack.com/p/comic-prevention-vs-cu...
On Reddit, I think I saw the meme version of what you write here. It summarizes it quite good.
https://www.reddit.com/r/ProgrammerHumor/comments/xma9ad/im_...
https://www.reddit.com/r/ProgrammerHumor/comments/xma9ad/im_...
Just out of curiosity, what maintenance would a computer need? Dusting?
Everwhere I've worked, when I open up a PC, I unplug cables, carry it out to the nearest airhose and (carefully) blow out the mess.
It's the great squeaky wheel gets the oil management problem.
A service that hums along quietly gets its budget cut. A dumpster fire that produces tickets and visible fixes/hero moments gets a big budget re-up.
The basic issue is of course inability to predict the future, inability of management to properly judge things, etc. Management is:
Charitable version: full of people that necessarily cannot have full context/detail and must make quick high-level decisions
Not Charitable version: full of sociopaths whose primary job is to maintain or improve standing, and secondary concern is making good long term decisions for a company, so cutting maintenance or spinning slapdash solutions and failures as epic wins is more effective.
A service that hums along quietly gets its budget cut. A dumpster fire that produces tickets and visible fixes/hero moments gets a big budget re-up.
The basic issue is of course inability to predict the future, inability of management to properly judge things, etc. Management is:
Charitable version: full of people that necessarily cannot have full context/detail and must make quick high-level decisions
Not Charitable version: full of sociopaths whose primary job is to maintain or improve standing, and secondary concern is making good long term decisions for a company, so cutting maintenance or spinning slapdash solutions and failures as epic wins is more effective.
I work in maintenance in the steel industry. To find good people is hard, today if somebody has more than two brain cells, the do a lot of study and never really start to work with there hands. I see it now, at moment several people get retired at our company. Instead one smart guy who did everything, you need know one guy for paperwork, one guy for his brainwork, one guy for what he did with his hands .. and one guy more to coordinate these three guys.
Also today with computer everywhere .. before you changed a setting with a screwdriver on a poti, now with computer everywhere .. your installed version is to old, download the latest version, try to install, it fails because the company has tight security rules on companys computer, try on a airgaped notebook for technic, it fails now because you can't install or license the software because no internet .. to keep software up to date and running for over 10 or 20 years is just a f**ing pain. And it gets worse ever day.
Also today with computer everywhere .. before you changed a setting with a screwdriver on a poti, now with computer everywhere .. your installed version is to old, download the latest version, try to install, it fails because the company has tight security rules on companys computer, try on a airgaped notebook for technic, it fails now because you can't install or license the software because no internet .. to keep software up to date and running for over 10 or 20 years is just a f**ing pain. And it gets worse ever day.
Making maintenance easier requires a fair amount of industry-wide standardization and interoperability, and many corporations view this a threat to their market share and hence, profitability. This has been widely seen in the computer industry over the years, although the long-term conclusions might oppose the short-term view, i.e. while at first the closed-system strategy might succeed, in the long term having an open-system approach will bring in customers who've been burned in one way or another by the closed-system world.
A particular example I'm very familiar with is bicycles - they're fairly easy to maintain and work on relative to automobiles (no fluids, not much electronics until recently etc.). Ideally a bicycle can be maintained easily and replaced piecemeal from a wide variety of suppliers, i.e. everything is swappable and there are no non-standard parts, such as weirdly threaded bottom brackets or non-standard axle widths. Some companies have tried to do things like that - I think Shimano made an integrated brake lever/gear shifter for a while, whereas most bikes allow you to replace each item separately. For example, if your bicycle frame breaks, you should be able to remove all the parts and install them on a roughly similar frame, even from another manufacturer.
As far as deliberately making repair more difficult in the hopes that people would toss their old devices and buy new ones, there's good evidence for that with Apple, such as the introduction of pentalobe screws for no other plausible reason than making repair require specialized tools (IFixit's comprehensive screwdriver kit is nice in that regard).
The solution is once again, governmental regulation and agreement on certain standards, for example requiring a standard USB-C connection for all phones sold in a given market, etc.
A particular example I'm very familiar with is bicycles - they're fairly easy to maintain and work on relative to automobiles (no fluids, not much electronics until recently etc.). Ideally a bicycle can be maintained easily and replaced piecemeal from a wide variety of suppliers, i.e. everything is swappable and there are no non-standard parts, such as weirdly threaded bottom brackets or non-standard axle widths. Some companies have tried to do things like that - I think Shimano made an integrated brake lever/gear shifter for a while, whereas most bikes allow you to replace each item separately. For example, if your bicycle frame breaks, you should be able to remove all the parts and install them on a roughly similar frame, even from another manufacturer.
As far as deliberately making repair more difficult in the hopes that people would toss their old devices and buy new ones, there's good evidence for that with Apple, such as the introduction of pentalobe screws for no other plausible reason than making repair require specialized tools (IFixit's comprehensive screwdriver kit is nice in that regard).
The solution is once again, governmental regulation and agreement on certain standards, for example requiring a standard USB-C connection for all phones sold in a given market, etc.
Grease points already have a standard: zerk fittings, but many car parts don’t have them anymore, so you end up replacing all of these “sealed” “lifetime” bearings/joints entirely because they dried out and creak away.
Would be cool if a bicycle bottom bracket or hub had those fittings.
I volunteer at a bike co-op and between the generations, there’s been a toooooon of “standards”.
Frequent mixes of imperial and metric. A French/Italian/British bike may have the opposite threading on parts than you expect. Different widths of spindles and wheel dishing and spoke lengths and oh my!
How many mm wide would you like your tire? And will it even fit? Can you use that 700C accessory on your 27” or are you SOL?
If we didn’t have a boneyard of bikes to scavenge from/strip for parts, we’d get nowhere.
Then the corrosion issues when you “upgrade” to an aluminum seat post or stem on a steel frame…
I guess part of this problem is the durability of bicycles. Cars probably have the same problem but their lifespan is a lot more limited.
Lots of (small s) specialized tools out there because the manufacturer never intended for you to actually take the thing apart. Every design of freewheels required a different tool to remove.
Definitely assembled several Frankenstein-bikes in my lifetime where you’ll need a rather diverse set of tools from different generations of bikes to eventually repair!
Would be cool if a bicycle bottom bracket or hub had those fittings.
I volunteer at a bike co-op and between the generations, there’s been a toooooon of “standards”.
Frequent mixes of imperial and metric. A French/Italian/British bike may have the opposite threading on parts than you expect. Different widths of spindles and wheel dishing and spoke lengths and oh my!
How many mm wide would you like your tire? And will it even fit? Can you use that 700C accessory on your 27” or are you SOL?
If we didn’t have a boneyard of bikes to scavenge from/strip for parts, we’d get nowhere.
Then the corrosion issues when you “upgrade” to an aluminum seat post or stem on a steel frame…
I guess part of this problem is the durability of bicycles. Cars probably have the same problem but their lifespan is a lot more limited.
Lots of (small s) specialized tools out there because the manufacturer never intended for you to actually take the thing apart. Every design of freewheels required a different tool to remove.
Definitely assembled several Frankenstein-bikes in my lifetime where you’ll need a rather diverse set of tools from different generations of bikes to eventually repair!
Don't get me started on bicycle wheels. My wife and I both had wheels nominally of the standard size (28 inches). Guess what -- standard 622 ("28 inch") tyres did not fit either of our bikes, but her wheels were too small, and mine were too big!
So we have two different bikes both ostensibly of the standard size, but both differing from it in different directions!
(Yes, I have looked it up on Sheldon Brown's bike tyre sizing guide -- there are two different sizes that are almost the standard size but not quite, one too small, and one too large. So this is not just our bikes that were faulty, these weird sizes are out there.)
So we have two different bikes both ostensibly of the standard size, but both differing from it in different directions!
(Yes, I have looked it up on Sheldon Brown's bike tyre sizing guide -- there are two different sizes that are almost the standard size but not quite, one too small, and one too large. So this is not just our bikes that were faulty, these weird sizes are out there.)
Bicycles have actually gotten much easier to work on but I totally know what you are talking about. Bottom Brackets are actually the one thing I now refuse to work on (too many god damn specialized wrenches just to open and close them). Cartridge bearings are so much easier but as you probably know not really repairable (I have a late 1980s touring bicycle that I regreased the bearings and it rides better than new) but also crazy easy to just swap out. Nobody uses 27" anymore and everything being 700C (even many mountain bikes now with the "29er" trend) makes it all definitely better.
New bicycles won’t have 27” wheels, but they’re still out in the field and manufacturers still mass-produce 27” wheels and tires.
But if you want fenders, you’ll have to struggle through mounting a 700C set. At least the tubes are backwards-compatible.
But if you want fenders, you’ll have to struggle through mounting a 700C set. At least the tubes are backwards-compatible.
I agree that bikes are a great way to dip your feet into maintenance. But everything is not swappable. There are a handful of "standards" for each part of the bike. It's not insane, but replacing a part often requires researching all the standards and understand what you have and what you could upgrade it to. Getting a new bike often requires getting a couple of new tools.
That said, if you ride bikes regularly but take it to the shop for maintenance, try doing your next service yourself. There are tons of online videos to help you. It will require an upfront investment of some tools, but they will pay for themselves the second time you use them.
That said, if you ride bikes regularly but take it to the shop for maintenance, try doing your next service yourself. There are tons of online videos to help you. It will require an upfront investment of some tools, but they will pay for themselves the second time you use them.
>A particular example I'm very familiar with is bicycles - they're fairly easy to maintain and work on relative to automobiles (no fluids, not much electronics until recently etc.). Ideally a bicycle can be maintained easily and replaced piecemeal from a wide variety of suppliers, i.e. everything is swappable and there are no non-standard parts, such as weirdly threaded bottom brackets or non-standard axle widths. Some companies have tried to do things like that - I think Shimano made an integrated brake lever/gear shifter for a while
No, obviously you're not familiar with bicycles at all. When was the last time you worked with a bicycle? 1975?
Every modern road bike has integrated brake/shifter levers, and has for 30 years. What universe do you live in?
Non-standard parts are commonplace: there's at least a dozen bottom bracket standards, and lots of road bikes have press-fit bottom brackets. The industry is moving away from this thankfully, and threaded brackets are now becoming the norm again (using a particular standard, I forget the name). Axle sizes (diameter, thread pitch, width) are also all over the place, though here again they seem to be converging.
As for fluids, every decent bike these days has hydraulic disc brakes, which use either mineral oil (Shimano and clones) or DOT4 brake fluid (SRAM).
Your post is really bizarre; was it meant to be satire or something?
No, obviously you're not familiar with bicycles at all. When was the last time you worked with a bicycle? 1975?
Every modern road bike has integrated brake/shifter levers, and has for 30 years. What universe do you live in?
Non-standard parts are commonplace: there's at least a dozen bottom bracket standards, and lots of road bikes have press-fit bottom brackets. The industry is moving away from this thankfully, and threaded brackets are now becoming the norm again (using a particular standard, I forget the name). Axle sizes (diameter, thread pitch, width) are also all over the place, though here again they seem to be converging.
As for fluids, every decent bike these days has hydraulic disc brakes, which use either mineral oil (Shimano and clones) or DOT4 brake fluid (SRAM).
Your post is really bizarre; was it meant to be satire or something?
> The solution is once again, governmental regulation and agreement on certain standards, for example requiring a standard USB-C connection for all phones sold in a given market, etc.
In order for the solution to "once again" be government regulation, there has to be a past example of a coordination problem that was solved optimally by government regulation. Do you have such an example?
All of the examples I can think of involving political intervention are ones that culminated in a suboptimal status quo being artificially locked in place due to incremental innovation on the margin being suppressed and/or the regulatory system being co-opted by its intended targets to create intentional barriers to entry.
Conversely, we have plenty of examples of ecosystems converging to compatible standards organically, as we see in most of the world of computing technology, e.g. with PC hardware standards, internet protocols, etc.
In order for the solution to "once again" be government regulation, there has to be a past example of a coordination problem that was solved optimally by government regulation. Do you have such an example?
All of the examples I can think of involving political intervention are ones that culminated in a suboptimal status quo being artificially locked in place due to incremental innovation on the margin being suppressed and/or the regulatory system being co-opted by its intended targets to create intentional barriers to entry.
Conversely, we have plenty of examples of ecosystems converging to compatible standards organically, as we see in most of the world of computing technology, e.g. with PC hardware standards, internet protocols, etc.
> The solution is once again, governmental regulation and agreement on certain standards, for example requiring a standard USB-C connection for all phones sold in a given market, etc.
You spend a long time arguing the opposite with your bicycle argument. The government never forced them to standardize and they did.
You spend a long time arguing the opposite with your bicycle argument. The government never forced them to standardize and they did.
> You spend a long time arguing the opposite with your bicycle argument. The government never forced them to standardize and they did.
They really didn't though. From different axel widths forcing older ones obsolete (ie my 10yo $450 Chris King hub in perfect condition 135x10QR now has precisely zero frames it will fit), to actual wheel sizes themselves (26" wheel frame are nearly impossible to find, outside of Dirt Jumping), the bike industry is busily doing their own version of 'embrace & extend'.
There's even electronic shifting now, adding a teensy bit of advantage to rich roadies, while removing the ability to fix your own derailleur.
They really didn't though. From different axel widths forcing older ones obsolete (ie my 10yo $450 Chris King hub in perfect condition 135x10QR now has precisely zero frames it will fit), to actual wheel sizes themselves (26" wheel frame are nearly impossible to find, outside of Dirt Jumping), the bike industry is busily doing their own version of 'embrace & extend'.
There's even electronic shifting now, adding a teensy bit of advantage to rich roadies, while removing the ability to fix your own derailleur.
Check lists are useful for dealing with maintenance. Good companies have a process in place to minimize downtime.
Is this a US thing?
Here's a girl mechanic in China.[1] She's from a small village in the mountains, was able to go to a technical school in Kumming to learn hydropower, and came back to her village. She has a popular YouTube channel, so she's making money off of that, as well as repairing broken engines and generators in the village.
Having restored rusty Teletype machines myself, I'm impressed with what she's doing. She routinely rewinds generator armatures, which is almost a dead art in the US. (There's one guy in San Francisco who still does that, and he has a backlog. He never got to the Teletype motors I wanted done. Urgent projects for old freight elevators and industrial equipment keep him busy.) She's an artist with an angle grinder, making parts from sheet steel. She cuts curves with an angle grinder, something usually done with a bandsaw. Her welding is so-so, but she is using a crappy AC welder.
The engines she works on, usually small Diesels in the 5-30 KW range, are very basic and maintainable. They're a standard design in China from the Mao era. Look up "R175 Diesel engine". Hand crank start, cooling system is a water tank you have to fill when you refuel, no oil pump. You can buy one on Alibaba for under US$200, shipping not included.[2]
There are people who post claiming she's fake. But there are many hours of videos showing her work. Once or twice, there are indications of outside help with heavy lifting, but that's about it. There are more informed nit-picks - getting paint on the mating faces of the cylinder head may cause leaks later, banging on bearings with a claw hammer can damage the bearing races, and those motors really need to go out the door with a motor protection circuit breaker (US$6 on Alibaba) so they don't burn out the windings again. But all this stuff is overbuilt, to survive years of minimal maintenance in agricultural villages.
Although her electrical safety is scary. No strain relief where cables enter boxes, plain wires rather than nonmetallic armored behind walls when remodeling, standing in a stream while holding an outlet strip.
[1] https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCpPt42tLH5FRk__ytvMsejw
[2] https://www.alibaba.com/product-detail/R175-Diesel-Engine-En...
Here's a girl mechanic in China.[1] She's from a small village in the mountains, was able to go to a technical school in Kumming to learn hydropower, and came back to her village. She has a popular YouTube channel, so she's making money off of that, as well as repairing broken engines and generators in the village.
Having restored rusty Teletype machines myself, I'm impressed with what she's doing. She routinely rewinds generator armatures, which is almost a dead art in the US. (There's one guy in San Francisco who still does that, and he has a backlog. He never got to the Teletype motors I wanted done. Urgent projects for old freight elevators and industrial equipment keep him busy.) She's an artist with an angle grinder, making parts from sheet steel. She cuts curves with an angle grinder, something usually done with a bandsaw. Her welding is so-so, but she is using a crappy AC welder.
