Reparing IS Recycling!

Appliance repair is a dying trade if we don't demand repairable home appliance products. It is common knowledge in our trade, that the appliance manufacturing industry, would like to make major household appliances disposable; Yes, throw it away disposable! 

The spare parts and service business required to support a repairable product is very complicated, and expensive to maintain. It is just a fact that most manufacturers want little to do with the actual repair of an appliance beyond a warranty period. The global environment and consumers have the most to lose with this troubling trend.

We are not just repair people. We are an environmental services business!

We exist, because owners of major household appliances, still see a value proposition for the repair over replacement of an appliance. Thankfully, most Americans don't see their major appliances as "disposable". 

Repair options for "Whitegoods", and other durable products you purchase (refrigerators, dryers, ovens, washers, microwaves, dishwashers, ranges, etc.) are under threat by appliance manufacturing giants that are using complex data about the many, changing, societal consumer habits when they decide what to make, where to make it, and how long they should support a product with repair parts after a warranty period.

If they get this equation WRONG, they build a product that fails prematurely, and does significant damage to their brand. (Think recent Samsung "exploding" washing machine recall in the recent news)

If they get it RIGHT, they have a product that very often only has one owner, for about 3 years, and is never repaired. It is replaced! 

And  this is where a problem for our global environment, and the consumer, is created.

Please remember their goal is to be able to produce a product as inexpensively and as profitably as possible. 

This "maximum profit" equation, is often complicated by the robust repair parts requirement and demand to fix these machines during their life cycle. 

Let us imagine, for a moment, that the parts to fix your car, another durable product most of us own, were no longer available after several years of use! 

NO ONE would stand for it, and as a result of the consumers expectation for durability and reparability, an extensive repair industry flourishes to keep older vehicles in service. Thankfully!

An appliance manufacturing company is very much like an auto maker. They are trying, however, to limit the reparability of the products you purchase with an expectation of longevity. 

So why does this matter? 

Populations, globally, are demanding more lifestyle and convenience technology than at any other time in history... This equals a LOT of waste!

The trend is clear. 

Buying new major household appliances, more frequently, is the new American and global way. 

But there are unseen costs.

Having been on both sides of this issue, I have a strong opinion that we need to demand reparability in everything we purchase. 

It is a value proposition we are losing in our 'throwaway' world, with great consequences.

Electronic Waste (E-Waste), is a MAJOR environmental and health impact factor, globally, and appliances are a significant contributing factor to this waste streams proliferation around the world. 

What we do here at home, and how our consumption habits evolve, has a direct impact on people and places globally, as well as right here at home.

Appliance dumps are absolutely hidden away from the public eye, but they are expanding nationwide and are a global environmental disaster at this moment.

Everything from the smallest appliances we purchase, to the largest refrigeration and AC systems, do not last as they once did. 

We are seeing daily in our trade activities, that they are purposely being made cost prohibitive to repair, through the "planned obsolescence" of critical, often micro-electronic, repair components.

A recent troublesome example: 

It is absolutely common for Relaible Appliance Repair to condemn a 3 year old refrigerator made by a huge Korean manufacturing company, and sold in MASSIVE quantities, to a myriad of Central Florida new home builders. Our customers call when it stops cooling and we simply CAN'T fix it because a critical micro-electronic control board is no longer available from the manufacturer. This is a disturbing and emerging trend as appliances become more electronic and less mechanical. 

So what can you do?

FIX your appliances! 

This simple act sends a VERY powerful message to the manufacturers of these products, as orders for repair parts keep coming in from their partner distributors and trade unions! 

They see a consumer driven demand for a repairable product, and as a result they support the products they manufacture longer, with repair parts and product technology support from companies like Reliable Appliance Repair here in Orlando Florida 

So why did I write all this?

I do this because I am passionate about waste reduction initiatives. 

This is the most grassroots way for me to impact local waste streams, and slow the environmental destruction that new product production can have on our international environment, and our fragile Florida environment as well. 

My previous career took me to places where I saw first hand the impact this "short life cycle" appliance product market is having. 

I saw first hand the burden that low cost, low quality manufacturing has, beyond the company that builds it and sells it. 

This emerging trend my appliance manufacturing companies is simply is not equitable for the consumer, or the people impacted by the excessive waste non-repairable products produce around the world impacting the worlds most vulnerable populations.  

I realize that this is a problem barely visible to most Americans. I also realize we have so many challenges it is hard to really focus on any one issue with respect to our environment. 

I am grateful for those who took the time to read this and consider it's contents. I often think about how our consumerism can be something positive, or something deeply destructive to our environment and public health around the world. 

This is where our Mission Statement comes from... 

Repairing  IS recycling! 

On a positive note..

A benefit to fixing your appliances is that you support local trades people, local businesses, and save money and time! Those are all GOOD things.

Thank you for considering the repair of your appliances. By doing so you are sending a powerful message to the worlds largest manufacturing companies, and preserving our environment. I am grateful for your patronage and the time you spent reading this. Thank you!  

Mark Arbeene

Owner 

Reliable Appliance Repair Service of Orlando

.