Sometimes you get what you pay for......

[Gwil]

....and sometimes you don't.

I took apart our expensive but admittedly stylish Dualit kettle which was failing to completely boil. Inside, and unavailable as a spare from the company, is a Strix thermostatic switch made, you guessed it in China, and available on Aliexpress for as little as three quid. In the event I was able to disable (!) the boil dry safety bimetallic thingy and it's back to normal.

Anticipating its future demise I found that the element is permanently glued in and unobtainable, but Dualit make a song and dance about another model, which is repairable. Yes, but only by them at around half the cost of a new one plus you have to pay to post both ways.

We're doomed I tell you....

 

[frank horton]

we have had one of their toasters for around 25 years....changed all the elements after one failed......
we could only buy a Chinese replacement where we lived.....coz of Brexit......easyier to get em from China than the UK.....

Thanks for the heads up tho......we just buy what ever looks smart and on offer........we rent our house out so if we get 2-3 years yipeeeee.....

 

[Pond frog]

That’s worth knowing my electric kettle died this week and obviously no spare parts are available so I have looking to find one that could be repaired easily, dualit was the only thing I could come up with but after reading this I don’t think I’ll bother.
Ive started using the gas kettle I keep as a spare and I think i’ll stick with that, it’s a bit slower but there’s nothing to go wrong and I quite like the whistle when it boils

 

[gaz1]

we stll have a 40+ year old gas cooker still in use

its the flaval model old one not the new one as that dosnt cook as well in the oven for some reason

 

[winchman]

Having been through a few £10 toasters I decided to buy quality so called Dualit, yes its £100+ for a two slice, warranty 12 months so same warranty as a £10!
Current £10 toaster is still going after several years

 

[lotus_esprit_s1]

I bought a £60 Bosch toaster a few years ago, every slight power fluctuation / power cut it failed (we had quite a few underground cable faults due to blown mains joints on our house‘s feeder a few years ago). After the third new replacement from Bosch I gave up and bought a Dualit and it has not faltered.

 

[Anguz]

Our current toaster cost 4.99 from asda

 

[gerrymoore]

We bought a £5 kettle from asda around 8 years ago ... still boiling 4 to 8 times every day .... no snobby name but cheap as chips

 

[striker]

I installed a boiler tap. Quettle brand a couple of years ago. We love it. Instant boiling water whenever you like. My wife would boil the kettle then do something else then boil it again. Sometimes 3 times before getting round to putting the water in the tea pot! So definitely works out cheaper for us!

 

[nickk]

I too have gone off dualit,tried to repair our 7 year old one,it were impossible.

 

[Trevorleach]

I stripped our Dualit as one side had packed up, then after a bit of head scratching realised it had a switch to select between 1 slice or 2!

 

[bourbon]

As repairers, at Lichfield Repair Cafe, we are following the 'right to repair' legislation closely. Biggest frustration for us is security screws, so between us, we have all of the combinations to enable use to get into stuff. Had a hedge trimmer, by Bosh. normal cross head screws, except ONE, that was a security screw! WHY? Fixed it in the end though.

 

[SierraV6]

We bought a £5 kettle from asda around 8 years ago ... still boiling 4 to 8 times every day .... no snobby name but cheap as chips

It’s probably the same one we have. We retired it last year as we bought a matching kettle and toaster from Dualit, but it was still going strong after 7/8 years. It now lives in the cupboard just in case!

 

[Gwil]

As repairers, at Lichfield Repair Cafe, we are following the 'right to repair' legislation closely. Biggest frustration for us is security screws, so between us, we have all of the combinations to enable use to get into stuff. Had a hedge trimmer, by Bosh. normal cross head screws, except ONE, that was a security screw! WHY? Fixed it in the end though.

A friend in the domestic appliance business ( see his How to Repair videos) showed me a plastic Bosch washing machine drum, still with the moulded 'ears' to bolt it together. But, they're now stuck/welded inseparably together, so changing the bearings goes from a ten quid job to over two hundred, so uneconomic really.

It's utterly cynical. They'll say the item is repairable, but in practice render it extremely unlikely that it will be.

 

[Morrisman]

Having been through a few £10 toasters I decided to buy quality so called Dualit, yes its £100+ for a two slice, warranty 12 months so same warranty as a £10!
Current £10 toaster is still going after several years

I bought a matched pair, toaster and kettle, from Asda 6 years ago: £20. Both are still going strong, kettle boils at least four times a day.

 

[Gareth J]

Can we "go back" though? Back to a time when stuff was repairable. Probably not, unless there's really good legislation. Right to economical repair. Or maybe just mandatory 10yr free return to base warranties, transferrable to future owners.

Without it, the increased gizmofication of everything (internet of things etc) makes things much more complicated. And making stuff repairable is more expensive than not. People will buy the cheaper ones.

You don't want to disincentivise development of new, more efficient products either.

 

[RichardM]

I'm disappointed, our Zanussi washing machine stopped working as it wasn't receiving a rotational signal, wifey wanted to buy a new one and not have me look at the old one. It was only 19 years old so I took out the solenoid valves I replaced a couple of years ago just in case it fits the new one.

Toasters, I think we've only ever had two in 39 years!

 

[CompoSimmonite]

A friend in the domestic appliance business ( see his How to Repair videos) showed me a plastic Bosch washing machine drum, still with the moulded 'ears' to bolt it together. But, they're now stuck/welded inseparably together, so changing the bearings goes from a ten quid job to over two hundred, so uneconomic really.

It's utterly cynical. They'll say the item is repairable, but in practice render it extremely unlikely that it will be.

We had a washing machine (think it was out previous LG) on which the drum bearings started to fail under the warrantee period. Engineer changed the whole drum and casing as he said far quicker and therefore more cost effective, due to labour cost, than stripping down a split drum / changing bearings

 

[CompoSimmonite]

I'm disappointed, our Zanussi washing machine stopped working as it wasn't receiving a rotational signal, wifey wanted to buy a new one and not have me look at the old one. It was only 19 years old so I took out the solenoid valves I replaced a couple of years ago just in case it fits the new one.

Toasters, I think we've only ever had two in 39 years!

Over last 39 years we've had, all new, Indesit, two Zanussi washer dryers, belt drive LG and current direct drive LG - which has been the longest lasting.

 

[CompoSimmonite]

Yes, but…. That kettle (if electric) could have, at todays energy costs, used at least an extra £175 worth of energy over a natural gas powered kettle. This is assuming the minimum fill (1 mug worth), not continuing to heat after boiling had commenced, and that the kettle had survived. Likely a great deal more than the £175 if more water, or more than the required amount, was filled into the kettle.

Using a microwave, as a convenience water heating device is even more wasteful of energy.

This has got me thinking. With being retired we have quite a few cuppa's a day. I bought a nice gas hob kettle from Aldi as a back up and might start using it rather than the electric.