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Overkill objects for everyday life

neil.computer

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Re: Overkill objects for everyday life

#591

Post by henrikschroder »

imgabe wrote: post #412
carlmr wrote: post #239

Earlier quoted context omitted.

TIL I should read the all in one tab packaging and probably buy salt.

TIL dishwashers have a compartment you're supposed to add salt to? Is this the rinse-aid thing?

Not all dishwashers have it. I found that most dishwashers in the US don't have it, so you have to work to find one that does.

If they do, it's usually a compartment at the bottom of the thing with a sealed screw-cap.

Oh, and don't bother buying "dishwasher salt", just buy medium-grain table salt, it's 10x cheaper.

Re: Overkill objects for everyday life

#592

Post by bayindirh »

akiselev wrote: post #546
ReptileMan wrote: post #527

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I mean I love Victorinoxes, but 35 euro kitchen knife is far from high end. Although theirs and Morakniv Frost have surprisingly good steel and HT for the price and they can get sharp - they are the cheapest real knives in the kitchen (kiwi and some chinesse cleavers excluded), not high end stuff.

Thank you, I was confused by that. If a $40 Victorinox is high end, what does that make stuff like Wusthof, let alone Takeda?

In some product categories, I've found out that price increase doesn't increase the quality proportionally all the time. Similarly, there are some companies which produce items for a substantially lower price, but their items punch way above their weight.

HiFi gear is one of them. My CD player (from Yamaha) and speakers (from Heco) were cheaper when compared to other brands, but they're at least equal with their qualities, and they proved themselves over the years.

Similarly, if I can get 90% quality of a Wusthof by getting a Victorinox Grand Maitre, I'm OK with that.

I've also found out that technology has improved dramatically in certain categories. I've bought an entry level Sony BT headphones (Sony WH-CH510), and the sound quality for that price is unbeatable. I have much better headphones, but for something which I can grab and go, it's unbelievable. I had to pay thrice the price for that sound quality 10 years ago.

Re: Overkill objects for everyday life

#593

Post by airhead969 »

Wistar wrote: post #576
bartread wrote: post #360

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think one needs to be a bit selective here. About 8 years ago I bought the cheapest catering/professional microwave/combioven I could get my hands on. I did this because I got tired of consumer units with overcomplicated UIs designed (apparently) by unregenerate misanthropes, rotating dishes that are a pain in the ass to clean, overzealous bleeps that go off every 30 - 60 seconds after a cycle is finished, peeling…

After suffering through the APC and TrippLite crap, I bought a Falcon SSG1.5K UPS a few years ago for my animation workstation and network stuff. It has been fantastic. It does have a fan but it isn't noticeably loud. https://westwardsales.com/falcon-ssg1.5k-ups I bought it because the late writer Jerry Pournelle told me to. https://www.falconups.com/byte6417-final.pdf https://www.falconups.com/2008Chaos%20Manor%20Aw…

This sounds like a testimonial ad for Herbalife.

$50 consumer-grade products are almost always "crap," but you're making a sweeping generalization across dozens of product lines in 2 brands without offering any evidence or proof that you used appropriate products for the task. Fans on most UPSes only kick-in when their inverters run during an outage or a test for cooling.

I happen to have an SMX1500RM2UNC with humidity and dual temperature logging. It's floor or rack mountable, uses commodity batteries in a repairable pack, expandable, remotely manageable, logs details, works like a champ with under-voltage and other edge-case transfer conditions.

A writer is extremely unlikely to be an expert on backup power supplies anymore that I am an expert on coronary cannulas. Appeal to authority or an anecdotal testimonial is flimsy support, at best.

Sorry for your loss, but you might be wandering into the weeds on this one.

Re: Overkill objects for everyday life

#594

Post by Grustaf »

kube-system wrote: post #492
Grustaf wrote: post #292

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> “Engineered to fail” and “planned obsolescence” are both pejorative rephrasings of “consumers prioritize price” Yes, and prioritizing price is short term and stupid. Prioritize total cost instead and buy high quality items, it's much cheaper in the long run. Also, high standard of living is not about having your kitchen "full of appliances", it's about health, education and security.

Value engineering is not a idea known only to kitchen appliances engineers. This was just the example at hand. Many of the products and services that people buy to support their health, education, security, etc have been made more accessible by value engineering either directly, or in their supply chain.

Sure, but when is having lots of cheap stuff related to standard of living? I still maintain that access to healthy food, good education, healthcare and security are what determines standard of living, not the amount of stuff you have.

