Manufactuiring Rubbish ??????????

[Bodd]

Is Manufacturing letting you down more now than ever before

I think it is acutally costing me money. In a perfect world I will always use decent brands but this is not always possable and even the good stuff can let lets us down.

How can we combat this? if a new boiler packs up the manufacuers will come and fix it.

If a part lets us down then it is us who have to cover the cost in refitting it and taking it back


Or am I just a Rubbish plumber????????


Bod

 

[joe-90]

Probably.

 

[Bodd]

Is that Probebly I'm rubbish Joe or probably manufacturing is letting us down or just that my English is crap

Be carefull how you answer this Joe

 

[^woody^]

I was with a plumber a few weeks ago and he was installing a Ferroli boiler.

Now with the front cover off exposing the insides, it was clear that there was actually nothing to the boiler - a control box, a pump, two (?) valves, the heat exchanger - that's it IIRC.

It certainly did not seem complex by todays standards, and I know Ferroli offer a 5 year warranty, but it did strike me that there really should be no reason why boilers should not be reliable and have a long life

 

[joinerjohn]

Problem is though Woody, If manufacturers build things too well, they then run the risk of going out of business. Take the UK manufacturer of electric milk floats. The actually built them too well. As a result, once they had sold xxxxx thousands, no one needed to buy any more. No one needed to buy spares for them either as the motors were lasting xx yrs. You still see milk floats on the road now that were built 30 or 40 yrs ago. (how many cars do you see on the road the same age?). I know in an ideal world, we'd all like to purchase products that lasted 40+ yrs before having to replace them/ have them repaired, but that just isn't ever going to happen these days,,,,,is it?

 

[big-all]

that's why we don't normally pass on the mark up as thats our insurance to cover the extra work involved when things go wrong
i do pass on part off my mark up if its a safeish bet
but in general its all part off the equasion

 

[Bodd]

Im more talking abouth the simple things like plastic waste fittings cheaply made brass fittings that fracture. theds little things that the suppklyer will chuck you a replacement but its your time and laboure changing the product

Bod

 

[^woody^]

Problem is though Woody, If manufacturers build things too well, they then run the risk of going out of business.

I had not noticed that about the milk floats, but you have a point.

But the counter argument is that if a manufacturer has a good product then he will get more business at the expense of other manufacturers and there is a much bigger and on-going market for boilers

I am seeing more and more plumbers recommend and fitting Ferroli's - purely because of the warranty and reliability - and the good service from Ferroli if things do go wrong. So presumably Ferroli are taking more market share, and those other manufacturers need to either up their game ...... or reduce their costs to make it more attractive - but that will be just a short term thing as it risks tarnishing the brand.

I am hearing good things about some Valiant boilers too, but I don't think they offer the same long warranty

It's all probably moot anyway as [modern] boilers in general don't tend to last very long and have inherent relatively short life

 

[l0n35t4r]

Problem is though Woody, If manufacturers build things too well, they then run the risk of going out of business.

But the counter argument is that if a manufacturer has a good product then he will get more business at the expense of other manufacturers and there is a much bigger and on-going market for boilers

Another aspect of this argument is that the technology is changing/upgrading so fast these days, that there isn't much research/testing involved. The moment you buy a computer/car/mobile phone, they become old/obsolete. It's often the first lot of customers that inadvertently get used as guinea pigs.

OP has a valid point that at least certain parts which are being manufactured for decades, should've been perfected by now - just like the milk floats!

Certain companies have to rely on other suppliers to get small parts manufactured such as caps, nuts etc. (outsourcing) and the problem starts from there. If each company starts to verify the credentials of all its suppliers then it may fall behind its competitors. May be, milk floats didn't have many (or nil) competitors back then.

 

[big-all]

Im more talking abouth the simple things like plastic waste fittings cheaply made brass fittings that fracture. theds little things that the suppklyer will chuck you a replacement but its your time and laboure changing the product

Bod

it is of course swings and rounabouts and off course common sense
you will only be caught by 2 or 3 failures then you will source else where

 

[joe-90]

Im more talking abouth the simple things like plastic waste fittings cheaply made brass fittings that fracture. theds little things that the suppklyer will chuck you a replacement but its your time and laboure changing the product

Bod

You are over-tightening them. There's no need to twist it till it fractures.

 

[Bodd]

Im more talking abouth the simple things like plastic waste fittings cheaply made brass fittings that fracture. theds little things that the suppklyer will chuck you a replacement but its your time and laboure changing the product

Bod

You are over-tightening them. There's no need to twist it till it fractures.

Nothing to do with cheaper ingreadiance in manufacturing.

This has happened to me on a couple of occasions and yes overtightning was the straw that broke the camals back. Obviously But Being the kind of trades man I am I just cant leave a leaking fitting.

yes i'll take it apart. past it up a little more. maybe even wrap it up with PTFE (not totally keen on that) Yes the temptation is to tighten it a little more.

The fact is if you prepare the fitting and fit it as it should be fitted. then is should never leak.

 

[Burnerman]

Due to manufacturers and dealers always trying to supply the cheapest part (which is what the punter normally wants anyway) we are in danger of being criticised or blamed ourselves when some parts fail.
Example from the motor trade - new track rod ends needed for a Transit truck. Some obscure makes arrived, with no country of origin stated - looked like they had been forged from some ancient railway lines or similar. Fitted them anyway, got the MOT but I'm checking the vehicle very regularly just in case. Failure of these could be catastropic
John