How to put the repair shops out of business (Maplin)

Member Name: sue26

Product:	Maplin
Date:	30/09/01 (969 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Excellent stock

Disadvantages: None that I could find

If you`re into saving money and enjoy having a go at repairing stuff yourself, then Maplins Electronics is the best store you`ll find to help you. They first started as a mail order company in 1972, then moved on to open their first shop in 1974.

They are a bit like Tandy, but sell a much wider range of products. Whether you`re an expert in repairing particular electrical appliances, or just enjoy fiddling about with a screwdriver, then you`ll find all the books and electrical components you`ll need here.

The instore stock is massive, you`ll find aerials, cables and leads, batteries, bulbs, books and software and lots of tiny little parts you`ve never heard of. There is a catalogue available that lists most of the stock, and if they don`t stock what you need then they will order it for you if they can find it elsewhere. There is also a CD-ROM catalogue, and now you can order online as well at www.maplin.co.uk.

If you want a computer, but don`t want to buy a ready built one, they sell pc kits. These are just a basic metal case with the motherboard inside along with a keyboard. You can then buy the extra parts you need and add them on.

The best thing they sell in my view though are the books. There are many to choose from and most are really easy to follow, even if you`ve got no electrical knowledge whatsoever. There are books that help you fix almost anything, including televisions, videos, camcorders, washing mashines, dishwashers and now they have one for computers.

I have saved myself a fortune by buying a book called "Home VCR Repair Illustrated". This cost £14.99 a few years ago, but most of the repair manuals won`t cost more than £20.

This manual is very detailed and goes through everything step by step in very easy to follow instructions. There are lots of diagrams from varying angles which makes it even easier to follow.

Until I bought this I never knew how easy it was to repair a
video. I`ll let you in on a few little secrets here so you too can save some cash.

If you turn on your video and it looks dead, then it`s most probably just the tiny little bulb in the middle. Yes, it`s that simple, this tiny bulb that reads the tape, when blown, will make most people throw their video away. You can buy these bulbs from maplins for 49p, and it`s just a matter of taking out the old one and soldering in the new one. It will literally take you two minutes, but a video repair shop will charge you about £50 to this.

The second thing you should know, and most of you will have already done this, is never use a video head cleaning tape. These will actually cause more damage to your video in the long run. They don`t remove the dirt from the video head, they just move it to the bottom so that it eventually mounts up so much that cleaning it has no effect.

Instead, you need to invest in some head cleaning brushes and a bottle of head cleaning fluid. These won`t cost more than £2 from Maplins.

The video head is the round metal part that looks like a drum. You put a tiny bit of fluid on the cleaning brush, lay it flat against the bottom of the drum, then slowly rotate the drum 3 times while moving the brush upwards. Then just slide the brush off the top, thus totally removing the dirt. Doing this will add years to the life of your video.

If you really want to go the whole hog, then invest in the book yourself and you`ll soon find yourself in Maplins every weekend, buying parts to repair other peoples videos.

The prices are very cheap, but the goods are good quality, I`ve never had to return anything yet. Most of the staff are pretty clued up about what they are selling and will help you as best as they can, but you will get the odd one who has got absolutely no idea, but then again, you`ll get that anywhere these days.

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