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Re: Site News & Updates
Just to let you know how the site is faring, I like to keep you up to speed…
Google has been scanning again, results later this month or next most likely but if the following is any indication we’re doing summat right…
http://www.alexa.com/data/details/traffic_details?q=&url=http://www.ukwhitegoods.co.uk/
We’ve moved up 206,531 in Alexa’s rankings in 3 months which is, to say the least, pretty damn impressive in itself! But we’ve also now entered into, for the first time ever, the top 100,000 sites in the world according to Alexa’s figures this morning in terms of their Traffic Rank, which is just absolutely amazing in under a year.
It’s all good clean fun, if a bit geekish! 😆
K.
Re: Servis M3022/M module blown!
Lawrence wrote:I also had a fault similar to Alex’s on an Identical machine ,3 modules later I hung in a motor out of sheer exasperation and it worked !! yet the motor checked out okay !?,Also worth noting is the mains filter I have had loads melt but I have had a couple go Live ~ Neutral Internally
It’s Italian! After many years as a Candy agent I gave up wondering why such things happen, I just accept it now. Ditto with anything that has a whiff of Merloni about it.
Lawrence wrote:MFI Haeir Dishwashers – Just one question WHY!!!
Because they (alledgedly) roll off the line at £30 a throw, that’s why. 😯
Merloni design, built by Chinese for a bowl of rice a week…now there’s a recipe for success eh? 😉
K.
It’s also caused a lot of grief as well…
“The manufacturer will not pay for installation faults, please invoice the customer”
Sound familiar? 🙁
K.
Ah, that’s my secret…I don’t rely on a computer (persay) to do the donkey work, they’re too unreliable for that IMO. I use X10 cause it’s cheap, well cheaper than the alternatives at least, and Homevision to control it all. Alarm will soon be handled by Comfort and that leads to allsorts of security tricks I can do. 😉
A server in the house runs for HA for voice feedback, music serving stuff, CCTV and a few other things with about a Terrabyte or so of storage and there’s a little 2K server doing mail (internal and external) IRC and FTP duties.
If it’s a new build get them to wire every light back to one panel and install CAT5 to every outlet you can and especially switch as that will allow you maximun potential for the future as things stand now. Even if you don’t automate it now that will allow you to do so in the future without ripping walls apart and the cost is negligable on a new build.
Read up on it, it is a lot of fun but very addictive, if you need any help just ask.
And, it’s not new technology really, X10 has been about for 25 years as the patents just expired on it and others have been in commercial use for many years as well.
K.
Re: The Insanity Is Amazing
Martin wrote:Sssssh! Ken’s working on a remote control automatic haggis stuffing device as we speak 😉
See, only a heathen English could come away with a comment like that, you don’t stuff the haggis and you’ve got to catch the little buggers first before you cook ’em. 😉 😆
K.
Re: The Insanity Is Amazing
Ally wrote:Ken stop mucking about in the automated home forums and concentrate in the work n hand!
I have to, I moderate and it’s a lot more interesting that a washing machine! 😆 That plus I moderate on the mailing list, forums and IRC it keeps me out of (some ;)) trouble.
Ally wrote:PS have you got any home automation going on?
Loads, it’s become a hobby over the years so the house is kind of on auto-pilot for a load of stuff, freaks people out a lot, which is nice. 😈
K.
I hate to say it, but it may well be a motor fault as there’s some kind of link there between the two but it’s not too apparent and I’ve yet to see a schematic for the motor pinouts on one. What happened on a few of the Ardo machines I saw was a leak from the SD running down the outside of the tank, onto the motor and…POP! Motor and module goosed, but you’d swear it was just the module that was faulty.
Think “Nexus” Alex without the obvious nature of it. 😉
Ridiculously for Servis it ended up the guys were often ordering a motor, module and harness just to be sure they killed the call. The laugh in that is that we weren’t being paid enough for that nature of call, it was extremely time consuming and the parts cost us more than the retail price of the machine in Comet!
Quite a few of the grey plastic “Y” internal inlet hoses leak as well and of course it’s clear water, so no tell tale soap run marks. 🙁
K.
I dunno Mark they gave the government the biggest wake up call any governing party has had in my memory and they’ve still not shaken off the effect fully. The fact is that the government capitulated to a degree and saved face in 2000 as the oil prices were lowered by OPEC ramping up production. It would seem that this time around OPEC may well not have option and the current administration is in trouble over it as there is, ultimately, only two choices open to them. Either they lower the duty on fuel and lose face or they batter ahead flying in the face of public opinion and await the backlash, Hobson’s choice I believe they call it.
However Penguin is correct in that there is a planned 2p price increase in the duty slated to go on in September and, thus far, the word from the Chancellor is that there is no way they will recind that increase. Given that we’re already touching 90p a litre in many areas and over £1 in some and that crude seems to be rising on the world markets still this is not looking too clever at all.
However, most people miss the point, it’s not the fuel that’s the killer in the UK it’s the duty on fuel that is and then, to add insult to injury, we get charged VAT on the fuel AND the duty which some feel is at best immorral and possibly ilegal but no-one’s taken it to a court yet. It is merely another stealth tax in essense but one that costs my business a lot of money.
The problem is the knock-on effect for us, if fuel goes up so does everything else as the costs just get added on, we have to do it and so does everyone else. In a few months, if the situation is not resolved, engineers will be asking for pay increases or looking for a better paid employment somewhere and that’s a real issue for many.
K.
(never played guitar but if it’ll help… ;))
Yeah, but some are double sided and the plastic goes between them, so you fit a new module and it pops again. 🙁
You quickly learn that though, but may not notice it unless someone told you to look for it before you zapped another module.
To let you know how bad it is, Servis would actually accept a claim where you replaced two modules if one popped on fitting, so a common failure. 😉 But then at one point we were replacing upwards of 15-20 of them a week so I guess we’d see these little foibles a bit quicker than many.
K.
Just watch the connectors Martin as they get fried as well and arc especially if it’s had a good belt. Servis can supply new connectors but don’t, I had to beg some off them at one stage froma helpful chap in Servis Tech. (I know that will come as a shock to many ;)) who happilly sent me a few to save changing the harness.
Motors are also a bit fragile at times, but I wouldn’t expect the motor goosed given the fault.
K.
Servis – module – blown
Now there’s three words that were designed to sit together! 😉 😆
They go all the time Martin, very common failure and seem to be the weak point (well one of them) on these machines along with the bearings. Not cheap either if you replace with a new genuine one.
K.
Reports now coming in of pump prices at £1.12 a litre in the London area. This is a 42{e5d1b7155a01ef1f3b9c9968eaba33524ee81600d00d4be2b4d93ac2e58cec2d} increase on the national average pump price of 0.79p a litre only four weeks or so ago. It also means that if I had to pay that on fuel that my fuel bill just went up by a whacking £2620 a year to run the two vans only!!!
That’s the profit on 480 service calls wiped out just on fuel alone, or almost ten weeks of working for nothing just to fuel up.
This is becoming a problem, rapidly! 🙁
Fuel protests are due to begin next week unless there is some form of resolution found according to David Hanley who organised them the last time around. The Road Hauliers Association are also not happy campers at the moment.
K.