Re: Overkill objects for everyday life

#595

Post by culturestate »

akiselev wrote: post #542
culturestate wrote: post #477

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The cheapest microwaves you can get have two dials, one for temp, one for time. Why not buy one of those?? I imagine two reasons: first, the market seems to have decided that simple microwaves must be small microwaves. If you want to heat anything larger than a bowl of soup you’re gonna forfeit the dials. Second, most of the time the dials also suck. Want to heat something for 2 minutes 30 seconds? Good luck with t…

I didn't think of looking at commercial microwaves so I ended up getting the Breville Smooth Wave [1] with its power and time dials. It's ridiculous that the only consumer microwave I could find locally with dials instead of touch controls was also the most expensive one with the exception of the ultra-sleek high end cabinet mounted units. It's 1.2 cu ft which is on the bigger end and much quieter than the microwaves…

I was thinking about the cheap microwaves that use a mechanical countdown dial (like a kitchen timer) rather than just dials as a digital control surface.

Re: Overkill objects for everyday life

#596

Post by Grustaf »

monkpit wrote: post #455
Grustaf wrote: post #272

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't know about the US army, but in Sweden military grade means "extremely basic, works forever and can be operated by an idiot".

All signs of excellent design, I would say.

Yes I agree, that’s why I love military stuff.

Re: Overkill objects for everyday life

#597

Post by airhead969 »

porphyra wrote: post #570
bartread wrote: post #360

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think one needs to be a bit selective here. About 8 years ago I bought the cheapest catering/professional microwave/combioven I could get my hands on. I did this because I got tired of consumer units with overcomplicated UIs designed (apparently) by unregenerate misanthropes, rotating dishes that are a pain in the ass to clean, overzealous bleeps that go off every 30 - 60 seconds after a cycle is finished, peeling…

Noise is really a big thing. Apparently commercial fridges are ridiculously loud too.

WHAT?!

Hell, yeah, they are. They're rarely designed for aesthetics. "Do one thing, do it well, and lowest TCO."

Re: Overkill objects for everyday life

#598

Post by mavhc »

airhead969 wrote: post #593
Wistar wrote: post #576

Earlier quoted context omitted.

After suffering through the APC and TrippLite crap, I bought a Falcon SSG1.5K UPS a few years ago for my animation workstation and network stuff. It has been fantastic. It does have a fan but it isn't noticeably loud. https://westwardsales.com/falcon-ssg1.5k-ups I bought it because the late writer Jerry Pournelle told me to. https://www.falconups.com/byte6417-final.pdf https://www.falconups.com/2008Chaos%20Manor%20Aw…

This sounds like a testimonial ad for Herbalife. $50 consumer-grade products are almost always "crap," but you're making a sweeping generalization across dozens of product lines in 2 brands without offering any evidence or proof that you used appropriate products for the task. Fans on most UPSes only kick-in when their inverters run during an outage or a test for cooling. I happen to have an SMX1500RM2UNC with humidi…

I have 3 smx3000rmhv2unc's and 2 of them give an error "battery bus soft start fault", according to the expert:

"I suspect that the metering of the capacitor voltage is slightly wrong on this model of UPS. We've seen this error a few times and the units have performed fine both before and after. Its to do with checking the voltage rise on the cap on power on / battery supply. I think it meters out of tolerance and throws the fault when perhaps either the centerpoint is skewed or the tolerance is too fine."

Re: Overkill objects for everyday life

#599

Post by mavhc »

aaron5 wrote: post #467
bartread wrote: post #360

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think one needs to be a bit selective here. About 8 years ago I bought the cheapest catering/professional microwave/combioven I could get my hands on. I did this because I got tired of consumer units with overcomplicated UIs designed (apparently) by unregenerate misanthropes, rotating dishes that are a pain in the ass to clean, overzealous bleeps that go off every 30 - 60 seconds after a cycle is finished, peeling…

'designed (apparently) by unregenerate misanthropes' haha! I try to keep myself to one complaint or less per day, and ten cuss-words or less per day. The days I break my cuss-word quota are the days I use the microwave.

I made sure to buy one with 3 memories and a 10 key pad, it's been fine

Re: Overkill objects for everyday life

#600

Post by airhead969 »

In one job, I used to support just about every size of networkable color and b&w printer from 2 manufacturers. In the cost analysis to operate these things, it became clear: the larger and more expensive printers were not just faster, more reliable, and easier to repair, their supplies were cheaper per page. Their acquisition costs were higher.

For anyone needing to churn out flat dead trees more than once a week: I recommend getting a used flagship color laser printer with a low page count and in good condition instead of an inkjet printer. No more running ink, no more calibration pages, no more dried-out ink cartridges, and no more overpriced supplies.

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