I agree this is a great thread. Things are certaintly built not to last these days. That is why I tend to shop at second hand shops and flea markets. I have a waffle iron I got for free at the end of a flea market that still has a cloth cord and works like new! Things were built to last even a few decades ago, and these appliances are still to be had. Add in that the avocado and stainless styles are now back, if you care, you will be right in style!

The Biscuit Queen

Things are made the way they are not to make things worse for us environmentally, but because they are in so many many ways superior to what came before that they are appealing to us. People aren’t being forced to buy iPods, they are doing so by the millions because the iPod is an incredible piece of technology. So it goes with flat screen TV’s, GPS, etc. In addition, by weight or volume, you could gather up all your modern electronics devices and they would make up a fraction of the weight and volume of the heavy, unreliable things of yore (reel to reel tape recorders, heavy CRT floor model TV’s, huge stereo receivers, big load of vinyl LP’s etc.) Not to mention that they are far more frugal with electricity.

Yes, such things as shoes, clothes, hair dryers and kitchen items can still be repaired because they remain the basically simple things they have been all along. For many other things, technology has raced far beyond the ability of you and I to do any kind of repair beyond replacing a major component, because we have no idea what is going on inside and no access to the sophisticated equipment necessary to diagnose what is wrong.

I made a career out of high tech electronics repair and the work was very satisfying but I would never trade the incredible capabilities of modern electronics and the equally incredible reliability of same to regain the satisfaction of repair.

Our big challenge is not to be able to repair the things we have, though there is sure no harm in doing what you can do, but to be able to resist the temptation to get rid of perfectly functional things just because something new has come out and the thing we have seems “old”.

Michelle in Tennessee

When I was young, I was lucky to have a friend that knew how to fix cars. This helped me get over my initial intimidation of car repair. This also gave me courage to tackle other complex repair jobs like major appliances and electronics. (My profession is technical so that helps too.)

The hair dryer is really a simple device and the website you referred to seems like a good starting point. If, you need to probe (use right hand) with the unit plugged in, try not to get shocked. Best of luck.

Loved the story of the cheese slicer too.

Here’s our blender/food processor story: We received a blender/food processor for our wedding. It looks like a normal blender, and one “container” is a normal blender pitcher-type thing with a blade in the bottom. Then there is a white attachment that sticks into the
blender when you take the pitcher off, and on top of that goes a two-part wider but shorter plastic
container with a blade–that’s the food processor thing and it works great.

So a few years ago the bottom half of the plastic food processor container got a crack in it, that eventually started allowing food to leak out. We wanted to just replace that part, but it was cheaper to buy a whole new food processor. But we didn’t want to buy a whole new appliance and the new ones didn’t even do what we wanted then to do. Finally we just bought the replacement part online, and have been happy ever since.

We also love the photos of the cats!!! Hope you’re having fun as new pet parents!