The engines she works on, usually small Diesels in the 5-30 KW range, are very basic and maintainable. They're a standard design in China from the Mao era. Look up "R175 Diesel engine". Hand crank start, cooling system is a water tank you have to fill when you refuel, no oil pump. You can buy one on Alibaba for under US$200, shipping not included.[2]
There are people who post claiming she's fake. But there are many hours of videos showing her work. Once or twice, there are indications of outside help with heavy lifting, but that's about it. There are more informed nit-picks - getting paint on the mating faces of the cylinder head may cause leaks later, banging on bearings with a claw hammer can damage the bearing races, and those motors really need to go out the door with a motor protection circuit breaker (US$6 on Alibaba) so they don't burn out the windings again. But all this stuff is overbuilt, to survive years of minimal maintenance in agricultural villages.
Although her electrical safety is scary. No strain relief where cables enter boxes, plain wires rather than nonmetallic armored behind walls when remodeling, standing in a stream while holding an outlet strip.
[1] https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCpPt42tLH5FRk__ytvMsejw
[2] https://www.alibaba.com/product-detail/R175-Diesel-Engine-En...
I think it's an urban thing. I live in a rural area in the US, and there are multiple people who make their living maintaining small engine machines (e.g. lawn tools), maintaining tractors, maintaining cars, maintaining roads (gravel roads need at least annual maintenance), maintaining HVAC systems, and maintaining fence lines. Plus, lots of folks do their own maintenance.
I think so also. I live in a rural area too and the high school here offers Small Engine Repair, Auto Shop and Welding & Manufacturing as electives, to further your point.
I love maintenance and salvage videos. It is so addictive especially machines and electronics. I would recommend Diesel Creek videos ( https://www.youtube.com/c/DieselCreek ) which is really fun. I am in awe at some of the old American diesel machines and how resilient they are.
>Is this a US thing?
If it is, it's also a Canadian thing, and a western European thing, at the very least.
If it is, it's also a Canadian thing, and a western European thing, at the very least.
The key component is stuff being one hell of a lot cheaper than labor.
This is a natural outcome of a combination of rising wages and dropping prices for finished products, plus, in some cases, increasing standards—for example, single-pane windows with glass held in by paste were really easy to repair but provided almost no insulation—modern windows are really hard to repair, but insulate well.
If we want repair-culture to come back we have to make everyone materially poorer first. Everyone who's not crazy-rich would know how to sew if a t-shirt cost $100 new and could be sold used for $50, instead of like $10-15 and $0-3, respectively. Nobody pays a cobbler $150 to re-sole their $50 sneakers—their $400 leather oxfords, maybe.
We stopped repairing stuff because stuff is cheap—it's not worth developing or maintaining repair skills to try to get another year out of the odd $20-$150 appliance, or tens-of-dollars pieces of clothing, or paying five times as much for floor trim that can be re-finished or repaired when it gets dinged up, over cheap crap that'll just have to be replaced if it gets damaged, when the labor to replace it's not much different from the labor to repair the nicer stuff. We stopped having experts repair stuff because labor is really, really expensive relative to goods, now. We just throw away the broken thing and replace it. The fix, if we want one, is to make stuff way more expensive.
This is a natural outcome of a combination of rising wages and dropping prices for finished products, plus, in some cases, increasing standards—for example, single-pane windows with glass held in by paste were really easy to repair but provided almost no insulation—modern windows are really hard to repair, but insulate well.
If we want repair-culture to come back we have to make everyone materially poorer first. Everyone who's not crazy-rich would know how to sew if a t-shirt cost $100 new and could be sold used for $50, instead of like $10-15 and $0-3, respectively. Nobody pays a cobbler $150 to re-sole their $50 sneakers—their $400 leather oxfords, maybe.
We stopped repairing stuff because stuff is cheap—it's not worth developing or maintaining repair skills to try to get another year out of the odd $20-$150 appliance, or tens-of-dollars pieces of clothing, or paying five times as much for floor trim that can be re-finished or repaired when it gets dinged up, over cheap crap that'll just have to be replaced if it gets damaged, when the labor to replace it's not much different from the labor to repair the nicer stuff. We stopped having experts repair stuff because labor is really, really expensive relative to goods, now. We just throw away the broken thing and replace it. The fix, if we want one, is to make stuff way more expensive.
Long ago, the gameshow 'Wheel of Fortune' made players spend the money they won on selection of prizes instead of getting cash. Watching an old episode recently, I put the price of the refrigerator into an inflation calculator and was astonished by just how expensive it was, relatively speaking, back then. No doubt that was the MSRP and could be purchased for less at Sears, but it still was a shock to see how much more expensive such goods were back then. Ditto for exercise equipment. We've become so accustomed to even large appliances being relatively inexpensive that we tolerate them being mostly disposable instead of repairable.
Right—most of our stuff is so very much cheaper, especially relative to wages, than it was even in the 1980s, let alone earlier. Of course we aren't as interested in repairing our stuff, either DIY or paying to have it repaired.
This goes for food, too. Articles about food waste can be read as articles lamenting that food's so cheap it's not worth trying to recover all that waste.
I'm pretty far from a free-market superfan, but these two particular, perennial stories—"can you believe how much food waste there is?! What a tragedy!" and "nobody repairs anything anymore, what a shame"—amount to complaining that shit's way too cheap, to my eye. Neither's due to carelessness or wastefulness or laziness, really, but economy. Quintuple the prices on everything and watch food waste plummet and interest in repair skills achieve levels not seen in decades. But, like... I'd rather we not.
This goes for food, too. Articles about food waste can be read as articles lamenting that food's so cheap it's not worth trying to recover all that waste.
I'm pretty far from a free-market superfan, but these two particular, perennial stories—"can you believe how much food waste there is?! What a tragedy!" and "nobody repairs anything anymore, what a shame"—amount to complaining that shit's way too cheap, to my eye. Neither's due to carelessness or wastefulness or laziness, really, but economy. Quintuple the prices on everything and watch food waste plummet and interest in repair skills achieve levels not seen in decades. But, like... I'd rather we not.
We could reorganize our entire economy, so that we could live in a world with $200/pair sneakers, $500/month rent, and free universal healthcare. This alternate world would likely be much less carbon-intensive, have a higher life expectancy, and vastly reduced rates of depression and anxiety; unfortunately, as it could reduce profit for shareholders, it could never happen under capitalism
Well, if you want to know what that world looks like, just go back 30 years in time (except for the universal healthcare, in the US).
Was it less carbon-intensive, with higher life expectancy and vastly reduced rates of depression and anxiety back then?
Was it less carbon-intensive, with higher life expectancy and vastly reduced rates of depression and anxiety back then?
It is actually amazing jus how cheap the low end stuff is. Just look at pretty much anything.
Next step to think is that if they can make that for that price. What are we paying for when the price is 2x, 3x, 5x or more? Is the quality and longevity really similar or is there something shared...
Next step to think is that if they can make that for that price. What are we paying for when the price is 2x, 3x, 5x or more? Is the quality and longevity really similar or is there something shared...
> Nobody pays a cobbler $150 to re-sole their $50 sneakers—their $400 leather oxfords, maybe.
I paid a cobbler $90 to resole(and re-cork) my birkenstocks after 2.5 years. It's been 4 years since I've done it, and they aren't even close to where they were when he did it. I honestly just wish I'd done it sooner. He re-corked them as well, but some of that is now falling apart. Might have to go back.
I paid a cobbler $90 to resole(and re-cork) my birkenstocks after 2.5 years. It's been 4 years since I've done it, and they aren't even close to where they were when he did it. I honestly just wish I'd done it sooner. He re-corked them as well, but some of that is now falling apart. Might have to go back.
uh, aren't birkenstocks cork sandals... so if you replace the cork and rubber soles, it's pretty much a new sandal? It's like the question: if you replace the handle of an axe one year and then axe head the next year, is it still the same axe?
No, the main part is the leather. Not all the cork was replaced either, it was just firmed up. Regardless, it's still lasted twice as long as a resole (and I didn't have to break them in) for half the price of new, and they're still going strong.
The Ship of Theseus is still the ship of Theseus. But also because no matter how many parts are replaced, the ship is still owned by Theseus.
0 - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ship_of_Theseus
0 - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ship_of_Theseus
You always say, "I rehandled my axe" - to get a new axe head is to get a new axe; you don't "re-head" an axe. Pedantry aside, yes, the Ship of Theseus.
Additionally, every part of a corporation has to be a "profit center". Including the part that makes service manuals and service parts.
Long ago, I worked at General Motors. Every part travelled through so many departments, divisions and corporations that nothing could be thrown away. Even radios that cost about $20 to make ended up costing the customer about $500 no matter how it got to the customer (in the dash? as a replacement? as an upgrade?). Even the spare parts ended up sometimes costing more than the item that they went into. The rule of thumb was that every time an item changed hands, it was marked up 30%. By the 90s, the rule of thumb was that if you didn't sell that item more than 5 times per year, it was not "worth" keeping the part in inventory.
By the end of my time at GM, I ended up in a group that wrote repair manuals. We were constantly told that just to keep a part number in all of the computer systems and parts lists would cost the company $1500/year. That did not count the cost of keeping even 1 of those parts - just the part number.
> Nobody pays a cobbler $150 to re-sole their $50 sneakers
There are a few people who repair collectable sneakers. Those aren't $50 sneakers anymore, but more like $2k+ sneakers.
WSJ article: https://archive.ph/9Dkjs
Long ago, I worked at General Motors. Every part travelled through so many departments, divisions and corporations that nothing could be thrown away. Even radios that cost about $20 to make ended up costing the customer about $500 no matter how it got to the customer (in the dash? as a replacement? as an upgrade?). Even the spare parts ended up sometimes costing more than the item that they went into. The rule of thumb was that every time an item changed hands, it was marked up 30%. By the 90s, the rule of thumb was that if you didn't sell that item more than 5 times per year, it was not "worth" keeping the part in inventory.
By the end of my time at GM, I ended up in a group that wrote repair manuals. We were constantly told that just to keep a part number in all of the computer systems and parts lists would cost the company $1500/year. That did not count the cost of keeping even 1 of those parts - just the part number.
> Nobody pays a cobbler $150 to re-sole their $50 sneakers
There are a few people who repair collectable sneakers. Those aren't $50 sneakers anymore, but more like $2k+ sneakers.
WSJ article: https://archive.ph/9Dkjs
> we have to make everyone materially poorer first.
that's false. We can also make repairs materially faster (more productive).
Just to illustrate the point with something extreme. If a worker could fix 100 fridges a day, they'd only have to charge like $5 labor.
that's false. We can also make repairs materially faster (more productive).
Just to illustrate the point with something extreme. If a worker could fix 100 fridges a day, they'd only have to charge like $5 labor.
This is a good point, and might actually be viable in some cases. Though I think most of those end up looking less like what we'd think of as repair and more like, I dunno, replacing the batteries in a remote control, or lightbulbs in a lamp. Not that that's necessarily a bad thing, but it's also probably not easy to engineer into a lot of products, especially without driving up the price significantly.
Countering with an adapted proverb: All working applicances are all alike, each broken applicance is broken in its own way.
This might be exaggerating a little bit, but I do think that repairing stuff is inherently more difficult to automate than production, and increased automation is the major way we've seen productivity gains in manufacturing other than offshoring to cheaper countries and shipping things over slowly but cheaply in bulk.
This might be exaggerating a little bit, but I do think that repairing stuff is inherently more difficult to automate than production, and increased automation is the major way we've seen productivity gains in manufacturing other than offshoring to cheaper countries and shipping things over slowly but cheaply in bulk.
The proverb doesnt really address the point. Is your claim is that repairs cannot ever be sufficiently productive to be worth it?
I wouldn't claim "cannot ever" (and after all, to some extent repairs are worth it even under today's conditions), but I do believe repairwork is simply inherently more complex and difficult to automate.
Unlike in assembly, there's not just one happy assembly path that you need to handle – first you always need to diagnose the problem, and then depending on the problem take a variety of actions in order to fix/replace whatever you've identified as the faulty component.
Plus subsequently, even in the ideal case of a widget that's as easy to disassemble/repair as it was to originally assemble (which comes with its own set of trade-offs), any productivity gains in manufacturing that were based on parallelisation are difficult replicate when repairing just a single one-off component. E.g. reflow soldering allows you to efficiently solder large circuit boards with hundreds or more components in one go, but conversely subsequently replacing just a single one of those components therefore doesn't take one hundredth of the original assembly time.
Unlike in assembly, there's not just one happy assembly path that you need to handle – first you always need to diagnose the problem, and then depending on the problem take a variety of actions in order to fix/replace whatever you've identified as the faulty component.
Plus subsequently, even in the ideal case of a widget that's as easy to disassemble/repair as it was to originally assemble (which comes with its own set of trade-offs), any productivity gains in manufacturing that were based on parallelisation are difficult replicate when repairing just a single one-off component. E.g. reflow soldering allows you to efficiently solder large circuit boards with hundreds or more components in one go, but conversely subsequently replacing just a single one of those components therefore doesn't take one hundredth of the original assembly time.
> We stopped repairing stuff because stuff is cheap
However, OP's main example is the NYC metro system, which is decidedly not cheap. A similar problem occurred in SF: BART cars are being replaced with multi-$M cars full of electronics & are now having numerous breakdowns.
BART drivers used to reboot the old trains by flipping 4 sets of switches. Now the reset process has hundreds of steps, so most drivers just take the car offline & call for a mechanic. And there's far more failure modes to the new cars as well. Thus: the new cars are more expensive, more fragile, & harder to maintain. BART scored a perfect 'Reverse Better-Faster-Cheaper'.
How did this happen? Politics & payola. The new proposed cars were barely shown to the public, & only for UX/design feedback.
The tie-in's to capitalism that OP describes are apt too: very big companies tendered their bids for these new cars. Maintainability wasn't a key design feature. It's not just our economic system (capitalism) that isn't interested in maintainability- our political system isn't either. Decision makers who won't be in power to see the need for their shiny new acquisitions to be maintained, never seen to care that they will.
However, OP's main example is the NYC metro system, which is decidedly not cheap. A similar problem occurred in SF: BART cars are being replaced with multi-$M cars full of electronics & are now having numerous breakdowns.
BART drivers used to reboot the old trains by flipping 4 sets of switches. Now the reset process has hundreds of steps, so most drivers just take the car offline & call for a mechanic. And there's far more failure modes to the new cars as well. Thus: the new cars are more expensive, more fragile, & harder to maintain. BART scored a perfect 'Reverse Better-Faster-Cheaper'.
How did this happen? Politics & payola. The new proposed cars were barely shown to the public, & only for UX/design feedback.
The tie-in's to capitalism that OP describes are apt too: very big companies tendered their bids for these new cars. Maintainability wasn't a key design feature. It's not just our economic system (capitalism) that isn't interested in maintainability- our political system isn't either. Decision makers who won't be in power to see the need for their shiny new acquisitions to be maintained, never seen to care that they will.
How do you build modern electronics for a 30-50 year lifespan? What parts do you use?
I happen to know that the Ford EEC-IV engine control module of the 1980s was designed for a 30-year lifespan. Which it delivered; many 1980s vehicles are still running with it. But newer electronics won't last that long. Line sizes are too small, and minor effects such as electromigration cause wear-out.
I happen to know that the Ford EEC-IV engine control module of the 1980s was designed for a 30-year lifespan. Which it delivered; many 1980s vehicles are still running with it. But newer electronics won't last that long. Line sizes are too small, and minor effects such as electromigration cause wear-out.
American metro system problems have nothing to do with Capitalism (TM), in fact several other capitalist countries, like Japan, manage robust metro systems just fine. America hasn't built metro en masse since the '40s and so local expertise on building and maintaining metro isn't there, increasing maintenance cost. In most countries with robust metro systems, cars and rail are standardized, leading to a robust market within the country for parts and a large pool of specialized labor able to debug and maintain these metro systems. In the US, every metro system is a one-off. This is exacerbated by the fractal-nature of local politics in the US which means that there's no general American standard for building rail/metros as each local government comes up with their own bespoke requirements.
BART is a perfect example of this. BART went with non-standard rail gauge and very long trains and stations. This makes it difficult and expensive for BART to buy new cars and fix problems.
BART is a perfect example of this. BART went with non-standard rail gauge and very long trains and stations. This makes it difficult and expensive for BART to buy new cars and fix problems.
Great post. Another point is that the DC metro system also uses a non-standard rail gauge: it's 1/4 inch smaller than standard US gauge for some dumb reason, so of course this makes it more expensive to buy cars. Getting new cars made only happens once a decade or so, and involves getting a big juicy contract, and a whole new assembly plant built in the US somewhere.
