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Original poster

What's the broken thing in your house that everyone just puts up with?

624 replies

Yebbie · 10/01/2022 19:07

I'll start. We have a three legged Henry Hoover, and any time anyone hoovers you hear lots of banging and "fuck offs" as it falls over every 3 seconds. It's been like it for five years and rather than replacing it we all have just grown to accept our disabled Henry.

What's that broken thing in your house that everyone just accepts and lives with, despite how annoying it may be? I feel every family must have one Grin

OP posts:
AllKindsOfWrong · 11/01/2022 22:51

The radiator in the spare bedroom refuses to work, so it's freezing in there. We tell ourselves that no one sleeps in there so it doesn't matter.
The bath panel refuses to stay on at one end, so it's wedged in place with a shelving unit.
The ' cupboard door ' on the front of the integrated dishwasher fell off and refuses to stay on, so is held on with a cargo strap.
The door handle on the lounge door doesn't work, so if you want the door to stay shut, you have to use a door wedge on it, but you can only do this from the lounge side.
A drawer front on the freezer drawers has come off and has been living down the side of the freezer for years.
My dressing table developed wobbly leg syndrome and is being kept stable with an Avon catalogue.
The kitchen roller blind has been firmly stuck on half up forever.

fetchacloth · 11/01/2022 22:59

I've managed without mine for 16 years. I don't really miss it tbhSmile

Glorieta · 11/01/2022 22:59

@dephlogisticated

We have to use pliers to turn our oven on. I've stopped noticing it, it's just a thing we do.
Just remembered that I broke the knob off the slow cooker so used to keep a pair of pliers in the kitchen drawer to turn it on and off. The letters had also worn off so I never knew if it was on high or low which made mealtimes a gamble.

My mum ruined our dinnertime fun by buying us a new slow cooker for Christmas - spoilsport!

fetchacloth · 11/01/2022 23:00

*dishwasher!
About time I went to bed I think 🤔

ladygindiva · 11/01/2022 23:00

Bedroom door doesn't shut and swings slowly open unless a slipper wedge is used
Bathroom light doesn't work, after dark bathroom activity means door has to be open and landing lights the room
Both of these situations have been going on for many years

Ellieboolou33 · 11/01/2022 23:16

Great thread! Makes me feel soooooo much better!

I'm married to a plumber / heating engineer and still have a dripping kitchen tap and THE most old fashioned over bath shower hose ever, it's one affixed to the taps - highly embarrassing, he says it's on to do list, but we've been in our house 2x ears now and it's still the same

BobbieT1999 · 11/01/2022 23:53

My main upstairs light blew months ago. Not just the bulb. Still not fixed.

I just use a lamp instead.

jamandmarmaladethesecondcoming · 12/01/2022 00:58

remembered some more....:

vent fan in the main bathroom is about to fall off

bathroom radiator is rusted as is the bath panel.

Tumble dryer dries everything to a crisp but it makes a convincing ornament

Tall freezer drawer flap at the very top has broen. Ordered a replacement part from espares which doesn't fit. It lives on the cabinets in the kitchen now.

Gas hob - ignition on gas hob hasn't worked for years so you take your life (and your eyebrows) in your hand when using a gas gun.
So,......that's nice and safe...

Oven - the fan in the fan oven hasn't worked for years. It goes round, it makes a convincing noise but but doesn't cook. The door hingeon it had to be replaced. The thermostat/heating element is faulty so it takes 20mins to get to temperature. But apart from that it's fine.

The front door key - only works from inside but not from outside

The kettle lid flies open when boiling so doesn't auto switch off.

The metal bedstead bolt at the head end has fallen out

jamandmarmaladethesecondcoming · 12/01/2022 01:01

@Donut22

Flooring SadSad I pulled mine and my sons up in our bedrooms planned to get more, but something comes up all the time and wipes by floor fund out, literally hate it so much but unless win the lotto won't be happening anytime soon Sad
@Donut22 i know how you feel. The minute you get one thing saved up for something else happens and takes priority. Then before you know it's someone's birthday or Christmas or the car needs tax and MOT/service......
CelestiaNoctis · 12/01/2022 01:02

The bathroom door doesn't close properly lol. It's been painted over so many times it's too thick and needs a good shove to close but even then springs open sometimes so needs to be firmly locked to hold it in place.

jamandmarmaladethesecondcoming · 12/01/2022 01:05

pps - oh and the living room door handle was shabbily installed by a builders labourer and never closed right. main bedrooom door handle been broken over a year.

That's it... i have run out of house repairs (fingers crossed).... be quicker to list what works.

I am jealous - a family friend has the same cooker still fully working since 1967.........Grin

tomorrowalready · 12/01/2022 03:34

Surprised to find so many loose toilet seats here, thought it was just me. The lid on mine hasn't stayed on for over 2 years, the fixing pins fell ot all the time, once into the toilet (after flushing) so have given up now and lift it off and on every time I use it. But I always do put it ondue to reading about fecal spray. My brother kindly fixed a loose drawer in bedroom chest 4 years ago, I mentioned the one above was going also, left him to it with the gorilla glue, only realised they were now too tight and have not been able to slide the drawers back ever since. so I have 2 large pine drawers lying about the bedroom.

