• Parcel tracking emails

    Alan Liefting

    We order parts from all over New Zealand and overseas to do our repairs and refurbishments. Some of the companies that we deal with just send the stuff and assume that we will get it. And I am more than happy with that. Other companies send us a whole stack of automated emails telling us the progress of the shipment.

    We ordered some electrical switches from Mitre 10. (Interestingly they are cheaper to buy from Mitre 10 than from our electrical wholesaler.  But that is a story for another day.) We got SIX emails about the parcel from three different sources!

    Mitre 10 emails

    We don’t need ANY emails about the parcel delivery!  We will just assume it will turn up and if it doesn’t we will then look up the tracking information.  It is bad enough that our email inboxes are flooded with spam and scam messages!

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  • Dishonest manufacturing

    Alan Liefting

    This no name powerbank with solar charging  came in for recycling and it is anything but powerful.  The battery is swollen and the case is bowed because of it.

    It is quite dishonest of the manufacturer to put such a small battery in a large enclosure.  Not only could the battery be taller but it could also be thicker.  There are two foam rubber spacers used to fill the empty space in the enclosure.

    The purchaser would be quite unaware of the small battery size and would assume that a physically large enclosure would equate to a larger energy capacity than a smaller one.  If I find a suitable battery I would be able to more than double the capacity of the powerbank.

    Please everybody, avoid products that are of such bad quality that the manufacturer is too scared to put their name on it!

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  • Blatant and arrogant dumping

    Alan Liefting

    We had this stuff dumped in front of our rubbish skip during broad daylight on a workday.

    Some rubbish

    It is a collection of stuff that is not at all related to what we accept for recycling.  There is some sort of cot, a paddle board, a bike pump (that might be ok), a home made toy train, and a few other things.  It is surprising that none of us noticed it being dumped given that we go in and out of the back door pretty regularly.

    Does the person that dumped it think they are doing us a favour?  Well they are not!  A similar thing happens at the charity shops.  All sorts of things get dumped there that are of little or no value.

    It seems that some people overlook a rational appraisal of the value of goods to justify dumping it for free.  In the case of this dumped stuff the value for resale is about 25 cents for the metal and the rest would unfortunately have to be sent to landfill.

  • Torch repair

    Alan Liefting

    This small LED torch came in for recycling. The batteries were stuffed. Cleaned the battery contacts and put some new ones in. It worked but not very well. It would flicker especially if the case was pressed. I took it apart, squirted some contact cleaner in the switch but it would still flicker. And then I noticed something.

    The tab from the battery contact was shorting out to the LED PCB. It is thin metal so it bends easily. Either it was not bent down properly in the factory or it moved when the batteries were changed.

    It was easily fixed. I bent the tab down and put a little patch of adhesive foam over it. We now have yet another torch that we can use and another item is saved from being recycled.

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  • Life and death

    Alan Liefting

    A stack of tower style PCs.
    These patients are waiting patiently to be triaged.

    When we receive our patients they all go through a thorough and careful process, and we are usually able to give them a longer, healthier life.

    Sometimes the sheer numbers overload our facilities and so we firstly carry out a quick triage of all the incoming patients. Some of the better Windows 7 and 8 machines go straight to the operating theatre for a Windows 10 upgrade to give them a new lease of life. Core 2 Duo patients are deemed to need palliative care but we euthanise them with the dismantling process. There is rarely a need to keep doner parts from them for other sick PCs. Some of the Windows XP patients are still quite healthy after quite a long life and a few humans like and need their company. We give them a new lease of life with a wipe, an operating system reload, and sometimes a little cosmetic surgery.

    During the triage we find that some patients are DOA, in some cases it is because they have been butchered for parts.

    A dusty PC
    We euthanised this patient.

    It is disappointing that we get some patients who have led an unhealthy life. They quite obviously have been cooped up in a dusty environment and kept working all day and all night. This leads to overheating and possibly to a premature death.

    We do the best we can with all our patients by reviving them and ensuring that they can be a healthy part of the home and the workplace. However, it is quite depressing to see that some of them will never again be gainfully employed. A very satisfying part of our job, on the other hand, is to take some of the geriatric computers into our care. We know full well that they will never be employed again but being so interesting we keep them ourselves for the good company they provide, or we pass them on to those who will lavish them with love and care and attention.

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  • Visione DVD player

    Alan Liefting

    A Visione VISDVD5820 DVD player came in for recycling and since it has a HDMI output I thought I may as well have a go at refurbishing it.  They are budget brand and as we will see you really get what you pay for.  It seems to be a brand name used by Harvey Norman.

