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

O Holy Crap

thefp.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

101–110 of 323 posts

Re: O Holy Crap

#101

Post by JoeAltmaier »

ejb999 wrote: post #79
wincy wrote: post #7

My $4000 GE refrigerator has broken twice now in the five years we have owned it, both times in the exact same way. The way the fridge works seems simple: the cold freezer is on the bottom, and then a fan blows air up through a shaft to the relatively warmer refrigerator as needed to keep it just above freezing. Instead, the failure state is that the fan that handles this broke with no warning. I lost a bunch of groc…

I have a 2nd fridge in my garage, an old philco one - still running perfectly, 365 days a year for almost 70 years. Never needed a repair in the 25 years I have owned it.

Throw it away! It is costing more in annual electricity than a new one. Never mind it's old; it's insulation is worthless and its compressor is very inefficient.

Re: O Holy Crap

#102

Post by JoeAltmaier »

julianlam wrote: post #18

I have empathize with the author's plight, but I don't have much sympathy for him buying multiple coffee grinders and throwing them all out because he bought cheap ones. > I can’t say the same about my coffee grinders. I use the plural because I’ve owned a lot of them, all bought in their original packaging and dead within a year. They’re good ones, supposedly, with burrs not blades, but they stop performing before l…

The existence of a Cadillac product doesn't refute the proliferation of absolute crap. Somebody sells a coffee grinder, it should grind coffee for years. No exceptions.

Re: O Holy Crap

#103

Post by jtbayly »

bitexploder wrote: post #81
BlueTemplar wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One perhaps continued to this day, if maybe in a different way (we'll know in a few decades) : toxic fluorescents and most diode bulbs not having separated transformers (they are DC !)

Though my LED lights do last a lot longer and cost way less to operate overall, so that is nice.

I’ve been singularly unimpressed with the rate my LED bulbs are failing.

Definitely not even close to 10-15 years I was promised.

And this is why warranties are pointless. How am I supposed to get one of these bulbs from a four-pack replaced by the manufacturer two years after I bought it?

Re: O Holy Crap

#104

Post by bambax »

bitexploder wrote: post #28
bambax wrote: post #8

> Many blamed these problems on the government. They believed it had crippled certain products (major home appliances, especially) This is a claim that was already present in Death of a Salesman . Here's the quote: > I am always in a race with the junkyard! I just finished paying for the car and it's on its last legs. The refrigerator consumes belts like a goddam maniac. They time those things. They time them so when…

Check out the history of light bulbs, an actual amazing conspiracy few people know about :)

Not a good example that everything turned to crap right this decade...

Re: O Holy Crap

#105

Post by user3939382 »

somehnacct3757 wrote: post #94

I just don't see it. My pens and my matchsticks work fine. My gloves are still gloves five winters later. Potato peeler, peels potatoes. I think the author doesn't understand that there's a tier of disposable goods for just about everything and if you don't shop wisely you'll take some of it home. Appliances for example: don't buy them from web pages and don't listen to Wirecutter. This is just letting marketers tell…

> there's a tier of disposable goods

There are some product categories for which no strong options exist. For example, contemporary, top-of-the-line Kitchen Aid mixers have intermittently been produced with plastic motor parts. Go look at the reviews for sewing machines.

Klein tools, which have historically been super high quality, made in USA, has started mixing in cheaper made in china products. Chippewa boots (Warren Buffet company) same.

These are examples in a sea of examples. This is a trend.

MBA types move into companies with brand trust and loyalty built slowly for decades, and mortgage it for shot-term profits by slipping in cost cutting measures. It takes consumers a while to catch on, and by then the execs have a nice line item for their resume. Or the holding company behind the changes divests, leaving a hollowed out husk of a brand behind them.

Re: O Holy Crap

#106

Post by darkwater »

JoeAltmaier wrote: post #102
julianlam wrote: post #18

I have empathize with the author's plight, but I don't have much sympathy for him buying multiple coffee grinders and throwing them all out because he bought cheap ones. > I can’t say the same about my coffee grinders. I use the plural because I’ve owned a lot of them, all bought in their original packaging and dead within a year. They’re good ones, supposedly, with burrs not blades, but they stop performing before l…

The existence of a Cadillac product doesn't refute the proliferation of absolute crap. Somebody sells a coffee grinder, it should grind coffee for years. No exceptions.

At which price point?

Re: O Holy Crap

#107

Post by H1Supreme »

derbOac wrote: post #27
bambax wrote: post #8

> Many blamed these problems on the government. They believed it had crippled certain products (major home appliances, especially) This is a claim that was already present in Death of a Salesman . Here's the quote: > I am always in a race with the junkyard! I just finished paying for the car and it's on its last legs. The refrigerator consumes belts like a goddam maniac. They time those things. They time them so when…

For what it's worth, some things in my lifetime have seemed to get much better, and cars and refrigerators happen to be in that class. Many other things seem to have gotten worse though, like clothes and linens. I suspect there's some pattern to those things that have improved and those that have declined, and everything in between, but I couldn't explain it.

I have some anecdotal evidence to the contrary on refrigerators. I want a fridge to do one thing. Keep food cold. No ice maker, no water, no godforsaken app, or camera on the inside. Make a robust, reliable cooling system that's built to last. That's the only thing I want to pay for.

Re: O Holy Crap

#108

Post by oblio »

BlueTemplar wrote: post #49
derbOac wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For what it's worth, some things in my lifetime have seemed to get much better, and cars and refrigerators happen to be in that class. Many other things seem to have gotten worse though, like clothes and linens. I suspect there's some pattern to those things that have improved and those that have declined, and everything in between, but I couldn't explain it.

Regulations. Also probably how cars and refrigerators need energy to work ? The downside is that cars especially have not gotten cheaper. (This is starting to change, sadly by necessity rather than choice, ~ton personal vehicles will soon be the thing of the past even in rich countries.)

> soon personal vehicles will soon be the thing of the past even in rich countries.

https://www.iea.org/data-and-statistics/charts/global-car-sa...

Re: O Holy Crap

#109

Post by wonderwonder »

vages wrote: post #4

Be aware that survivorship bias may fool you when comparing the quality of new and old items. The single juicer that lasts 70 years may be the only one of its kind to last that long, the others from the same production year being left to rot and rust in a landfill. That being said, I definitely believe that planned obsolesence and unintentional bad quality is a plague on modern consumer items. I am lucky enough to ha…

I ordered a pair of buffalo jeans the other day and they arrived missing a belt loop on the front. Pretty frustrating as I've ordered jeans from this company without issues before this. I generally only have 2 pairs of jeans on hand at any time so my go to brand shipping flawed jeans was a bummer.

Re: O Holy Crap

#110

Post by oblio »

ejb999 wrote: post #74
bitexploder wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Check out the history of light bulbs, an actual amazing conspiracy few people know about :)

Yep, bulbs are now all complete crap - they used to last decades. Was having my house painted a few years back, I have a triple set of spots near the very top of the roof (so about 30 feet in the air) - painter helpfully suggests - do you want me to replace those bulbs up there while I have my ladder up there? I agreed. Big mistake, the bulbs their were still working 17 years after I moved in - now I have to replace…

Your anecdata is bad. Even after the conspiracy was discovered, incandescent bulbs still had a much lower life expectancy than LED lights.

It's simple physics :-)

Post reply on HN