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Re: electra gl2 (italy)
Capacitor used to play up, but then you would get a poor wash, and failure to ramp into spin. Think it was 16mf
Also watch for overfilling, then the water would not evacuate enough before spin, and the drum would send the water around in a vortex, and would not drain properly. Water level on Cottons 1″ up the front plastic door inner, on delicates halfway between the lip of the door seal and the centre of the door handle.
Alex
Re: electra gl2 (italy)
Where did 50 odd years come from? If you give me the serial number, on a silver palate at the rear just below the tub breather pipe, I can date it to the month.
Electra GL2 500 spin, was sold through the Electricity Boards 1974 to 1977, made by Zanussi along with the 300 spin GL1. The bearings on those was bigger than the present day ones on the 1,000 spin machine.
Prior to that was the L1 & L2 1972 to Oct 1794. These were eventually replaced by the Hoover Electra A3E02 range. No Electra ones were the DL range.
How come it needs brushes is beyond me, they used an induction motor?
Zanussi only entered the uk in the mid 60’s, but was badged Imperial.
Alex
Re: One piece welded tub seized solid!
kwatt wrote:
But now we have a situation where it is entirely feasible that we have to run about carrying full tub assemblies on the van!?
Just the logistics of that sends me into a flat spin. I mean as an example, think about the poor Service Force guys as, if Lux hold true to form, there’ll be the usual seven derivatives for which you need the Prod. Code to identify across a range of over 50 machines with doubtless at least 10-15 tub variants, at least.
K.
That put a smile on my face.
We carry the popular bearings/seals on all vans therefore taking away some of the double visits. even then the mixture of bearings, sealed kits and whatever else that can be put into the pot compounds this. Of course there is no way we could possibly carry sealed tubs, as you say the variants are extreme. Add to that pulleys & bolts as there is little point in hacking away the old one.
Interesting times ahead
Re: Samsung
One of my engineers (Not refrigeration) has one I/G and has an icemaker fault. He lives in Taunton and they use someone from Exmouth Devon.
My eng phones them yesterday at 8.30 and they made the appointment for today, Weds 23rd Home all day. They told him an all day call, so he gets his missus to take a day off. They would not tell him who was calling, and insisetd that it was a firm appointment.
This morning at 9.45 he gets a phone call from the Samsung eng telling him he cannot call today as they have booked him a full day, including Plymouth Barnstaple & Weymouth. He now has an appointment for next week. This engineer told my guy he had all his calls arrive this morning.
Alex
Re: One piece welded tub seized solid!
kwatt wrote:
I know you only have another few years to go before you hang up your toolbox for good, some of use have another couple of decades to worry about.
K.
That is frightening and 100{e5d1b7155a01ef1f3b9c9968eaba33524ee81600d00d4be2b4d93ac2e58cec2d} true! This topic makes perfect sense, but will it lead anywhere?
I’ve watched this with a lot of interest especially when someone brought 1975 into the equation. That was the time of 8-Track stereo car players, Betamax, Square steering wheels on Austin Allegro’s. Back in the days when a purchase such as a washing machine was a status symbol as well as an asset. Dishwashers were almost unheard of.
Back then I was repairing sloping front Keymatics as well as Toasters, Irons, Kettles etc. Even used to solder spouts back on Swan Kettles. I recall the introduction of a Morphy Richards toaster where if an element failed, meant a whole new inner carcass and that was dearer than the toaster was when purchased.
The Hoover “Matchbox Range had just been introduced, and then we saw the end of stripping “concentric” valves to replace the diaphragm, and replacing with a whole valve that was a quarter the price. Give it another 5 years and we were replacing whole pumps at £40 each. Add another 10 years and were fitting Askoll pumps at £6 each. You can see where this is going can’t you.
In the early 80’s I saw the beginning of end of the repair sector of Vacuum Cleaners, I used to expect certain 1334 1346 & 625 cleaners at the same time every year for the annual service, and gradually they got less & less. Having already kissed goodbye to repairs of small appliances, the cleaners were next up the food chain. Then microwaves went the same way, and it wasn’t long before fridges followed suit. A question I asked once before, who fits a VT9 stat these days?
