Eeeh, they don’t make things like they used to, do they?
The tumble dryer was working away this morning (it was raining again) and suddenly the noise changed.
‘Fan belt,’ muttered Partner.
In pulling the tumbly out from its normal home, he decided to get rid of a vile glass cabinet that we inherited on buying the flat and couldn’t get rid of either through Friday Ads or FreeCycle.
We took it to bits and carefully took the glass and the cabinet outside. I piled the glass on the vile office chair that we finally got rid of yesterday. I never liked it, it was cast off from some job that partner had worked on and was one of those rather macho black executive swivel job things.
I took the camera with me when we set off for the shops but sadly had omitted to put batteries in. On returning from shopping trip, it had all been taken by our excellent street cleaning service. So no pic of either.
But here is a tumbly pic. Indeed it was the fan belt. The machine was made in 1977. Hotpoint. My mother bought it when I was at university. Fancy the fan belt only lasting 35 years.
I do hope I can buy another. For the want of a fan belt the tumbly could be lost.
My mission, apparently, should I choose to accept, is to find a fan belt for a 35-year-old tumbly. Any suggestions gratefully accepted.
NB Buy a new tumbly does not qualify, and I’ve worked out to look at the Hotpoint website. Otherwise, fire away.
At least the fan belt problem inspired us to finally get rid of the cabinet as part of our spring clean, so little by little the flat is looking slightly tidier.
Pokito a poko (little by little) by Chambao, another Andalucían band, this time from Málaga. Described as a fusion of flamenco and electronic music, I would have called it a mix myself but one has to keep up with crappy jargon so fusion it is. Another of my favourite Spanish bands.
Chambao, by the way, is one of those ubiquitous Mediterranean beach huts, but the word means more than the hut, it captures the whole atmosphere too.
roughseasinthemed 
Love the music again :-))))
Tumble dryers :-) We bought our Creda in 1978, it’s had one belt replacement in that time, though to be fair, it’s probably worked a lot harder in the UK than the sunny climes of Gib ;-)
Our Service spin dryer is even older and still going strong :-)
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I have this CD, I adore Chambao. There are some live vids of them on youtube where LaMara or whatever she is called sings and does flamenco, she does a bit on the one I posted, but the live stuff is better.
Pleased to hear someone else has an old one ;) I may make a separate post about how I dispute that replacing something that functions perfectly well and needs a simple repair is overall less energy efficient than the whole cost of buying new. People are sheep.
It worked hard at my mothers. We change Pippa’s sofa throws daily. The back was rather full of dog fur, I am looking at buying a new filter as well as a belt. drive belt I have discovered incidentally. It’s a bit like a Series III really, over engineered, made in the UK, and a shedload of parts floating around if you can track them down – oh, and easy to repair. Now why would anyone want to manufacture something that lasts for ever?
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Ach, not the dryer…Oh I do hope you can find the proper fan belt.. I’m with you, if something works fins except for a small part, why toss and buy new Wasteful..
(love your new header picture..love, love it :-)
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Found the parts, I think. Let’s see what happens.
header pic – I am using the wp featured pic thing. A few of the last few piccies have it. This one did work really well :) Thanks.
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I have to admit my tumble dryer is quite new, bought in 1992 !!
So many things have drive belts these days. If you have the time you might be able to find another make of tumbly, hoover, lawn mower or even a small car that uses a belt of the same size, which might be easier to get hold of than the hotpoint spare. Good luck with that.
Blu
Failing that, haven’t ladies stockings tied tightly been used as an interim repair for car fan belts in the past…
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Gosh! rather bling for you!!
We’ve never bought a tumbly, only ever had them passed on. Great ideas, my first thought was a small car, but usually too big. Lawn mower was a great idea.
Truth is, a quick google of the model and spare parts came up!! Complete with a forum comment about how ancient these machines were. Like, who cares?
I thought about stockings too, but in the inside of a rather hot tumbly? Maybe not.
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Did you use to watch that American TV show called McGuiver? He could mend everything using practically anything, to mend your tumble dryer he would probaly use an elastic band or a durex. Might be worth trying to get the boxed set and looking through all the episodes for some ideas and inspiration!
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Never heard of it!!
We would need an elastic band or durex with teeth ;)
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:D Reminds me of the film with Pierce Brosnan and some woman who has no knickers while he is defusing the bomb under her car, or something like that!!
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Well, the reason that they don’t is after exhaustive research it has been discovered that if they make machinery and its component part out of noodles they are cheaper to make but can still be sold at full price enabling huge profit margins for the fat cats. But you knew that anyway.
It’s amazing what Google can find, my 1960’s mopeds have lots of new bits all sourced from “T’internet”. Glad you found the belt, my only suggestion would have been a stocking but I see I was beaten to it.
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I was worried there. I thought you were going to say extensive research had proved it was more environmentally sound to continually manufacture component parts in the cheapest possible countries, with slave labour and polluting the local environment, not to mention the cost of sourcing the original materials etc etc etc rather than continuing to maintain a 35-year-old machine. And of course if Land Rover hadn’t branched out, especially to monocoque chassis(what’s the plural of chassis?) they would have gone out of business with the likes of us happily keeping a Series on the road.
And on the same theme and related to stockings – everyone knows they can make ladderproof stockings, and why don’t they? Although if the hosiery industry relied on my trade it would have been extinct years ago.
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Not a clue what the plural of Chassis is, not entirely sure I know what monocoque is, I thought the chassis on a landy was just socking great bits of metal. Monocoque sounds a bit French and, well, girly! (Sounds of dull thuds of chastisement from The One for using such an expression thereby avoiding a virtual beating).
I do feel a bot sorry for hosier’s, but never mind they also make socks and the ones we but now seem to last about a week so they will be kept in the style to
which I would like to become accustomed. ;)
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Monocoque-single shell chassis, ie integral. Freelander = monocoque ;)
French and girly if that’s how you want to describe Freelander (or former) Freelander owners :)
Yeah, socks don’t last long. I try to avoid buying those too. One of the advantages of warmer climes.
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Been warm here but today cold and wet, where’s me wooly socks?
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Been not so cold and damp here but should be sunny now for a while. Wearing woolly socks though of ancient origin, at least 20 years old I think….. Don’t know why I can’t seem to find the same sort any more.
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My Army greens have just been jettisoned, now onto motorcycle thermal socks, actually quite new but I had to replace army greens!!!!
Chilly here with a touch of rain in the air, back from a walk, log fire going. ;)
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“Pokito a poko”! We hear that phrase around here. (nice music)
I’m not staying on this post long – afraid my dryer might get ideas…it’s a little “odd” right now, but not exactly sure what is going on! Hope you get an easy solution
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There’s quite a lot of Spanish around your neck of the woods though isn’t there? I guess it must be a bit of that old Mexican historical influence. A bit like here in Gib when it used to be Spanish.
Yes, the internet is oddly contagious. Cosset your tumbly and speak nicely to it.
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oooh – love that sound! thanks for sharing this great video!
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forgot to say – i enjoyed the title of this post, too. reminds me of my favourite musical term, most of which are italian – poco a poco (little by little). i can still remember my music theory teacher encouraging me when it came to remembering those terms – that i should definitely make it a point to memorize this one simply because of how delightful it sounds. and i never did forget it :)
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Technically in Spanish it is also poco a poco, pokito is the diminutive. I remember quite a lot of musical terms too, but I’m not sure I remember that one or maybe it has just got subsumed into my español.
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