Harmonypuss · 12/01/2022 03:54

I almost forgot, the boiler plays up, the heating works OK but if I want hot water, forget it. Fortunately I have 2 showers in my wet room, one runs off the boiler the other is electric, so I just use the electric one, the water pressure is a bit crap in comparison to the other one but at least it supplies hot water

Jabbawasarollingstone · 12/01/2022 04:59

Leaky shower.

Washing machine drawer doesn't work properly so we've switched to Bold. Grin

Mudday · 12/01/2022 05:26

Our dyson hoover is stuck on a mega (dangerously not normal) powerful suction setting, so moving it takes your whole body weight. It sucked up some of the carpet grips in the front room and lifted up part of the carpet in the process like it was tissue paper. We've been using a dustpan and brush as a'temporary' solution. Still haven't replaced the monster and use it when desperate and strong enough.

PhilCornwall1 · 12/01/2022 05:48

Nothing now, but up to October last year, it was a dodgy handle on the bathroom door and on my eldests bedroom door. There is a pattern there, the amount of times he was in and out of the bathroom, I'm surprised he didn't plough the landing floor.

It came to a head when I needed a pee and couldn't get the bathroom door open. I was going to boot it, but didn't want to break it (and was worried I'd pee myself side kicking the door). I never knew I could use a screwdriver so quickly to get a handle off.

All doors upstairs now have lovely new handles with funky magnetic latches.

dragonflygirl1 · 12/01/2022 06:11

I have just been reminded - the latch inside our bathroom door handle mechanism broke and so we just removed that. The handles are still there and we just hold the door shut by locking it when we are in there. Forgot that was actually a broken thing!

janj2301 · 12/01/2022 06:41

Re no lights in bathroom, I have an outside garden light with a movement sensor on my window sill, comes on when I go in room, have to wave arms around whilst on loo as it goes off after we second.

meteoric · 12/01/2022 07:20

God, so much! This thread is a bit reassuring. Sadly DH is the least handy person in the universe and I try but often break things more.

Washing machine and toilet seat are both on their last legs, it's only a matter of time.

Milk shelf in the fridge broke last week, moved one of the higher shelves down instead.

Temperature knob on bedroom radiator broke over Christmas, just turned it off for now.

Took a door handle off to fix it about three years ago and it's still broken - we just wedge the door slightly instead of closing fully.

Most worryingly, five of our spotlight kitchen lights (as well as our main second bedroom light) haven't haven't worked for years.

Presumably the electrics are fucked, but even in pre-covid times we struggled to find an electrician who would actually turn up, and now we have the added worry of being CEV and not wanting random people in the flat for hours on end.

Cheeseycheeseycheesecheese · 12/01/2022 07:26

Downstairs toilet light. Blew back in October and neither dh or I can be arsed to change it (go and buy a replacement)

Ddot · 12/01/2022 07:27

Midday
My Dyson had exactly the same issue, I took it for repair. The engineer laughed till he tried it, almost lost his rug. I went away with a loan one, till he sorted out the problem. I still have it ten years later. Not sure if the vacuum consumed the poor man.

Kteeb1 · 12/01/2022 07:34

I forgot one! The toilet cistern leaks through a screw. DH says he doesn't want to get a plumber as it's an easy fix and he can do it but if course he hasn't. So we have a coffee cup with bees on it underneath to catch the water. Daily conversations in our house are 'have you emptied the bee mug yet? 'DONT HAVE A WEE UNTIL YOU'VE EMPTIED THE BEE MUG!'.

circular · 12/01/2022 07:35

20+ year old Neff gas hob, ignition on wok burner not worked for 5 years, so needs lighting manually and the burner itself disintegrating. Can’t work out if the parts they sell now would fit. Would love to replace with halogen, but DH prefers gas, so it gets left as I refuse to splash out on a new gas one.

RhubarbFairy · 12/01/2022 07:37

So many to add. Like PP, this post makes me feel much better.

I'm in an Edwardian terrace so things regularly fall apart.

Hole in living room wall. Had a new front door fitted. Fitter came to find me to tell me that a chunk of plaster had fallen out of the wall when he was drilling. Not on the side he was drilling, but the other side, right above our sofa. Facetimed DH to show him and he suggested we get a bigger picture. We've recently had a loft conversion and our plasterer filled it as it drove him mad, so now we have a white circle. We will redecorate that room but it's far down the list.

Bathroom wall is bare. Previous owners wallpapered the wall next to the toilet. I have boys who used to (and sometimes still) have crap aim. The stink was awful so one day I ripped all the wallpaper off. That was about 3 years ago. We're ripping the bathroom out to extend the kitchen soon so no point sorting it.

Sliding toilet seat.

WhosThatBehindTheFlask · 12/01/2022 07:40

The dishwasher. You can no longer changed cycle type from 'eco' - so that's all we use now Grin