At present disposal may be the biggest hurdle in slowing the laundry market following suit, but the main reason the above has happened is because the stores want to stack-em-up cheap and turn them out like pats of butter. This keeps their figures looking good, and pushes more insurance.
Back in 1961 John Bloom went to Tallent engineering in Birmingham, and said “Make me a washing machine I can sell for less than £20”, and they did (Rolls Concorde & Rapide) He even gave away fur coats or holidays abroad as promotions.
Put another 30 years on that, along comes one of the Sheds and says to Philco, make me a washing machine we can put out for less than £200 and they did. Average weekly wage in 1961 was than £12; average weekly wage in 1991 was £225. So already the product had devalued by nearly 100{e5d1b7155a01ef1f3b9c9968eaba33524ee81600d00d4be2b4d93ac2e58cec2d}. Look what happened to Philco, along with John Bloom, went to the wall.
Now the factories are mainly interested is keeping the production line running, and the more that goes out the gate at a silly price the more they will put out at a silly price. That I’m afraid to say comes at a cost, and we are talking the end product here.
Suffice to say, I whole heartily agree with the statement regards Martins generation, which includes me, as we may no longer be putting in the hours to see the final outcome of all this; however I have engineers working for me with age ranges between 25 and 45 years old, which BTW is well under the national average. These are the guys along with the readers of this who could become victims of the way things are headed.
I would love to see us make a difference, and it would be a terrific achievement. Regretfully the issue is global, and if our Italian cousins go back to split tubs, the Orientals probably won’t and they will be able to maintain the gate price of $40 per unit. Then the European factories will re-consider sealed tubs, or move the operation to the Far-East just to keep their name up and remain in the market.
The question is can we change the world, or do we have to adapt in keeping with the rest of the world? This is food for thought, I’ve been doing this over 35 years in one form or another, and I’m really passionate about what we do and the skills we have to offer, sadly corporate thinking does not share my passion.
Alex
Re: MFI
Says a lot really.
Regretfully not easy to do, but may be an idea to set up a spoof call and see if you get it. Problem is they seem to know all their customers.
There seems to be no dialogue with them these days, they are not helpful, and somehow the little bit of charm that was has gone out of the contract.
I am busy enough to bin them, but the problem is as soon as I do that, we will be looking for something to do. If an engineer ever leaves, may drop them overnight.
Alex
Re: Service Force in Wales
kwatt wrote:
If nothing else with any luck word will get back and someone in Lux will pay attention and do something about it. If not, well, any more similar problems really are on their own heads.
K.That is why I haven’t posted in the open forums, otherwise they will think there is no problem. If Alex is happy, then everyone is happy.
Alright for us existing agents because as long as there is no support, there is no one in place to be on our case. The rumblings regards this among other agents, “Pity he tarred Service Force, and not Electrolux” there is a distinct difference.
Alex
Re: Service Force in Wales
kwatt wrote:Pistols, na. 😉
I fully appreciate what you’re saying but it really was down to Lux to sort their end of it out as well………………
…………… It also looks to get worse as, as yet, there looks to be no replacement for Steve Clarke either.
K.
That cannot be denied. Even Steve Clarke doesn’t know what is happening.
I was the guy that put Terry Jacksons name forward for the job he has just landed, and for Terry’s sake I hope things work out. It is a shambles, and it won’t get better for some time. Regretfully for Ade it all came to be at the wrong time, but as I said a phone call would have helped him.
Del, you know what I mean, you have been close to getting the agency, and he may well still be in for a shout. Had it gone tits up in your direction you would have phoned a friend. Not scream from the highest mountain.
We are professionals I like to think, and regretfully Ade has shown a little bit of inexperience in this.
Hopefully he will learn from it, but he may well lose credence with those he currently works with.
All our service providers are like the Mafia, and they do talk.
