They don’t make em like they use to do!

Mum had a toaster from her wedding which lasted over 25 years I doubt any toaster would last that long these days.
 
things are designed to fail within a few years on multiple failure points to make sure it happens.

thats the real climate change people should be fighting
 
arknor said:
things are designed to fail within a few years on multiple failure points to make sure it happens.

thats the real climate change people should be fighting
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It's not entirely true is it? Things are designed for a "build-to" life. Think of how many of OPs blenders would have ended up on the scrap heap regardless of whether they were broken or not. The world only functions because of consumers and producers. If things did break so much, people wouldn't buy them. See Rover. You can still get things that'll last but you're paying a premium because you value that. Most folk don't. See Miele.
 
Still have a Hoover Twin Tub here, bought by my Mother sometime in the 70s and still works a treat. Only thing that's been changed is a couple of replacement belts.
 
dLockers said:
It's not entirely true is it? Things are designed for a "build-to" life. Think of how many of OPs blenders would have ended up on the scrap heap regardless of whether they were broken or not. The world only functions because of consumers and producers. If things did break so much, people wouldn't buy them. See Rover. You can still get things that'll last but you're paying a premium because you value that. Most folk don't. See Miele.
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but it is true and the argument against it makes 0 sense.

It's purposely creating waste so someone can profit.....


oh if light bulbs don''t fail who will buy them?
erm the people who break them? the people who move houses? the new cars that get built? the new people who get born?

the people who want newer tech? how many times did you replace your phone for 0 reason other than there's a newer one?

how come the light bulb manufactures are still allowed their monopoly where they find each other if one companies light bulb is deemed to last "too long"


we have a massive wasteful society that benefits a few percent of the worlds population.
they then preach to the other 96% about how they need to save the planet? LOL utter madness
 
arknor said:
but it is true and the argument against it makes 0 sense.

It's purposely creating waste so someone can profit.....


oh if light bulbs don''t fail who will buy them?
erm the people who break them? the people who move houses? the new cars that get built? the new people who get born?

the people who want newer tech? how many times did you replace your phone for 0 reason other than there's a newer one?

how come the light bulb manufactures are still allowed their monopoly where they find each other if one companies light bulb is deemed to last "too long"
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Not sure what you're talking about. My Hue bulbs will last 15-25 years. I will hopefully just be able "think light" and an aura appears from the sky in 15-25 y ears.
 
dLockers said:
Not sure what you're talking about. My Hue bulbs will last 15-25 years. I will hopefully just be able "think light" and an aura appears from the sky in 15-25 y ears.
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they supposedly ended it in 1938 but if you check the stats it never did unofficially they all stuck to the same "rules"

BTW goggle the common failure point of LED lamps ;)

It's a part that in most bulbs gets strangely hot reducing it's lifespan that could easily be fixed
 
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adolf hamster said:
I still think there should be a push to enforce servacability of various domestic items. Things like friges, washing machines etc.

The difference in environmental impact between throwing away a blown circuit board and an entire goddamn appliance is surely worth consideration.
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The problem is that it would require radically changing the entire global economy and political structure and nobody has a plan for how it would work anyway.

If you kept the system as being based on selling goods and being for profit, the price of every non-consumable item would have to increase a huge amount, probably an entire order of magnitude. If a business sells people stuff that lasts on average 1 year, it can sell a person 10 of them in 10 years. If the business sells people stuff that on average lasts 10 years, it can sell a person 1 of them in 10 years. So it has to make 10 times as much profit from each sale in order to make the same profit and most people couldn't afford the cost. They'd need to take out a loan (at a high rate of interest, of course) in order to buy anything. So a basic washing machine would end up costing them maybe £4000 and they'd be paying the loan off for years. And they probably wouldn't be able to get a loan to buy a vacuum cleaner until after that. So the system would probably have to switch to one based on rental, one in which most people owned almost nothing and were spied on by everything so that the businesses could make money from using the data to manipulate people for profit or selling it to other businesses to use it to manipulate people for profit.

The other option would be partial communism, in which the "various domestic items. Things like friges, washing machines etc." you refer to are manufactured on a not-for-profit basis by the state. Partly to keep the cost of the items within reach of most people and partly because the state wouldn't go out of business if it made only as many of those things as were needed and didn't make a profit from them. I'm sceptical about that plan working. It's partial communism and that has a truly terrible track record. Maybe people could make it work. Maybe they'll have to.

