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Re: Who charges what for what ??
Only 100{e5d1b7155a01ef1f3b9c9968eaba33524ee81600d00d4be2b4d93ac2e58cec2d} on pattern spares alexa? So if you pay £4 for a pump you charge £8. Bargain 😈
Re: Who charges what for what ??
As I don’t have premises or staff, my overheads are extremely low but I don’t have the buying power of a big firm so I have to pay more for spares. Swings and roundabouts really but I would have thought you have to set prices so that you don’t price yourself out of too many jobs. I find if I quote £100 for a washing machine repair, 90{e5d1b7155a01ef1f3b9c9968eaba33524ee81600d00d4be2b4d93ac2e58cec2d} of customers decline to go ahead. The sole trader will also be looked upon as a cowboy by some people who are impressed by the big adverts of the larger companies. As it happens, there are no big firms covering my patch apart from manufacturers repairers and those with extended warranty contracts. I’ve found that such warranty work as I’ve been offered has not been worth doing e.g. £30 fixed labour fee with no mileage allowance and I get sent to a job 40 miles away! When the spares are provided you don’t make any profit on them.
Re: Who charges what for what ??
My prices are generally a bit less than you quote but they perhaps vary more. For example, I would charge about £55 for doing a Zanussi door seal as I would remove the outer drum to do it. Similarly, I tend to charge £20 + labour for changing Indesco brushes as the genuine brushes are so expensive ( I actually usually solder new Bosch carbons into old Indesco holders). My prices also vary according to how far I have to travel e.g. Hotpoint white brushes would be £25 up to 5 miles away, £30 over 5 miles.
Re: candy alise 105 changing bearings
You don’t give the full model number but I think the seal would be part number 6015542. One method of removing the remaining bearing races is to carefully drill 2 holes immediately behind them, 180 degrees apart (not too deep). You then use a drift or cold chisel inserted from the opposite side of the drum into your new holes and tap the bearings out.
Re: Indesit W161 UK Bearing change
I’ve only done one of these but the only difficulty I encountered was identifying the correct replacement seal, which turned out to be part No. 082696. Merloni seem quite keen to sell you a complete housing but I ordered the seal and pinched the bearings out of other spare kits ( I’ve noticed that it’s usually cheaper to buy a popular kit than buying 2 individual bearings).
Re: Zanussi bearing job, 2 do or not?
At least the spider is relatively easy to change, not like the dreaded rusty torx screws on Hotpoint WMA spiders.
Re: WMA Bearing Kit
I’m talking about the 6207 bearing. Virtually the same size as what? The hole drilling method is what I use on Zanussi 6205 bearings, particularly if the race has split down the middle.
Re: WMA Bearing Kit
Thanks for the link. I do drill holes like that for some machines but the big WMA bearings take some shifting and I’m not keen to go down that route. The tool for 6205 bearings sounds like the one included in the Homespares Hotpoint extractor kit. The one I had made is simply a scaled up version of this. I know some people fit the complete half drum but I would not get many of these jobs if I had to charge £100+. It would be handy to have a couple of spare half drums so I always had one ready to go.
Re: What’s the most illogical fault you’ve had to find?
A local auction house buys pallet loads of catalogue returns. On one there was a nearly new Hotpoint, one of the last WM models. I thought the bearings had failed but when I got the machine apart the front bearing was missing completely! It must have left the factory like that. The machine was still under warranty and despite being in my workshop in bits, Hotpoint sent someone to rebuild it with a new outer drum.
Re: Reconditioned washers
I like to keep one or two to offer customers when I condemn their existing elderly machine. These are usually in the £70 to £100 range depending on condition etc. I also get asked for cheap machines by people who furnish flats for factory workers shipped in for short contracts from places like Portugal. These people tend to wreck the machines so they are given tatty appliances and I might supply a job lot of 4 machines for £200. This is worth my while as I also charge for the repairs they inevitably soon need (I don’t guarantee them).
Re: WMA Bearing Kit
Oops 😳 I usually get them from Connect, who must just send the later part number without telling me ( I just type in the part number from their catalogue in their website search). I got someone to make me an insert for removing the front outer race but it has not been too successful, probably because it is too soft. I often end up running a bead of MIG weld round the I/D of the race to stop the insert from pushing out. If you then spray water on the race + insert and extract the bearing while the alloy housing is still warm the expansion makes it slightly easier.
Re: Hoover Performa AC121 Washing Machine won’t spin or agit
When you say you flipped the machine, do you mean you stood it on it’s lid? If so, this is bad practice and very likely to damage parts of the machine. I would only do this if I had first removed hoses to drain every drop of residual water and re-fitted the original transit screws. On balance, it’s easier to just take the back off and remove the motor.
Re: Candy Autosense 120TR drain pump
Is there a Y fitting to split off the pressure switch hose to the interlock? I had a Hoover with a tiny hairline crack in the Y piece.
Re: 10{e5d1b7155a01ef1f3b9c9968eaba33524ee81600d00d4be2b4d93ac2e58cec2d} Less?
I’m surprised the drop isn’t greater than that, it probably is in wealthy areas. So often these days you hear of people slinging out an appliance because the door handle or timer knob has broken, all adding up to less work for repairers. An old retired sparky once told me he used to spend one day a week repairing kettles, toasters and irons. I’ve gone from about 2 microwave repairs a week to about 1 every 2 months (usually built in ones). Even some types of washing machine repairs seem to have dried up. Replacing Zanussi 3 and 4 tag interlocks was a nice little earner when I used to get several a week, now I go for months without getting one.
