RADIO REPAIR GUY
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About Our Repair Service

Things to Remember...

About Repair Requests

Many times people request that I just repair their radio with minimizing costs in the process. Older radios and amplifiers can be "just repaired" but they are sure to fail in a relatively short time.

After we have replaced the electrolytics in a radio, and located any current malfunction, the radio now powers up with reinvigorated high voltages. These high voltages are applied within the radio to other components that are sometimes 70+ years of age. This will invariably cause these components to fail and you will have a dead unit and face the expense and trouble of sending the unit back.

Thus, I will "just repair" but I will not return the radio without replacing these other 70+ old components [ usually capacitors] with their associated costs. It is extremely frustrating to our customers to face returning the unit shortly after they get it back. These additional component costs can be trivial or major depending on the radio. This is why we insist on restoration in certain classes of radios. A full restoration is always safer but we can try to weed out high failure probability components during the process of repairing the radio at additional cost. This is not a "restoration" but prudent replacement of those items that represent little time bombs ready to go off.

To reiterate, any radio that is submitted to us for repair, will have ALL items that are prone to possible short term failure , - replaced. That means, we not only fix the initial reason for non-performance, but replace those items, that would likely fail in the short term. This will add to the cost of "repair", but is usually substantially less than shipping charges to send the radio back and return it.

This is also a good place to re-iterate that we do not do cosmetic repair or restorations.

Radio Repair Guy

 

Old Radios - Repair Costs

Greater than 90% of really old radios (1932- 1943) have severe problems that must be rectified for them to work. Why? Two reasons.

ONE - These radios were not "put away" because they were working perfectly. In fact, most old radios including those from 1932-1955 were taken out of service because they stopped working  and the owners did not want to pay good money to repair them because they had this great new device in their living room - a TV. In fact I suspect that ALL radios that were relegated to the attic, garage, etc. were put there because of the introduction of TV.

TWO - there are certain components in these radios that fail absolutely over time. Capacitors, for example, "dry out" and thus fail. Tubes on the other hand do not fail over time. These "aged components" must be replaced for the radio to function reliably. The manufacturing processes of 70 years ago were far inferior to the standards of today. The replacement components that we put in your radio have an almost infinite shelf life.

 

So, between ONE and TWO there generally is no such thing as a "cheap fix" See Typical Repair.

 

RADIOS WHERE NO ESTIMATE OR REPAIR IS POSSIBLE

Shortly after we receive your radio ( or receive well documented requests for estimate) - certain anomalies can make the Radio just plain not fixable for a reasonable amount of money. Those situations are:

PRIOR UNSUCCESSFUL REPAIR WORK

If you have attempted to repair your radio yourself, we really do not want to work on that radio. Besides all the normal repair work required, we also have to divine what you did. Our experience is that you would not like the total charges that are necessary to repair/restore that radio.

BURNED OUT RADIOS

Certain radios, [and we see this most frequently in older console radios that have a power transformer], have malfunctioned in the past where a lot of the wiring and components have been fried. This type of radio requires a massive time consuming ( and expensive) rebuild. You are better off buying another radio identical to that one, and letting us bring that one up to par. Again, Our experience is that you would not like the total charges that are necessary to repair/restore that radio.

MODIFIED RADIOS

For whatever reason, we are seeing more and more radios where the circuits have been altered. This requires an enormous amount of time to determine the circuit modifications. It also is a wasteful guessing game. We see a lot of this on low end amateur equipment.

NO MANUFACTURER/MODEL NUMBER

If you cannot provide the manufacturer or model number of a radio, then successful repair is in doubt. I will accept a radio without a manufacturer or model number for repair, but there will be a $50.00 charge for research that is non-refundable. This is equivalent to calling an auto dealer and saying "I think I have a ford, but I do not know the model or the year - what is the price to repair?". You would not do that because the dealer will tell you that you bring it in at your own risk. Same here. I have to "know" that I can acquire the schematic for a radio before I accept a radio for repair.

NO EMAIL ADDRESS

This has nothing to do with the Radio, but, is absolutely essential (having an email address). I have tried in the past to work on radios that were sent to me after a phone call discussing the radio and its repair. Usually someone has given the radio owner my phone number. If you do not have an email address, or an email address of someone that can get a message to you, then I probably do not want to work on your radio.  In the  process of repair, including questions, authorizations, reporting, and final bill submission - telephone tag makes the process almost unworkable.

PHYSICALLY DAMAGED RADIOS

Old radios that have been physically damaged, sometimes makes repair extraordinarily difficult due to irreplaceable parts, or the extremely high cost of fabrication or trying to use current production parts in a much older radio. Often the damage is not apparent until we are well into the repair process.