Here in Japan, the metro system is great. Trains are always on time, they don't break down (because they actually do maintenance!), there's constantly new construction too. On top of this, the train systems are all privately owned: different companies own the different lines. Even so, they all use the same payment method: a simple contactless debit card (suica or pasmo) that works at every station across the country (as well as in vending machines, restaurants, taxis, and countless other places). It's really amazing just how horrible metro systems in the US are compared to this; it's like going to another planet.
Here in Japan, the metro system is great. Trains are always on time, they don't break down (because they actually do maintenance!), there's constantly new construction too. On top of this, the train systems are all privately owned: different companies own the different lines. Even so, they all use the same payment method: a simple contactless debit card (suica or pasmo) that works at every station across the country (as well as in vending machines, restaurants, taxis, and countless other places). It's really amazing just how horrible metro systems in the US are compared to this; it's like going to another planet.
Generally, you'll find that these non-standard gauges for urban/light rail have good reasons, at least good for the time the decisions about them were made. The history of the TTC gauge used here in Toronto is a great example of that.
Hah, “fix”. Basics like food and electricity is already becoming way more expensive.
Don’t get how someone can write multiple paragraphs on this stuff and not mention “planned obsolesence”. Consumer capitalism is not a lifestyle but an economic system. Every household is supposed to have 1–2 cars, one lawnmower, one electric snow blower, one chainsaw, one of every this and that tool, and so on. And everyone is supposed to buy something new when these things break down. Not fundamentally because labor is expensive but fundamentally because consumer capitalism demands consumption.
Don’t get how someone can write multiple paragraphs on this stuff and not mention “planned obsolesence”. Consumer capitalism is not a lifestyle but an economic system. Every household is supposed to have 1–2 cars, one lawnmower, one electric snow blower, one chainsaw, one of every this and that tool, and so on. And everyone is supposed to buy something new when these things break down. Not fundamentally because labor is expensive but fundamentally because consumer capitalism demands consumption.
In China it's a bit different (or maybe the same thing): The key component is stuff being not very affordable than one's salary. This is no longer true for many Chinese so we are losing the arts anyway. For example my father was never a professional carpenter but he made his own wedding furnitures including a double bed. He did probably know some carpentry from his early work in the factory/farm though.
My colleague in Germany showed his in-law's house and he said that his father in-law built the whole house by himself. Is this something common in Western Europe and especially Germany? I was very impressed as this is something very rare in my country.
This is why I buy Toyotas: someone in the world knows how to fix it and/or makes/warehouses spares for it.
>Is this a US thing?
I like how one counter-example from China means that something is a "US thing". This happens a lot on the internet: "Here's a non-US counter example, that must mean this is US only!"
Here's a YouTube channel that restores things in the US: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCPygLEFniGZmehxouDK-vbw
I like how one counter-example from China means that something is a "US thing". This happens a lot on the internet: "Here's a non-US counter example, that must mean this is US only!"
Here's a YouTube channel that restores things in the US: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCPygLEFniGZmehxouDK-vbw
I think a missing part for the propagation of those skill is being able to learn it as a hobby / side project.
I would love to take some classes (and sign up my teenage son, too), but the adult education classes that I could find in the Boston area do not teach basic woodworking, metalworking, electrical, engines skills anymore (I heard insurance is blamed way more frequently than lack of interest). I would gladly pay good money for tuition and access to a machine shop, but it is impossible to find any options.
Edit: to clarify, I am treating this as a hobby (I am happy with my job working on algorithms for things that fly), not a full-time trade program.
I would love to take some classes (and sign up my teenage son, too), but the adult education classes that I could find in the Boston area do not teach basic woodworking, metalworking, electrical, engines skills anymore (I heard insurance is blamed way more frequently than lack of interest). I would gladly pay good money for tuition and access to a machine shop, but it is impossible to find any options.
Edit: to clarify, I am treating this as a hobby (I am happy with my job working on algorithms for things that fly), not a full-time trade program.
I've been pretty happy with hand tools for woodworking for what it's worth. Cheap(except for the wood), and it's hard to cut off your own arms with hand tools. Lots of good youtube channels (Paul Sellers is awesome).
> It's hard to cut off your own arms with hand tools
Oh you've obvs never met me
Oh you've obvs never met me
Even if there are classes, it's almost surely that they are NOT going to be evening classes. In Canada we have vocational schools and you can have full training for 1-1.5 years, but the problem is, how do I do it when I have a full-time job?
Maybe YouTube videos work too, but I really do not have confidence changing toilets or laying out my own plank wood. Like, how many times do I renovate in my LIFE? Probably just 3-4 times, so if I fuck up once I pretty much take away all values from the other 2-3.
Maybe YouTube videos work too, but I really do not have confidence changing toilets or laying out my own plank wood. Like, how many times do I renovate in my LIFE? Probably just 3-4 times, so if I fuck up once I pretty much take away all values from the other 2-3.
Anecdotal. But the welding instructor at my community college on Van Isle was more than happy to teach a quick weekend to intro welding at our maker space. Was even nice enough to not charge!
My rural northern maine town high school had a "Vocational wing" that taught classes from nursing prep, to childhood development, to cooking, sewing, running a greenhouse growing vegetables, heavy equipment operation including getting your CDL, a class to become a car mechanic, CompTIA+ certification class, entry level business management, etc etc etc. These programs are dirt cheap to run because the educators are paid pennies, and the equipment (computers, loaders, etc) are all local trash procured through people knowing people. Consider spending time in local school board meetings to vouch for these types of programs. Even the "traditional" students aiming for AP classes and 4 year college degrees love these classes.
For more urban places, look for makerspaces or hacker spaces. If you find one that doesn't have the stuff you are looking for, consider donating some entry level versions. One huge problem for urban centers like this is just how much space machinery takes up. You need a large open shop, and that costs a lot.
For more urban places, look for makerspaces or hacker spaces. If you find one that doesn't have the stuff you are looking for, consider donating some entry level versions. One huge problem for urban centers like this is just how much space machinery takes up. You need a large open shop, and that costs a lot.
Totally reasonable suggestion, but did not work well for me. At my previous position at MIT I could use the MIT hobby shop, which was great. But this is only for folks with a campus affiliation.
I checked two maker spaces and they seemed pretty horrible for me. Membership was dirt cheap, so they were full and had a few years of wait times. They had some shared stuff: a laser cutter, a 3D printer and a wood CNC mill, but all in various states of disrepair.
That said, I just did a quick search and it seems like there are a few new ones that, at least on the web, look good. I will check those out.
I checked two maker spaces and they seemed pretty horrible for me. Membership was dirt cheap, so they were full and had a few years of wait times. They had some shared stuff: a laser cutter, a 3D printer and a wood CNC mill, but all in various states of disrepair.
That said, I just did a quick search and it seems like there are a few new ones that, at least on the web, look good. I will check those out.
The university in my town has an Innovation Studio that has woodworking, metalworking, ceramic, textiles, 3d printing, basically everything maker related. Students get in for a cheap rate, non-students pay around $75/month. Not a bad deal really, to get access to all sorts of equipment and classes on how to use the gear. Even has some fancy CNC mills and laser cutters. Perfect for the hobbyist, or maker wanting to expand their skillset.
Artisans Asylum. Took a metalworking class there many years ago when they were still in Somerville. They have all sorts of classes.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Artisan%27s_Asylum
Nevermind adult education, these skills aren't usually taught at even a high school level anymore.
My highschool had the most garbage technical curriculum (southwest US).
My highschool had the most garbage technical curriculum (southwest US).
The ice maker in my Samsung refrigerator has failed. Too late, I now know this is common for the brand. The part costs £100 ($100). The fridge was kind of expensive, with a deli drawer, French doors, etc.
The refrigerant line for the entire fridge loops naked through the ice mechanism. Apparently, it is all too easy to nick the line, bricking the entire appliance.
Accordingly, no repair person will touch it. I’m moderately competent with mechanical and electronic things, and I would try it, but I’d like a second brain, set of eyes and pair of skilled hands. No one is stepping up, presumably to avoid dealing with the hassle we’d have if we fail, myself included.
I do like ice.
Do I:
a) Give it a shot myself risking a £2500 refrigerator.
b) Keep trying to find someone who will fix it. Offer them some kind of waiver on replacement cost if they fail.
c) Continue to make ice in trays, a few at a time, whilst the broken ice maker mocks me.
d) Get a countertop ice maker for £100.
The refrigerant line for the entire fridge loops naked through the ice mechanism. Apparently, it is all too easy to nick the line, bricking the entire appliance.
Accordingly, no repair person will touch it. I’m moderately competent with mechanical and electronic things, and I would try it, but I’d like a second brain, set of eyes and pair of skilled hands. No one is stepping up, presumably to avoid dealing with the hassle we’d have if we fail, myself included.
I do like ice.
Do I:
a) Give it a shot myself risking a £2500 refrigerator.
b) Keep trying to find someone who will fix it. Offer them some kind of waiver on replacement cost if they fail.
c) Continue to make ice in trays, a few at a time, whilst the broken ice maker mocks me.
d) Get a countertop ice maker for £100.
I know it’s too late for you, but I have a personal rule that’s served me very well: never touch any Samsung device ever. You can’t avoid the chips they make as part of other devices or appliances but that seems ok.
The Samsung branded appliances and devices however are total garbage and Samsung dgaf. It might actually be part of their business model.
I have rarely heard someone say how happy they are with their Samsung anything, especially not their fridges and other appliances. “Built to fail” is something that often comes up, however.
The Samsung branded appliances and devices however are total garbage and Samsung dgaf. It might actually be part of their business model.
I have rarely heard someone say how happy they are with their Samsung anything, especially not their fridges and other appliances. “Built to fail” is something that often comes up, however.
My dad has repeatedly installed samsung appliances, especially one of their dishwashers, in all his housing projects (as a general contractor) because they are "very quiet". Meanwhile, ever single one of them, for two decades now, fails and becomes useless within a year because a stupid water level sensor is exposed to the dishwasher environment in such a way that it gets dirty and tells the system computer to not do anything. "It's an easy fix" he says. If you replace the part, it will just fail again.
I think he might be stupid. He does not get a kickback for this.
I think he might be stupid. He does not get a kickback for this.
Does he get paid to install / repair?
It's so sad to see such a rapid decline. In the early 2000s every Samsung device I bought was well made and unbreakable.
Every Samsung device I have bought since maybe 2010 including my refrigerator and dishwasher have been total junk. I've had our refrigerator repaired so many times in the last 8 years it's just unreasonable.
Every Samsung device I have bought since maybe 2010 including my refrigerator and dishwasher have been total junk. I've had our refrigerator repaired so many times in the last 8 years it's just unreasonable.
We "bought" a Samsung fridge last black friday. Something extraordinary happened. Their system failed to deliver us the fridge. We had to reschedule the delivery since we were staying at the parents' for Thanksgiving a few extra days. It just never got delivered. It seemed like it was XPO's screwup, but it was hilarious to me that they could not get their system working well enough to even get the fridge to show up at our house.
Screw Samsung.
Screw Samsung.
You might have dodged a bullet!
I have a neighbor who does external lighting. Highly recommends Samsung lighting because it outlasts everything else he has used previously.
I would like to know which fridge company is the most reliable. My samsung fridge and washer/drier bought in 2013 are still running good. I heard bad things about LG compressor in fridges, but their cordless vacuum is outstanding. I will probably never trust GE.
I think the reason why fridges are so bad now is because manufacturers are chasing foods energy efficiency ratings. And to do so they basically put an underpowered compressor in it so that it uses less energy per unit of volume and achieves a better rating. The problem is that this drives the compressor too hard but just enough so that it generally fails after the warranty expires. That’s what I was told.
Same as how far manufacturers will make their cars heavier on purpose to achieve a better energy rating because the formula is basically engine power divided by total car weight. So a big engine on a small car has a worse rating that the same engine on a heavier car.
Anyway, another good tip I heard was to talk to appliance repair shops and ask them which ones they repair the least. And that’s the ones that are worth buying.
Same as how far manufacturers will make their cars heavier on purpose to achieve a better energy rating because the formula is basically engine power divided by total car weight. So a big engine on a small car has a worse rating that the same engine on a heavier car.
Anyway, another good tip I heard was to talk to appliance repair shops and ask them which ones they repair the least. And that’s the ones that are worth buying.
… and for washing machines the efficiency rating is apparently based on an amount of washing that is a fixed proportion of the machine's nominal capacity, which is supposedly why smaller washing machines no longer exist.
(I.e. an 8 kg washing machine used at 80 % = 6,4 kg or whatever other fixed percentage is more efficient than a 5 kg machine used with 4 kg = 80 % of washing – what the test doesn't care about is that if you keep the absolute amount of washing fixed, 4 kg in an 8 kg-machine of course becomes less efficient).
(I.e. an 8 kg washing machine used at 80 % = 6,4 kg or whatever other fixed percentage is more efficient than a 5 kg machine used with 4 kg = 80 % of washing – what the test doesn't care about is that if you keep the absolute amount of washing fixed, 4 kg in an 8 kg-machine of course becomes less efficient).
I bought at least 5 or 6 LG linear inverter compressor refrigerators since 2019 and they are all going great, with zero noise.
I think they had issues with their initial models, but they may have improved them. I mainly stick to LG appliances from Costco. But I also avoid getting appliances with fancy features like see through doors and crap. I don’t even get ice dispensers, just the ice bucket inside the freezer works.
I think they had issues with their initial models, but they may have improved them. I mainly stick to LG appliances from Costco. But I also avoid getting appliances with fancy features like see through doors and crap. I don’t even get ice dispensers, just the ice bucket inside the freezer works.
Just get a single door convertible or a top freezer bottom fridge style. Something made for commercial use can also work. Complexity is the enemy of reliability.
The reason freezers are at the top isn’t because it’s best to have frozen food at eye level, it’s because that’s where the refrigerant expands and is coolest and then it takes on heat as it condenses again and descends through the fridge.
Convertibles are great because you can have either a fridge or a freezer with the flip of a switch. Get 2 of them and you have way more space for about the price of a french door fridge.
The reason freezers are at the top isn’t because it’s best to have frozen food at eye level, it’s because that’s where the refrigerant expands and is coolest and then it takes on heat as it condenses again and descends through the fridge.
Convertibles are great because you can have either a fridge or a freezer with the flip of a switch. Get 2 of them and you have way more space for about the price of a french door fridge.
I buy ge/whirlpool/Electrolux/Maytag and just plan on doing repairs with cheap available parts
Heh I have also had trouble with a higher end model's ice maker. I have donated about half a pint of blood over several stabs at fixing it. Even after I ended up moving and renting the place, the new tenant who also considered himself pretty handy gave a bunch of goes at it too to no avail.
It seems like such a simple device, yet they are devilish to diagnose and repair apparently!
It seems like such a simple device, yet they are devilish to diagnose and repair apparently!
Ice makers are the #1 failure mode of refrigerators.
Between being broken, taking up freezer space, having weird plumbing, having water that doesn't move often so grows bacteria, needing filters which nobody ever changes, etc. the best maintenance idea is simply to not have an ice maker.
I'm sure that some people get more value out of an ice maker than a couple of ice trays in the freezer. I'm just not sure I've ever met them.
Between being broken, taking up freezer space, having weird plumbing, having water that doesn't move often so grows bacteria, needing filters which nobody ever changes, etc. the best maintenance idea is simply to not have an ice maker.
I'm sure that some people get more value out of an ice maker than a couple of ice trays in the freezer. I'm just not sure I've ever met them.
Meanwhile the dirt cheap kenmore I had my entire life had an ice maker that never had a problem. It seems more common on the more expensive appliances. It just seems like they overcomplicate and don't build in redundancy or repairability to save a couple bucks.
> It just seems like they overcomplicate and don't build in redundancy or repairability to save a couple bucks.
No, they want you to buy another one aka premature/planned obsolescence. Best bet is to research heavily and hope to find a manufacturer who doesn't do that.
No, they want you to buy another one aka premature/planned obsolescence. Best bet is to research heavily and hope to find a manufacturer who doesn't do that.
> the best maintenance idea is simply to not have an ice maker.
Agree completely. Unfortunately this seems like a very rare option at the higher end.
Agree completely. Unfortunately this seems like a very rare option at the higher end.
I think ice makers just got too fancy. I mean, now they do water dispensing, cubed ice, crushed ice, even party ice or whatever that stupid trend is called.
My best working ice makers, by far, were the kind that just dumped ice into an internal bucket, with a small wire to detect when full, and you'd grab it yourself. Not at all common, anymore at least.
When I was shopping for a replacement refrigerator, I found that there were very few models available without an ice-maker. The store carried about 25 models of double-door fridges, but only one was without ice & water dispensers.
The root problem seems to be that ice makers are an afterthought / outsourced on any price freezer.