I rest my case.
Alex
Re: Service Force in Wales
kwatt wrote: It also lets others know to some extent what they may be letting themselves in for by taking it on in respect to a lack of support and if SF find it hard to get agents due to that then, as I have said, they only have themselves to blame for not investing in their service network.
As usual though Alex as you, I and others in here know full well with the like of Lux, Indesit and others, they only care about service when it effects sales in a negative manner.
K.It looks like pistols at dawn out there in the general trade forum.
Look I don’t want to go into this too deep, and I’m not looking for a fight, but there is a damn sight more to it that you guys know.
Yes he did get very little support, that cannot be denied, mainly because 2 out of 4 managers took sudden early retirement, and a 3rd went long term sick. It left Richard on his own.
What gets me is why the bloody hell did Adrian not pick up the phone to any one of us, we would have helped. I know the guy, he knows me, he’s only just over an hour away and I would have happily sat in on a Saturday and helped him along.
Had he worked with them rather than against them, and kept his patience he would have been alright. Terry Jackson is now on stream as well as A.N. Other and Richard is now back to normal. then the support would have been better, and he would have been nursed through.
Alex
.Re: Engineer recruitment
Just to advise.
If you recruit they will take a 15{e5d1b7155a01ef1f3b9c9968eaba33524ee81600d00d4be2b4d93ac2e58cec2d} cut of his 1st years wage. Do the sums.
Add to that, they can also take one of your engineers. How it works is if you register they will send you engineer details with his initials and a partial postcode. So, I keep getting these e-mails, and take a scant interest; then one day I get one and the postcode & initials mean something, one of my engineers! Fortunately I already knew he was looking around, and mentally was prepared to lose him.
She is very nice is Nicola, but agressive sales pitch. I’m still on her mailing list.
Alex
Re: Service Force in Wales
Yes I remember only too well what went on with Indesit Merloni.
Getting back to Adrian. Yes I know they let him down with poor tech support, and they did not spend the time with him as perhaps they should have done. What makes it worse now is that S/Force has become so complex that unless you have grown up with it, you will find it hard. Made worse by the fact that there is nobody there to assist. Most of the admin staff have gone and everything is IT related, there is nothing in place to cover manual claims inputting etc. which Adrian was trying to do.
I’ve actually posted on the S/Force forum the line “In Space No One Can Hear You Scream.” Simply because there is nobody left, we are all flying by wire. When Steve Clarke goes at the end of this month it will be even worse.
Adrian was in with a chance and realistically they both blew it.
I do know that there is a bit more to it than he has let on, being the reason I felt it appropriate to pop something in here. I’d best leave it at that. It was a shame really as they could have been good for each other.
I’d love to say in the main forums that in reality Adrian is better off without it, as it will become the tail that wags the dog.
Alex
Re: Watchdog!
You didn’t tell us all to go out & buy the Express on Sunday though. The colour supplement was interesting. Who was this Ken Watts fella?
Best set the rcorder then, that time of day is daytime telly for me.
Alex
Re: ZWF1431W now a twin tub! 😉
Can I ask the obvious, how are you going to stitch it back together. Or was this investigative surgery in the course of research?
Alex
kwatt wrote:Got a call from Mark Ridler yesterday and from Paul Brookes. )
Mark Ridler is coming to see me in the next couple of weeks. 😉
K.
Well, did he? I have had no contact at all from them since Tony Brown left, not even a letter. Yet they send me about 20 calls per week.
We had a glass hood today that needed to be taken down in order to solder in a new motor. Engineer stated that would need assistance to do the job safely.
When booking to go back & fit the motor, we did ask if there was anyone on site to assist & the customer agreed to help if needed. When we got there, he refused so engineer abandoned. We phoned MFI & asked for double rate, and they refused. So we told them we were closing the job as is and they had better find someone else. The tart we spoke to just didn’t get it. We’ll see when they try & send it back again as we will tell them to stuff it.
Say what you like about Servevast, they will cough up no trouble in such cases.
Alex
