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Re: Hotpoint WF101 – two completely knackered machines
Well I have managed to keep the motor but the rest are scrap. Not sure what to do with the motor. Ebay seems to be selling it for £20. Hardly worth the effort TBH. I may hang on to it for few months.
British Gas
I admit that I do have some reservations of British Gas, also was surprised to see them at the conference. A big company trying to maintain a local business ethos does not quite cut the mustard. They employ hundreds of engineers, I dispute the figures on how many they have on their book. They have millions of customers who took out a cover and they have a few hundreds engineers? I would have thought thousands rather few hundreds.
I do know of one British gas engineer, he complains of long hours and poor pay considering he spent a great deal of travelling and being away from home for most of the day. He hardly get to see his wife and kids.
I am wary of joining them as partners, I think I will wait until I see the papers and make judgement there.
Virgin Broadband
Has anyone used open reach? Supposedly there r unlimited wifi hotspots even at your own customer’s house. Useful for iPad when you need to check for parts and of course checking out ukw. I’m currently on virgin media, no issues other than my router is 6 years old and it’s dying. I’m on 3 mobile when I’m out and about but I regularly visit an area where reception is bad and now left mooting the idea of open reach for infrequent use.
hotpoint door boot wire
I can’t really tell you how much it really made a huge difference by taking the advice on using cable ties! It took literally a minute to clamp it with the aid of cable tie after an hour trying various ways of fitting the clamp on. It was a real bugger to fit then a lifeline of cable tie made things sweeter! I was laughing with happiness when it worked.
Re: Has anyone actually bought T111 exemption for refurbishi
It is easier to take the machine to the scrap yard and earn £10 for it. I even had one top of the range Bosch dishwasher which was barely 4 years old, the heater unit failed. The owner decided to buy a new dishwasher for £500 as opposed to repair of £70.
I took the dishwasher to the scrap yard and got £15 for it. nevertheless I kept the good bits of the dishwasher and gave it to my wife. We have a 10 years old Siemens dishwasher with 4 years old racks, it certainly looks new!
There is a guy on here somewhere, reckons there’s a way around it. collect the machine, repair then sell without the licence, my guess you would need documentation to prove that the person who gave you the machine is happy for you for repair to sell on.
£800 for three years which breaks down to £22 a month which is easily recovered via selling at least 2 machines a month. The down side is that you need £800 upfront which I do not have. The £800 I have is for replacing the van!
Re: Has anyone actually bought T111 exemption for refurbishi
A lot of charities seem to be able to afford such TAX. There is this charity shop 2 miles up from my street, SENSE, they are selling whitegoods but these are very old like Hotpoint WM with timers, fridge with faded white door, old tumble dryer from Creda. I am surprised that this Charity is prepared to purchase the licence to sell the whitegoods at such low prices. Surely the cost of repair is more than the selling price. me thinks they are using some kind of rehabitalation work scheme where they employ “unemployed” people for nothing. Sometime I wonder how on earth they cover the costs, another thing is the guarantee i know they have shot themselves in the foot so many times. They used to offer 6 months and now they are offering 3 months.
Re: Indesit IS60V – slow uptake turning then running normal
I’m going for the capacitor. The type of motor I am used to seeing are very hardy and rarely see failures except for one of the tumble dryer whose drum collapsed and landed on the motor thus killing the motor. It was kind of almost complete rebuild, it was insurance work. Sometime I wonder if it is easier to get a new tumble dryer than rebuilding it!
Anyway the one I am now working on is in a fine condition, so I am going for the capacitor. Will take note of what to take as there are two ratings for the same machine.
As for 50 mile trip, it’s more like 12 miles round trip. No biggie. I wouldn’t go on a job that is more than 10 miles radius from my house otherwise it costs too much on fuel.
Re: Trade Is Dying (Again)
Most of my clients have Bosch, Zanussi and very few Hotpoint. The ones who have Hotpoint are the ones that have families with small children or owned by elderly couple.
“I have an ISE bearing change”
Don’t these comes with ten years guarantee? I would be concerned if this Volvo truck bearings failed…Re: Trade Is Dying (Again)
If people are talking themselves into out of work by saying we are in a dying trade. Chimney sweep were once a dying trade and now it is back!
I do believe that we can fight back, I am only in the trade for occupation rather than making quick bucks. Occupation is to keep me out of the house and keeping me sane as apposed to be on the dole watching Jeremy Kyle. Of course I have to cover my costs, etc but there is a delicate balance in making money. Customers still want us to reassure them, to counsel them, to rescue them, be a knight in a shining armour.
I agree that some the repairs are going out of fashion, since I have started this trade, I have only done 3 or 4 bearings changes, 3 tub changes. Now most of the repairs are equally divided into oven element changes, carbon brushes, drain pumps, belt changes, door seal replacements. It kind of got easier, cost of parts are deciding factor for clients, parts costs have gone up and at the same time new machines prices have come down a little.
Most of my clients are reluctant to go out to buy new machines, so there’s a gap to fill in, offer to repair otherwise if BER then offer to buy new machine of their choice. Most of the clients would thank you for it. Also there are cash to be made from disposing old appliances if you live near scrap yards. Not exactly “green” but what can you do? The cost of reconditioning appliance is high especially with legal requirement to obtain licence for such work. Most of the appliances falls into BER due to board failures, sealed heater element as found in Bosch dishwashers, drum failures due to sealed tub – the cost of repairing it in order to resell is not worth the cost.
I feel that this trade is going rather strong and there are still strong demand. I do still get people phoning me for parts for them to fit rather than me doing it, no skin off my nose as money is money. More than often they will phone you again asking you to fit it as they can’t put the door seal on! Ignorance is bliss!
Re: Hotpoint washer dryer WD420 – water pouring out of soap
johnnyj wrote:Throw the sump ball away it doesant make much differance to the so called detergent saved and economy, it will save the customer in grief and money clearing the things out, i reckon the the ball bobbing up and down just pushes it all to the sides of the filter causing it to block and not giving it a chance to flow away.
It did cross my mind, but decided to leave things as it is. Better for this to be blocked rather than in the drain pump.
The moral of the story is do not wash dog blanket, just throw the blanket away and buy a new one! Cheaper than calling me out. Of course I didn’t say that to the client… 😯
Re: Hotpoint washer dryer WD420 – water pouring out of soap
Turned out that it was blocked filter ball. Stuffed with dog hairs. Apparently the owner was washing the dog’s blanket. Thank goodness for wet vac, kept the flooding to minimum.
Reached an agreement over the dispenser, made a small loss rather than writing it off completely.
Hopefully that’s the end of it.
Re: Hotpoint washer dryer WD420 – water pouring out of soap
Thanks Martin,
Kinda makes sense. I never knew this, thank goodness for friends on UKW! Will check it out.
The downside if it is the filter ball, then I have lost money on the dispenser. I might put the original one back but it is a lot of faff. Is it unethical to persuade the owner to go halves on the dispenser as he got a shiny new one and it’s very clean as opposed to the old black manky dispenser?
connect: cost of parts to publc
My father in law runs a vacuum sales and repair business in a very well known coal mining town. We were chatting about business, it cropped up the conversation that my prices for spares from the supplier is a lot lower than his.
He was very surprised that he can get two clutches for the dyson for a mere £6. He says he pays at least £18 from the same supplier.
One day we will get together and compare prices on-line and see if there are differences. I can see pounds signs… Me selling him spares cheaper than his suppliers….I joked with him that he can ring me with the parts number and I will get it sent to him and of course I shall take a slice of the transaction.
