Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

A toaster from 1949 is still smarter than any sold today

theverge.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

141–150 of 238 posts

Re: A toaster from 1949 is still smarter than any sold today

#141

Post by silisili »

jmisavage wrote: post #136
silisili wrote: post #134

Serious question - do most folks still own toasters today? They just seem so... specifically single function and take up counterspace. In my house, we have a sandwich press which we use for 4 or less pieces of toast at a time. And of course it doubles as a press for paninis or cubanos, too. And you never have to worry about unevenness, as it's just two hot plates basically. If cooking a lot of toast for a get togethe…

I've had the same toaster for the better part of 15 years now I don't think its any weirder than owning a dedicated sandwich press. It's usually a set it and forget it kinda of item that doesn't take long to do its job.

I don't think it's weird at all, it was really a question out of curiosity and not meant as an insult or anything.

Re: A toaster from 1949 is still smarter than any sold today

#142

Post by stagger87 »

silisili wrote: post #141
jmisavage wrote: post #136

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've had the same toaster for the better part of 15 years now I don't think its any weirder than owning a dedicated sandwich press. It's usually a set it and forget it kinda of item that doesn't take long to do its job.

I don't think it's weird at all, it was really a question out of curiosity and not meant as an insult or anything.

A quick search would have told you something like 80 percent of households own toasters.

Re: A toaster from 1949 is still smarter than any sold today

#143

Post by Spooky23 »

Gigachad wrote: post #87
bryanrasmussen wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not to mention the digital ones are more prone to failure.

Are they? Is this studied? I have never heard of one failing and know many people with them.

The controllers fail all of the time. Many of them don’t fare well around high heat, and sometimes the capacitive panels delaminate or otherwise fail. Replacement is usually expensive. The failure point of analog controls was usually the trivially replaceable knob.

Appliance makers do a ton of reliability engineering to deliver predictable failure rates. Barring atypical screwups and bad design, major appliances tend to fall off a cliff about a year after the expiry of their extended warranty (usually 4-6 years)

Re: A toaster from 1949 is still smarter than any sold today

#144

Post by Nextgrid »

ASalazarMX wrote: post #111
cuddlybacon wrote: post #59

Since everyone is mentioning Technology Connections (he deserves it, great channel), I want to bring up this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UiS27feX8o0 To me, this really shows the sad direction smart appliances have gone in. I would love to see that smart appliances would have continued to evolve in this direction. I don't like the current state of smart appliances, but going back to the absolute basic seems…

I wanted to automate my house, but the results convinced me that starting from the absolute basics and growing from it is the best approach. It's more environmentally friendly too. The only smart devices left are some smart bulbs, and I'm waiting for them to fail before replacing them with regular LEDs. Nothing beats the reliability and energy/resource savings of plain locks and buttons.

A smart home can be reliable, useful and environmentally friendly (if we consider potential energy savings). You just won't get there with consumer-grade solutions. Pretty much every consumer-grade tech nowadays is designed to generate "engagement" and collect data; the actual "useful" work it does is only the bare-minimum needed to convince you to buy the product and "engage" with it.

If you look beyond the consumer-grade trash, you can get somewhere nice with $500 if you go the DIY route with modules/relays supporting open protocols and Home Assistant, or if you have several thousands to spare check out higher-end solutions such as Crestron.

Any good system will be completely self-contained, not rely on the internet, and provided the hardware is maintained should last essentially forever.

Re: A toaster from 1949 is still smarter than any sold today

#145

Post by silisili »

stagger87 wrote: post #142
silisili wrote: post #141

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think it's weird at all, it was really a question out of curiosity and not meant as an insult or anything.

A quick search would have told you something like 80 percent of households own toasters.

The 80 percent figure I found was from nearly 20 years ago. It's hard to find anything more recent. Moreover, I guess what I'm most interested in is in how many people have and regularly use a toaster today, and more specifically why. The counterspace tradeoff doesn't seem worth it to me, so I'm curious about other's use cases and opinions. I apologize if my initial premise came off as condescending.

Re: A toaster from 1949 is still smarter than any sold today

#146

Post by Twisol »

stagger87 wrote: post #142
silisili wrote: post #141

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think it's weird at all, it was really a question out of curiosity and not meant as an insult or anything.

A quick search would have told you something like 80 percent of households own toasters.

But that would leave one lonely person with an answer, and rob us all of a scintillating discussion on a (gasp) discussion forum.

The post made me reflect on the fact that I have a toaster at all; I've used it vanishingly few times, and I only really own one because my parents have one.

Questions are seeds of a discussion; it's better to nurture them than to stomp them out.

Re: A toaster from 1949 is still smarter than any sold today

#147

Post by maxlybbert »

silisili wrote: post #134

Serious question - do most folks still own toasters today? They just seem so... specifically single function and take up counterspace. In my house, we have a sandwich press which we use for 4 or less pieces of toast at a time. And of course it doubles as a press for paninis or cubanos, too. And you never have to worry about unevenness, as it's just two hot plates basically. If cooking a lot of toast for a get togethe…

I tried to make do without a toaster when I first lived on my own, because I didn’t care enough about toast to get one.

Except, originally, I didn’t get anything else that could make toast, so if I wanted toast, I used a dry frying pan. And, probably because I didn’t have a toaster, I wanted toast a lot more often than I expected I would.

I eventually got a toaster oven, but I almost never used it for anything other than toast. I have a toaster now, twenty years later, and while I realize it’s silly from one point of view, I know it’s not the silliest thing I own.

Re: A toaster from 1949 is still smarter than any sold today

#148

Post by mobjack »

silisili wrote: post #134

Serious question - do most folks still own toasters today? They just seem so... specifically single function and take up counterspace. In my house, we have a sandwich press which we use for 4 or less pieces of toast at a time. And of course it doubles as a press for paninis or cubanos, too. And you never have to worry about unevenness, as it's just two hot plates basically. If cooking a lot of toast for a get togethe…

I recently bought a toaster for the first time as an adult and started eating a lot more bread as a result.

Other toasting methods work, but they could take longer to set up and you have to monitor the progress along the way.

With a toaster, it is set it and forget with a single button press.

Re: A toaster from 1949 is still smarter than any sold today

#149

Post by sgtnoodle »

silisili wrote: post #134

Serious question - do most folks still own toasters today? They just seem so... specifically single function and take up counterspace. In my house, we have a sandwich press which we use for 4 or less pieces of toast at a time. And of course it doubles as a press for paninis or cubanos, too. And you never have to worry about unevenness, as it's just two hot plates basically. If cooking a lot of toast for a get togethe…

We have a toaster oven. It accommodates any size bread, and works well for frozen meals that aren't worth heating up the main oven for. I also make sourdough bread, and those slices would be hard to fit into a toaster.

Re: A toaster from 1949 is still smarter than any sold today

#150

Post by _carbyau_ »

fghorow wrote: post #40
quacked wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've thought about this for a while. Imagine a line of "dumb" dishwashers, toasters, ovens, stoves, microwaves, etc., all well-designed and made with sturdy materials. Unfortunately, I think they'd cost 6-10x going rate as modern "smart" appliances, and also the market for them would be restricted to HN commenters.

Heck, I'd settle for a mil-spec umbrella. One that you don't have to replace every season!!! But they don't seem to exist AFAICT...

Not milspec per se : https://bluntumbrella.com.au/

Seems pretty sturdy but I am not a connoisseur of these things. We appreciated getting a particular size too.

Post reply on HN