Consequently, they're designed to minimal reliability, lasting just long enough to outstrip the warranty.
Consequently, they're designed to minimal reliability, lasting just long enough to outstrip the warranty.
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We also had one of these side by sides. I replaced the icemaker twice and the icemaker circuit board once over a period of about 12 years. I finally replaced the whole thing last year with a new refrigerator after the freezer light quit working and the easiest, cheapest replacement part did not fix the issue. For what we paid initially and for the other icemakers I would not buy a Samsung again.
If you ever need replacement parts for any home appliances you should go to one of these places [0], [1] where you can get OEM parts instead of aftermarket parts that may not work great.
[0] https://www.appliancepartspros.com/
[1] https://www.ereplacementparts.com/appliance-parts.html
Both sites have exploded diagrams that help you find the part you need and in many cases they have videos to show how to do the repair.
If you ever need replacement parts for any home appliances you should go to one of these places [0], [1] where you can get OEM parts instead of aftermarket parts that may not work great.
[0] https://www.appliancepartspros.com/
[1] https://www.ereplacementparts.com/appliance-parts.html
Both sites have exploded diagrams that help you find the part you need and in many cases they have videos to show how to do the repair.
I had two refrigerators fail on me the past 5 years. The first one was Bosch, but just in name, all the parts were from someone else. Managed to fix it by replacing the compressor controller board, bought it either from Ebay or from the oem parts sites mentioned elsewhere. The second was a Samsung that has a well known manufacturing defect on the defrosting system. There's several very useful repair videos on YouTube with exact same problem. Got the replacement / improvement part from aliexpress for $3, it's been running better than before since then.
Yep, the Samsung failure is very well known… once it fails. I swear I looked at reviews beforehand, but they change models and otherwise obfuscate, whilst the other decisionmaking party gets fixated on the damn deli drawer, which, I have to say, is kind of nice.
What $3 part fixed your ice defroster? For my fridge the videos sure looked like I needed to swap out the whole contraption.
What $3 part fixed your ice defroster? For my fridge the videos sure looked like I needed to swap out the whole contraption.
Or E) Buy the same exact appliance on Gumtree or whatever Craigslist approximator is currently available for probably something like 400 :-)
You could also guilt trip Samsung on Twitter and they might replace it for free
You could also guilt trip Samsung on Twitter and they might replace it for free
I recently fixed a AV switcher (HD cinema stuff with custom programming by a media tech company) this way. The device costed 9k€ back in the day.
One day it died and took the whole room with itself. Because it also controlled the lights via DALI no light could be switched on or off in that room.
I figured out that the 24V "Medical Grade" (?) Made in China powersupply was toast. The typical bloated and leaking electrolytic capacitors were no surprise after nearly a decade of 24/7 operation. But there was also an exploded SOIC-14 IC by STM that I could not identify because coincidentally it was just the manufacturer part number that had been vaporized. A search for suspect parts didn't yield any results.
I checked ebay and found a used device for 100 Euros and bought it. The used device also had a broken PSU. But the IC was working (and yeah, nothing you would be able to buy). So I swapped the capacitors and everything worked again.
A replacement for that unit including programming would have costed my company 20k at least.
One day it died and took the whole room with itself. Because it also controlled the lights via DALI no light could be switched on or off in that room.
I figured out that the 24V "Medical Grade" (?) Made in China powersupply was toast. The typical bloated and leaking electrolytic capacitors were no surprise after nearly a decade of 24/7 operation. But there was also an exploded SOIC-14 IC by STM that I could not identify because coincidentally it was just the manufacturer part number that had been vaporized. A search for suspect parts didn't yield any results.
I checked ebay and found a used device for 100 Euros and bought it. The used device also had a broken PSU. But the IC was working (and yeah, nothing you would be able to buy). So I swapped the capacitors and everything worked again.
A replacement for that unit including programming would have costed my company 20k at least.
I approach appliances with the Unix philosophy. One thing to do one thing well -- or at least only one thing to be replaced when one of them breaks. And if I find a genuinely good item I can keep using it even if other machines break.
Proper choice for you is d), b/c from what you posted it seems like the best tradeoff and risk profile. I did it about 6 months ago and am thrilled. And my icemaker isn't even broken!
Yeah, I’m leaning that way. Other single-purpose devices have been successful - rice cooker, sodastream, slow cooker, etc. Time for a Dr. Pete and a reckoning.
Maybe an air fryer too. Even my minimalist, gourmet wife regards it as indispensable.
Agree! I didn’t get to pick the fridge, but I did get to pick the cooker, and it’s got dual convection ovens, ftw. The cracklings, the bread crust, the baking soda roasted potatoes, all winners.
I’m looking for a US-style toaster oven. Hard to find here. The cooker has a grill too (heat from the top, close to the food) but it takes too long to heat up and then suddenly gets too hot, plus you can’t see in easily. OK for sausages, not so good for a tuna melt.
I’m looking for a US-style toaster oven. Hard to find here. The cooker has a grill too (heat from the top, close to the food) but it takes too long to heat up and then suddenly gets too hot, plus you can’t see in easily. OK for sausages, not so good for a tuna melt.
I recently got bit by the pinball bug, and while reading this article all I could think about is that maintenance is part of the hobby. And for some it's all the hobby.
Buying a pinball machine is expensive. Prices on used machines range from free to thousands (and ten thousand+ for really in demand ones). After you buy the machine, assuming it works, there's maintenance that occurs on the machine as a direct function of how often the machine is played. Maintaining that machine can be on you for parts and labor, or someone who comes to your home for 100$/hour (or so) +parts. There's no escaping the labor. You have to do it, or the pinball machine stops working. The maintenance ranges from simple cleaning this and that, all the way to removing components from boards, and rewiring destroyed traces.
I love this about the hobby, and it's probably my favorite part. I like maintaining the machines probably more than I like playing them.
Buying a pinball machine is expensive. Prices on used machines range from free to thousands (and ten thousand+ for really in demand ones). After you buy the machine, assuming it works, there's maintenance that occurs on the machine as a direct function of how often the machine is played. Maintaining that machine can be on you for parts and labor, or someone who comes to your home for 100$/hour (or so) +parts. There's no escaping the labor. You have to do it, or the pinball machine stops working. The maintenance ranges from simple cleaning this and that, all the way to removing components from boards, and rewiring destroyed traces.
I love this about the hobby, and it's probably my favorite part. I like maintaining the machines probably more than I like playing them.
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The last time I paid a general appliance repairman to fix my dishwasher, he replaced it with a nonstandard part. It semi-functioned for another couple years, but it generally had a hard time self-cleaning its own filter, which lead to lots of strange and persistent problems. Eventually, the dishwasher failed, causing a leak that required a lot of the flooring around it to be replaced.
I should have just purchased a new dishwasher at the time that GE's planned obsolescence part failed, right at the end of its warranty period.
So, what the article misses is that a lot of the suppression of maintenance providers is related to how our intellectual property regime has been crafted. The statutes and case law give corporations enormous power that they did not really have in previous eras to control supply chains and documentation. There are other factors feeding into this, but if you are looking for a solution to this set of issues it lies within IP reform first and foremost, although that would have its own set of tradeoffs and consequences.
I should have just purchased a new dishwasher at the time that GE's planned obsolescence part failed, right at the end of its warranty period.
So, what the article misses is that a lot of the suppression of maintenance providers is related to how our intellectual property regime has been crafted. The statutes and case law give corporations enormous power that they did not really have in previous eras to control supply chains and documentation. There are other factors feeding into this, but if you are looking for a solution to this set of issues it lies within IP reform first and foremost, although that would have its own set of tradeoffs and consequences.
When Welch was CEO at GE, one of his commandments was that there had to be profit centers everywhere. If the "service department" could not figure out how to become a profit center, then he got rid of it. Because Wall Street and all the business journals worshipped Welch, his ideas spread like cancer throughout the corporate world.
Designing for maintenance often means designing for failure; for example, I want to design my kitchen under the assumption the dishwasher will fail and flood the room, such that it drains safely away without causing damage.
Sure, the consequence of our IP regime is that there is a temptation to design to milk those failures as a revenue source.
With a different IP regime one could imagine incentives that allowed a "right to repair" where IP violation done as a part of a owner commissioned repair were widely accepted or a manufacturer forfeit's the IP when they cease stocking the part defined as "admit they don't stock it" or "do not have it in stock for 6 total months of a year"
With a different IP regime one could imagine incentives that allowed a "right to repair" where IP violation done as a part of a owner commissioned repair were widely accepted or a manufacturer forfeit's the IP when they cease stocking the part defined as "admit they don't stock it" or "do not have it in stock for 6 total months of a year"
Then your kitchen (and laundry room, etc) would have to be properly designed and built, with drains, and a floor sloped to them, waterproof and mold proof materials.
Maybe even a sub-panel so the major appliances and each wall outlet were each on their own circuit and you could plug in a waffle maker and toaster oven on the same wall without popping a circuit breaker.
Maybe even a sub-panel so the major appliances and each wall outlet were each on their own circuit and you could plug in a waffle maker and toaster oven on the same wall without popping a circuit breaker.
I’m all about maintenance, but mostly in a literal sense. It turns out that there’s another definition of that word in the real estate world.
I sold a house a few years ago that the real estate agent described as having “deferred maintenance“, which annoyed me. Because I always maintain my houses scrupulously.
Fast forward a few years later and I now understand that phrase actually means “it’s not decorated in the current style“. The fact that I don’t spare gigantic expenses such as major electrical or floor repairs, massive septic field projects, replacing large drainage systems, central air conditioning, etc. all at tremendous costs, is irrelevant to people who use the phrase “deferred maintenance“.
They don’t care at all whether I just replaced a pool pump or expensive air conditioner just before selling. No one who buys a house from me is going to have to replace their pipes or ducts within the next 20 years, but that just isn’t a selling point.
I sold a house a few years ago that the real estate agent described as having “deferred maintenance“, which annoyed me. Because I always maintain my houses scrupulously.
Fast forward a few years later and I now understand that phrase actually means “it’s not decorated in the current style“. The fact that I don’t spare gigantic expenses such as major electrical or floor repairs, massive septic field projects, replacing large drainage systems, central air conditioning, etc. all at tremendous costs, is irrelevant to people who use the phrase “deferred maintenance“.
They don’t care at all whether I just replaced a pool pump or expensive air conditioner just before selling. No one who buys a house from me is going to have to replace their pipes or ducts within the next 20 years, but that just isn’t a selling point.
That was just a bad agent. If you kept proof of recent repairs and capital investments, and showed them to prospective sellers, they would definitely value them. Assuming that the price of the land of your house is not 80% of the price of your house.
That agent is clearly ignorant. Also not serving their clients well because cosmetic stuff is easy to do, while below-the-surface repairs are often a lot more expensive.
I work in the tech industry. I'm somewhat rare in that I also work on my own vehicles, do my own maintenance, repair things, build my own stuff around the property, etc. A lot of coworkers at various places I've worked over the years view this as somewhere between "eccentric" and "slightly mad." "Why would you do that yourself, just pay someone else to do it!" is the common sentiment.
But even with electronics, in an office full of tech workers, I still seemed to be one of very few who was willing to get my hands dirty. I had a steady side stream of evening projects repairing phones, laptops, etc (or, more usually, buying the broken ones, fixing them or merging them together into working ones, and then selling the working ones). I was also, far as I could tell, the only one in an office of >1000 willing to do things like take a soldering iron to a laptop to repair a failed power jack, or even just do things like taking a laptop substantially apart to replace a power input board with a new one.
It never made any sense to me that I was the only one willing to do this sort of stuff. It's paid off well over the years, but it's quite baffling.
This, of course, means that a lot of new things seem to be designed by people who've never had to work on things or repair them, with the expected results of "This is more painful to repair than it has any business being, because you never thought about it." Some of the best vehicles I've worked on over the years were old gen Subarus - EA82, so late 80s wagons. Every time I had to do something on them, it felt like the engineers had considered that someone would have to do this, and made it as easy as possible within the design. Things like the fuel filter were on the firewall, instead of under the vehicle out of the way. The fuel pump was on a skid plate in front of the tank, instead of in the tank. There was a storage compartment in the back that would fit a CV axle, should you want to carry your old one. Etc. They were simple, and easy to work on - so I drove them for quite a few years.
But even today, I still constantly see the sentiment that "Well, it doesn't matter if it's easy to fix, we'll just recycle it and build a new one!" Usually in fields where recycling is poorly defined, at best - consumer electronics and EVs draw this sort of thing frequently. I view that as complete madness, because it's always going to be cheaper to repair something (at least if it wasn't a glued together hell to repair) than to crush it and replace it, but... again, this is an oddly minority view in the tech industry.
I'm not sure how to fix it. We have a lot of people who are afraid to get their hands dirty, designing the things that are supposed to be the future of our civilization. That's a real problem.
> No amount of utopian dreaming can make a battery hold any more energy or a piece of steel bear any more weight than it’s designed for.
Yeah. That describes an awful lot of the problems we're facing...
But even with electronics, in an office full of tech workers, I still seemed to be one of very few who was willing to get my hands dirty. I had a steady side stream of evening projects repairing phones, laptops, etc (or, more usually, buying the broken ones, fixing them or merging them together into working ones, and then selling the working ones). I was also, far as I could tell, the only one in an office of >1000 willing to do things like take a soldering iron to a laptop to repair a failed power jack, or even just do things like taking a laptop substantially apart to replace a power input board with a new one.
It never made any sense to me that I was the only one willing to do this sort of stuff. It's paid off well over the years, but it's quite baffling.
This, of course, means that a lot of new things seem to be designed by people who've never had to work on things or repair them, with the expected results of "This is more painful to repair than it has any business being, because you never thought about it." Some of the best vehicles I've worked on over the years were old gen Subarus - EA82, so late 80s wagons. Every time I had to do something on them, it felt like the engineers had considered that someone would have to do this, and made it as easy as possible within the design. Things like the fuel filter were on the firewall, instead of under the vehicle out of the way. The fuel pump was on a skid plate in front of the tank, instead of in the tank. There was a storage compartment in the back that would fit a CV axle, should you want to carry your old one. Etc. They were simple, and easy to work on - so I drove them for quite a few years.
But even today, I still constantly see the sentiment that "Well, it doesn't matter if it's easy to fix, we'll just recycle it and build a new one!" Usually in fields where recycling is poorly defined, at best - consumer electronics and EVs draw this sort of thing frequently. I view that as complete madness, because it's always going to be cheaper to repair something (at least if it wasn't a glued together hell to repair) than to crush it and replace it, but... again, this is an oddly minority view in the tech industry.
I'm not sure how to fix it. We have a lot of people who are afraid to get their hands dirty, designing the things that are supposed to be the future of our civilization. That's a real problem.
> No amount of utopian dreaming can make a battery hold any more energy or a piece of steel bear any more weight than it’s designed for.
Yeah. That describes an awful lot of the problems we're facing...
I'm like you. I fix my own things including vehicles.
In the past, schools had shop classes and home economics. I took both when I was growing up. Many schools don't have these classes anymore so kids don't get a foundation in being hands on. They don't get comfortable doing their own things. I think this is bad for society.
I know retired folks who work as handy men who have people in their 20's and early 30's as clients. They do simple things like hang pictures on walls (not joking).
Skilled trades working in plumbing, electrical work, carpentry, and so forth are going to be in higher demand in the future. Many are hitting retirement age and the back fill behind them isn't happening. This is happening at the same time construction is going up. Where I live it's almost impossible to find someone to do minor work around your house. Everyone is off doing the big ticket jobs.
Of course, the idea of recycle old things and buy new isn't working out so well. It's often throw out the old (where we fill dumps at increasing rates) and buy new. Setup by companies who make more money that way. For their financial benefit rather than our or our planets benefit.
Fixing things has never been easier. You can learn a ton a youtube these days. There are books, too. Parts are easier than ever to find and order.
In the past, schools had shop classes and home economics. I took both when I was growing up. Many schools don't have these classes anymore so kids don't get a foundation in being hands on. They don't get comfortable doing their own things. I think this is bad for society.
I know retired folks who work as handy men who have people in their 20's and early 30's as clients. They do simple things like hang pictures on walls (not joking).
Skilled trades working in plumbing, electrical work, carpentry, and so forth are going to be in higher demand in the future. Many are hitting retirement age and the back fill behind them isn't happening. This is happening at the same time construction is going up. Where I live it's almost impossible to find someone to do minor work around your house. Everyone is off doing the big ticket jobs.
Of course, the idea of recycle old things and buy new isn't working out so well. It's often throw out the old (where we fill dumps at increasing rates) and buy new. Setup by companies who make more money that way. For their financial benefit rather than our or our planets benefit.
