Replies

1. 
   Elisabeth | Mar 31, 2005 03:38pm | #1

   Depends on what happened to it. It is amazing what can be brought back from the apparently dead for a brand new perfect life. What kind of biting of the dust did your Pfaff do?

1. 
   pamackenzie | Mar 31, 2005 11:26pm | #2

   Last Saturday, I sewed with it fine. Sunday morning I turned it on and the light would come on but the panel stayed dark. It had not been unplugged during this time. Today, I took it to my Pfaff dealer, and the panel lit up when the tech plugged it in. I have no explaination for this other than perhaps some connection is dirty or loose, I am thrilled that it came on. I am having a complete service done on it now.

   I was told when I bought it new that if it was unplugged for a long time, it my loose power and have to be reprogrammed which would cost a lot of money. I don't know if this is true, but have been very careful not to leave it unplugged for very long.

1. 
   Marion6422 | Apr 01, 2005 09:32pm | #3

   The Pfaff 1471 is what I've been sewing on for about 20 years. I was all set to get a new one several years ago when it started skipping stitches when sewing on fleece.  But I took it in to the dealer and had it cleaned and the timing adjusted and that did the trick.  Since then I've taken it to the shop and had it returned like new, when the bobbin winder flew apart, another time when it was skipping stitches, and most recently when it it wouldn't always run when I stepped on the foot pedal. This last problem would have been expensive to cure if the motor had had to be replaced, but it just required a repair. Recently a sign come on in the panel that said the battery was low and when I looked in at the batteries, I found the whole area was corroded.  I hadn't looked in there for ages, and thought it was really going to be a serious problem, but I was able to clean it up myself and it worked fine again when I put in new batteries. The instruction book says the batteries are what keeps the memory in the computer when it is turned off and warned to keep it turned on and plugged in while the batteries were out.

   I'm so glad mine keeps on going as I have not found one that I like any better and the prices seem so high.  Good luck with your machine.

1. 
   pamackenzie | Apr 02, 2005 08:58am | #4

   I've had mine for about 20 years as well. I also have looked at what is out there and decided for what I could afford to spend, I couldn't get nearly the machine the Pfaff is. I just assumed by this time that most machines would have dual feed and up and down needle positions and was very surprised to find out that they don't. I am sticking with my Pfaff.

   I have never replaced the batteries, I didn't even know you could do that. It must be time. Do you know where I can find out what kind of batteries and how many I need?

1. 
   Kiley | Apr 03, 2005 11:57am | #5

   I was going to suggest to check the batteries if this is one of the Pfaffs that has batteries. You can lose your motherboard I understand because of batteries needing changing. Not all Pfaffs have batteries. Mine doesn't it is a mechanical. I was concerned about my computerized Janome having them because on another thread somebody said all computerized machines with memory have them but I found that is not so. Somebody also said some machines have a chip instead of a battery. I understand the the Pfaff 7500 models also have batteries..just to alert anyone that does not know this..but most do know after the discussions on line.

2. 
   Marion6422 | Apr 04, 2005 04:15pm | #6

   Do you still have your instruction book?  If so, Changing the Batteries is listed in the Index and that shows how to do it.  If not, the battery compartment is on the bottom of the machine.  You just pry the cover off, pop the two batteries out and replace them with the same kind. I used either AA or AAA, I don't remember which, but they were some I had around already.  The instruction book says use "2 Mignon cells, 1.5 V, type LR 6 Only use non-leaking batteries!" and I didn't have a clue if this is something different than AA type or just a twenty-year-old foreign description of the AA. I had just assumed that the repair shop had been replacing the batteries when I had the machine serviced, but I guess they hadn't. I plan to keep a closer eye on the replacements.  Don't forget to keep the machine plugged in and turned on when you have the batteries out.

3. 
   pamackenzie | Apr 05, 2005 08:42am | #7

   AA or AAA? I can do that. That's great, thanks! I can't imagine them lasting that long though.