Spares Availabilty

[Mark]

A company I worked for many years ago calculated it was cheaper to throw spares away and then buy/make new ones than keep them on the shelves.

[John Williamson]

Easily solved by putting a cheap Japanese engine with all the emission control gear in it. Unfortunately, you do lose originality, but it will probably go faster and use less fuel.

[harry]

But they are via the owner's club, not the manufacturer

[Dave Plowman (News)]

The big snag is you don't know which spares are going to be needed most at the introduction of a device. So for a comprehensive service, all have to be available. Once a device becomes established, aftermarket companies might well cream off the sale of the common parts at a decent price - leaving the maker's service operation even more pressed to make a profit.

[Tim+]

All this makes me wonder if I ought to order some spares for my 20 year old gas White Knight dryer. Crossley has always turned up trumps on the few occasions I've wanted spares but my luck can't hold out forever.

Tim

[polygonum]

You are bound to stock up on the wrong ones!

[djc]

Yes, I have some that could well outlast me. Trouble is a proper repair ?back to the factory and original last? tends to cost as much as buying a new pair of moderately good shoes, which may not last as long but still longer than I will be needing them.

even their garden tools - if that's their hobby,

[The Other Mike]

As far as cars are concerned, one exercise done a few years ago showed it was about 4 - 5 x the cost of a new car in the showroom'

[polygonum]

Did that include the building, painting, etc.?

[js.b1]

Yes, BUT Miele parts are very very expensive.

Siemens genuine washing machine pump circa =A339, pattern part =A319. Miele genuine washing machine pump circa =A380-109, pattern part =A349?

Classic is the Miele S400/S300 series accessory housing "flip-lid", which h= as weak hinge clips. Once a hinge clip breaks the spring ejects the lid int= o the air. That lid is available - but at =A338 as I recall. Likewise pipes= & tubes are available, the bent-end (not curved) typically =A326.

The RISK is the key luxury brands have a collateral here where they can dec= line quality a bit and keep the premium, boosting profitability - for a tim= e. It is noteworthy the recent bottom of range Miele have begun to become "= less commercial tiger tank grade" than their older models. Think the same i= s true for some of their washing machines.

[The Other Mike]

No, parts only. Engine and gearbox prices used were for whole assemblies rather than parts.

[Mark]

Iff the manufacturer licenses them to produce parts. I very much doubt it's legal to manufacture spares for another without prior permission.

[Dave Plowman (News)]

Not sure of the law, but with cars especially plenty of aftermarket stuff around that is specific to one make/model like say body parts. I can't see the car maker allowing this if they could stop it.

[harry]

Most manufacturers make as little as possible, stuff is bought in. Just a case of finding out where it came from. Like the black cab steering boxes.

[Dave Plowman (News)]

I wanted a connector as used by BMW to allow me to adapt a wiper motor for another vehicle. The motor is made by Valeo and the connector by AMP - both with original part numbers on them, as well as BMW ones. Cross referencing on the AMP site said it could only be bought from BMW - despite being just a variant of one of their standard ranges. And BMW only sell it as part of a loom...

[Theo Markettos]

I've got that impression too.

One thing I'm looking forward to is decent 3D printing coming along. Then it's possible to re-produce those stupid bits of plastic that are often the parts that break first. Currently 3D printing isn't quite up to the job as it's not structural enough - but I've seen some homebrew printers that print nylon with decent strength, which is very promising.

Of course, you might not own one of these yourself, but get one made by a 'copy shop' like you get brochure printing done today. If someone else had the same problem they could put the part design on Github or Instructables or something for other people to print themselves. And if it's a really common part someone could print batches of the thing for pennies each.

Theo

[Theo Markettos]

If you have space, the trick is to treat them like cars. Buy a scrap one and rob it for bits when you need them. The difference with cars is appliances rarely get written off due to accident damage, so you can't buy a nearly-new one for peanuts and any old model you buy has a chance of the same faults as your current one (perished seals etc).

Buying scrap is also not as easy as it could be (unlike cars there aren't 'breaker yards' of washing machines) but setting up an ebay alert is worth a try.

Theo

[polygonum]

Potentially, an Intellectual Property nightmare. I have a picture in my mind of trying to get a part printed by the local copy shop and them having a mechanism which checks out how similar it is to existing designs - possibly refusing to print even self-designed parts for uses simply on grounds of possible IP issues. Maybe I am paranoid?

But I would not be surprised to see some manufacturers using this approach instead of maintaining inventory.

[polygonum]

I did of course mean "for other uses which have nothing to do with the 'original' design they suggest you are in conflict with".

[Nick Odell]

I would imagine that incorporating something like the EURion Constellation into 3D designs would deal with copyright issues pretty effectively.