Home Insurance

[scooby300]

Hi everybody it’s that time of year again my home insurance (contents insurance) is due for renewal. I was going though my hifi equipment and pricing up everything up for the new insurance quote. Then i came across my power amp which is home made?

My question is i built an lm3875 chip amp a year ago that i use for a power amp(see pic). So do i just add up the cost of all the parts and the total is what’s worth in parts. Or can i go to a hifi shop and get them to give me a quote on the value of the amp.

I would be gutted if some came along robbed all my hifi gear

The case on its own cost me £100 plus the case which you can’t buy anymore for RS. The cost of the Black Gate caps £80 and there’s the kit £60 with p&p plus transformer £35 total £275.
For £275 i think this is a killer amp. Well better than my Cyrus 7 (£700) and Psx (£350) combo that’s why i sold the Cyrus amp & psx.

So if these diy hifi components beat comercal hifi at four times the price amount. And their is the time it took to make theses hifi components.
Then there other stuff that i have made a valve phono stage and a few op-amp phono stages too. All with separate cases for their power supply’s.

So if any one could point me in the right direction on how to get these hifi components valued. I live in the uk so it must comply with uk insurance laws

[pinkmouse]

Unless you can get a written independent commercial valuation of your diy projects, you will be lucky to get back the price of the components, (if that).

[salesmonster]

First off: I have no answer for you regarding UK insurance.

But I want to caution anyone who comes across this thread, whenever possible, go for REPLACEMENT values for insurance! I have had 2 HUGE losses in the last ten years...both of which were move related and beyond my control. With odds like that, I should have hit the lottery by now. Thankfully the moving companies both stepped up and took care of our family.

We are still recovering from the last incident, where a truck's wheel bearing caught fire during a corporate move. I can't state this enough, but real people do have HUGE losses...please insure for all circumstances.

BTW: I have nothing to do with the insurance industry.

I was lucky in that I was able to recover the replacement costs for my gear, but none of it was DIY. I had lurked here on this board for a while, but that was the kick in the pants I needed to break out my soldering iron.

Don't let some clerk decide that something precious to you could be functionally replaced with a cheap shelf system from the local discount store. FULL REPLACEMENT VALUE!

[Geek]

Hi,

If the UK is like the rest of the Commonwealth, the best coverage with great bang for the buck seems to be through Credit Unions, rather then direct from insurance companies.

Cheers!

[scooby300]

Hi Pinkmouse
do you know of any places that i could get written independent commercial valuation.

[scooby300]

Hi Salesmonster

I still need a way of getting my goods valued.

[scooby300]

Hi Geek
Never hear of a credit union i will have to look into it a bit more

[salesmonster]

Agreed, and with DIY I think the absolute best we can hope for is to keep meticulous records of the parts and labor in our creations. In reality, at least with the insurance industry here in the US, I would guess that the best I would receive as settlement would be for the component cost minus the labor. I think that is just part of the hobby.

Sorry, no real answer here.

[richie00boy]

I think all you can hope for is the cost of components and parts to build another one. It's a matter of opinion that homemade amp "x" will beat commercial amps costing "y".