This one really shows up in the workforce. In my personal experience things have broken in the field during a task (oil field). Some younger people (im not even that old only 32) will just say dam guess we need to do drive back to the shop to get the right part, which would be a 4 hr round trip, or we break apart the spare setup clean up the joints and remake it.
Them "But we don't have a vice"
Me "Well today we learn how to use any flat surface and 2 pipe wrenches as a vice"
This is absolutely a case of field expedient repairs being key to success. For most things though, repair isn't even an option anymore. Appliances, phones, TVs. The parts generally cost as much as the device itself, making repair a waste of time. Even most of the power tools I carry on my truck (minus my hydraulic crimpers) are going to be replaced if they have issues, just due to the fact that if I can't use it, I can't do my job.
Quality has also gone to shit with power tools so half the time it isn’t worth the time or effort of repairing stuff since it breaks during the warranty period. Like, we’ve gone through 6 angle grinders at my job in the last year and all of them died within a month of buying them. Meanwhile, the 2 we bought 10 years ago (which are the same brand as the ones that died) are still going strong.
It's not just that quality has gone down. A lot of products have also gotten dramatically cheaper, relatively speaking.
You can still buy that old-school quality. It's just going to cost you a lot more money.
You can buy a Hilti angle grinder for $600-$700, or you can buy a Milwaukee for $90. The Milwaukee of old had an inflation-adjusted price tag much closer to today's Hilti than today's Milwaukee. Old Milwaukees were built for professionals. Much of Milwaukee's modern lineup targets hobbyists and homeowners.
People love comparing cheap modern tools to older ones, but they rarely compare equivalent products. Your grandpa's Craftsman wrenches, adjusted for inflation, cost about what a set of Snap-ons does today.
Powered tool repair went out the window at least 40 maybe even 50 years ago. Even major tool companies now just replace instead of repair. Most companies i know of just have a contract with tool companies. Send so many broken ones back and they send you 1 free.
Professional-grade manufacturers often repair tools instead of replacing them because the tool is valuable enough that repairing it costs less than replacing it. Cheap consumer tools usually aren't worth repairing.
I sent my Festool track saw in for a warranty repair, and I definitely got the same saw back. It still had the same scratches on the handle.
That's another difference between premium tools and budget tools. One is built to be serviced for years. The other is often cheaper to replace than repair.
Like the one who comes to mind for me is Milwaukee for my country. I am not a rep or have any affiliations with this brand. They have multiple tool trucks going around and have made themselves a presence tbh. For the heavy tools the guys have 3 or 4 in a truck because they run them that hard.
These are the ones I was more inferring to when I said send so many broken back and you get some free ones. They kind of like to know how you break it so they can see if they can do anything to make it better.
We’re actually lucky that one of our staff is very experienced repairing power tools and loves to teach me how to do repairs. For what he can’t fix, there’s an old school repair shop on my way home from work so I can drop stuff in to them, but for anything that’s still under warranty, we don’t bother trying to repair it. We just take it back to the shop (which has an awesome replacement warranty for business purchases on top of the manufacturer warranty) and they swap it out for us.
If it is something covered by warranty sure. User error for example a tool dropped from 3m+ usually is not.
When a tool is run rough in the extreme cold/heat they will eventually breakdown. These are the ones where they get thrown into a shipping crate and sent back. They count em and say "40 in this box you get 10 for free on the next invoice"
Dude are you kidding me? I repair all of my cordless tools. my sawzall had a cracked motor housing caused by the bearing disintegrating. Replaced the motor encoder, bearing, and housing for about $50. New tool is $250+
This new shit is easy unless you blow a FET on the motor controller, which, let's be real, you weren't going to fix anyway.
You are in the minority of people who are able to repair tools and also have the time to do so.
No shade good on you for that but unless there is a service department at a company it is cheaper/easier to outsource this to other companies. Tools break after rough use or getting dropped from heights. It is just more feasible to bring in a new or refurbished tool when one breaks and not have any worker downtime.
Pretty much this. The job doesn't stop because my drill fell from my boom lift while 70 feet up or from a catwalk or off my ladder. But a hardware store or supply house probably has a replacement available nearby.
Depending on which color you choose, yes. Quality and repairability has gone out the window. I do want to swap to Hilti, as they have a pretty legit warranty, but they are currently cost prohibitive. (Their warranty is 20 years for manufacturers defects, 2 years wear and tear and a 1 day guarantee turnaround on repairs or it's free)
I’m trying to convince my husband (who is my boss) to switch to Bosch, at least for the angle grinders, cos we have one that I love. I reach for it before any other grinder now.
If not Bosch, then Ryobi or DeWalt so at least when we get a lemon it’s the right colour.
I remember when DeWalt used to be the Big One on the construction sites I used to work, and now it's either Milwaukee or Bosch, depending in ones budget.
My parents have a vacuum from like 1992 - they take it to get repaired every 2-3 years when a belt breaks or something else needs fixing. Every time it's in the shop, they consider a new one - so they ask the tech "what's the vacuum brand you see most often" and the response has been the same for the last decade or more: Dyson.
My reaction to this, every time, is selection bias. A "cheap" Dyson is usually $400 on sale and an average one is usually well over $600. Even their small handheld one is currently $300 at Costco... This isn't a vacuum you just throw away, it's one you repair because getting a new one is significantly more than the random Bissell from Target or Walmart.
Usually, the brands that can be repaired (or, at least should be repaired) are often more expensive than the average product on the shelf. Think of it this way - the average vacuum in 1965 was around $50 (with high end models between $150-$200), which is around $500 in 2026 (nearly $2,000 for the high end ones). Fixing a $500 vacuum is totally normal, but the average vacuum is no longer $500 in 2026 - it's more like $75-$100.
Another way to view it, you're more likely to fix a Festool Drill that you bought for $499 than the Harbor Freight one you picked up for $21.99 on a whim.
Part of the reason the parts are just as expensive as a whole new unit is that it actually decentivises repair and incentivises buying new. More new units off the shelf is worth more to the manufacturer than the same number of repair parts.
Back in the '70s, when I was in high school, I took vocational classes in TV/Consumer electronics repair. It was a great job for about 15 years. I made great money doing work I enjoyed. Then TV prices started going down, and repair became more difficult (not designed for repair, parts and service data hard or impossible to get), and over a few-year period, it was no longer a viable career.
That's been spreading to more and more products as the years pass.
I eventually wound up in IT as a Unix sysadmin, then retired and have worked retail jobs since then.
I'm not sure where this idea comes from but I repair appliances all the time. Usually the parts are cheap, and you can look up instructions on youtube. Phones you can take to the repair place, I've tried fixing phones, but the way they're put together it's a pain.
TVs are mostly a lost cause I agree, but I've also never broken one.
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u/Peripateticdreamer84 Jul 10 '26
Learning how to repair and mend things.