nestork wrote:
trader_4;3288990 Wrote:

Things must really, really be different up there in Canada. IDK
of any cottage industry here repairing timers and if you called an
appliance store here, they'd laugh at you.

I'm expecting that if there aren't any people repairing timers in your
area it's because of the prevalence of electronic timers in appliances
over the past 20 years. Nowadays, stove clocks and appliance timers are
all electronic, and they aren't really repaired except by replacement.
There just isn't the demand for this skill anymore, just as it's
comparatively rare to find TV repair shops anymore. It's cheaper to buy
a new modern flat panel TV than have the old TV repaired.

No, no appliance parts store is going to laugh at you. When someone
starts a new business, like repairing appliance timers, the very first
thing they do is bring a stack of their business cards to each of the
appliance parts stores in the city. That way the people working in the
appliance parts stores get to know what services are available locally,
and advise their customers. And those guys behind the counter get paid
the same regardless whether they sell an extra timer or not, so they
really have no incentive NOT to tell customers that need new timers that
their old ones can be rebuilt.

If you go into any welding supply shop in Winnipeg, you'll see business
cards from people who rebuild pressure regulators for oxyacetylene gas
cutting and brazing.


I can see doing a repair if it's some expensive timer, integrated with
something else, etc, but not for the typical dryer timer.


Well, Google "appliance timer repair" and you'll find quite a few places
online repairing and rebuilding timers for typical dryers, typical
washers, and typical dish washers. If people didn't feel that was a
practical alternative, those places wouldn't be in business.

Besides, there are new appliances where you can justify paying $300 for
a new timer. And there are old appliance where the clear choice is to
buy a new appliance. And there is that large number of appliance that
fall in between where you can justify paying less than $100 to repair
the machine's timer, and that's the niche that appliance timer repair
shops cater to.

Hi,
As an addendum to this, there is an outfit in NYC who repairs Logitech
remote controls for flat fee. One of my remote, Harmony 800 had vol. up
switch
got sticky real bad. Repair cost was 13.99 plus S&H. When it came back
it worked like new, I sold it for 70.00 bought a Harmony One for 90.00,
LOL!.