View Single Post
  #17   Report Post  
Posted to sci.electronics.repair
klem kedidelhopper klem kedidelhopper is offline
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 412
Default GE rant, and oven controll board problem

On Oct 21, 1:15*pm, John Robertson wrote:
George Herold wrote:
On Oct 20, 4:24 pm, John Robertson wrote:
George Herold wrote:
We have a GE profile electric oven (made in 1993). * The oven stopped
working. *When you pushed the button to turn the oven on the display
just blinked. *A call to the local repair guy, “We don’t service GE
stuff, sorry”. *I wondered why at the time. *So my wife called a GE
repairman and scheduled a visit. * The day before the visit he called
to get the problem details. *“Oh”, he says, “You need a new oven
control board and GE no longer makes it.”
So GE’s idea is that I buy a new oven. *I think I might rather have
hot pokers in my eye’s than buy a GE product!
Anyway I’m sending my board off to Fixyourboard.com tomorrow, ($160
and a two year guarantee). * Now I’ve got the board sitting in front
of me, if anyone here some idea of what to try I could save the money
and time. *There are no obvious blown bits on the board, and I removed
and reinstalled *the one connector cable.
Thanks guys, *And don’t buy a GE product!
George H.
Its almost twenty years old. That is not bad for electronic items to
finally need any service. Do you drive a 1993 car, use it daily, and
expect it to not need service?


I've got a '95 Ford van that was just retired... still used to pull a
boat to the lake. *An '83 Datsun (now Nissian) pickup truck that gets
work almost every weekend. *(But almost always in 4WD low gear.) *And
my pride and joy, a '49 Ferguson tractor. *'course there's not to many
IC's on that to fail. :^)


And I can still get parts for all those vehicles.


George H.


Yes, you can get car parts from after market suppliers or part
manufacturers for vehicles - hobbiests get into the act after more time
(look at Model T/A parts as an example - Ford has nothing to do with
these parts...) .

Stoves and other appliances are far more reliable than cars and as such
don't support much aftermarket supplies other than the folks you found
or companies like mine where we service obsolete amusement machines (but
not stoves or other home appliances).

John :-#)#



Manufacturers generally only stock parts for up to 5 years - after that
you are at the mercy of the aftermarket folks.


Yup that's what I'm learning.
At least you found someone willing to fix it!


John :-#)#


--
* * (Please post followups or tech enquiries to the newsgroup)
* John's Jukes Ltd. 2343 Main St., Vancouver, BC, Canada V5T 3C9
* Call (604)872-5757 or Fax 872-2010 (Pinballs, Jukes, Video Games)
* * * * * * * * * * *www.flippers.com
* * * *"Old pinballers never die, they just flip out."- Hide quoted text -


- Show quoted text -


--
* * (Please post followups or tech enquiries to the newsgroup)
* John's Jukes Ltd. 2343 Main St., Vancouver, BC, Canada V5T 3C9
* Call (604)872-5757 or Fax 872-2010 (Pinballs, Jukes, Video Games)
* * * * * * * * * * *www.flippers.com
* * * *"Old pinballers never die, they just flip out."


I just had to jump in here because this is something very close to my
heart. We used to own a GE refrigerator. I bought this in 1981 at a
special discount when I was a GE employee. In 27 years we experienced
one problem with it. The drain tube from the freezer got plugged up ,
(with frozen crumbs from the freezer), and would not allow the water
to drain properly during the defrost cycles. This minor problem caused
a bit of a leak at times. It didn't really affect the operation of the
unit and we eventually fixed it, (sucked out the line with a turkey
baster) and that was fine. The water however caused a small rust
problem on the bottom of the box under the door. Personally I never
noticed it but my wife, who notices everything was really upset over
this.

Being in the consumer electronics service business I know how stuff is
made today and I was determined to hold on to my old faithful in spite
of the rust. However this became very important to her and when the
kids offered to buy us a new refrigerator for our 25 wedding
anniversary, well, what could I do? So we donated my old friend to the
Boy Scouts and got a new LG. The Lg lasted just three years.

The serviceman told us that he would have to replace the entire sealed
system and even with all that he still couldn't guarantee that he
could actually find the leak or that it wouldn't leak again. Do you
know how many times I've kicked myself in the ass for letting my old
GE go?

I never listen to salesmen because they usually just tell you what you
want to hear however an appliance salesman in Best Buy really put it
in perspective for me when I balked at buying a service contract for
my now, third refrigerator. You see I don't feel that we should have
to pay what amounts to a ransom for the privilege of having something
last more than three years. This guy was an appliance repairman years
before he was a salesman. He agreed with me but added, "you have to
realize that everything that's made today is CRAP. And so you need to
protect yourself when you buy something new".

I've known this for years and have been preaching it to my wife for 33
of them. She's never believed me, until now. We have held on to most
of our old stuff. Some of my TV's have manual tuners but they still
produce stunning pictures. Our GE coffee maker was a wedding present.
It was put in the basement every time we bought a new coffee maker and
brought back out every time one of the new pieces of crap **** the bed
and had to be tossed. This is now our last coffee maker. Now she
finally believes me. But sadly the GE refrigerator is gone and it's
not coming back. The answer is to not to cave in and buy new. "New" is
synonymous with "CRAP". Hold on to your old stuff and fix it as long
as you can. They just don't make em like that any more. Lenny