Oldest thing i actually use is a 1952 dated tool that as i dont know the name of it i call the "pokamajig" due to it being basically a big spike thats good for poking things.
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For me, it's a microwave oven I bought ~15 years ago. I use it a lot. The bulb inside it died years ago, but the oven continues to work just fine. The outer surface has some patches of surface rust, but that's all. It was very expensive at the time, far more than superficially comparable microwave ovens. But cheaper in terms of cost per unit time of use.
 
dLockers said:
Not sure what you're talking about. My Hue bulbs will last 15-25 years. I will hopefully just be able "think light" and an aura appears from the sky in 15-25 y ears.
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Light bulbs are the best known (or, more accurately, least unknown) example because the manufacturers operated a bona fide cartel and enforced a limited lifespan on light bulbs. It's well documented and openly acknowledged. Although, of course, manufacturers claim that it doesn't happen that way any more. It does. They're just not as blase about it nowadays. So, for example, one manufacturer makes light bulbs specifically for the UAE only. A special contract, very limited in scope. They last at least several times longer than the light bulbs the manufacturer makes for everywhere else.

The bulb I replaced this week in one of my lamps came in a box that stated "25 years" on it. With an asterisk. And tiny print somewhere on the box (or maybe not even on the box but only on a website) that legally established that the stated period of time was completely meaningless. The bulb actually lasted a little over a year. If you think your bulbs will last 25 years, how do you think the manufacturer expects to continue to make a profit from manufacturing light bulbs?
 
Angilion said:
The problem is that it would require radically changing the entire global economy and political structure and nobody has a plan for how it would work anyway.

If you kept the system as being based on selling goods and being for profit, the price of every non-consumable item would have to increase a huge amount, probably an entire order of magnitude. If a business sells people stuff that lasts on average 1 year, it can sell a person 10 of them in 10 years. If the business sells people stuff that on average lasts 10 years, it can sell a person 1 of them in 10 years. So it has to make 10 times as much profit from each sale in order to make the same profit and most people couldn't afford the cost. They'd need to take out a loan (at a high rate of interest, of course) in order to buy anything. So a basic washing machine would end up costing them maybe £4000 and they'd be paying the loan off for years. And they probably wouldn't be able to get a loan to buy a vacuum cleaner until after that. So the system would probably have to switch to one based on rental, one in which most people owned almost nothing and were spied on by everything so that the businesses could make money from using the data to manipulate people for profit or selling it to other businesses to use it to manipulate people for profit.

The other option would be partial communism, in which the "various domestic items. Things like friges, washing machines etc." you refer to are manufactured on a not-for-profit basis by the state. Partly to keep the cost of the items within reach of most people and partly because the state wouldn't go out of business if it made only as many of those things as were needed and didn't make a profit from them. I'm sceptical about that plan working. It's partial communism and that has a truly terrible track record. Maybe people could make it work. Maybe they'll have to.
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it already exists- the car market.

new vehicles are sold either on finance or to folks with money, when those folks want something new/the contract runs out etc then it goes on the secondhand market getting gradually cheaper as it's age, milage and general wear/tear increase all whilst both oem and aftermarket manufacturers are selling spare parts to keep them going, garages are kept in business doing the repair work, and companies sustain themselves trading in exclusively secondhand merchandise.
 
Nothing as old as some of the stuff in here, but we've got an LG Direct Drive washing machine which is going on 11 years old now, was bought as a factory second for £250 because it had a scrape down 1 side. Has survived heavy daily use washing baby & muddy etc. kids clothes without skipping a beat. Also got a ~15 year old LG TV which is still in daily use as our bedroom TV.
 
Feek said:
There's a Kenwood Chef model A701A which was bought in 1962 still in use in our family so that's what, nearly sixty years old?
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They last forever mum is on her second one only and that was only a replacement because she set fire to the kitchen and destroyed the other. She's also got one of those electric knives with the reciprocating blades thats at least 20 years old and both that and the kenwood were bought by me second hand in a car boot sale, seriously.

explicit4u said:
Got an old Sanyo microwave that still works fine, must be pushing 30 years old now but we're hesitant to replace it as the newer ones don't have the space. Mum has an old Kenwood food processor that looks like something out the 80s but still works perfectly fine, it outlasted our magic bullet that was barely 10yo.
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I've got a Matsui microwave that I think was Curries' own brand thats still in daily use must be 30 years old now plastic has discoloured a bit but otherwise its fine
 
Sewing machines are the other ones. Good quality ones last ages. Growing up (late 80s) we had a couple at home that were my mum's and Grandmas and we still have them, and I'm pretty sure still work. Mum used to mental when we would sit on them and pretend they were motorbikes!
 
My dad seems to be the purveyor of all gadgets old. He’s got a selection of Konica digital cameras that I believe were the first on the market. Can’t remember when it was but must have been some time ago. He thinks they still work fine too. I’ve got some Sony separates from the 90s (dual cassette recorder and a CD player) and a first edition apple iPod I think it is.. tiny thing anyway.. or is it a nano?
 
I have loads of old stuff still in service...
My favourite digital watch is from 1986, my bike is from 1992, I have jackets from 1943 and half my woodworking tools are pre-1935.
 
My dad's washing machine (Hotpoint IIRC) bought around '86 is still going and there's still a dude who services it once a year, with I think is now extremely rare with today's modern appliances.
 
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