what causes appliances to fail (electronic scales/digital thermometer)?

Numerous possible failures in the circuitry, or Heat, static or shock to the display itself.

They have to be painstakingly clean and very carefully installed when replaced or there will be missing segments.

I think that perhaps cheaper appliances aren't well manufactured. I'm on my second set of digital kitchen scales . If I remember last time it stopped working then later started working again then stopped for good.

My Royal postage abruptly stopped working (display but no measurement). Royal wouldn't do anything about it, so Costco swapped it for a good one.

Perhaps the strain gauge is unduly "sensitive" to stress.

High hunmidity, steam or moisture from cleaning can lead to failures of the circuitry because of condensation on the board and around CMOS devices. Best to do all cleaning with a damp rag that has been wrung first. Keep well away from sink and stove.

In a nutshell: a combination of cheap low-quality components coupled with cheap low-quality construction. Failure to adequately seal moisture-sensitive components marketed to reside in a bathroom guarantees early failure from preventative causes. Ditto with failure to adequately mechanically isolate components senstive to shock. The use of micron-thin ribbon cables in flexible joints, the list goes on and on. You get what you pay for, if you can buy a brand spanking new digital scale for $18, and you consider that a healthy chunk of the price is for shipping the product to the store, plus advertising, marketing, and engineering, how much is actually left for manufacturing? How long do you expect a digital display which cost less than a dollar to last? Today's society has been conditioned that a) stuff isn't supposed to last for more than 2 years and b) if you own stuff over two years old you're a LOSER (can you say "auto industry"?) and c) if something breaks it's to be tossed in the bin and replaced with new.

| > I saw someone clean the inside of a mobile phone with a white foam. | > John Thanks | | Numerous possible failures in the circuitry, or Heat, static or shock to the | display itself. | | They have to be painstakingly clean and very carefully installed when | replaced or there will be missing segments. | I recently noticed the digital display on my wall oven had become quite dim although it was still functional. I searched the internet and found the display board was easy to install but cost $170. On looking further, I learned that the dimming was almost certainly due to the heat induced deterioration of one or more electrolytic caps and that replacing them could fix the problem. I replaced all four on the board amking sure they were of the high temperature variety. Fry's and Radio Shack did not have one of the caps so I used two in parallel to get the right value. Lo and behold, the display was back to its original brightness and done for a few buck in parts and some of my time. So it is possible to repair some of toady's appliance circuitry easily and cheaply.

Even though thing are cheap, as a consumer I'd rather buy quality. It used to be that you could trust a name like Sony. I'm looking for a set of old fashioned mechanical weighing scales.

I hear ya'!

I went out of my way to buy a microwave oven with a mechanical timer. There is almost no circuitry when you dispense with the foolish gingerbread and flashing lights. When the magnetron finally slips away, I can get one from some cast off oven with a goofed up controller. My first oven went goofy after 2 years so I replaced the board with a mechanical timer and went another 10 years. Over exuberant cleaning by OL.

Our society has been conditioned to support lying salesmen who make 1c on the dollar while the rest goes overseas. In the meantime we are filling landfills. A lot of neat old art deco stuff can be modified so you don't get electrocuted. My vacuum is a Hoover from the 70s and I laugh at all the expensive plastic trash they are cranking out now because it will never be able to do half the job for 2 years.

Sad but true !

Sony? You've got to be kidding!

-- W . | ,. w , "Some people are alive only because \\|/ \\|/ it is illegal to kill them." Perna condita delenda est

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