Interesting piece on generational differences

Things today are also made cheaply and are not meant to be repaired.

Case in point. About 4.5 years ago, I bought a front-loader washer and dryer set. Haven't had any issues until a few weeks ago. One day the washer while running made a horrible, banging noise, and started smoking. I did some research and testing and determined the bearings were probably going out. I also found out that it was approximately a 4 hour repair involving a complete tear down and rebuild of the washer. To buy a new like model would cost $475. So, paying for a repairman made no sense. My options were to replace it, or attempt the repair myself. I decided to fix it myself.

I purchased the bearings for $80 and reviewed online how to tear it down (thanks youtube!) Got off early one night, sent the wife and kids out, had a friend come over, cracked open an Abita, and got to work.

Took about 90 min to strip it all down. Last step was to remove a bolt holding a bracket on the drum, then the bearings could be removed. When I got the bolt off, I realized the bracket was destroyed. It was plastic, and was basically held together by friction and dust. It came off in 6 pieces.

Got online to order a bracket, and it turns out there are none made, and I could not find any aftermarket ones either. Apparently, the company decided to no longer sell them individually, due to the fact that they were pieces of crap. However, I could buy an entire drum unit, which also included both a bracket (the same shitty one) and the bearings. Cost: $375 plus $50 to ship it.

After muttering some choice words, I drove to Best Buy and bought the new machine for $475. I ended up selling off the parts and metal for a total of about $75. So basically the net cost of the new machine was $400, which was about the cost of the part to fix it.