Ask HN: Should I try to manufacture toasters?

To mix in with other's comments.

It's always good to have a target in sight, but building a physical product with no experience will be a long, expensive journey.

I make physical and digital products as a consultant, the first thing I tell entrepreneurs is get to your first prototype. Not even an MVP, just something functional with the core features. Some times these are partial prototypes that work out various sub-systems. In this case, the actuation mechanisms, the heating elements with power, digital / physical controls, etc.

After that, the real work begins. You need to get to a complete working prototype. The other thing I like to say is just because someone else has made it, or something similar, doesn't mean I know how to make it. It just means it's technically feasible.

If you start looking at the parts of the toaster, you need to electrical engineering, mechanical engineering, material science, embedded software engineering, probably some industrial design and user experience design if you get that far. Even user research if you want to better understand the user and market.

Once you get to a first iteration, and typically before, you need to engage UL and FCC, usually through third parties to start testing for certifications and engineering refinement. You also need to start engaging contract manufacturers to understand how to work within limitations of their capabilities and your design.

A toaster may seem simple, but I assure it is not.

Then couple all of this with legal considerations as mentioned in other comments and whether or not it's even a practical business model. This is quite a large endeavor.

But if you are going to do anything, start small.

I do this for a living.

Setting up a small operation and doing the physical actions of designing, manufacturing and selling the toasters is the easy, fun and obvious part.

I figure what your looking for, advice wise, is what's not obvious.

A few things you'll need:

-Product liability insurance, this isn't isn't easy or inexpensive to get. You need to have a lot of the below in place to get it.

- UL certification (or equivalent) this can be between $10-60k in total, you need this for anything that plugs into AC mains, anything that has a heater, a safety function, etc.

- FCC EMC/EMI testing, you need this if you do any intentional transmitting, have anything with digital electronics, etc. This is also pretty expensive.

Then you need to iterate the design until you meet the above.

I'm sure I'm missing some things

no, a toaster is actually pretty simple lol.

the issue is that production at scale for millions of customers, for practically anything at all, is not simple. all of the things you point to are true, but they are true of many other goods and products.

also, you are assuming they need or care about profit.

If you do, please film and document everything -- I would enjoy watching a Netflix documentary on your journey.

Search for & take tours of community maker-spaces in your city. You’ll find people (often SWE) who switched over to 3D printing, metal working, robotics, wood working & more. They have classes, so you can get certified to use the tools - and you’ll just learn by hanging out, meeting fellow makers & checking out their projects. Best of luck on the journey - it’s a ton of fun.