Masculinity and household appliances

Grumpa
Are we not being encouraged to make do and mend by the enviroment zealots.The days of a throwaway society are numbered.Landfill and all that.

My husband was a university lecturer in engineering but is hopeless at fixing appliances. I have been lighting my 13 year-old gas hob with matches for months because we can’t find the sticker with the identifying model number and I feel too weak to deal with Bosch on the phone or on line. My car is making screaming noises when idling but he just pretends it will go away. Is it because he’s ashamed he’s a chap but can’t fix it? After all, I darn socks.

I hardly dare admit that the man who lives in my house actually asked which was the washing machine and which was the tumble dryer... on the few occasions he has been left to his own devices, he has washed up by hand because he doesn't know how to load the dishwasher.
I'm the one who can fix the household appliances, even to the point of repairing family appliances too!

If household appliances break down, I ask DH if he can fix it.

Usually he can and does - not always as speedily as I would like, but it either gets done, or he tells me it cannot be fixed and we buy a new one.

My father was much the same, so I realise that my mother and I were lucky.

I would long since have remarked that filling and emptying a machine x times once you have realised that it won't start isn't going to do the slightest bit of good.

Nagging wife? Maybe, but DH has never called me that.

My DH doesn't really have a clue about household appliances - my domain!!

He tries to use them but usually get stuck, so I have to do it anyway

Our dishwasher stopped working and the Bosch repair man wouldn't come till I had stopped self-isolating after cancer surgery. It turned out to be broken glass in the pump and we couldn't have fixed it ourselves. Till it was fixed my husband washed up by hand. Am I missing something?

I put up with a very dodgy oven for several years until it finally gave out and I could persuade dh to replace (after a lot of fuss). Now we have a hob on which only two burners work….

JaneJudge ?Thanks.

Out with the old in with the new, you can train men to use domestic stuff, it’s best to ask them to fix it but the electronics in modern stuff is too complex for most.
Having failed he will buy a new one.

To be fair, if a man says he is going to fix something, he will
There is no need to nag him every day for 6 months

Same here grumppa.
Out with the old in with the new.

My husband is really good at repairing things. However this usually involves retrieving something from his hoards in the barn accompanied by by "I told you it would come in useful "

Hmm. Dh tends to like gadgets, so I’ve been urging him to dig out the window washer he bought maybe a year ago, and see if it still works. ?.
The initial enthusiasm has evidently worn off, but the inside of our windows would certainly appreciate a 2nd session.

Namsnanny, ask on your local facebook page, there is bound to be people local to you that will be able to fix electrical appliances.

Can I have the number of your repair men?

I find they dont turn up.
Mind you I dont have insurance so we scrabble around to find some one available!

My husband takes things apart, swears at them a bit, puts them back together and then they generally work.

As far as I can see, he isn't actually "fixing" anything.

I think they must have voice activated switches in there somewhere that only respond to swearing

I would let my husband fiddle about with it all he likes while I go online and look at best reviews for a new appliance. But he would be told firmly to do it tomorrow morning.

I'm lucky, husband leaves this sort of problem to me and I have a lovely repair man who says when a repair isn't cost effective - even if he's doing himself out of a job.

JaneJudge

well he has managed to start it now an hour bloody later than the start of opening and closing but I just find it so irritating

we have insurance who can come and fix it properly otherwise I will endure hours of this every week

Good luck with your new washing machine I am64

DH would have stripped it down, discovered the fault and realised the next day the parts needed are no longer available!

It's vacuum cleaners with us. DH does the cleaning and will not buy a decent machine so he's always fiddling with it.

I have a simple rule. If a household appliance starts to play up and it’s out of guarantee/warranty, replace it.

Tizliz

My OH does not go near these appliances, that is my responsibility.

Nor does mine I went to work one morning my tumble dryer was playing up and I needed the reset button which is right behind the machine I asked DH to pull it out and I would sort on my return. I came home to find the washing machine across the floor enough said
Dishwashers can get a bit bunged up underneath stopping them pumping out I find if I pull it out of its housing and tip it backwards and forwards it can clear it

well he has managed to start it now an hour bloody later than the start of opening and closing but I just find it so irritating

we have insurance who can come and fix it properly otherwise I will endure hours of this every week

Good luck with your new washing machine I am64

Don’t you share Tizliz?

My OH does not go near these appliances, that is my responsibility.