Stopped by an old shop in Elgin last week and noticed something funny

I was picking up a dryer motor at a repair shop that's been around since the 70s. The guy working there had a wall of old schematic books for washers and dryers from the 80s and 90s. Made me think how we just pull up a YouTube video or a PDF now, no more flipping through those thick binders. He said they used to have whole binders just for one brand's wiring diagrams. Do you guys ever miss the old paper manuals, or is it just me being nostalgic?

2 comments

2 Comments

emma_perry1d ago

Ditch the YouTube videos and keep those old manuals if you can. I've been burned more than once by a video that skips a crucial step or just shows the easy part. Those old binders have the exact factory diagrams, not someone's edited version. Grab them before the shop throws them out, you'll thank yourself later when the internet is down or the specific model info is buried. Your mileage may vary, but for me, paper manuals are still the most reliable source for proper troubleshooting.

cooper.taylor1d agoMost Upvoted

Yeah but here's the thing, even those paper manuals can be missing stuff sometimes. I've got a stack of binders in my garage from three different shops that went under, and half of them are faded to the point where you can't read the wiring colors anymore. And don't get me started on the ones that got coffee spilled on them or pages torn out by some guy who needed a shim. I still grab them when I can because the diagrams are usually way more detailed than what you find online, but they're not perfect either. The real trick is to take photos of each page with your phone before you even leave the shop, then you've got both a digital backup and the original paper. That way if the internet goes down you've still got the PDF on your phone, and if your phone dies you've got the binder.