Thursday 2 August 2012

Repair / Replace?

My shower broke about 2 weeks ago.

I was in the middle of trying out a new system, turning off the hot water and only using the shower for my daily ablutions.

Of course 3 days in, the shower broke.

In the middle of me having a shower.

Covered in shampoo.

With no hot water left in the tank to rinse my hair.

Typical.

I then had to do a dash to the kitchenn, boil the kettle mix it with some cold water and rinse my hair.

I thought I was going to have to buy a new shower at well over a £100 plus fitting. I have been in a right decline over the thought.

However, on Friday, Ian my saviour of an odd job came round and had a look. He declared it was the Solenoid valve which had broken. 20 minutes later he had ordered a new part via the glorious internet for £19.

Last night he came round and fitted it for £20.

A huge "Hurray!" for Ian methinks.

Repair v replace is a thorny issue. A new shower costs anywhere between £90 (cheap naff shower) to £100s. 

I had to have the shower repaired about 6 months ago when another part broke - flux capacitor or some other technical term. Again part plus labour was about £40.

So far I have spent £80 on repairing a shower that cost about £150 plus labour to fit about 8 years ago. I am aware that such machinery only has a limited working life. And if it does break again, I will have to think about whether it is prudent to repair it again.

However, today I am glad to get it repaired, and hope perhaps to get another 6-12months out of it before having to face the repair v replace issue again.

Frugally yours
Abigail

3 comments:

  1. Now that would have been interesting to see. Nothing worse than having to drip everywhere whilst you boil a kettle. Good repair for now though, hope it helps.

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  2. Great savings! Everything is worth trying to repair first!

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  3. I know the dilemma, to repair or replace. We're going through that with one of our cars. It needs repairs at a greater cost than the car's value. But repairing would get us another couple of years, that is if it didn't develop a new problem.

    What to do, what to do!

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I really love reading all comments. So please tell me what you think. Abigail