Three years ago I bought @juliette an electric kettle for her birthday (because romance is not dead).
Looking for a stainless tank, hidden heating element, and temperature settings, I found the Krups KE07. Bit expensive, but it'll last decades. Right? Button 1 broke after a year. Button 2 today..
Thread in three parts
1. How it broke
2. Why I think you should not buy a Krups / Tefal appliance
3. How to fix it with a 3D printed part
1/x
I'll start by saying this entire situation is pissing me off to a great extent.
When you make an effort to buy something rocking the "made to last" vibe you kinda expect basic functionality like buttons use the 100 years old technology of functional button design.
Like, humanity has actually mastered the skill of "affordable clicky button in consumer electronics device which only has to last a couple 100.000 times".
Unfortunately in this device they decided to go with a shit solution.
2/x
The odd thing is that it doesn't appear to be a cheap solution. It's more like a design or aesthetics choice that caused this.
So what's wrong then?
Well. The buttons are broken. Or more accurately: the buttons on the little circuit board (installed with stainless screws etc) are fine. So is the rubber protection cover. And so is the outer cover your fingers touch.
What failed is an shitty moulded part with an integrated "spring". This connects the outer cover with the actual button.
3/x
As stated before: the first button (the 100C one) crapped out soon after we got it. Only when button two crapped out this morning did I take the device apart.
While I was happy with most of it, this part boggled me. It's so different from the otherwise well designed and repairable design.
It's clear why it breaks though: every time pressure isn't right along the connectors path the moulded part deforms a little. Eventually it fails.
Looking on the internet it seems I am not the only one.
4/x
...and as it's both such a deviation from the rest of the device and an apparently common problem, I wonder if this is planned obsolescence. If not it's a weird choice for a premium device because in this situation most people will find no other option than to discard the device.
We're now reaching part two of this thread:
Why I think you should not buy a Krups / Tefal appliance.
5/x
As this device is clearly designed with repairability in mind I figured I'd suck it up and buy a new button. With shipping included probably a third the price of a new one, but still fair for a working kettle.
Turns out that while Krups / Tefal promotes repairability of their devices that is actually not true in practice.
And for this kettle it's an actual lie. Because they don't repair it themselves, nor do they sell parts.
They actually offered an entire new kettle as a "spare part"
6/x
So I will never buy a Krups or Tefal (Groupe SEB) branded appliance again.
Not because the devices are shit (some are probably really good and don't have weird button issues) but because the company is not good.
In 2025 I should be able to buy a replacement part for one that commonly breaks in a current premium model sold by a mass market manufacturer.
7/x
Anyway. I'm currently drinking tea from water boiled in this kettle, so clearly it's fixed again.
Part three: how to fix this with a 3d printed part.
One reason I'm so pissed off at this is that on opening the button enclose I instantly wondered if it had been designed for a larger moulded part. I suspect it was.
So I created (in #freeCAD) the part I think should've been there all along instead of the stupid plastic connectors.
8/x
And here's a video of it working. Nothing spectacular.
It took me a bit over an hour to fix it. That includes the 3D design (I'm no star at this) and two prints.
So it was a simple fix. And I enjoy this & have the tools. Most people do not.
It must be that a large percentage of the many thousands Krups KE07 kettles sold will be discarded as waste due to this preventable issue.
Something #Europe should work on.
update: .STL file is now on the #Fediverse @ https://3dprint.social/models/4v0689twdw67
9/x
Oh. And if you were wondering why the 3D printed part had some colour..
IT'S A TINY STARSHIP ENTERPRISE!
Printing it I could not but notice the similarity to the #LEGO Enterprise standing in the room... With some (very) quick colouring we now have a very appropriate component hidden in our "Tea, Earl Grey, Hot." machine.
Engage!
10/10
@Pepijn
Nice fix!
When I run into something like this, my first step is usually to see if someone else already done the work, and often they did! So I would recommend uploading the .stl file to something like Thingiverse, with the right keywords, so you can help others perform the same fix 😃
@Pepijn @M4x
Oh, I fully agree with you on that.
There are other platforms (I remember a federated, activityPub supporting, alternative is being worked on?) but if you want to reach the handful of people in the ven diagram of (has the same issue with that model of kettle) + (has access to a 3D printer) + (has the mindset and motivation to fix it) + (looks online for a .stl file), adding another circle by only posting the .stl on an unknown but ethical platform might decrease your reach to 0.
@Pepijn I shall record this thread for probable future reference.
I wonder if there have been a design change to the buttons "under the hood" on the kettle. We have had this Tefal one since May 2021, it is used at least once every day, often several times. Still seems to be going strong. (I have probably cursed it now.)
Great thread - thanks for posting it. And the model offer! If you're comfortable putting it on one of the public sites or in a public repo somewhere, that might make it findable in a web search.
Once upon a time, this kind of design issue - and it definitely looks like a beancounter decided to save a few pennies after the engineers had already designed something closer to what you made - would have resulted in a recall and replacement campaign. Companies would have been *embarrassed* by this sort of quality problem. No more.
I run into this kind of thing and it pisses me off, too.
Pepijn
Marco van Burgsteden 🍋
Brad Rosenheim
M4x
Peter Brown
I AM BANKSY ☕ / 🗑🔥
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Maurice
Yvan
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C.