We all know the phrase, “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” Good advice, sound wisdom.

But I’m starting to really get aggravated with the fact that we seem to be living in the OPPOSITE reality. “It’s broke. Sorry, you CAN’T fix it.”

I asked around if one of the electronics techs at my place of business wanted a non-functioning flat-screen TV that I had several years ago.  We are techs here.  Engineers and techs.  We KNOW how to build things, and how to “fix things”.   But the prevailing feeling in our culture has become, it’s just not worth the effort.   So one of my guys here when asked if he wanted the dead TV said, “Nope. Might as well pitch it in the ocean!  New ones are just too cheap.”   Never mind that the nearest ocean is quite a drive from Nashville.

If you DO go out to the county landfill… (and who wouldn’t want to?) …. you’ll be astounded by the furniture, appliances, and former “big ticket” items on the piles there.

Our “throw-away” culture really bugs me.  You too?

The Example

I grew up with a dad who could literally “fix” almost anything. I can’t tell how many times I saw (and helped when I was old enough) him tear into a TV, a radio, a refrigerator, a washing machine, furnace, …. a car engine…. , with only a screwdriver, a voltmeter, a selection of wrenches, and good old ingenuity. We “fixed” things back then.   And he came by that naturally.   His dad, my Papa Shouse was a resilient and resourceful guy.   A blacksmith by trade, he also had tools and knew how to use them.   I remember a conversation with my dad once in which his dad said, “Son, the prices of pretty much everything just keep going up and up and up.  You mark my words, one of these days you’re going to see that it takes a whole wagon-load of cash, just to go to the grocery store!”    A wagon-load of cash.   I’ve never forgotten that.

But it’s not the COST of buying new things that make fixing broken things desirable.  It’s the satisfaction you get from the feeling of being just a little self-sufficient.   It’s a good feeling, and worth pursuing.

The Problem

I’m no auto mechanic, but I know how an internal combustion engine works. Even with newfangled gizmos under the hood like fuel-injectors (bye-bye carburetors), EPA emissions controls, and unitized assemblies …. it’s JUST not that hard a concept to master. But the cars are NOT made for shade-tree mechanics to work on these days. I grew up going to the auto-parts store, buying spark-plugs, coming home, putting the proper “gap” in them with a feeler gauge (the right gap was printed IN your owners manual then … not any more), and installing them. Swapping out the plug cables if you needed to. Replacing the distributor cap or rotor if that’s what was needed. Cleaning the points. You just *did* these things. Hell… I don’t think I could even GET to my spark-plugs anymore. Too much crap in the way. Do modern cars still HAVE distributor caps?  You’d practically have to drop the engine to do even many minor repairs these days.    And even if you know WHAT you’re looking for, and sorta have access to it, often things are assembled and fitted together these days so that they require specialty tools to even get to them.

In college I worked for a local shop as a TV repairman. No fear (other than roaches or spiders) of going out to some stranger’s home, plopping down behind the TV in their living room (or bedroom…. I have stories), taking the back off the TV and digging in to whatever the problem was. And dammit, I was GOOD at it too. I had the shop speed record for swapping out a picture tube in a full-size TV. No small feat.   I wrote a blog post a while back about those experiences, and some of what I learned from them.  It’s called:  the television repairman.

The list goes on. We just “fixed” things then. But today we live in a disposable culture.  It’s getting worse year by year.  And with each newly broken item you pitch, the next “pitch” gets easier and easier, until even for old “fixers” like me … it just becomes the norm.

There IS no actual “job” anymore for an out-call TV Repairman these days, because those damn things are NOT designed to be fixed. Either it works or it doesn’t. When it stops working, buy a new one, and take the “dead” one out to the BOPAE facility. (Batteries, Oil, Paint, Antifreeze, Electronics). In Franklin, it’s on Century Court off of Columbia Pike. If you go, tell Ryan I said hi. Yes, I’ve been there more than once.

Ice maker.

Not too many years ago, when we were living in Bellevue, our Ice Maker in the fridge stopped working. I could hear it running, and there was ice IN the unit… the rotor that pushes the cubes out and dispenses them into the tray just didn’t move. How big a problem could *that* be? I emptied the freezer, stuck my head in with a flashlight to see how it mounted, and realized the ice maker could easily be pulled out. I took it out and took the cover off. There was a plastic gear in it that was stripped. I took it out and looked at it to figure out how it worked. I took the unit to my desk and using a bench power supply, applied voltage to the motor and verified that the ONLY problem was the stripped gear. Next day I went to “NAPCO” over off of Elm-Hill Pike. (National Appliance Parts Company). Armed with the old gear, the full part number off the tag of the ice maker unit, and a helpful desk clerk at the warehouse, I got a replacement gear. Went home, installed it, and voila…. ICE!!! A year or so later, when the unit stopped working again, I checked and found the motor had gone bad. The price of a replacement motor was only a few bucks cheaper than an entire new unit. So I bought a new ice maker, installed it and all was well.  AND I put the defective Ice Maker on the shelf in the garage, in case I ever needed to use it for spare parts.

I saved it, because THAT’S what you do.

I still remember wincing a little when time came to finally throw the old, non-functioning ice maker away when we got a new fridge, and I no longer had need of the “spare parts” unit.

Cut to Now.

In the last few weeks, the Ice Maker in our relatively new refrigerator stopped working.   It would work fine, then it wouldn’t.  It would work fine for a while, then it wouldn’t.   Intermittent problems are big challenges to the diagnostic skills of even the best technical mind.   I watched it, played with it, thought about what might be happening.  There was occasionally a “wet spot” under the accumulation tray that would freeze, or it would leak water down into the in-door dispenser opening.   Hmmmmm.     The ice maker that is in the main chamber of the fridge that makes the ice for the door is our ONLY ice maker.  Some over/under fridges have a secondary ice maker in the freezer compartment. Ours does not.  So when it stopped working, no ice.

Finally, even though I was still in “diagnostic mode” Janet insisted on just calling a repairman, because she “needed ice”.  That hurt.  But I swallowed my pride and agreed.  It cost $110 JUST to get the dude to come to the house.  Before he even got the screwdriver OUT of his tool kit (assuming he has one).  YIKES!!!   When she called me to say he was there, and had determined that the problem was that the heater element that releases cubes was “stuck on”… preventing the ice from freezing during those “stuck” cycles …. I thought “DAMN!!  A bad relay.  I know relays. I literally know relays inside and out.  I have relays in my desk at work that I’ve taken apart JUST to see how they work.  I’m 99.73% certain that only thing that could be causing it to “stick” on intermittently is a relay in the sealed unit. Electronics either work or they don’t.  But electro-mechanical components can be notoriously finicky in failure mode. Intermittent problems are sometimes more the norm than the exception. (Trust me, I did phone support troubleshooting for my company’s customers for many years.  I know how to guide people through solving technical problems, armed only with a hunch.)  So I’m confident in the diagnosis.   But here’s the deal.  Even IF I could buy the relay (doubtful it would be easily acquired) with the intent of fixing the unit myself, the icemaker unit is NOT designed to be easily taken apart.  That was one of the first things I looked at.   (duh!)

So the OPTION …. Was either a new refrigerator (have you seen the prices on those things??), OR to have them replace the icemaker.   So we’re getting a replacement ice maker ordered and put in.  At a cost of over $500.  For ice.   $500 for the convenience of ice in the door of the fridge.   Talk about your wagon-load of cash.

It’s times like these when I have a strong sense of my grandpa looking down from above and saying, “$500 for ice?  The boy’s an idiot”

I’m no idiot.   I’m just living in idiotic times.