Came to the same realization recently when shopping for kitchen appliances. I couldn't find any blender that wasn't breaking or acting dodgy after a few months. These of course don't come up when you search for them as a consumer but there are for sure industrial blenders used at bars and such. I realized that going forward if I don't want ot have to buy a new one every year or so pretty much for anything I'd have to research and go this route. The beaker glasses is a good example because you sometimes have to get creative to find the industrial version of something.
Overkill objects for everyday life
371–380 of 732 posts
Re: Overkill objects for everyday life
#372I love to use professional-grade items where i can, but sometimes "overkill" means a worse product. like the professional-grade fan - it's not just designed for a high duty cycle, it's also probably designed to be operated in an environment where people regularly use hearing protection, so quiet operation is not a consideration.
Dishwashers are another example. You could buy a commercial one but it will come with no roll-out trays (you load up different plastic racks for different things and you can load a rack while the dishwasher is running) and it’s designed for an environment with lots of ventilation (you just open it when it is done and let the steam get ventilated away) which people are unlikely to have in their own kitchens. Other ite…
A commercial dishwasher is like an entirely different appliance. It is designed to be fast. It achieves this by requiring rinsing, being hotter (and staying hot) and more aggressive, and by not having a dry cycle (you just open the door and let the steam out).
Time is important in cleaning, and home dishwashers take advantage of that by running for several hours at low power, it is not like you are going to need these plates immediately after you have finished eating.
About commercial espresso machines, another thing to consider is that these machines usually require plumbing. There are high end home espresso machines that are also built like tanks and will serve you better unless you are planning to pull hundreds of shots a day. Commercial machines have an advantage when it comes to temperature stability because they are so big and heavy but smaller machines are still able to do an impressive job.
Re: Overkill objects for everyday life
#373Earlier quoted context omitted.
Tangentially related: if you do want an amazing electric coffee grinder, feel free to piggy back on my countless hours of research and go with this: Baratza Virtuoso+ It is excellent.
On the other hand: if you drink 1-2 cups of coffee a day, and don't mind putting in some elbow grease — a manual grinder like a Comandante or Kinu often produces much better grinds for the same price, since money can be allocated towards a better burr set instead of a motor. I've had a few friends whose only experience with a manual grinder was a Hario Skerton or its clones, and get turned off manual grinding because…
I was ready to go all-in on manual grinders. But their supply chain completely evaporated in the pandemic, and I could not find one I wanted anywhere. For months. That ended that.
Re: Overkill objects for everyday life
#374Earlier quoted context omitted.
Dishwashers are another example. You could buy a commercial one but it will come with no roll-out trays (you load up different plastic racks for different things and you can load a rack while the dishwasher is running) and it’s designed for an environment with lots of ventilation (you just open it when it is done and let the steam get ventilated away) which people are unlikely to have in their own kitchens. Other ite…
Tangentially related: if you do want an amazing electric coffee grinder, feel free to piggy back on my countless hours of research and go with this: Baratza Virtuoso+ It is excellent.
And if you want an overkill coffee grinder, get a Kafatek Monolith, or a Weber Workshops model.
Re: Overkill objects for everyday life
#375Earlier quoted context omitted.
This is the same for laptops, but most of the people (I assume?) buy Macbooks for programming which is... kinda weird, since it's difficult to repair. Than business laptops like the Z-book, ThinkPad or insert Dell business laptop eg; Latitude 7000 series (Dell XPS isn't a business laptop from my perspective.)
Macs are not generally repairable, but some models are incredibly reliable. I’ve been using a 2012 MBPr that still works great/is pristine, other than losing some rubber feet. Having a user friendly OS with *nix-ish tooling in a high build quality package is (debatably) only available from Apple. I will happily upgrade to an M1 MBP once the next gen is released.
2012 model MBP is the most repairable macbook I owned.
Re: Overkill objects for everyday life
#376Earlier quoted context omitted.
Dishwashers are another example. You could buy a commercial one but it will come with no roll-out trays (you load up different plastic racks for different things and you can load a rack while the dishwasher is running) and it’s designed for an environment with lots of ventilation (you just open it when it is done and let the steam get ventilated away) which people are unlikely to have in their own kitchens. Other ite…
You need to spend at least £600 to get a decent home espresso set up but it will get you something pretty close to good cafe grade coffee. The reason those big £3000+ machines are impractical for the home is not the cleaning or even the warm-up time (as both of those factors are the same for any espresso machine even the home ones) but rather with the fact that the bar grade espresso machines expect to be plumbed int…
You can extend the lifetime of your espresso machine quite a lot by using calibrated water.
Re: Overkill objects for everyday life
#377I will postulate an opposing view to TFA: Quality consumer goods are better in two key areas. First, they are replaceable. I don’t want a military grade mixer in my kitchen if getting a broken whisk or motor on it is going to require me hunting all over eBay for the specific part hoping it’s available. I was very excited at one point about the idea of getting a commercial dishwasher that can run a load of dishes in l…
Moreover, consumer items beyond a price point are both very well made and backed by long term warranties anyway. Paying a bit more for a better item which can be repaired or serviced for a very long time makes it cheaper in the long run in my experience, because you buy it once and for life. I love "overkill items for everyday life" point of view, but it comes with trade-offs for noise, ergonomics, size, replaceabili…
The best consumer goods are generally the ones where the design has persisted unmodified for decades. It works, everyone uses it, nobody's improved on it, serviceability is reasonable relative to the essential complexity, and it hasn't been cost-reduced into garbage. "New model" always comes with the worry: What did they fuck up this time?
Anything "professional", "military", etc. comes with the potential downside of it being someone's job to maintain and service it. Qualitative differences usually come with trade-offs - and if it's not your job, it might not be better to try.
Re: Overkill objects for everyday life
#378When I was a kid I had a winter tanker helmet form soviet army. It was super cool thing and my dad I used to put it on every now and then to have some fun. Now at some point I'm hoping to have enough money to buy that ejector seat- It'd be an ultimate item at home or in a office!
Re: Overkill objects for everyday life
#379This started off as a fun article about "what's the most overkill way I can get this?" and then looking for second-hand fighter jet seats just for the shits and giggles. I like that. But then it goes south from there, the author seems to believe that anything that isn't from the USA military must be crap: > Made in the USA from military grade [...] preferably a military supplier [...] This is the real thing, used by…
Author here. I need to push back on this. This whole post is tongue in cheek, totally over-the-top and my way of doing things. I thought that was obvious including a lofty claim of an average consumer. People seem to be hung up on that. No one is calling you an idiot - and no, I have no romance for US military. Bought plenty of things from Swedish, Canadian and Swiss military and other industries. You’re unnecessaril…
That makes a lot more sense, thanks for commenting!
Re: Overkill objects for everyday life
#380Earlier quoted context omitted.
I find it less stressful when I know that I could easily swap out a broken RAM module and continue to work, than to wait for the repair of my device.
How does RAM break? How often does it fail?
RAM is just an example. In my Thinkpad (T430) I'm able to swap out the CPU, mainboard, keyboard or screen if necessary, like in an ordinary PC. The question is, how likely is it that some component will break. From my experience it's not very unlikely over a lifespan of a few years. I mean sure you can have luck with all your computers and you never have any hardware failures, but I wouldn't count on that.