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Goodbye non-KISS appliances

willbush.dev

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Re: Goodbye non-KISS appliances

#351

Post by baking »

EasyMark wrote: post #315
alwa wrote: post #294

One of the happier things I’ve done for myself lately, at the advice of this forum, was to get a rock-solid, dumb, black-and-white Brother laser printer. It sits there and just does its job and I never have to think about it. Does anyone have any tips as to the white-goods equivalents? Fridge, freezer, laundry machines, that kind of thing?

buy the simplest devices you can. I believe whirlpool still makes some models in the USA. Evidently (according to reddit) never buy a Samsung or LG kitchen appliance. Whateve r you do get online (reddit and other places) and look for the specific model you're looking at, never buy on a whim, do research. You can eat out for a couple nights if the fridge goes.

Best Buy always has a low-end unit for rental property. They usually last for a good long time.

I have a 30-year-old fridge that I would seriously consider getting repaired if it ever stopped working before I would buy a replacement.

Re: Goodbye non-KISS appliances

#352

Post by rqtwteye »

Nifty3929 wrote: post #283
mlrtime wrote: post #263

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm a little confused about these fridge posts. There are refrigerators that do not have any tech that will last [most likely] longer than you stay in your home. I've had multiple Subzero basic commodity or commercial refrigerators last 15-20 years with only minor parts replacements which are easily found. Of course these are not cheap, but isn't that what everyone here is asking for? Something made well that lasts a…

People SAY that want well made, simple things. But people will generally not PAY FOR simple, well made things when much cheaper options are available. You and I might, and many others as well. But the vast majority of folks will not pay more for a higher quality, longer lasting item. Another example is Speed Queen for washers and dryers. They are substantially more expensive and look very plain and even old fashioned…

"People SAY that want well made, simple things. But people will generally not PAY FOR simple, well made things when much cheaper options are available. You and I might, and many others as well. But the vast majority of folks will not pay more for a higher quality, longer lasting item."

One problem I see is that the higher priced items are not necessarily higher quality these days. A lot of brands are coasting on their reputation while selling cheaply made items at premium price.

Re: Goodbye non-KISS appliances

#353

Post by jeromegv »

michaelt wrote: post #171
bee_rider wrote: post #121

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Lower population density and bad zoning means the trip to the grocery store is farther, so you only want to go once every week or two. So, you get a bigger car, to fit more groceries and a bigger fridge for the same reason. Then, some stupid person fills their car completely with groceries, can’t see out the back window, and backs into you. So, you get a still bigger car, so they can’t possibly help but see you, and…

> you only want to go once every week or two How are y'all getting decent bread and milk?

Freezer for bread and there’s hardly a need to drink cow milk regularly.

Re: Goodbye non-KISS appliances

#354

Post by samsolomon »

Der_Einzige wrote: post #347
billfor wrote: post #333

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Speedqueen washers and dryers are simple and made in the US. Built like tanks. Double the cost of the cheap imports though.

Big note on this - Only the top loaders are available in the old-school "ultra-reliable" version that I think many want. Top loaders are more rough on clothes than front loaders. Many reputable repair techs claim that LG makes very solid and reliable front loaders which are more gentle on clothes than the speed queen front loaders. I was dead set on a speed queen top loader and then my wife started showing me this st…

FWIW, we've had an LG front-loader for the last 5 years and have had zero issues. They do have a wifi capability to notify, but we've never connected them or felt the need to. If we moved, I wouldn't hesitate to buy another one.

Re: Goodbye non-KISS appliances

#355

Post by thfuran »

arter4 wrote: post #269
thfuran wrote: post #224

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And since you can't always be 100% safe in any possible scenario, NFPA, airbags, seatbelts, and the EPA are just ludicrous extravagances conceived by fools who don't understand the inevitability of death?

No but the impact (in terms of risk assessment) of a car crash is much worse than the impact of "hey, I forgot to completely close the fridge door"

There's a similar differencen in impact between picking up a second shirt in the morning and $100+ of food spoiling, but that didn't seem to bother you.

