Went to the hardware store in Bakersfield and saw a whole aisle of broken stuff

I was picking up some wood glue yesterday and walked past the returns counter. There were at least twenty power tools sitting there with tags saying 'customer states not working'. Most were basic cordless drills and sanders, nothing fancy. The guy behind the counter told me over half of them just need a new battery or a simple switch cleaned. It made me wonder how many people give up on a fix before even opening the case. Has anyone here actually brought a 'dead' tool back to life with a five dollar part?

3 comments

3 Comments

emery_taylor20d ago

Totally saw that at my local place last week! Grabbed a drill marked "broken" for ten bucks, swapped the trigger switch, and it runs like new. People really do toss stuff before even looking inside.

victor_ward20d ago

Reminds me of the old blender my mom was gonna toss. I mean, @emery_taylor is right, sometimes it's just one dumb part. Took it apart and the little plastic coupler was cracked, cost like three bucks at the appliance store.

ninabutler2h ago

Ugh, I gotta push back on this. Victor_ward, that's a best case scenario. Most of the time you crack something open and it's a fried circuit board or a motor that's shot, and the repair costs more than a new one. I tried fixing my coffee maker last month... spent an hour taking it apart just to find the heating element was totally gone. Not worth the hassle.