Coffee maker Model 40104 Type A26 Rocker Switch Is it momentary action or solid off/on

[fixbear]

Are you sure of your model number?

[ectofix]

I found a D40104…uh 4-cup – COMMERCIAL COFFEE MAKER!  Really?  Maybe these are ones they put in hotel rooms because it COMMERCIAL grade.

 

Hamilton Beach D40104 Parts & Manuals – Coffee Maker

 

I found a used D40104 coffee maker – *reconditioned* and for sale on eBay for less than $20.  The picture shows it has a simple ON/OFF switch.

 

If your rocker switch has gotten springy and acts like a momentary contact switch,, then the switch is toast.  Throw it away and go buy a new coffee brewer.

[john]

Yes when I saw it, and looked at the parts breakdown, they don’t even break the actual coffee maker down. It’s just the filter basket and carafe listed as parts. This thing isn’t really meant to be repaired. 

 

Is this a spill-over from our other thread about replacement over repair in today’s society– oh no! 

I was surprised to see this is commercial, and thought the only application could be hotels or a small office waiting room.

[ectofix]

John B (Parts Town Admin) wrote:

 

Yes when I saw it, and looked at the parts breakdown, they don’t even break the actual coffee maker down. It’s just the filter basket and carafe listed as parts. This thing isn’t really meant to be repaired. 

 

Is this a spill-over from our other thread about replacement over repair in today’s society– oh no! 

I was surprised to see this is commercial, and thought the only application could be hotels or a small office waiting room.

This “throw-away” standard of product quality pretty well encompasses just about anything labelled “for household use only”  – except major appliances such as washers, dryers, stoves/ovens and refrigerators/freezers.  KitchenAid mixers seem to be an exception.  They’re often used in commercial settings too, so that might be why.

For just about anything else HOUSEHOLD, there’s very little (if any) technical or parts support.

 

TODAY’S ECONOMY

 

Household products are cheaply made so they can be cheaply purchased by the consumer.  Therefore, there’s no practicality for offering repair parts, since a technician generally SHOULD be employed to install a repair part (like that rocker switch in this Hamilton Beach coffee maker).

 

WHY?  Well, with today’s going rates for house calls, just the price for a technician to come knocking on the door to repair a microwave…would easily surpass the cost to simply replace the microwave oven altogether.  Even to carry a household microwave into a local repair shop – repair companies’ labor rates nowadays are easily pushing three-digit hourly rates.

 

I remember when microwave ovens first hit the market.  Their purchase price rivaled that of a compact TV of the time.  They qualified as pieces of furniture back then, too – due to their size and weight.  Check this link:

Imagine you could go shopping for electrical goods and appliances in the 1970’s

Average annual wages back then were just $6000 to $12,000.

 

Nowadays, you can get an el-cheapo microwave for slightly more than a loving couple’s cost of going out for dinner. 

Average annual wages now are pushing $50,000. 

 

Meanwhile (from the link I provided above), take note that purchase prices for just about ANY standard major household appliance hasn’t changed much in those forty years.

 

Several years ago…

 

I was on the hunt for a quality toaster-oven.

I’d looked at a highly-reputed Breville that had all the bells & whistles.  It cost around $400. I also had my eye on a Wisco Commercial Convection Countertop Oven.  No bells & whistles.  It was also priced around $400.

 

What got me was that, if that Breville oven broke – I couldn’t get ANYTHING to fix it.  Not a fan motor, an element…or ANYTHING other than maybe a replacement slide-in pan.  So if the oven quit cooking and warranty was expired, then I’d be out a $400 oven.

 

The Wisco?  Well, it’s a COMMERCIAL unit.  Therefore I could buy just about any part I needed to fix it.

 

FYI: I didn’t buy either one and conceded to a “relatively” cheap $80 one by Oster. I’ve had it about three years.  I use it EV-ERY-DAY.  On that note, I’m surprised how reliable its snap-disk thermostat has been.

 

 

HOUSEHOLD vs COMMERCIAL appliance comparison:

 

A household refrigerator door might get opened a just few times a day.

A commercial refrigerator door would get opened dozens…maybe a HUNDRED times a day.  Therefore the commercial one is made to endure the rigors of that exceptional usage.

 

A household blender might get used once daily – AT MOST.

Otherwise, a commercial blender might see nearly CONSTANT use – THROUGHOUT EACH DAY.  Therefore the commercial one is made to endure THAT exceptional usage.

 

A household oven?  It may be turned on for whatever it takes to cook up breakfast (maybe), lunch (who uses it then?) and dinner for a family (if they otherwise don’t choose to eat out).  It’s typically kept exceptionally clean throughout its total of maybe an hours daily usage.

A COMMERCIAL oven?  It’s turned on as early as 6am, stays hot AT SET TEMPERATURE all day and turned off (MAYBE) after 11pm.  It gets horribly abused, spilled in, boiled-over on, cursed & kicked by a disgruntled cook, slammed, banged into and NOT cleaned at the end of a long day (or maybe EVER)….but expected to work perfectly come 6am tomorrow and each day after.

 

SO…

 

It’s for these reasons that commercial equipment is made to be robust…is so expensive to buy…and why there’s a service & parts support market to keep them running.

 

Unfortunately, even COMMERCIAL manufacturers are trying to CHEAPEN it up.  I’m sure that “planned obsolescence” is the ULTIMATE goal by the engineers.  It’s aggravating, but keeps folks like service techs (ME), parts sales companies…and the manufacturers in business.