I am not an expert, but I do have some knowledge about how electric appliances work, thanks to my high-school electricity-tech lessons. Therefore, when a home electric appliance fails, my first reaction is to ponder if I could fix it, by looking over the device and trying to figure out what the problem could be.
Starting for the easiest, some days ago the iron stopped working and, after some minutes looking for the locations of the hidden screws to disassemble it, I could open it, run some tests and find the problem: the thermal fuse was broken. The cost of the piece was $ 1.70 and the replacing process was very simple in order to "resurrect" the appliance. If I had gone to any electrical workshop, I could have been charged with no less than $ 15 for the job.
When the treadmill started to smell burn and stop working, the challenge was not so simple. Taking a big risk, I managed the way to dismantle the carcass and look inside the apparatus. There was no burned components, but I detected some stuck gear that could cause overheating. To fix it, I had to disassemble de electric motor, put some oil in the gear and reassemble it. It took me four hours, with no cost for reparation. I am sure the technician would have charged me no less than $ 50, just for the visit.
But the real thing was when the tailgate of my car refused to open. Everybody knows that, in my country, car replacement parts are very expensive, almost a robbery. The dealer said that the replacement part would cost $ 110 (because they had to place a “special order” from the very factory). That sounded me absurd, because I knew that the problem was a simple broken button.
Anyway, I googled the part and the cost was about $ 35 including shipping. “Ok, I can take it -I thought, but what if I can replace de button by myself?” Guess what? I did it! The cost for the new button was $ 0.40, the part does not look exactly as new, but it works perfectly.
Certainly, tech high-school investment was worthy!
No hay comentarios:
Publicar un comentario