Saved a few pennies by fixing our Kenwood Chef

[voodoopenguin]

A couple of weeks ago my better half was whipping up some egg whites to make meringues when there was a medium size bang and a lot of smoke from the Kenwood Chef. A bit sad as not only are they quite expensive to replace but we were given it as an early wedding present so my future wife could do some of the catering. That was 31 years ago so it hadn't done too badly.

As it is a vital part of our cooking I did my usual response and went straight to eBay to see how much secondhand or refurbished ones were as we still had several working attachments. In amongst all the ads was one with the title "Kenwood Chef Repair Kit". It described the symptoms and said it was usually one of three capacitors or a couple of resistors so the auction was for all five items and instructions. Taking the Chef apart it was fairly obvious which capacitor it was and fortunately it was the easiest to get to. Two snips to remove it and about 3 minutes to solder the replacement in and we were back in business. Total cost about £6.

It's been tested hard with some bread dough so I am hopeful that is it. I still have the other spares just in case something else goes in the next 31 years.

[freeradical]

Good deal. If you bought something new today, it would probably be made in a way that makes repair impossible.

[cbelt3]

Well Done ! (pun intended).

[Paul F.]

Excellent!

I'm a fan of repairing items like that that are worth the repair!

[Z]

Congrats and well done - would that more people took it on themselves to attempt to understand and repair something rather than just chuck it to the kerb (or curb).

A few other thoughts on repair and product design:
http://makezine.com/04/ownyourown/
http://www.good.is/?p=15984

[rgG]

Repair Leader for you!!! I hate to see good things like that chucked because someone didn't want to repair them. Good Job!

[Harbourmaster]

rgG wrote:
BunBun is tired of winter and is ready for Spring Break.

Seems to me that BunBun is getting to be rather high maintenance... :wink:

[rgG]

Harbourmaster wrote:
[quote=rgG]
BunBun is tired of winter and is ready for Spring Break.

Seems to me that BunBun is getting to be rather high maintenance... :wink:
Never.

[mrbigstuff]

I also hate needless obsolescence although it is getting difficult to repair items like DVD players, televisions, etc. rather than just buy a newer version with more features for roughly the same price. My parents had a TV (a nice Sony CRT) that fritzed out a couple of times. The first time they had it fixed for something between $300-400 but the second time they let it go and got a newer flat screen. Now, that television is probably taking up landfill space somewhere.

[Buck]

What is a person supposed to do. There are repair people that can fix anything electronic at $50-$100/hour, but what's the point? So many items are poorly built disposable cheap units made in China. Transistor radio anyone??? How about a nice Sony Walkman (cassette)? Toaster with 1 slot still working?