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A fridge from 70 years ago has better features than the fridge I own now

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Re: A fridge from 70 years ago has better features than the fridge I own now

#181

Post by pfdietz »

usefulcat wrote: post #137
firesteelrain wrote: post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Agree. Mine lasted 6 years. Replaced with a Whirlpool. Lowe's sales rep told us at the time that the Samsung's were great. I went back 6 years later and told him that we bought a Samsung from him 6 years ago when he told us 6 years later not to buy a Samsung. Needless to say, he was apologetic. Now, my Bosch dishwasher has been solid. No issues.

> Now, my Bosch dishwasher has been solid. No issues. Seconded, and also confirmed by an appliance repair tech when I asked him about his opinion of the reliability of our various kitchen appliances.

We've had very good experience with Bosch dishwashers.

Re: A fridge from 70 years ago has better features than the fridge I own now

#182

Post by soco »

firesteelrain wrote: post #87
drcongo wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My Samsung fridge is the worst thing I've ever bought.

Agree. Mine lasted 6 years. Replaced with a Whirlpool. Lowe's sales rep told us at the time that the Samsung's were great. I went back 6 years later and told him that we bought a Samsung from him 6 years ago when he told us 6 years later not to buy a Samsung. Needless to say, he was apologetic. Now, my Bosch dishwasher has been solid. No issues.

My 5 years old fancy double door Bosch refrigerator had every year the touchscreen replaced. That's 6 touchscreens - first ones under warranty, latest out of pocket (and I learned to replace it myself). The bulk of it is still fine, but such details kinda ruin the experience. PS no I'm not hitting it, the warranty technician knew the problem.

Re: A fridge from 70 years ago has better features than the fridge I own now

#183

Post by KennyBlanken »

passwordoops wrote: post #18
rascul wrote: post #4

A lot of those features are available in today's fridges. Also, they use less power today. And you really don't have to get one with wifi and a touchscreen.

Yeah but I'd bet the one we see in the video is probably still working, while I'm on my third fridge in 20 years. I think that negates any energy efficiency gains

Maybe you should look at why your fridges keep dying instead of assuming it's the norm.

I've got a fridge that uses 1Kwhr/day whihc places it near the bottom of the current energy start guidelines and it's about 15 years old.

Re: A fridge from 70 years ago has better features than the fridge I own now

#184

Post by hcarvalhoalves »

gok wrote: post #97
starbugs wrote: post #3

> Thing is, producing crappy, cookie-cutter, uninspired, overpriced junk that falls apart within 5 years (generously speaking) pays more to the shareholders. That's how we got from there to here. This summarizes it quite well for me.

This is going to shock people, but appliance manufacturers in the 1950s also had shareholders.

Did shareholders had the same expectations regarding rate of return?

Re: A fridge from 70 years ago has better features than the fridge I own now

#185

Post by idlewords »

ethbr0 wrote: post #113
idlewords wrote: post #8

My girlfriend's mom has a teaching oven (used in home economics classes) from the 1950s. The 'teaching' part mostly means it has a more accurate and detailed temperature gauge. This gas oven is so heavy that light in the kitchen gravitationally lenses around it, but it's still going strong and the best oven I ever used.

I have a Sunbeam Radiant Control toaster that still works flawlessly. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=1OfxlSG6q5Y They used a shielded bimetalic thermostat to measure the radiant heat coming from the toast surface , instead of a timer, to establish doneness (consistently toasting despite heating element variance) and implemented the mechanical lowering & raising of toast without a single motor (which is why 60+ year ol…

But how do you cancel without a cancel button?

Re: A fridge from 70 years ago has better features than the fridge I own now

#186

Post by dagw »

oblio wrote: post #35
phren0logy wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

True, but even most high-end brands these days are more about fashion and high markups for the illusion of luxury than actually better quality. Though at least they generally have far better customer service, which makes a big difference.

It probably depends on where you are, but you can absolutely find brands where the production quality is higher. It's like with electric bikes. You can buy VanMoof (bling) or Gazelle (quality).

but you can absolutely find brands where the production quality is higher

The problem is that those are mostly targeting professional kitchens and generally aren't what people want in their home kitchen. Finding something that will perform and last like a professional grade piece of kit, while still work and look good in your designer home kitchen is very hard.

Re: A fridge from 70 years ago has better features than the fridge I own now

#187

Post by api »

jrochkind1 wrote: post #101
starbugs wrote: post #3

> Thing is, producing crappy, cookie-cutter, uninspired, overpriced junk that falls apart within 5 years (generously speaking) pays more to the shareholders. That's how we got from there to here. This summarizes it quite well for me.

I mean, in general, things we buy today are a lot more "affordable" while being lower quality. Googling says the average cost of a refrigerator in 1950 was $250 to $400 (for 10 cubic feet -- a fridge today is 20 to 30 ft^3), which would be $3K to $5K in 2023 dollars. If you pay $3K to $5K for a fridge today (for a fridge 2-3x as big as the 1950 fridge), do you get a better longer-lasting one? I'm not sure.

They're only more affordable if you don't amortize the cost over a long period of time. You either buy high quality once or buy low quality multiple times.

I've found that you usually have to go to high-end brands and/or "commercial grade" to get quality anything in the appliance space. A decent heuristic is also where it's made. For high-end brands some have certain models made in places like the USA and Germany and others made in China. The ones not made in China are usually the good models that will last.

Things like Wifi and especially anything with a 'cloud' component are massive anti-features that should be avoided. Not only are these things privacy problems or ways for them to push ads at you, but they're also often indicative of cheap gimmick-encrusted crap.

Re: A fridge from 70 years ago has better features than the fridge I own now

#188

Post by idlewords »

leidenfrost wrote: post #143
PartiallyTyped wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

On a serious note, how heavy does an object have to be for gravitational lensing or bending to be noticeable with a naked eye? s/visible/noticeable s/noticeable/noticeable with a naked eye s/lensing/gravitational lensing

Depends on how you define "noticeable". If you can measure a small enough distance, you can see the lensing effect of any object.

Comments like yours are what keep this site great.

Re: A fridge from 70 years ago has better features than the fridge I own now

#189

Post by pfdietz »

ilyt wrote: post #69
MeteorMarc wrote: post #33

In Europe there are energy consumption regulations for household equipment like fridges, see: https://commission.europa.eu/energy-climate-change-environme... . What energy label would your fridge from 70 years ago have?

It actually might be pretty decent one as it was using freon which is very good at its job. The process didn't change all that much, neither did engines used in compressor so it is mostly "how well isolated the fridge is"

Current refrigerants are also very good, they're just more expensive.

I doubt the refrigerator from 70 years ago had blown foam insulation (polyurethane insulation was introduced in refrigerators in the mid 80s), so it probably had terrible efficiency. It may have clawed some of that back by lacking automatic defrosting.

https://dura-foam.com/assets/images/2-0/energy-consumption.p...

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