On Wed, 30 May 2007 21:24:40 -0400, "Charles"
wrote:


"C & E" wrote in message
...


All too often even when the parts are available they are so expensive that
there's little difference between their cost and the price of a new unit,
in relative terms at the very least.

Thanks. I forgot to mention that. I am so adamant about this issue that I
often buy the parts anyway just to keep the stuff out of the landfill and to
feed my ego. I feel good when I restore something to service.

Back in college, I bought all the guts for an electric percolator,
spending I think almost as much as the whole thing cost.

I had found the perc in the trash, and I didn't even drink coffee. So
I gave it to Goodwill after it was fixed.

I have other stories like that, but also have stories where I
controlled myself.

Right now, people here slowly but easily convinced me that when the
motor in my roof fan fails it would be cheaper to buy a whole new fan
than to buy the motor at the local motor store. I have the receipt
and paid more than 80 dollars last time. But what will I do with all
the other parts? In theory I could use a spare thermostat (the
current one is 24 years old), but in practice I think it could last
until I die (OK, not really, I probably do need a spare thermostat, so
I guess that is what I will do, but let's pretend that wasn't there.
What would I do with the spare housing and fan blade? )

One thing I could do is call the motor store and negotiate with them.
I'm sure I paid retail last time, but they'd probably sell it to me
for wholesale or close if they believed that I planned to go buy a
whole fan complete at the bigbox.

The motors last between 4 and 12 years and the OEM motors were at 12
and 4, and the others were in the middle. So I can't work off of
that.