Re: Goodbye non-KISS appliances

#357

Post by fauigerzigerk »

snazz wrote: post #301
fauigerzigerk wrote: post #276

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wouldn't be so sure: The Royal Society of Chemistry is calling on the UK Government to overhaul its drinking water standards, after new analysis reveals more than a third of water courses tested in England and Wales contain medium or high-risk levels of PFAS, more commonly known as forever chemicals. https://www.rsc.org/news-events/articles/2023/oct/pfas-clean...

Is an activated charcoal filter like in a fridge or Brita or something enough to filter out that kind of contaminant?

I don't know. We have started using Epic Pure filters. They claim to filter PFOA/PFOS [1].

Don't take this as a recommendation though. I have no expertise in this at all and I haven't done any tests to confirm whether Epic's claims are actually true.

https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/1681/3573/files/Epic_Pure_...

Re: Goodbye non-KISS appliances

#358

Post by saiya-jin »

NullPrefix wrote: post #97
ponector wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As French fries, which actually should be Belgian...

I enjoy American food - pizza is my favorite and Chinese would be the next best thing

What you call 'American pizza' is basically just Italian focaccia with just more stuff on top, with very thick bland crust. Literally nobody in Europe eats pizza in such a form, not in restaurants at least, and for Italians living in Italy that would be a proper insult. Then in my experience there is simply too much on top of it, especially too much cheese, so 1/2 of US pizza is way more filling and has tons of calories compared to full one down here.

I am not commenting on taste which may end up more than fine, just looks. But that thick crust adds tons of empty sugar calories to the food that originally doesn't have so much.

Re: Goodbye non-KISS appliances

#359

Post by throwaway09223 »

Der_Einzige wrote: post #347
billfor wrote: post #333

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Speedqueen washers and dryers are simple and made in the US. Built like tanks. Double the cost of the cheap imports though.

Big note on this - Only the top loaders are available in the old-school "ultra-reliable" version that I think many want. Top loaders are more rough on clothes than front loaders. Many reputable repair techs claim that LG makes very solid and reliable front loaders which are more gentle on clothes than the speed queen front loaders. I was dead set on a speed queen top loader and then my wife started showing me this st…

I've used both a top loader (currently a speed queen) and a front loader washer each for more than a decade. I have many t-shirts that are 20+ years old. Any wear from the washer seems negligible in comparison to the wear from actually wearing the clothes. There's no discernible difference.

But there's a HUGE difference in terms of ability to clean. If I'm out doing yardwork and I have a pair of jeans with deep mud stains on the knees the old style top loader agitators can clean them just fine. The front loaders cannot no matter how many times I run them through. I end up having to scrub the jeans between my knuckles in the laundry sink - moderate agitation breaks up the mud and it rinses out easily.

I suspect a lot of this "agitators are rough" nonsense comes from modern washers that don't use a sufficient amount of water. But the SQ has a setting to use the normal amount of water so it's a non-issue. Most analysis I've seen (eg: from Consumer Reports) refuses to consider top loaders with normal water usage settings -- the data is basically invalid. A lot of Consumer Reports analysis has this type of problem where the entire study is built on a false premise.

Front loaders might be fine if your clothes never get dirty and only need occasional light rinsing. They're really terrible for actually cleaning dirt.

Re: Goodbye non-KISS appliances

#360

Post by Liftyee »

naravara wrote: post #334
arter4 wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, I agree. I'm not a luddite per se - heck, I make a living out of making stuff talk to one another on a network. But I don't get the appeal, from a customer standpoint, of having all physical objects talk to you or to the Internet. Like, why? I get it when it comes to alarm systems. Being able to get a notification when someone breaks in is nice, because the alarm system is mostly doing its job when you're not at…

The lights make some sense in that you may not want to walk to another corner of your house, or up and down stairs to be able to turn them on or off. Similar functions, like smart locks or blinds or ovens also let you have some peace of mind to make sure you’ve got everything in the On/Off state you need it to be in. Though personally I think we’re barking up the wrong tree by trying to smarten up every appliance. Th…

Perhaps instead of rails you could go for a flying quadcopter-drone with some sort of manipulator arm. If it was light it could even land and charge from the same ports it uses to communicate with appliances.

Of course if any big FAANG-company does this expect it to be beaming everything it sees straight up to the cloud. Amazon already tried this with their Ring security drone.

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