Fixing things has never been easier. You can learn a ton a youtube these days. There are books, too. Parts are easier than ever to find and order.
A bit tangential, but construction isn't rising. More houses were built in Los Angeles in the 50s than today. More in New York in the 20s. But the populations are far larger and expand more. (Hence the explosion in housing prices.)
Viewing the data is a bit less extreme at first: https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/HOUST You can see that we are around the mean today. However the population is 2x larger...
Viewing the data is a bit less extreme at first: https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/HOUST You can see that we are around the mean today. However the population is 2x larger...
also, reduction in household sizes.
all wealthy countries have observed significant falls in household size over the past century. tenements used to have whole multigenerational households in a single room. that's obviously not tenable today (and it shouldn't be) but now the same amount of people needs more units.
all wealthy countries have observed significant falls in household size over the past century. tenements used to have whole multigenerational households in a single room. that's obviously not tenable today (and it shouldn't be) but now the same amount of people needs more units.
That graph shows new development rising. It’s not as high as it once was but it’s an upward trend. The valley was around 12-13 years ago.
Talking to people currently in the industry, they are busier than they’ve been in years. I know people trying to find contractors for small jobs who can’t.
NY and CA may not be having a lot of new construction. But, other places are. California is seeing a population decline
Talking to people currently in the industry, they are busier than they’ve been in years. I know people trying to find contractors for small jobs who can’t.
NY and CA may not be having a lot of new construction. But, other places are. California is seeing a population decline
>>Parts are easier than ever to find and order.
So true. I was surprised to be able to replace a circuit board on a (probably) 20 year old garage door opener. Surprised, in that I had no knowledge of the things, couldn't really be sure I was searching for the right part, no instructions for replacement on YouTube, etc. Fortunately you could look at the drive, see that there was a PC board in there which was screwed in so you could remove it and look it over, google the part number.
Pretty sure if I had called a specialist out to repair it, they would have told me it's not worth repairing, hard to get parts, will just break again in a different way due to its age, just get a new one. And that argument is probably both true and well intended.
So true. I was surprised to be able to replace a circuit board on a (probably) 20 year old garage door opener. Surprised, in that I had no knowledge of the things, couldn't really be sure I was searching for the right part, no instructions for replacement on YouTube, etc. Fortunately you could look at the drive, see that there was a PC board in there which was screwed in so you could remove it and look it over, google the part number.
Pretty sure if I had called a specialist out to repair it, they would have told me it's not worth repairing, hard to get parts, will just break again in a different way due to its age, just get a new one. And that argument is probably both true and well intended.
So I’m one of those people who doesn’t know how to fix anything; I wish I did! I’ll tell you what holds me back: I didn’t grow up around anyone particularly handy, so I don’t know what I don’t know.
Simple example: I was trying to hang some shades in my kid’s room. First set went in fine, second set, my drill hit something too hard for it (brick? Metal?). At this point I’m kind of stuck. I can search Google for this scenario but it’s hard to know conclusively which situation I’m in, and I don’t know how dangerous or destructive what I’m doing could be.
This is probably laughable to lots of you who know, intuitively from experience, what’s happening and what to do, but for someone who had no idea like me, it’s pretty intimidating.
(Coda: we bought stick-on shades and they were trivially easy to install and worked great)
Simple example: I was trying to hang some shades in my kid’s room. First set went in fine, second set, my drill hit something too hard for it (brick? Metal?). At this point I’m kind of stuck. I can search Google for this scenario but it’s hard to know conclusively which situation I’m in, and I don’t know how dangerous or destructive what I’m doing could be.
This is probably laughable to lots of you who know, intuitively from experience, what’s happening and what to do, but for someone who had no idea like me, it’s pretty intimidating.
(Coda: we bought stick-on shades and they were trivially easy to install and worked great)
I understand the predicament where you have a project that needs to be completed but you don't have the background skills to understand how to do it efficiently or at all.
I would like to point you to a subreddit [0] where you can get answers to questions like the one you described. There are lots of people like myself who hang out looking for inexperienced people who just need guidance since they already have the motivation.
[0] https://old.reddit.com/r/DIY
People post everything from complex projects that took them multiple months to complete to ordinary maintenance tasks like replacing light fixtures or door knobs.
I hang out there a lot. I'm a guy who grew up fixing things and just never stopped even when I had the money to pay someone else. I (we) don't mind passing on useful skills to inexperienced people. It's very satisfying to know that someone tackled a problem that they thought was difficult and solved it using something you recommended.
Good luck!
I would like to point you to a subreddit [0] where you can get answers to questions like the one you described. There are lots of people like myself who hang out looking for inexperienced people who just need guidance since they already have the motivation.
[0] https://old.reddit.com/r/DIY
People post everything from complex projects that took them multiple months to complete to ordinary maintenance tasks like replacing light fixtures or door knobs.
I hang out there a lot. I'm a guy who grew up fixing things and just never stopped even when I had the money to pay someone else. I (we) don't mind passing on useful skills to inexperienced people. It's very satisfying to know that someone tackled a problem that they thought was difficult and solved it using something you recommended.
Good luck!
You probably hit a "nail plate" or just happened to hit a drywall screw directly.
It can be really hard to start off without someone to at least bounce ideas off of over a beer; one of the nice things about knowing handy people, for sure.
It can be really hard to start off without someone to at least bounce ideas off of over a beer; one of the nice things about knowing handy people, for sure.
>I didn’t grow up around anyone particularly handy
I grew up in a similar household. Fortunately I was the handyman for my family. I never had tools but I used to improvise. I also used to fix some of my hot wheel toy cars and I longed for a soldering iron and pliers.
Now I really wished I could learn in a more formal way on how to repair and maintain things. I have severe anxiety dealing with people and the attitude and workmanship of some of the repairmen makes my anxiety worse.
I grew up in a similar household. Fortunately I was the handyman for my family. I never had tools but I used to improvise. I also used to fix some of my hot wheel toy cars and I longed for a soldering iron and pliers.
Now I really wished I could learn in a more formal way on how to repair and maintain things. I have severe anxiety dealing with people and the attitude and workmanship of some of the repairmen makes my anxiety worse.
Kudos for you on starting a new life long addicting hobby. One of the things in repairs is that sometime you encounter problems that force you to learn new things. Why is there a metal or brick in your wall? What can you do next time to know if a particular wall has a metal or brick? Learning how to solve these kind of problems is what makes them so fun. I've ruined countless things over the years but managed to fixed much much more.
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Oddly, I've gotten a similar response when I tell people I'm building my own house by hand instead of hiring contractors.
When they ask "why on earth would you do that," I just say: "because we're rapidly moving toward a point where nobody actually knows how to do anything because they just hired someone else to do it and now those people don't exist (and other people weren't interested in inheriting their knowledge). 20 years down the road, I'd like to be able to fix stuff when it breaks without having to wait months, years, or potentially never to get it fixed."
There's a deep, deep need for a resurgence of DIY culture across the board.
When they ask "why on earth would you do that," I just say: "because we're rapidly moving toward a point where nobody actually knows how to do anything because they just hired someone else to do it and now those people don't exist (and other people weren't interested in inheriting their knowledge). 20 years down the road, I'd like to be able to fix stuff when it breaks without having to wait months, years, or potentially never to get it fixed."
There's a deep, deep need for a resurgence of DIY culture across the board.
If I had the time, I would have a house built by others when it comes to concrete, framing, roof, electrical and drywall. The repetitive skills those tradesmen have is far more efficient than DIY. I quickly learned that by watching concrete videos on youtube of professionals. For DIY, I've come to appreciate the time and quality it takes to do the finishing work such trim. Oil based paint with high VOCs can't be bought in California unless it is small such as a pint or quart, but it's the most durable and looks the nicest for trim. It can be ordered online from out of state though.
I'm building for myself without concrete, stick-frame or drywall. I decided to go more traditional with stone and timber frame joinery. It's an approach that takes a lot more attention in the labour and is hard to mass produce but will last as close to indefinitely as anything can, as well as being more environmentally friendly.
Doing this has given me a much stronger appreciation for how much we rely on fossil combustion in all the basic infrastructure of our society. Producing things for longevity is going to be a big part of reducing our carbon emissions, otherwise we just need to lug all that heavy concrete or steel or whatever around again every couple decades when we remake the poorly made things.
Doing this has given me a much stronger appreciation for how much we rely on fossil combustion in all the basic infrastructure of our society. Producing things for longevity is going to be a big part of reducing our carbon emissions, otherwise we just need to lug all that heavy concrete or steel or whatever around again every couple decades when we remake the poorly made things.
> I'm not sure how to fix it. We have a lot of people who are afraid to get their hands dirty, designing the things that are supposed to be the future of our civilization. That's a real problem.
I think "garbage" disposal is way too cheap: books, clothing and electronics are things that should be really expensive to throw away as most often they can be re-used, re-purposed or at least gutted. When disposing them as garbage is more expensive and less convenient than finding someone who wants to take the stuff, people will be motivated to at least donate them.
I think "garbage" disposal is way too cheap: books, clothing and electronics are things that should be really expensive to throw away as most often they can be re-used, re-purposed or at least gutted. When disposing them as garbage is more expensive and less convenient than finding someone who wants to take the stuff, people will be motivated to at least donate them.
Getting rid of trash service would solve a lot, yes... though it would take some adjustments. It's a lot harder if you're denser urban.
I got tired of paying a lot of money to have trash hauled, so I solved it around our property. I built a trash trailer out of some old stuff laying at a relative's place (old pickup bed trailer and a topper, some new plywood for the bottom, some Great Stuff foam to seal it up, and a couple used tires), and I now haul trash every 18 months, aiming for 24 months. Food waste goes to the property cats or the compost bins, and I'm able to separate out almost all our waste stream into assorted recycling or reusable packing material (boxes, newspaper, random padding, stuff like that gets reused either by me or by some other people locally with some ecommerce sorts of sales flows). Very little ends up in the trash trailer, and it's not organic, so it just sits there until I haul it.
It's really quite eye opening just how much waste there is in the normal flows of packaging material. I have a local(ish...) way to deal with plastic waste, so I can deal with the "mixed unusual plastics" in a recycling flow as well (it goes to be burned to offset coal use in a cement kiln over in Utah), but that makes up an awful lot of volume in our waste.
With the metal recycling, though, I'm "net positive" on annual trash spend now, and I'm far better able to optimize our waste streams down than I was before. But I also recognize this isn't something that will scale nearly as easily as I can do it.
I got tired of paying a lot of money to have trash hauled, so I solved it around our property. I built a trash trailer out of some old stuff laying at a relative's place (old pickup bed trailer and a topper, some new plywood for the bottom, some Great Stuff foam to seal it up, and a couple used tires), and I now haul trash every 18 months, aiming for 24 months. Food waste goes to the property cats or the compost bins, and I'm able to separate out almost all our waste stream into assorted recycling or reusable packing material (boxes, newspaper, random padding, stuff like that gets reused either by me or by some other people locally with some ecommerce sorts of sales flows). Very little ends up in the trash trailer, and it's not organic, so it just sits there until I haul it.
It's really quite eye opening just how much waste there is in the normal flows of packaging material. I have a local(ish...) way to deal with plastic waste, so I can deal with the "mixed unusual plastics" in a recycling flow as well (it goes to be burned to offset coal use in a cement kiln over in Utah), but that makes up an awful lot of volume in our waste.
With the metal recycling, though, I'm "net positive" on annual trash spend now, and I'm far better able to optimize our waste streams down than I was before. But I also recognize this isn't something that will scale nearly as easily as I can do it.
My trash pickup is included in my rent, but to take out the trash involves walking 500 feet accross the property, which turns out is a lot of effort carrying tens of pounds of awkward trash.
So I make less trash now. That cheese danish in the store looks tasty, but the plastic clamshell packaging is incredibly space inefficient as trash, so I'll buy the cookies instead, they're in easy to compact paper boxes. Maybe you think I'm putting a burden on myself but I didn't need either the danish or the cookies in the first place!
So I make less trash now. That cheese danish in the store looks tasty, but the plastic clamshell packaging is incredibly space inefficient as trash, so I'll buy the cookies instead, they're in easy to compact paper boxes. Maybe you think I'm putting a burden on myself but I didn't need either the danish or the cookies in the first place!
Donating itself is also fraught, however. Very few people are going to want a 20-year-old pulp book, soiled magazine, out-of-date manual, etc. Librarians commonly have to curate their collections which includes throwing out a ton of books, often donated books. Clothing is also often stained, holey, or dirty. While clothing can be repurposed to cleaning rags I suppose, I don't know if one can easily repurpose books.
> While clothing can be repurposed to cleaning rags I suppose,
Not anymore, when almost all clothing is partly synthetic. If it isn't 100% cotton or 100% wool, it is probably going straight to a landfill.
Not anymore, when almost all clothing is partly synthetic. If it isn't 100% cotton or 100% wool, it is probably going straight to a landfill.
> Donating itself is also fraught, however.[...]
That again is a problem the receiver of a donation has to take care of as they'll have to pay for the disposal of actual garbage. When I was donating my library before traveling for a few years, someone was coming to my apartment, checking out my donation and he did reject 2 or 3 (of a few thousand).
> Clothing
... can in worst case be shredded and used for thermal insulation.
That again is a problem the receiver of a donation has to take care of as they'll have to pay for the disposal of actual garbage. When I was donating my library before traveling for a few years, someone was coming to my apartment, checking out my donation and he did reject 2 or 3 (of a few thousand).
> Clothing
... can in worst case be shredded and used for thermal insulation.
It's not just cheap. The effects of disposing of all the things are out of side and out of mind. People don't see the results of their actions.
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If you get rid of garbage disposal, you get people dumping things in random places. Maybe it's more expensive, maybe some places can enforce not doing it, but if you make instigating negative externalities the easiest solution, what you get is the destruction of the commons.
Two thoughts come to mind ...
[1] Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance [2] Shop Class as Soul Craft
Huge impact for me over my decades here.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zen_and_the_Art_of_Motorcycle_... [2] http://www.matthewbcrawford.com/new-page-1-1-2
[1] Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance [2] Shop Class as Soul Craft
Huge impact for me over my decades here.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zen_and_the_Art_of_Motorcycle_... [2] http://www.matthewbcrawford.com/new-page-1-1-2
title does seem to hint at [1] indeed
Owned an '86 Subaru BRAT GL (EA81, not EA82). You could take the whole damned car apart with a 10mm, 12mm, 14mm, and 17mm socket. The 4 speed 4wd (not awd, that came later) transmission, however, is a pain in the ass to get apart. I had to do that to replace the input shaft seal. It was a great car.
Nowadays, the running joke in the Subaru community is that you change the spark plugs any time you have the engine out of the car whether they're due or not. My wife has a 2018 Impreza. It's somewhat more cramped in the engine compartment. I dread the day I have to work on it.
Nowadays, the running joke in the Subaru community is that you change the spark plugs any time you have the engine out of the car whether they're due or not. My wife has a 2018 Impreza. It's somewhat more cramped in the engine compartment. I dread the day I have to work on it.
I have a 1995 BMW R1100GS. You could do almost anything to that motorcycle using the toolkit that lives under the seat.
The one exception is checking the valve clearances; that requires feeler gauges that weirdly aren't included (although the kit includes feelers for the ABS sensors and valve checks are necessary every oil change). I haven't replaced the final drive lube because, without removing the rear end, it requires suspending the motorcycle vertically, although I have siphoned much of the lube out and replaced that.
The one exception is checking the valve clearances; that requires feeler gauges that weirdly aren't included (although the kit includes feelers for the ABS sensors and valve checks are necessary every oil change). I haven't replaced the final drive lube because, without removing the rear end, it requires suspending the motorcycle vertically, although I have siphoned much of the lube out and replaced that.
re transmission -- someone told me a long time ago, you really do not want to open a transmission
A manual isn't that bad, and I know people who work on them, but the main problem is that they're just an entirely different set of tools and techniques from just about everything else. You need a bunch of different tools for "rotating part" assembly and disassembly, and a bunch of different skills. Mostly, manual transmissions don't fail randomly, though.
Automatics be black magic boxes that will fail expensively, though. :/
Automatics be black magic boxes that will fail expensively, though. :/
Precisely this. If you don't need to actually rebuild a manual and just need to get to a seal that can only be replaced by cracking the case apart, it's not that bad. There just isn't that much to a manual.
Keep it clean, and work with care and diligence, and you're probably not going to get in truly deep shit.
