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{The modern melee. Ha Ha! Wait until this sort of Corporation Engineering Products for Obsolescence hit`s him on his little sporty Mazda. "Apple"- the favorite darling of Wall St. pulls this crap all the time. [Sealing batteries IN so they cannot be replaced!] They get away with it because the Liberals who buy their crap products are non-thinking idiots.
Samsung just got embarrassed over it`s untested
Exploding [!] Lithium Batteries.
Did you know Toyota made their "Fore Runner" V6 engines in such a way that the camshafts have no bearings? They spin right on the aluminum head casting metal! So when the soft aluminum finally galls and flakes, it isn`t just a $10. set of bearings - it`s a $300. [X2=$600.] new head[s] to be replaced.
In the old days people lived in FEAR because of Religion and Taxes - many still do. Today, they live in fear because of their obesity - medical costs, Their autos, and their "stuff". Wealthy "Hedonism" and "Latest Fashion" has it`s price also. Meanwhile, Corporations consider guys like him to be bandits because he has the knowledge to fix stuff like this. L.}
So, because I have a hottub, I have a heater. It's gas-fired, but electrically controlled (of course.)
The other night I went to turn it on, and while the computer said it had commanded it to light, it did not. When I checked the ignition circuit was bad. Ok, that's happened before (hot surface igniters do fail) and indeed it was bad, so I ordered another one.
Well, the reason the first one failed was that the igniter is 120V but the line voltage is 240. Therefore, there's a little board that is reversible (you can wire the heater for 120 or 240V) that consists of a trigger circuit and a triac, effectively dropping it to 120V when the plug is inserted in the "240V" orientation. 240V is more convenient most of the time because the pump is almost-always 240V and you never want the heater powered if the pump is not, and the heater itself draws very little power. Ergo, wiring it for 240V makes the most sense.
However, in this case the triac shorted internally; ergo, 240V is on the igniter instead of 120. Unless I'd like to smoke the new igniter immediately that triac needs replaced
Now here's the rub -- that board is $50 and has $2 worth of parts on it -- $3.50 if you buy them one at a time from Mouser. For real. But just to make things fun Jandy coated the damn thing in epoxy, which makes reworking it a real five-alarm pain in the ass. That they decided to use a SMT package for the triac means I'll get to take my hot-air rework station out on the back porch before removing it too since otherwise the potting that I can't remove before heating the part to dislodge it will probably give off enough fumes to kill a horse. Or me.
So here we have something that has a realistic cost to Jandy of about $5 in volume but they think I'm going to pay $50 for one.
No, I'm not.
Yes, I will get the potting off, and yes, I will replace the shorted triac -- for about $4, including shipping that costs as much as the part does, and while I'm at it I'm going to replace the drive opto too (which costs another buck), although it appears from some quick tests to be ok.
I'm so tired of this crap..... exploding capacitors from Chineesium factories are just part of this nonsense, as I've written on before.
The other part of it is making things essentially "non-serviceable" on purpose, then pricing replacements for said "non-serviceable" parts at 10x cost and jeering at those who wind up having to pay for them.
Don't even get me started at what these clown car factories charge for a replacement controller board in a washing machine these days. Try half the cost of an entire new machine on for size.
Someday someone is going to get mad enough about this sort of thing that they're going to go postal -- and while I wouldn't exactly condone such a response, it sure as hell might draw a snicker that sounds sort of like "just desserts" from me.
BTW if you happen to have a Jandy pool or spa heater and it pukes in a similar fashion, I'm happy to explain where the problem is and where to get the replacement. You'll need to find someone with a hot air rework station to get it off and back on successfully unless you're quite good with a fine-tip soldering iron. I happen to have the rework station but I'd take a crack at this with a regular very-fine-tip iron if I didn't have one, as the pitch of the connections is large enough that you certainly can do it, unlike with most SMT ICs.
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