William Noble wrote:
nonrepairable is not the same as planned obsolescense. A new product may be
impossible to repair because it uses custom electronics and special assembly
techniques but that doesn't mean it's planned to quit working in 3 years.

--

Yes it is - your wrong. Theres actually an engineering discipline
devoted to this subject - its called "Stress Engineering" ie how many
cycles can the door open and close before ir breaks - or, how many
hours will the just adequate component get stinking hot before it
desolders itself from the circuit board.....all things that most
technicians are intimately familiar with - (their called "bread and
butter" faults..).we used to make a living from them....the technically
difficult repairs that took EONS you did for self satisfaction and lost
money on - that was ok when there was enough of the other stuff to make
a living.

The whole societal mindset has changed - most of my customers now are
"mature aged" and have the life long expectation that when thing
breaks, it gets fixed. The younger ones - don't even bother, they
EXPECT it to break soon after the warranty ends (thats BONUS time!) and
will not even think about getting it repaired....

Modern manufacturing methods - them too - snap together plastic
assemblies designed for easy assembly with no thought for subsequent
servicing (hey, nuts and bolts cost MONEY) - done by unskilled, low
wage workers to whom a screwdriver is probably a complex machine tool.
Modern circuit boards - SMD components, machine assembled, wave
soldered - give VERY high reliability due lack of "operator error" but
again, virtually impossible to repair without specialist equipment -
fine if your in aerospace, or medical, or industrial where you have the
margins, but not domestic stuff. (and thats assuming the complex in
house LSI IC is even available - it usually isnt...)

And the manufacturers too - theres no money in servicing, 10,000 TV
sets can be ordered, delivered to the customers distribution centre
straight off the boat all from one person sitting in front of a PC - no
warehouses, spare parts stock, skilled staff to manage the spare parts,
service data to manage, field service staff to control, cost of running
a service centre....

Same for service data - costs too much. Its easier to replace something
under warranty irrespective of the fault, crush it, and claim it as a
tax loss than maintain a service centre with skilled techs,,,,

Sooo - this leaves people like us - slightly demented, do it
yourselfers, who machine bits out of aluminum to replace a broken
plastic bracket (thats why I got into this bizarre metalworking world)
- people who will spend DAYS chasing a generic replacement, who, when
they see something of a similar model in the dumpster, will rescue it
to take home for spares.....

Do I complain - yeh, fer sure. Would I do anything else - no way, I
enjoy the challenge. Learning new skills, being rat cunning and
devious, figuring out how to beat the obsolescence game....its fun
(mostly) Pity it barely pays the bills - fortunately the house is paid
for, the kids are off our hands (mostly) and I dont lust after a turbo
Porsche...(now, more tools - thats different...) And when my generation
goes - thats it, cant see anyone choosing to do this to make a living.
Sitting at a service station console taking money for gasoline pays
better.

The only industries where you CAN make good money servicing a-

1.Where the machine itself costs LOTS of money, so the repair is a
small part of the cost
2.Where people are standing idle because the machine is down
3 There is some sort of "voodoo mystique" about it (medical is a good
example)

Ah, that feels SO much better ..........

Andrew VK3BFA.