I'll second that a manual in normal service is unlikely to fail catastrophically. The synchros can wear or the transmission can start popping out of gear, but they tend to experience graceful degradation, and the control software is sufficiently adaptable to work around the quirks.
Keep it clean, and work with care and diligence, and you're probably not going to get in truly deep shit.
I'll second that a manual in normal service is unlikely to fail catastrophically. The synchros can wear or the transmission can start popping out of gear, but they tend to experience graceful degradation, and the control software is sufficiently adaptable to work around the quirks.
Not true at all. They do have a scary reputation and unlike a lot of other vehicle maintenance, you need to be very aware of cleanliness. But they are just mechanical devices. They can be taken apart, worn components replaced, and reassembled. Watch Gary Ferraro on YouTube if you're interested.
> just pay someone else to do it
Sometimes that's what you have to do. I generally like to have at least a cursory understanding of what the person I'm paying is doing.
> Well, it doesn't matter if it's easy to fix, we'll just recycle it and build a new one
Last night I've diagnosed the problem with a Z80 computer - the one I wrote my first lines of code in 1988. It cannot be replaced. I'm waiting for a chip to come from China to fix. Cost $1.50 + my spare time.
Some things just have to be recycled and rebuild. Batteries come to mind. Modern cars should be getting progressively easier to repair - they have onboard computers that basically _know_ what's wrong. But the parts we replace are getting larger and larger. Where we would replace a capacitor, we are replacing entire computers.
Sometimes that's what you have to do. I generally like to have at least a cursory understanding of what the person I'm paying is doing.
> Well, it doesn't matter if it's easy to fix, we'll just recycle it and build a new one
Last night I've diagnosed the problem with a Z80 computer - the one I wrote my first lines of code in 1988. It cannot be replaced. I'm waiting for a chip to come from China to fix. Cost $1.50 + my spare time.
Some things just have to be recycled and rebuild. Batteries come to mind. Modern cars should be getting progressively easier to repair - they have onboard computers that basically _know_ what's wrong. But the parts we replace are getting larger and larger. Where we would replace a capacitor, we are replacing entire computers.
Some things it's worth paying for because the person you're paying has years of experience - I can hang and tape drywall but I absolutely suck at it and will willingly pay to get that done.
Other things are worth paying for because the tools to do it easy are very expensive.
But in many of those cases, you should still have a general idea of what is going on, or have hired someone who does (this is often the general contractor).
Other things are worth paying for because the tools to do it easy are very expensive.
But in many of those cases, you should still have a general idea of what is going on, or have hired someone who does (this is often the general contractor).
Unfortunately, I've encountered the same thing. It's universal though.
Tinkering is a lost art. Increasingly, people seem to just watch others tinker or solve problems. Why do x if you can just search for what happens on youtube? Why think through the process or what a reasonable answer is if you can just google (andisearch is good too) it? (Why search, when you can just post it as a question on a forum?) 10 years ago, commenters here would talk about tinkering with their systems in basic, when asked how they learned to program. Nowadays, people talk about textbooks or the like. But why?
Everything is more complex and complicated. Fixing something in 1950 was easy, you could wire it yourself with copper, you could replace the vacuum tubes. Nowadays, you can just replace electronic parts - but you can't make the circuit board yourself (well, some people do, but that's much more in depth, requires very fine motor control and you are still just soldering tiny components. I suspect a lot of would-have-tinkereds give up when they take apart their x with a screw driver and can't figure out what anything is. Their curiosity nipped right in the bud, they default to trusted solutions and devote less of their daily mindshare to understanding, and eventually improving the world.
(Even there, it's not like many people could create vacuum tubes in their garage in 1950 to repair something...)
Tinkering is a lost art. Increasingly, people seem to just watch others tinker or solve problems. Why do x if you can just search for what happens on youtube? Why think through the process or what a reasonable answer is if you can just google (andisearch is good too) it? (Why search, when you can just post it as a question on a forum?) 10 years ago, commenters here would talk about tinkering with their systems in basic, when asked how they learned to program. Nowadays, people talk about textbooks or the like. But why?
Everything is more complex and complicated. Fixing something in 1950 was easy, you could wire it yourself with copper, you could replace the vacuum tubes. Nowadays, you can just replace electronic parts - but you can't make the circuit board yourself (well, some people do, but that's much more in depth, requires very fine motor control and you are still just soldering tiny components. I suspect a lot of would-have-tinkereds give up when they take apart their x with a screw driver and can't figure out what anything is. Their curiosity nipped right in the bud, they default to trusted solutions and devote less of their daily mindshare to understanding, and eventually improving the world.
(Even there, it's not like many people could create vacuum tubes in their garage in 1950 to repair something...)
You can do your own surface mount soldering on boards for assembly, but it's an awful lot easier to design a single sided board (at least for the surface mount stuff) and hot plate it to get the solder melted. It's rather magical to watch surface tension in action - parts just... zoop right into the positions.
I live in weird circles, I suppose, where this and "do your own PCB etching" are still things.
I live in weird circles, I suppose, where this and "do your own PCB etching" are still things.
> but you can't make the circuit board yourself
True. Thankfully, they have become dirt cheap. I can design and push a button to order a multilayer board from China, which is going to be done by the same industrial processes as any commercial boards, and will even be tested for me. I don't have to worry that I left it etching for too long. Or drilling holes. Or silk screening text. All that, and shipping costs more than the board.
> I suspect a lot of would-have-tinkereds give up when they take apart their x with a screw driver and can't figure out what anything is
I suspect your memory is playing tricks with you (as it does with everybody). Open an old CRT monitor and you won't know what anything is. Sure, you may learn what the individual components are, but you need a lot of schematic study to even understand what all those components are even doing. Today, we can just open a phone and go "oh, that's the wifi chip".
It is still possible to do SMD work at home. Air rework stations have dropped from 4 digit dollars to 2 digits. Other tools are getting cheaper too. Oscilloscopes have never been cheaper (and, if you don't need anything fancy, at least in the US there's a flood of perfectly good used models).
Microcontrollers are incredibly cheap. A lot of what was done by hardware today can be handled with software. With <$1 parts.
3d printing allows us to not have to drill soap containers for our electronics cases.
Also, all those old electronics magazines? Most of those circuits can be built today just fine.
People dabbling in electronics were always a small subset of the population. I am willing to bet that, percentage wise, those numbers are way bigger today.
True. Thankfully, they have become dirt cheap. I can design and push a button to order a multilayer board from China, which is going to be done by the same industrial processes as any commercial boards, and will even be tested for me. I don't have to worry that I left it etching for too long. Or drilling holes. Or silk screening text. All that, and shipping costs more than the board.
> I suspect a lot of would-have-tinkereds give up when they take apart their x with a screw driver and can't figure out what anything is
I suspect your memory is playing tricks with you (as it does with everybody). Open an old CRT monitor and you won't know what anything is. Sure, you may learn what the individual components are, but you need a lot of schematic study to even understand what all those components are even doing. Today, we can just open a phone and go "oh, that's the wifi chip".
It is still possible to do SMD work at home. Air rework stations have dropped from 4 digit dollars to 2 digits. Other tools are getting cheaper too. Oscilloscopes have never been cheaper (and, if you don't need anything fancy, at least in the US there's a flood of perfectly good used models).
Microcontrollers are incredibly cheap. A lot of what was done by hardware today can be handled with software. With <$1 parts.
3d printing allows us to not have to drill soap containers for our electronics cases.
Also, all those old electronics magazines? Most of those circuits can be built today just fine.
People dabbling in electronics were always a small subset of the population. I am willing to bet that, percentage wise, those numbers are way bigger today.
>requires very fine motor control and you are still just soldering tiny components
I thought the key fob for my used Impreza just needed a new battery but the relay had actually fallen off the board.
I had to buy a soldering iron and fine point tips but the rush I got when it finally settled in place and I could lock my car remotely was intense. Or maybe that was the lack of ventilation.
My wheel hub and brakes on the other hand… I’d need various grinders, pullers and oxyacetylene to get through 12y of Ontarian corrosion. Not even a 4lb hammer on a breaker bar shifted my axle nut or caliper bracket bolts. With rounds of bolt blaster and blowtorch.
Luckily my local garage charges reasonable rates and lets me supply my own parts. From here on out maintenance is gonna be a breeze!
I thought the key fob for my used Impreza just needed a new battery but the relay had actually fallen off the board.
I had to buy a soldering iron and fine point tips but the rush I got when it finally settled in place and I could lock my car remotely was intense. Or maybe that was the lack of ventilation.
My wheel hub and brakes on the other hand… I’d need various grinders, pullers and oxyacetylene to get through 12y of Ontarian corrosion. Not even a 4lb hammer on a breaker bar shifted my axle nut or caliper bracket bolts. With rounds of bolt blaster and blowtorch.
Luckily my local garage charges reasonable rates and lets me supply my own parts. From here on out maintenance is gonna be a breeze!
If you work on older rusted vehicles, a high quality impact gun and air hammer are worth every penny. A shitty impact gun will take off like 60% of things, a high quality one will take off 90% of things. And for the final 10%, (likely in combination with torches and large breaker bars and impact gun) you can air hammer the living fuck out of the bolt or part for 15 minutes and it should help break apart some of the rust.
And for future self, a tube of anti-seize.
I questioned the need for my heavy equipment "fuck-you" sized impact gun when I bought it, but ive helped out more than a couple people remove old rusted on shit with it that their cheaper consumer impact gun simply couldn't handle.
And for future self, a tube of anti-seize.
I questioned the need for my heavy equipment "fuck-you" sized impact gun when I bought it, but ive helped out more than a couple people remove old rusted on shit with it that their cheaper consumer impact gun simply couldn't handle.
I have plenty of money for these tools but what I can't afford in modern day America is a shed to put the tools in, a garage to work on my car in, and an alternative means of transportation to get me to the parts shop while I take 3 days in my off hours trying to figure things out because I'm inexperienced.
I’ve always lived in places with crap driveways but this one is nice, paved and level. Unfortunately no room for a garage or shed so yea, I spend about 20 minutes hauling various tools out of the basement (and hoping they don’t get stolen) before I can even loosen my lug nuts.
I came across this great article from 1986 about adding an airlock door to your entry way the other day.
https://books.google.com/books?id=NUzwukoJzGIC&pg=PA96&sourc...
Give it a read and realize the author is suggesting you repurpose other doors, and mismatched pieces and parts of larger windows to create an entry that looks like it’s off from a luxury home for $62. He assumes the reader knows how to cut and set glass, separate door frames, cut ellipses, and all sorts of little things that very few people today would have the skills or tools for. Read on and you’ll see that just by illustrating alternative designs the reader is meant to understand how to build it. It’s “Draw the rest of the owl” to us today, but it wasn’t then. This made me realize the great loss of practical knowledge that has been going on over the last 30-40 years.
https://books.google.com/books?id=NUzwukoJzGIC&pg=PA96&sourc...
Give it a read and realize the author is suggesting you repurpose other doors, and mismatched pieces and parts of larger windows to create an entry that looks like it’s off from a luxury home for $62. He assumes the reader knows how to cut and set glass, separate door frames, cut ellipses, and all sorts of little things that very few people today would have the skills or tools for. Read on and you’ll see that just by illustrating alternative designs the reader is meant to understand how to build it. It’s “Draw the rest of the owl” to us today, but it wasn’t then. This made me realize the great loss of practical knowledge that has been going on over the last 30-40 years.
I work in the tech industry as well but in a more hands-on division (hp inkjet) and in a small town (Corvallis OR). Here it's the norm to work on your own stuff, build your own structures or fix cars, really mostly for fun and out of pride than for economical reasons.
I think this attitude does carry over into our product design efforts but only to a degree - in consumer tech it makes sense to make your product somewhat robust and serviceable but a device from 10 years ago, with lo-speed Wifi, no bluetooth, no USB, etc. just isn't useful anymore. On the flipside, the manufacturing tools we design for our own use are so robust and reconfigurable that they are still cranking out product 20+ years later.
I think this attitude does carry over into our product design efforts but only to a degree - in consumer tech it makes sense to make your product somewhat robust and serviceable but a device from 10 years ago, with lo-speed Wifi, no bluetooth, no USB, etc. just isn't useful anymore. On the flipside, the manufacturing tools we design for our own use are so robust and reconfigurable that they are still cranking out product 20+ years later.
Is a printer with low-speed WiFi really so obsolete? I can't really imagine that that is the bottleneck while printing (of course, lots of more recent printers have lost the ethernet jacks, so really they are downgrades).
Same situation, hardly anyone believes me that I'm skilled in construction, electrical, plumbing, electronics, and car mechanics in addition to my IT skills, because hardly anyone actually tinkers with things or repair them. Meanwhile, I always followed my dad's advice (who was doing construction when I grew up) that you should invest your time and money in tools and knowledge, not in disposable things. I can disassemble, repair, and reassemble nearly anything, and thanks to that have built my own high quality things, repaired many older high quality things, and generally structured my life around "buy it for life" with repairability as part of it.
Unfortunately, the one exception to above is laptop & phone, where I buy Apple products because they are just clearly the superior option, but unfortunately are not very repairable at all. Nonetheless, I kept my iPhone 8 going until just recently where I finally bumped to an iPhone 14 Pro, and I have kept my 2013 MacBook Pro going and am still using it, although it may be replaced soon.
I really wish things were built to be repairable, but like you I have long suspected (and cursed) the engineers who design products have never actually tinkered with them so don't even consider this as part of the design. They are only optimized for assembly because there is a business cost reason to do so, but repairability doesn't matter to them.
Unfortunately, the one exception to above is laptop & phone, where I buy Apple products because they are just clearly the superior option, but unfortunately are not very repairable at all. Nonetheless, I kept my iPhone 8 going until just recently where I finally bumped to an iPhone 14 Pro, and I have kept my 2013 MacBook Pro going and am still using it, although it may be replaced soon.
I really wish things were built to be repairable, but like you I have long suspected (and cursed) the engineers who design products have never actually tinkered with them so don't even consider this as part of the design. They are only optimized for assembly because there is a business cost reason to do so, but repairability doesn't matter to them.
Its deliberate. Things are deliberately made hard to repair so you are forced to buy a new one when it breaks.
That's a cynical take -- I'm not sure it's untrue, but another factor is cost. Things that are not meant to be maintainable also tend to be cheaper to design and build initially. You don't have to worry about maintenance access when you design the product, or making the components replaceable, or using industry-standard parts.
By avoiding maintenance concerns in design and production, you can sell a cheaper product, and the vast majority of buyers will look at purchase price and not total cost of ownership when they are evaluating choices.
By avoiding maintenance concerns in design and production, you can sell a cheaper product, and the vast majority of buyers will look at purchase price and not total cost of ownership when they are evaluating choices.
Additionally, production is more easy to automate than repairwork, and what you cannot automate you can outsource to countries with cheaper labour.
As long as demand (and other circumstances, i.e. currently somewhat of a "Ha!") are sort of predictable, hiding the length of your supply chain can be easily done by shipping things over in bulk and sufficiently in advance. People won't care whether their widget was produced five minutes ago in the back room of the store or three months ago on the other side of the globe and then shipped over on a slow boat, as long as it's available when they want to buy it.
For repairwork on the other hand, the same procedure doesn't work out as well, because you can no longer hide the latency inherent in minimising shipping costs.
As long as demand (and other circumstances, i.e. currently somewhat of a "Ha!") are sort of predictable, hiding the length of your supply chain can be easily done by shipping things over in bulk and sufficiently in advance. People won't care whether their widget was produced five minutes ago in the back room of the store or three months ago on the other side of the globe and then shipped over on a slow boat, as long as it's available when they want to buy it.
For repairwork on the other hand, the same procedure doesn't work out as well, because you can no longer hide the latency inherent in minimising shipping costs.
I'd say semi deliberate. Market dynamics evolved to cut prices extremely low.. so manufacturers don't make enough cash to want to design complex and manage parts etc.
Most printers are horrible.. even the assembly is hell, but if you pay a pro model (6x times the price) you get a modular and easy to open device.
Most printers are horrible.. even the assembly is hell, but if you pay a pro model (6x times the price) you get a modular and easy to open device.
The aversion to getting one's hands dirty I've found is common in software engineering as well.
It just takes the form of nobody wanting to inherit someone else's project. Nobody wants maintenance tasks, everyone wants to do green-field development or if they must inherit some existing product they quickly conclude a rewrite from scratch is necessary.
I too have a scrappy hands-dirty DIY IRL history starting with childhood. When I entered the software industry after years of sysadminning, it became very clear my enthusiasm for facing existing complexities head-on was somewhat unique among my peers as well.
