Last Updated on: December 24, 2015

I started morning of December 24th by getting up much too early and almost immediately, before completely woken up, bravely (or foolishly) hopped on an attempt to repair our well used Moccamaster coffee machine.

In retrospect I cannot rule out the possibility that the project would have gone a lot smoother had I done three things prior to start-up; 1) had a morning coffee 2) found my glasses, and finally 3), had the sense to do (or attempt) repair someplace with good light.

I did neither. Therefore the slightly fiddly job, which I’d imagine normally could be done in a matter maybe 15-20 minutes, by a someone who consider themselves average handy, took at least three quarters of an hour, maybe more.

Some still build things that lasts

Yes, even in a time and age when build quality often is questionable, among other things to make us buy new stuff instead of fixing what we have, there are those who still rely on, and believe in, building stuff in good quality.

Moccamaster coffee machines have a reputation for being built to last. Ours is no exception. A decade + of usage  and heaven knows how many liters (or gallons) of coffee made, it’s still almost as good as new. But age finally caught up with an electrical switch. 

Over the past couple of months the machine had begun to switch itself off in the middle of the brewing. Sometimes, typically early in the morning when little time, it required several switching attempts to make the power stay on. Long enough to complete the brewing and serve me a much needed mug.

To compensate or avoid the switch-o-manic morning hassle, solution was, literally speaking, instant. Don’t know about you but if you’re a coffee drinker like me, am sure you too prefer something else than instant coffee.

Well, there are all these wonderful new coffee machines nowadays, that only requires a capsule of ready-made stuff. Brings you coffee relatively instant. But they produce more waste, a lot more waste. Many of these machines and capsule oriented products are made by one particular company we don’t buy products from anymore. Why?  Read the story here.  

Repairs on a Christmas morning

Now, what would be the normal reflex in 2015, when things fail after long and faithful service? Go and buy a new machine of course! Getting spare parts is possible, but sometimes difficult. Then it’s the effort of fixing. Having someone fix it for you amounts up to the same, if not more, than buying new. Add to that the cost of spare parts.

It’s a sad fact of our digitized, automated, wasteful and capitalistic reality; it’s easier and cheaper to buy new, buy more, and ditch the old. Even if it’s fixable, the fixing is doable, even if it is entirely possible to extend product life-cycle by the double of what you thought.

I was lucky. Clas Ohlson became my savior once again, as they have countless times while looking for Christmas presents. In their web-catalog they had a couple of switches that should fit on the Moccamaster. One was fairly similar to the old and faulty.

Even Clas Ohlson don’t have such things in stores anymore. Had to order it, 3 days later I got an SMS, went over to pick it up. Sort of a gamble but at first inspection it looked right. Such luck! Much too early in the morning, before woken completely up, I started the attempt to repair our well used Moccamaster coffee machine. Not exactly brave or bold, but determined at least. Hey Presto!

The “morale” of this nothing of a story? Sometimes it’s worth the effort, fixing something rather than buy new.