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kaismom_gw

Product longevity and sustainability

kaismom
12 years ago

There is a heated discussion about what the "right" thing to do in terms of your purchase.

What do you think about this?

We have an old Asko 6XX W/D set, about 12 years old. The motor on the washer "slowly" died.

We diagnosed that it was the worn out brushes. My DH is good at taking things apart and fixing them. We fix nearly all our appliances. We searched the local and internet resources for replacement brushes. We called around etc. They were NOT SOLD anywhere in the USA. Brushes are not replaced in the USA? I guess we just toss these machines...

We found them on the UK ebay for E5.00 or less.

At this point, I was without a washer for more than a week and we bit the bullet and bought a new motor for $300 on a US web site rather than wait weeks for the brushes to ship from UK. We felt that it still was the "right" thing to do environmentally than to chuck the entire washer. My husband is keeping the motor in the garage just in case the motor breaks.... I suppose we can take it to the machine shop and have them machine the brushes for it :)

Our system of commerce does not make it easy for you to 'reuse' or 'recycle' for certain things like large appliances. Each time the repairman comes out, the charge is $150 or more. You spend a little more and you get a brand new appliance. When you call the appliance repair man, they actually tell you to replace it if the item is nearly 10 year mark.

Even if you are willing to take the appliance apart and get it done by your own labor, you still have to buy the entire system of parts that you do not need. This is not a very user friendly system for 'reuse' and 'recycle'.

I hope that there is a healthy 'second hand repaired' appliance market for these appliances that are replaced by the original owners. It looks as it there maybe on when one looks at Craigslist.

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