But I think this is a more general struggle everyone encounters in life; it's always more attractive to create new problems than solve existing ones. (I'm pretty sure that's a quote I've heard/read at some point, but its origin escapes me)
Some examples from other domains:
Relationships (my mate and I are arguing and I've been sleeping on the couch, my OkCupid profile just notified me; cheat)
Automobiles (my car needs tires, brakes, a paint job, and thorough cleaning, the car dealership down the road is having a sale; new car loan)
Living spaces and projects/hobbies (the closet is an unmitigated disaster area, I can't even open its door anymore, but the spare bedroom is empty and I need to start a new project rather than finish any of the dozen abandoned ones occupying said closet; new projects in spare room until it too overflows) This starts to look like hoarding, but it's really just backing down from solving existing problems in favor of making new ones.
The list goes on, I'm sure you can come up with a bunch of examples yourself.
Starting anew is an immediate gratification, anything else, not so much until you make forward progress which almost certainly will be a slog since the immediate gratification low hanging fruit phase was already burned by either past you or someone else altogether.
Personally I find it far more rewarding to resolve existing difficult problems, especially now that I have so much experience that whenever I start anew I'm fully aware that I'm likely making problems future me will have to deal with. Existing problems usually have a bunch of evidence to scrutinize and inform what you're doing to make meaningful progress. Real problem solving. Creating from scratch is problem making.
Honestly I suspect it comes down to a sort of anxiety about failure.
It just takes the form of nobody wanting to inherit someone else's project. Nobody wants maintenance tasks, everyone wants to do green-field development or if they must inherit some existing product they quickly conclude a rewrite from scratch is necessary.
I too have a scrappy hands-dirty DIY IRL history starting with childhood. When I entered the software industry after years of sysadminning, it became very clear my enthusiasm for facing existing complexities head-on was somewhat unique among my peers as well.
But I think this is a more general struggle everyone encounters in life; it's always more attractive to create new problems than solve existing ones. (I'm pretty sure that's a quote I've heard/read at some point, but its origin escapes me)
Some examples from other domains:
Relationships (my mate and I are arguing and I've been sleeping on the couch, my OkCupid profile just notified me; cheat)
Automobiles (my car needs tires, brakes, a paint job, and thorough cleaning, the car dealership down the road is having a sale; new car loan)
Living spaces and projects/hobbies (the closet is an unmitigated disaster area, I can't even open its door anymore, but the spare bedroom is empty and I need to start a new project rather than finish any of the dozen abandoned ones occupying said closet; new projects in spare room until it too overflows) This starts to look like hoarding, but it's really just backing down from solving existing problems in favor of making new ones.
The list goes on, I'm sure you can come up with a bunch of examples yourself.
Starting anew is an immediate gratification, anything else, not so much until you make forward progress which almost certainly will be a slog since the immediate gratification low hanging fruit phase was already burned by either past you or someone else altogether.
Personally I find it far more rewarding to resolve existing difficult problems, especially now that I have so much experience that whenever I start anew I'm fully aware that I'm likely making problems future me will have to deal with. Existing problems usually have a bunch of evidence to scrutinize and inform what you're doing to make meaningful progress. Real problem solving. Creating from scratch is problem making.
Honestly I suspect it comes down to a sort of anxiety about failure.
Well written. That really resonated with me.
I work in IT and grew up in a locksmith/car repair shop where I got my hands dirty very early on. I got my DIY/repair attitude from my father who does almost anything by himself - building and maintaining houses, making furniture, metal work, vehicle maintenance. So that is also deeply rooted in me.
It's not uncommon in my circle to DIY, mostly as a hobby, to save money or because availability of craftsmanship is so poor (waiting months to get someone to do it).
I really like to get broken stuff, fix it and then use or sell it. Such work leaves you with a broad knowledge, and also who is designing repairable machines. Old style italian espresso machines come to my mind. While only some components are standardized (piping, thermostats, portafilters, e61 brew group) many proprietary components needed for repairs are still openly sold on 3rd party stores on the Internet. Sometimes the schematic is also published. The newer and more integrated plastic machines are less of a joy to work on, alas. That's mostly toss-and-rebuy gear.
Before I buy anything, I check maintainability first. Parts availability, hackability, etc. Glued stuff, soldered on chips (formerly RAM, wifi, CPUs etc), nonswappable batteries, hard cloud dependencies and similar scaries me.
I work in IT and grew up in a locksmith/car repair shop where I got my hands dirty very early on. I got my DIY/repair attitude from my father who does almost anything by himself - building and maintaining houses, making furniture, metal work, vehicle maintenance. So that is also deeply rooted in me.
It's not uncommon in my circle to DIY, mostly as a hobby, to save money or because availability of craftsmanship is so poor (waiting months to get someone to do it).
I really like to get broken stuff, fix it and then use or sell it. Such work leaves you with a broad knowledge, and also who is designing repairable machines. Old style italian espresso machines come to my mind. While only some components are standardized (piping, thermostats, portafilters, e61 brew group) many proprietary components needed for repairs are still openly sold on 3rd party stores on the Internet. Sometimes the schematic is also published. The newer and more integrated plastic machines are less of a joy to work on, alas. That's mostly toss-and-rebuy gear.
Before I buy anything, I check maintainability first. Parts availability, hackability, etc. Glued stuff, soldered on chips (formerly RAM, wifi, CPUs etc), nonswappable batteries, hard cloud dependencies and similar scaries me.
I'm similar, except a Jeep guy. I was reticent to move into the new millennia Cherokees because I was worried about all the computerization of everything. When push came to shove I bought an adapter (Hell yes Jeep/Dodge/Ram for making this possible at a reasonable price!) and changed my air springs. I was initially quite pissed, who swaps coil springs for air!? But in the end it was way easier than changing the leafs on my old XJ.
Labor costs in the Netherlands are frankly insane. Unless you are paying under the table there's no reason to have someone fix a coffee machine or vacuum cleaner.
As for laptops, printers etcetera you can just get a tax rebate and buy new ones.
I am on your same wavelength. Props to you for pursuing this mentality. I believe you would enjoy the book “The Innovation Delusion” by Vinsel and Russell
> I work in the tech industry. I'm somewhat rare in that I also work on my own vehicles, do my own maintenance, repair things, build my own stuff around the property, etc. A lot of coworkers at various places I've worked over the years view this as somewhere between "eccentric" and "slightly mad." "Why would you do that yourself, just pay someone else to do it!" is the common sentiment.
I feel like it's partly a consequence of a highly specialized society. I'm not sure how to fix it. There's an opportunity cost. Why would I change the oil in my car when it's $40 to get it changed at the shop? Since I don't change my oil, I now don't know the basics of how to jack up the vehicle, I don't understand how to use the torque wrench to tighten the drain plug and I'm basically missing all the fundamental skills so I got no knowledge to build on.
The other contributor, is that growing up in the city, in an apartment, there was never any opportunity to work with my hands. I still recall a shop class in high school. I got to use a lathe and a oxy acetylene torch. That was many years ago now.
Now that I'm older, I make conscious effort to learn how to do things with my hands. There are things that I still must outsource, when they are on a critical path. For example if the car is down because the suspension needs to be replaced, I'm not going to spend 3 months researching and fixing it. We need it now.
I've come to really appreciate the famous Heinlein quote:
> A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyse a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects.
Im also very much attracted to the idea of a "renaissance man" [1] :
> Embodying a basic tenet of Renaissance humanism that humans are limitless in their capacity for development, the concept led to the notion that people should embrace all knowledge and develop their capacities as fully as possible.
"Specialization is for insects" indeed.
0: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Competent_man
1: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polymath
I feel like it's partly a consequence of a highly specialized society. I'm not sure how to fix it. There's an opportunity cost. Why would I change the oil in my car when it's $40 to get it changed at the shop? Since I don't change my oil, I now don't know the basics of how to jack up the vehicle, I don't understand how to use the torque wrench to tighten the drain plug and I'm basically missing all the fundamental skills so I got no knowledge to build on.
The other contributor, is that growing up in the city, in an apartment, there was never any opportunity to work with my hands. I still recall a shop class in high school. I got to use a lathe and a oxy acetylene torch. That was many years ago now.
Now that I'm older, I make conscious effort to learn how to do things with my hands. There are things that I still must outsource, when they are on a critical path. For example if the car is down because the suspension needs to be replaced, I'm not going to spend 3 months researching and fixing it. We need it now.
I've come to really appreciate the famous Heinlein quote:
> A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyse a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects.
Im also very much attracted to the idea of a "renaissance man" [1] :
> Embodying a basic tenet of Renaissance humanism that humans are limitless in their capacity for development, the concept led to the notion that people should embrace all knowledge and develop their capacities as fully as possible.
"Specialization is for insects" indeed.
0: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Competent_man
1: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polymath
> Why would I change the oil in my car when it's $40 to get it changed at the shop?
The shop might be incompetent and strip the threads for example (very common) which will cost you a lot more money down the road when it's discovered and becomes a problem.
But, aside that, even competent shops can't provide the same quality of care than DIY because they have to operate on the booked time it takes to do a job. So they can't deviate from doing exactly what's on the work list.
Meanwhile, when I work on my cars I'm taking time to look around and pay attention and address any other upcoming problems I might notice even if they are entirely unrelated to the work I started out doing. And I clean the parts and nearby parts as I go, which a shop could never afford to do even if they cared.
Oil changes tend to be a loss leader so you can't often save money by DIY (but I always DIY due to the reasons above). But on other types of work you usually also save a lot of money by DIY.
For instance I replaced the fence between us and neighbor for ~$500 in materials. That neighbor had to also replace his other side fence (between him and third neighbor). Identical fence, but cost them over $4K to have it done by a contractor.
The shop might be incompetent and strip the threads for example (very common) which will cost you a lot more money down the road when it's discovered and becomes a problem.
But, aside that, even competent shops can't provide the same quality of care than DIY because they have to operate on the booked time it takes to do a job. So they can't deviate from doing exactly what's on the work list.
Meanwhile, when I work on my cars I'm taking time to look around and pay attention and address any other upcoming problems I might notice even if they are entirely unrelated to the work I started out doing. And I clean the parts and nearby parts as I go, which a shop could never afford to do even if they cared.
Oil changes tend to be a loss leader so you can't often save money by DIY (but I always DIY due to the reasons above). But on other types of work you usually also save a lot of money by DIY.
For instance I replaced the fence between us and neighbor for ~$500 in materials. That neighbor had to also replace his other side fence (between him and third neighbor). Identical fence, but cost them over $4K to have it done by a contractor.
> Why would I change the oil in my car when it's $40 to get it changed at the shop?
Because you like your car...
Every decade or so, I try a fast oil change place, usually when I'm in a hurry, and it sells me on changing my own oil for the next decade, because it's either obscenely overpriced, they screw up my car somehow, or both.
Last time I took vehicles in for oil changes, it cost nearly $200 for my truck (I know it takes a lot of oil, but ffs...), and for the car, they didn't get the airbox back together properly, so I had a nice post-air-filter leak. They even left the bolt they couldn't get lined up sitting in the windshield air inlet tray - because they'd not lined the filter box up right. And, they forgot a crush washer on the drain plug, so I had a dinner plate sized oil puddle under the car in the morning. Sorry, I see no point in paying someone to screw my vehicles up like that.
Because you like your car...
Every decade or so, I try a fast oil change place, usually when I'm in a hurry, and it sells me on changing my own oil for the next decade, because it's either obscenely overpriced, they screw up my car somehow, or both.
Last time I took vehicles in for oil changes, it cost nearly $200 for my truck (I know it takes a lot of oil, but ffs...), and for the car, they didn't get the airbox back together properly, so I had a nice post-air-filter leak. They even left the bolt they couldn't get lined up sitting in the windshield air inlet tray - because they'd not lined the filter box up right. And, they forgot a crush washer on the drain plug, so I had a dinner plate sized oil puddle under the car in the morning. Sorry, I see no point in paying someone to screw my vehicles up like that.
DW took our car to Costco for a free scheduled tire rotation (mandatory to maintain the tire warranty) about a month ago.
She called saying "they're saying 'the lug nut broke'"; I was thinking (and asking) "how is that possible (it can't possibly be a defective lug nut)?" 10 minutes later "the stud is broken"; 5 minutes later "they [Costco] admitted to breaking it".
The resolution was to have a local shop replace the lug stud and get reimbursed for the repair cost: $125 (the part might have cost $2)!
I chalk this episode up to them hiring warm bodies lacking any mechanical experience or aptitude (to the extent of not being aware of "righty tighty, lefty-loosey") and handing them an impact wrench.
She called saying "they're saying 'the lug nut broke'"; I was thinking (and asking) "how is that possible (it can't possibly be a defective lug nut)?" 10 minutes later "the stud is broken"; 5 minutes later "they [Costco] admitted to breaking it".
The resolution was to have a local shop replace the lug stud and get reimbursed for the repair cost: $125 (the part might have cost $2)!
I chalk this episode up to them hiring warm bodies lacking any mechanical experience or aptitude (to the extent of not being aware of "righty tighty, lefty-loosey") and handing them an impact wrench.
Huh. A couple months back, I helped someone replace a broken stud in their garage with some C-clamps and hammers. On a lot of vehicles, it's just "press the old one out, pull the new one in."
But there's a reason that r/justrolledintotheshop talks about "uggaduggas" as a torque spec - to make fun of the people who just let an impact driver pound away at things like lug nuts. Cross threaded? Screw it, more uggaduggas! It'll snap when someone takes it off? Not My Problem!
Oddly enough, it's not always righty tighty. I rode motorcycles that had axles that were the opposite (so normal rotation would tighten them), and it was well known on the forums that if you let a shop just go at it, they'd try to loosen it, tighten it, smash the spacer, and your wheel bearings would then fail in short order. I always either watched the shop take my wheels off, or just took the wheels off myself and took them in to get the rubber replaced (alarmingly frequently - I was riding a lot).
But there's a reason that r/justrolledintotheshop talks about "uggaduggas" as a torque spec - to make fun of the people who just let an impact driver pound away at things like lug nuts. Cross threaded? Screw it, more uggaduggas! It'll snap when someone takes it off? Not My Problem!
Oddly enough, it's not always righty tighty. I rode motorcycles that had axles that were the opposite (so normal rotation would tighten them), and it was well known on the forums that if you let a shop just go at it, they'd try to loosen it, tighten it, smash the spacer, and your wheel bearings would then fail in short order. I always either watched the shop take my wheels off, or just took the wheels off myself and took them in to get the rubber replaced (alarmingly frequently - I was riding a lot).
To be fair, it might not have been Costco's fault, it could have been the last guys to put the wheel on who impact gunned the fuck out of it, or shitty studs or lugs, or a combination of all three. That said, Costco should have had zero problems replacing a broken stud on the spot, any business who regularly removes wheel from cars should be prepared to replace a few studs here and there. It would be like hiring a guy to change your light fixtures but he can't finish because he didn't bring any spare wire nuts because he assumes their are already good wirenuts on the old light fixtures.
Well, the tires were purchased (and mounted) at Costco, and rotated at least once previously by Costco (since the path of least resistance for warranty maintenance is for them to have the records of doing the (free rotations) themselves; they'd have a hard time arguing in the event of a warranty claim that they'd rotated the tires incorrectly).
So history argues in favor of it being their fault. In fairness, they were apologetic and never tried to absolve themselves of responsibility.
Regarding "Costco should have had zero problems replacing a broken stud on the spot", I wish it were so (would have saved a bit of hassle), but which expert person at Costco is going to be capable of doing this? They seemed to have shop nearby that they farmed such work out to, but this problem occurred on a Sunday...
So history argues in favor of it being their fault. In fairness, they were apologetic and never tried to absolve themselves of responsibility.
Regarding "Costco should have had zero problems replacing a broken stud on the spot", I wish it were so (would have saved a bit of hassle), but which expert person at Costco is going to be capable of doing this? They seemed to have shop nearby that they farmed such work out to, but this problem occurred on a Sunday...
I would almost certainly have been comfortable driving it on the remaining lug nuts for a day or two until I could deal with it. The only way I can think of that I'd not just do that would be if it were a 4-stud wheel; anything with five or more studs shouldn't have a problem with one missing.
That said... I'd have wanted to pop into the shop and personally inspect the remaining studs to make sure they weren't on the brink of failure as well.
That said... I'd have wanted to pop into the shop and personally inspect the remaining studs to make sure they weren't on the brink of failure as well.
Costco sheared off the locking socket for my weird locking lug nuts, so I daresay they're more capable of some to just uggadugga it until it (usually) works.
