You can still buy new dumb appliances in 2026. Including TV if you go for a business display panel. The stuff McDonalds uses to display menus.
Maintaining old stuff is better really. Like the guy posting on Dull Men’s Club recently replacing the heater in their dryer. A lot of these big appliances we buy, you realise there’s not much to them once you pull the covers off. Any idiot including myself can do a simple parts swap.
My most recents to inspire others:
I intended to replace dishwasher pump on a 2011 Sears model. Took half an hour. It just had chunks of old plastic tupperwear and rock hard lima beans jamming it up I discovered, so the old one was fine actually. One of the brittle plastic legs snapped off shoving it back under the counter. A chunk of old 2x4 solved that.
I replaced failing blower motor on 2004!! furnace last summer when there’s no time pressure or cold weather. Half an hour, it was easy to get to. I bought some extra spare parts from ebay and a spare logic board. I could spend 7+ grand to buy high efficiency which are way less reliable to “save” a couple hundred bucks a year on gas…or do this. The heat exchanger looked fine I check annually.
Roommate and I got a broken snowblower locally for free. Soaked up varnished bad gas. Bought new carb and replaced rotted gas line. 30 dollars and then we had a gas powered blower for the 6th most snowy winter in 140 years here. I don’t know much but it’s just stinky legos really.
There’s quite a few DIY communities here too already.
I forgot to mention I usually find someone on youtube has made a repair guide for pretty much everything out there if it’s common enough.
Oh and there’s usually a schematic taped to the underside of the control panel in stuff like dishwashers, dryers, washing machines, etc intended for home repair techs.
You can still buy new dumb appliances in 2026. Including TV if you go for a business display panel. The stuff McDonalds uses to display menus.
Maintaining old stuff is better really. Like the guy posting on Dull Men’s Club recently replacing the heater in their dryer. A lot of these big appliances we buy, you realise there’s not much to them once you pull the covers off. Any idiot including myself can do a simple parts swap.
My most recents to inspire others:
I intended to replace dishwasher pump on a 2011 Sears model. Took half an hour. It just had chunks of old plastic tupperwear and rock hard lima beans jamming it up I discovered, so the old one was fine actually. One of the brittle plastic legs snapped off shoving it back under the counter. A chunk of old 2x4 solved that.
I replaced failing blower motor on 2004!! furnace last summer when there’s no time pressure or cold weather. Half an hour, it was easy to get to. I bought some extra spare parts from ebay and a spare logic board. I could spend 7+ grand to buy high efficiency which are way less reliable to “save” a couple hundred bucks a year on gas…or do this. The heat exchanger looked fine I check annually.
Roommate and I got a broken snowblower locally for free. Soaked up varnished bad gas. Bought new carb and replaced rotted gas line. 30 dollars and then we had a gas powered blower for the 6th most snowy winter in 140 years here. I don’t know much but it’s just stinky legos really.
I am inspired. Maybe we need a Lemmy community for this type of stuff. I know dull mens club exists but maybe one more gender neutral.
There’s quite a few DIY communities here too already.
I forgot to mention I usually find someone on youtube has made a repair guide for pretty much everything out there if it’s common enough.
Oh and there’s usually a schematic taped to the underside of the control panel in stuff like dishwashers, dryers, washing machines, etc intended for home repair techs.