I consider myself handy, probably a trait my younger brother and I imbibed from our father. While many men of my (and previous) generation pride themselves in being able to fix broken equipment around the house and/or being able to jerry rig things to get little projects going, I generally notice a decline in this aptitude amongst people of younger generation. This trend is accelerated by companies intentionally designing products that can't be serviced by owners, so that we will depend on the company's "certified technicians" that charge an arm and a leg to fix even simple things. There are few other reasons as well that exacerbates this trend.
- More than 15 years ago, Wired published an article titled The Good Enough Revolution, that is still worth reading. It talked about companies intentionally choosing cheap materials to manufacture their products focusing on convenience and reduced cost. This of course made the products cheaper, rendering them affordable to lot more people.
- The rapid product obsolescence that is becoming the norm in many domains (think electronics, fast fashion clothing) adds to this phenomenon. If you are not going to use a product for more than 2 years, why spend the time/money/energy to design it to last 20 years?
- To prevent competitors from copying their products, manufacturers often paint circuit boards with black paint (so that others can't find out the component details), glue pieces together (instead of using screws or other fasteners that can be taken apart and put back together) that will break when you take them apart, declare warranties void if you open the product and so on.
- Manufacturers would like you to keep buying the same product again and again, when it breaks, rather than fix the product as increases the revenue for them. So, they have a clear incentive to make it as difficult and expensive as possible to fix broken products, making buying another new unit the easier choice.
It was making a weird screeching noise and was heating up a lot when I was trying to use it. After digging around and searching online a bit, understood that the two small ball bearing (what is beneath the blue ring in the second photo) needed to get the blade spindle spin tends to go down quickly if you use it daily. 
I tried replacing it and ended up damaging the blade as it wasn't designed to be fixed by end user. Bought a replacement blade. It broke again within 2 months! Bought a 3rd blade that broke again in couple of months! Throwing out the whole blender or buying another blender just for making smoothie type ideas sounded silly. So, this time really sat down, figured out the way to remove the two small ball bearing carefully and replaced them with new ones. While the replacement blade costs $20 even for non-brand (i.e compatible but not made by Nutribullet) and lot more for "original", I could get 10 units of the ball bearing for $10 or so! (Third photo shows the blade and the remaining 8 ball bearings.)
I tried replacing it and ended up damaging the blade as it wasn't designed to be fixed by end user. Bought a replacement blade. It broke again within 2 months! Bought a 3rd blade that broke again in couple of months! Throwing out the whole blender or buying another blender just for making smoothie type ideas sounded silly. So, this time really sat down, figured out the way to remove the two small ball bearing carefully and replaced them with new ones. While the replacement blade costs $20 even for non-brand (i.e compatible but not made by Nutribullet) and lot more for "original", I could get 10 units of the ball bearing for $10 or so! (Third photo shows the blade and the remaining 8 ball bearings.)
In addition to cost saving, not throwing a fully working electrical item that is not biodegradable into a landfill feels really good! It is the same joy one gets when completing a software debug to see a fix you coded fully resolves the issue. But Nutribullet is certainly not making it easy. I can immediately think of small tweaks they can do to resolve this issue, making the product last a lot longer. (Alternately the Roomba robotic vacuum cleaner has a nice design that has many components that can be replaced by end user fairly easily.)
While I can write a lot more about dishwashers, coffee makers, washing machines and lawn mowers that I have fixed over the years and the trials and tribulations involved, will cut that short to say, I am really glad to see the "Right to Repair" movement gaining some traction in the US. It is sad that this has to become a "movement" for people to be able to use products longer. But at least it is a trend in the right direction that also seems to include older repair enthusiasts holding Saturday sessions in local community centers where anyone can walk-in with a broken appliance and get guidance on how to get it working again. You can read about the movement at https://www.repair.org/stand-up. The notion appears to be more popular in Europe, while in Asia people do tend to repair & use products as per tradition more often. You can also watch this short video, read this write up. There are articles/research like this one that suggest it is a lose-lose-lose movement as well!
Couple of quick questions:
- Do you consider yourself handy? Any interesting repair story that made you proud of yourself? 
- What is the oldest product you own? Not asking about jewelry or a book that is a family heirloom, but something that "works"?
P.S. When I sent this post out as an email, it resonated with a lot of friends, who are men of my age! Got responses from many in the US, India and Europe! It was gratifying to learn that the weekend repair gathering is active in UK as well:
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