    The batteries in the remote had leaked and caused really bad corrosion on one of the battery terminals to the point of almost completely rusting the retaining spring!  Also, there were splatters of solder left on the circuit board from when the battery terminals were manually soldered in place in the factory.

    dismantled remote control with leaked batteries and rusted contacts.

    A quick internet search showed that this fault has has happened to others.  They sold for $29 and $18 and as low as $9!  There is no point doing any repairs on it so off it goes to be dismantled.

    It is a shame that this sort of poor quality equipment with poor quality batteries is being sold.  This sort of stuff is short lived enough as it is because of the rapid change in technology.

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  • Market report: Paint pails

    Alan Liefting

    After a decade of slow demand the market for second hand paint pails has strengthened.  Market analysts working in the second hand paint pail market have seen a supply side issue.  This appears to be largely due to a shortage of plasterboard in the construction sector leading to a lower demand for paint.  It was announced that there could be 100 shipping containers of plasterboard arriving to cover the shortfall in local production.

    The supply of the pails is now sporadic.  Creative Junk are experiencing high demand with them “flying out the door”.  Retail prices are either $2 or $4 on Facebook and are not readily available on the Trade Me auction site.

    Alan Liefting the Paint Pail Purchasing Manager at Ecotech Services, has been watching the paint pail market for some time.  “We have been using the pails for storing all manner of itmes from our recycling operation for a long time,” said Mr Liefting.  “They were easy to get. People were glad to get rid of them. Now we have to pay for them!”

    The reputable paint supply merchants rarely have empty paint pails and the ones withat have paint residue are sent away for recycling.  There is speculation that there is stockpiling of paint pails to reduce the supply and attempt to manipulate the market but wthere is no concrete proof of this.

    (Whilst this is my attempt at humour it is largely based on facts – except my company role!)

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  • Ecotech comes up with the goods!

    Alan Liefting

    I was pottering around at work on the Sunday night of a long Easter weekend and decided to fix a set of tool drawers that came in for recycling.  Yep, we get all sorts of things coming in for recycling!

    Ecotech Services has needed a set of tool drawers for a while and I have been looking out for a suitable second hand bargain.  And then these turn up!

    tool drawers

    The bottom drawer was a bit hard to close.  Turns out the drawer runner had lost its bearings.   All but one of the ball bearings on the runner were missing.

    What are the chances of getting a new runner for it?  Possibly not good but repairing is usually the first option for me.  So I need some 3.8mm diameter ball bearings to fix it.  We have got things that look like short drawer runners in stock that have been salvaged off all sorts of things, including  monitor stands and photo printing kiosks.  They would a good source of replacement ball bearings.  The first one I pulled apart had 4.8mm ball bearings but I got lucky on the second one. It had the 3.8mm ball bearings that I was after.

    The drawer was easy to get out.  There are two plastic clips that act as end stops and can be moved to get the drawer out.

    I cut the end off the sacrificial runner to get the ball bearings out.  I then had to remove the end clip on the tool drawer runner to take out the ball bearing holder and I then added the replacement bearings to it.  I used bit of grease as a “glue” to keep all of the bearings in place while getting it back on the runner.  It was then a matter of putting the runner end clip back on and sliding the drawer back in.

    Close up of runner.
    This is the ball bearing holder now with its full set of bearings.

    Ecotech now has some better tool storage in our mechanical work area!

     

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  • Shocking quality

    Alan Liefting

    We had a cheap Homemaker brand HT7145KM heater come in for recycling.  This one had two of the halogen heating lamps rattling around in the bottom because the ends had shattered and the third on was on the way out as well.  I thought I would take it apart for a bit of a laugh.  And look what I found.

    One of the case screws had pierced one of the wires, in this case it was carrying the voltage going to the oscillating motor.  This is pretty poor manufacturing quality to say the least!  Fortunately the screw is recessed about 20mm down a hole otherwise it would be a serious safety issue.

    Another worry is that if the wire strands were cut by the screw would the remaining wires have created enough heat to melt and burn the plastic?  Possibly not given that the oscillating motor is quite low current.

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  • Stay safe with stuff

    Alan Liefting

    This heavy duty extension cord had been quite severely severed.  This is certainly a serious safety situation.

    Yellow extension cord with a damaged section
    Spot the fault!

    It must have happened while it had current flowing through it because there has been severe sparking in the severed section.

    Stay safe!

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