I've also had similar bad experiences, usually at large "chain" garages where turnover is probably high. I think it's one thing to pay a mechanic you trust to do some work on your car and quite another to leave your car at a chain garage where it will be prodded at by some kid fresh out of high school and then taken for a joy ride to "test" it.
It's also not uncommon for garages to under or over torque fasteners because they're in a hurry. My friend had his power steering pump come off the engine block while he was driving because the garage didn't bother torquing it properly after replacing it.
It's also not uncommon for garages to under or over torque fasteners because they're in a hurry. My friend had his power steering pump come off the engine block while he was driving because the garage didn't bother torquing it properly after replacing it.
>Because you like your car...
>Every decade or so, I try a fast oil change place, usually when I'm in a hurry, and it sells me on changing my own oil for the next decade, because it's either obscenely overpriced, they screw up my car somehow, or both.
The last time I resorted to having someone else change the oil in my car, because I was in a place where I couldn't DIY and didn't have time to go to a relative's place to do so, I used an actual garage and not a quick-change place, thinking they'd do a better job, I provided the oil, and they managed to overfill it by more than a quart.
The people that take jobs like these are simply incompetent; if they were smart, they'd be doing other jobs.
>Every decade or so, I try a fast oil change place, usually when I'm in a hurry, and it sells me on changing my own oil for the next decade, because it's either obscenely overpriced, they screw up my car somehow, or both.
The last time I resorted to having someone else change the oil in my car, because I was in a place where I couldn't DIY and didn't have time to go to a relative's place to do so, I used an actual garage and not a quick-change place, thinking they'd do a better job, I provided the oil, and they managed to overfill it by more than a quart.
The people that take jobs like these are simply incompetent; if they were smart, they'd be doing other jobs.
You change your own oil so that you develop the skills to do a brake job, which you do yourself to develop the skills to work on the suspension.
That said, depending on where you live and whether or not you have winter, any fasteners on the underside of your car may be rusted to the point where you need the oxy-acetylene torch you used in high school to get the damned things loose. The nuts and bolts on the steering and suspension systems live a particularly rough life.
That said, depending on where you live and whether or not you have winter, any fasteners on the underside of your car may be rusted to the point where you need the oxy-acetylene torch you used in high school to get the damned things loose. The nuts and bolts on the steering and suspension systems live a particularly rough life.
I'm the exact same way. It's strange that it's seen as "eccentric" to be "well rounded"
I attended community college a few years ago and took a pair of courses designed as preparation for CompTIA A+ certification. Our final project for the class was to refurbish a desktop computer and donate it.
Our instructor fired up a compressed air machine and we blew out all the dust. We checked connections and RAM, peripherals, optical drive, HDD, etc. We made sure the things booted and probed OK. We checked cosmetics on the front bezel and around the case. No wiping HDD or installing of OS was necessary here, it was strictly a hardware/BIOS-level project.
Then we were graded and the refurbished machines were all shipped off to a local student-run project that provides usable computers to worthy organizations who need them. Definitely a feel-good project, all around!
Our instructor fired up a compressed air machine and we blew out all the dust. We checked connections and RAM, peripherals, optical drive, HDD, etc. We made sure the things booted and probed OK. We checked cosmetics on the front bezel and around the case. No wiping HDD or installing of OS was necessary here, it was strictly a hardware/BIOS-level project.
Then we were graded and the refurbished machines were all shipped off to a local student-run project that provides usable computers to worthy organizations who need them. Definitely a feel-good project, all around!
The author goes into the whole Reduce, Reuse, Recycle part of things but I think they miss out on a current trend [0] that may be a subset of Reuse.
[0] https://www.repurposedmaterialsinc.com/
This outfit takes in surplus materials, obsolete parts, etc. and sells them either to be reused as originally intended by a new owner or repurposed to accomplish a new task that the designer never considered.
Repurposing things allows us to keep a lot of stuff out of landfills and for many of the things they sell, extend the useful life of things that are obsolete in their original purpose but that aren't close to being worn out.
[0] https://www.repurposedmaterialsinc.com/
This outfit takes in surplus materials, obsolete parts, etc. and sells them either to be reused as originally intended by a new owner or repurposed to accomplish a new task that the designer never considered.
Repurposing things allows us to keep a lot of stuff out of landfills and for many of the things they sell, extend the useful life of things that are obsolete in their original purpose but that aren't close to being worn out.
I guess I’ll take the opportunity to throw in my hat… I’m currently running a very early-stage startup trying to address some of the brain drain and complexity in industrial maintenance. If you’d like to talk/rant about your job and the pain points you have, I’d be all ears! Wouldn’t be a sales call, I’m just trying to talk to people at this point. Feel free to DM me if interested.
I've spent 30+ years designing and engineering consumer and medical products, mostly for high volume production. While I detest working on projects I consider "instant landfill", the reality is that so much of our built society whether it be a toy car, a mobile phone, or a house, is designed to appeal to consumers. Consumers who want their phone to be light, waterproof, beautiful and more powerful than the last one they bought, and at the lowest price possible. Prioritizing things like that means that a lot is invested in specialized equipment, fixtures, and training for the labor force which manufactures their new shiny object. Duplicating that equipment and expertise is next to impossible on the scale of maintenance. Maintenance is more of a craft. Think about your local car mechanic vs the factory which produced the car in the first place.
Even in the factories where your new shiny consumer electronics products are produced, when Chinese News Year is over, and a bunch of the staff turns over, getting the production line up and running again with the same quality is challenging. Despite there being documented standard operating procedures, incoming and outgoing quality checks, etc... there's a lot which is tribal knowledge and muscle memory of the operators. Even if things are highly automated (and you'd be shocked how much is done by hand despite all those magical How It's Made videos), those machines need to be adjusted and tuned to keep from producing junk. This is all to say that so many things are on the hairy edge of working well. They're not always so easy to disassemble and reassemble without destroying seals, alignment, calibration etc.
To a degree, some of this can be blamed on products becoming more and more electronic and miniaturized, but the reality is that so many things involve inseparable assemblies (whether it's an heirloom chair glued out of wood, a PCBA, the drywall in your house, or a welded and painted autobody). While there are rework techniques for these, they're never the same as following the normal process in the factory.
Even in the factories where your new shiny consumer electronics products are produced, when Chinese News Year is over, and a bunch of the staff turns over, getting the production line up and running again with the same quality is challenging. Despite there being documented standard operating procedures, incoming and outgoing quality checks, etc... there's a lot which is tribal knowledge and muscle memory of the operators. Even if things are highly automated (and you'd be shocked how much is done by hand despite all those magical How It's Made videos), those machines need to be adjusted and tuned to keep from producing junk. This is all to say that so many things are on the hairy edge of working well. They're not always so easy to disassemble and reassemble without destroying seals, alignment, calibration etc.
To a degree, some of this can be blamed on products becoming more and more electronic and miniaturized, but the reality is that so many things involve inseparable assemblies (whether it's an heirloom chair glued out of wood, a PCBA, the drywall in your house, or a welded and painted autobody). While there are rework techniques for these, they're never the same as following the normal process in the factory.
> so much of our built society [..] is designed to appeal to consumers. Consumers who want their phone to be light, waterproof, beautiful and more powerful than the last one they bought, and at the lowest price possible.
Nope, i beg to differ. The appeal is built too, it's no secret that our global retail economy is largely driven by marketing and communication, since ww2. Hence it's driven by producers and not by consumers: these criteria are what producers want consumers to want. Which they largely managed to assert. Mass media, mass consumption, all this is guided from the top, not the bottom. Surely there is nuance, the top-down control strives to test if it's not too far from something that would actually be appealing to the bottom. But the main driving force here is to pump up the volume, and to do so by creating markets, by forcefully pushing goods onto consumers habits and by making things short-lived (using forced obsolescence, but more commonly and insidiously by producing pointless new versions all the time). Actually once you go down that path, you see that the whole underpinnings of "consumer"/"producer" duality is biased towards this state of affairs. It's no wonder Marx babbled about taking over the means of productions (and ipso facto destroying passive consumption as a practice). Even Knuth says that the only proper way to make any tool is to design it for your own use (can't remember out the source for this one, probably something about TeX). This is a major reason for grassroots software domination against corporate products, despite the ridiculous imbalance.
Nope, i beg to differ. The appeal is built too, it's no secret that our global retail economy is largely driven by marketing and communication, since ww2. Hence it's driven by producers and not by consumers: these criteria are what producers want consumers to want. Which they largely managed to assert. Mass media, mass consumption, all this is guided from the top, not the bottom. Surely there is nuance, the top-down control strives to test if it's not too far from something that would actually be appealing to the bottom. But the main driving force here is to pump up the volume, and to do so by creating markets, by forcefully pushing goods onto consumers habits and by making things short-lived (using forced obsolescence, but more commonly and insidiously by producing pointless new versions all the time). Actually once you go down that path, you see that the whole underpinnings of "consumer"/"producer" duality is biased towards this state of affairs. It's no wonder Marx babbled about taking over the means of productions (and ipso facto destroying passive consumption as a practice). Even Knuth says that the only proper way to make any tool is to design it for your own use (can't remember out the source for this one, probably something about TeX). This is a major reason for grassroots software domination against corporate products, despite the ridiculous imbalance.
>maintenance has to be valued outside of austerity, and right now it’s unclear if our current economic system is capable of that.
As we hit the backside of the carbon pulse that gave many of us a standard of living that Kings could only dream of as few as 200 years ago, the need to build things for the long term will once again take precedent.
The ability for governments and institutions to paper over reality shouldn't be underestimated, but we're eventually going to have to trade power coupons for natural resources, and those resources are finite, and the difficulty of extracting them from the earth is increasing.
The market driven insanity of freely using virgin material for disposable trinkets will correct itself in time.
As we hit the backside of the carbon pulse that gave many of us a standard of living that Kings could only dream of as few as 200 years ago, the need to build things for the long term will once again take precedent.
The ability for governments and institutions to paper over reality shouldn't be underestimated, but we're eventually going to have to trade power coupons for natural resources, and those resources are finite, and the difficulty of extracting them from the earth is increasing.
The market driven insanity of freely using virgin material for disposable trinkets will correct itself in time.
An unpaid plug for New York Replacement Plumbing Parts: in 2004, we installed faucets from a company that soon went out of business. Were it not for NYRPP, we'd have been forced to buy new faucets after cartridges failed.
fwiw I've noticed that my 2016 vehicle is surprisingly low maintenance compared to previous generations of vehicles. From longer cycles for basic maintenance[2] to parts just not failing as soon as I was used to (eg, check out this article[1] about cv joints lasting 2-3x as long).
I wish i could say the same about home appliances.
[1]: https://bobistheoilguy.com/forums/threads/how-long-should-yo...
[2]: eg cars going from 3k to 5k to 8k miles between oil changes, kn&n filters lasting 50k miles on hwy etc.
I wish i could say the same about home appliances.
[1]: https://bobistheoilguy.com/forums/threads/how-long-should-yo...
[2]: eg cars going from 3k to 5k to 8k miles between oil changes, kn&n filters lasting 50k miles on hwy etc.
How are K&N filters compared to the stock filters? I am thinking of changing my stock filter to K&N filters but I have a lot of hesitation on how long it will last.
I think the two main takes are:
1. a tiny bit of horsepower/fuel efficiency and no maintenance -- win
2. It might work by increasing the size of things allowed through, which maybe matters to your engine life? -- loss.
YMMV, literally
1. a tiny bit of horsepower/fuel efficiency and no maintenance -- win
2. It might work by increasing the size of things allowed through, which maybe matters to your engine life? -- loss.
YMMV, literally
I tell people I still do some of my shit "on prem" these days and get weird looks but its a skill I can't help but think is going to become very useful someday soon
It's funny because I've been "in cloud" all my career and that experience has taught me the value of "on prem".
It's all by design as a good maintainability is not good for business for obvious reasons:
1. It's require much more efforts in designing and manufacturing and thus cost would be much higher.
2. It reduces failure rates dramatically and thus leads to much less sales.
3. It reduces revenues from servicing.
Examples:
1. Built in non-removable battery in electronics such as phones.
2. Glues instead of screws in electronics such as phones.
3. Soldered on CPU/RAM in laptops.
1. It's require much more efforts in designing and manufacturing and thus cost would be much higher.
2. It reduces failure rates dramatically and thus leads to much less sales.
3. It reduces revenues from servicing.
Examples:
1. Built in non-removable battery in electronics such as phones.
2. Glues instead of screws in electronics such as phones.
3. Soldered on CPU/RAM in laptops.
> “Maintenance must be valued on its own terms, and that means tearing down the economic system that rejects it.”
This is not how you get people to side with you about the importance of maintenance.
Honestly, if I have to choose between capitalism and valuing maintenance, I am going to go with capitalism every single time.
This is not how you get people to side with you about the importance of maintenance.
Honestly, if I have to choose between capitalism and valuing maintenance, I am going to go with capitalism every single time.
I don't understand why the article assumes there's an either/or situation here (maybe it's written from a US-centric POV?); there's a lot of good money to be made from maintenance and waste management. For example here in the UK, cars have to pass an annual road-worthiness test, which gives car owners and garage owners a chance to fix things before they break. In homes, it's a requirement to have gas boilers checked annually - again maintenance. Councils and private housing associations regularly come round to check and refurbish exteriors, wiring, plumbing, etc - waiting until the house floods or burns down doesn't make economic sense to them.
I worked on England's waste strategy published back in 2000. The waste hierarchy back then was "Reduce, Reuse, Refurbish, Recycle" - the promotional focus at the time was on recycling (our recycling rates were abysmal), but maintenance ( == Refurbish) was definitely part of the mix.
I worked on England's waste strategy published back in 2000. The waste hierarchy back then was "Reduce, Reuse, Refurbish, Recycle" - the promotional focus at the time was on recycling (our recycling rates were abysmal), but maintenance ( == Refurbish) was definitely part of the mix.
I’d love to know what housing associations you know of that do regular proactive maintenance. My family has decades of experience as tenants and I can’t agree at all. I feel they do the complete opposite - hope that only fixing when things break be the cheaper option.
Any regular checks they are a complete farce and on many occasions have actually broken things, especially regarding boilers (I wish I were joking)
I do agree good money is being made on maintenance. The service is sold, it just doesn’t properly get carried out
The people they send round to fix things are bluntly thick as shit and often damage more than they fix
Any regular checks they are a complete farce and on many occasions have actually broken things, especially regarding boilers (I wish I were joking)
I do agree good money is being made on maintenance. The service is sold, it just doesn’t properly get carried out
The people they send round to fix things are bluntly thick as shit and often damage more than they fix
In my (limited) experience, smaller housing associations seem to show more care and attention than larger ones. It shouldn't be that way. As to the quality of subcontractors - I have good experiences and bad experiences. I always give feedback, even when not invited to do so.
First, why? You’ll have to slave away at your job longer to replace things you could have otherwise repaired at a fraction of the cost, thus becoming a slave to your job to maintain your income just to keep on existing.
And secondly, why? The pollution this kind of thinking generates is mind boggling and as everyone is becoming aware, we’re running out of time to avoid disaster.
So, really, why?
And secondly, why? The pollution this kind of thinking generates is mind boggling and as everyone is becoming aware, we’re running out of time to avoid disaster.
So, really, why?
This is still an argument for maintenance, not an argument against capitalism. Maintenance and capitalism aren't diametrically opposed.
It's important to love capitalism, regardless of whether it has a positive effect on anything in particular. It can tell when you love it, and if it feels loved, the more likely it is to favor you.
Would have expected a namedrop of Zen And The Art of Motorcycle Maintenance with that title
design for maintenance.
This text has been resonating with me for many years. Humans simply do NOT appreciate maintenance people TBH. Me as an example: I own a house but whenever I plan maintenance of my house I always tried to push it a bit further because 1) It's expensive, and 2) Manual or company says that I need to do X every Y years, can I push back say 10% and still don't break things? As for my electronics, unfortunately I never maintained them and in my earlier days I never had a computer that lasted for 3+ years -- they always broke down due to this or that reason.
And then both of my knees have degenerative issues; I had kidney stones; I need to maintain physical health but I was and still is too lazy to do that. I simply do not have the maintenance mindset.
This probably can stretch out to the whole society: We simply do not appreciate Maintenance people. They are usually lowly paid and have low moral because what they work is chore. They also do not get to enjoy creating new things. Basically you need someone who has the mindset to appreciate maintenance to be a good maintenance person, and a society of this mindset to support such work and lower the cost. Nowadays we do not. Nowadays we always doubt the necessity of maintenance and sometimes even accuse other people to charge a large bill for maintenance (sadly, this could be true). There is little trust between.