COMPLETE DISASTERS - JUNKERS

Some radios have been so abused or neglected that repair simply makes no sense. True, I could bring them back to life, but the cost of doing that far exceeds the cost of acquiring an identical unit on eBay and having me fix that radio. The following two Photographs are of a radio that a customer sent me that was a complete disaster. Do not waste your shipping dollars sending me a radio in this condition.

 

 

SUMMARY

We really want to repair your radio. And, we want to do it for a reasonable price. Just check and see if your radio falls into any of the above categories if you can. If we physically receive your radio and you have prepaid for electrolytic repair and the radio turns out to be hopeless (Not worth fixing), we will tell you so right away. Your prepaid electrolytic repair will be credited against return shipping and any difference refunded. In the event that your radio falls into one of the categories above, you are much better off buying an identical unit that does not have those problems. You can usually find them on Ebay.

 

DIAL STRINGING RADIOS

One of the most difficult parts of radio repair is re-stringing dial cord used to tune the radio. We have actually run into older un-documented radios (1932 or older) where we could not successfully restring the radio. Without dial stringing documentation, some radios are simply impossible to restring.

DIAL CORD RESTRINGING  Any radio or repair that requires restringing the tuning dial cord, costs  at least $45.00 to restring and in some cases $75.00. If you have never tried to do this then you cannot appreciate how frustrating and time consuming it is. If you think the price is too high - be my guest and do it yourself. Restringing can involve multiple hours and delays due to research [ Many radio documentation sets do not have adequate dial string diagrams.]

Radio Repair Guy

 

About Return Shipping Charges

On the final bill for radio repair/restoration I have to charge an estimated packing/shipping charge. Lately, the actual charges have been exceeding my estimate. I really do not know what those charges are going to be until I lug the radio down to the local UPS store.

So going forward, I am going to increase my estimated to reflect higher UPS charges. Immediately after shipment - to the extent that the actual exceeds the estimate charged and tendered to me, I will refund the overage (if any). If the estimate was less than the actual, I will invoice for the difference.

RADIOS OVER 45LBS

The transport of a 45lb+ radio to the UPS store for packing/shipping is sometimes beyond my capability. On those occasions when the radio is physically too difficult for me to transport to UPS, I will put on the final bill a ">45lb transport charge". This can vary from $10.00 to upwards of $38.00 depending on the resources available to me.

 

 

About Drop Offs and Pick Ups

I really enjoy (prefer) working on radios for people local to my workshop. However it seems a lot of people make an appointment to drop off a radio on a particular day, then never show if something more important comes up, leaving me or my wife sitting here waiting for their arrival. With that in mind I require prior approval for anybody to drop off a radio. My preference is for all radios to be shipped to me. Several days of the week are possible for pick-up and drop off.

 

Tuesdays 1 PM - 5PM Drop Off

Thursdays 2PM - 5PM Pick-Up

Radio Repair Guy

 

GERMAN OR EUROPEAN RADIOS

The class of radios represented by Grundig, Telefunken, Saba, etc. are a special case of repair costs and value. These radios, which are generally very large table units, produce incredible sound through multiple speakers, large enclosures and just plain high quality. The components used in them are usually first class and wear well with time. They are, however, subject to failure in some components, dial string failures, etc. Though we have successfully repaired many Grundig, Telefunken, Saba, etc. radios,  they do represent unique challenges in repair such as:

1. DOCUMENTATION

It is sometimes difficult, or impossible, to acquire schematics and documentation on these radios. And if available, the documentation generally costs $15.00 to $25.00. [American radio documentation is basically free on the web except for unusual cases]

2. WEIGHT

They are simply a "bear" to handle in my shop. The radios, set up for repair, have to be outside the cabinet, but in close proximity to the cabinet, to repair.

3. SHIPPING WEIGHTS

The cabinets require (most of the time) a maximum size UPS box for shipping. This leads to very high shipping and packing charges because of dimensional weight and insurance concerns. Most of these radios cost between $135.00 to $170.00 to pack and ship UPS ground. UPS will not ship them in smaller boxes and stand behind the insurance. [See my notes on shipping].

As a result, when we accept one of these radios for repair, because of the issues above, we request an initial payment of $235.00 against possible repairs and return shipping. We have gotten burned too many times by under-estimating the shipping charges and being ignored when we submit a bill for the underpayment on shipping. When the final bill is tallied, the pack/ship will be estimated at $165.00. If the actual is under that amount we will refund the difference.

Radio Repair Guy