On Jun 4, 3:01?am, mm wrote:
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.

WW Graingers mark up on much non competive stuff like motors must be
twice cost.

search around now on line for best price motor then put in stock for
when needed