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

Goodbye non-KISS appliances

willbush.dev

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

131–140 of 499 posts

Re: Goodbye non-KISS appliances

#131

Post by beAbU »

kmoser wrote: post #23

My parents have a clothes drier from the 1970s and a fridge from the 1990s. They have needed repairs, but they were infrequent and not so costly as to necessitate buying a new unit. My A/C is only four years old and the maintenance guy is telling me one of the fans is drawing too much power and will need to be replaced soon. Despite the part being free under warranty, they want $600 to replace it. This seems to be st…

That dryer will probably use a shocking amount of power.

Depending on local power costs a modern compressor dryer will easily pay for itself in a couple of years compared to sticking with the old one.

Re: Goodbye non-KISS appliances

#132

Post by beAbU »

kmoser wrote: post #23

My parents have a clothes drier from the 1970s and a fridge from the 1990s. They have needed repairs, but they were infrequent and not so costly as to necessitate buying a new unit. My A/C is only four years old and the maintenance guy is telling me one of the fans is drawing too much power and will need to be replaced soon. Despite the part being free under warranty, they want $600 to replace it. This seems to be st…

Watch out for survivorship bias.

How many of those old appliances had to break and fail in the first 10 years for these two to survive.

Re: Goodbye non-KISS appliances

#133

Post by lionkor »

nicbou wrote: post #115
goriloser wrote: post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wonder if EU fridges are smaller because people buy food more frequently, but in smaller quantities. Because the grocery shops are closer.

We definitely make much smaller grocery trips. What I don't remember (as someone who left North America) is how we managed to have so much food without wasting all of it.

Possibly all the processed foods?

Re: Goodbye non-KISS appliances

#134

Post by beAbU »

darreninthenet wrote: post #110
jventura wrote: post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My dumb LG freezer plays a “ping ping ping” tune whenever the door is not properly closed after a few seconds. No need to send a smartphone notification!

If you're home or not upstairs asleep I guess it's sufficient

And what do you do if you are not home?

Re: Goodbye non-KISS appliances

#135

Post by iamacyborg »

darreninthenet wrote: post #72
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…

Fridge/freezer one is handy for temperature and door open alarms

Probably easier and more efficient to just get a window/door sensor offered by all the home automation providers. It’ll integrate better into your home automation software of choice, be cheaper and much easier to replace.

Re: Goodbye non-KISS appliances

#136

Post by eichin »

darreninthenet wrote: post #110
jventura wrote: post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My dumb LG freezer plays a “ping ping ping” tune whenever the door is not properly closed after a few seconds. No need to send a smartphone notification!

If you're home or not upstairs asleep I guess it's sufficient

It's a lot more common that you didn't close it properly Just Now (and haven't gotten very far, and are maybe still in earshot) then the door spontaneously opening, especially with the slight negative pressure and magnetic gaskets.

(of course, where they're really useful is as office fridges, when the perpetrator wanders off oblivious but someone else gets driven mad by the just-barely-audible-beeping and hunts it down...)

Re: Goodbye non-KISS appliances

#137

Post by zvmaz »

Whenever I have to buy a microwave oven, I always choose the ones with the simplest user interface possible: Two knobs, one for the timer, one for the intensity. They have served my parents and myself well.

Re: Goodbye non-KISS appliances

#138

Post by leoedin »

goriloser wrote: post #98
Twisell wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It seem even funnier. From my research. The "side by side" standard US frige is what we call in France American fridge because it has two door and look so oversized and fancy compared to the standard fridge in france. The US "french-door fridge" take the oversizing a step further by adding a third door on the bottom of the "side by side" design. We don't even have a name for theses fridges as nobody buy theses, so I…

I wonder if EU fridges are smaller because people buy food more frequently, but in smaller quantities. Because the grocery shops are closer.

Does food in the US not go off? The limiting factor for me isn't the size of my fridge, but the fact that after a week all my vegetables are looking sad and my milk's starting to smell. I probably wish my fridge was bigger a handful of days a year - and that's because I'm having a party and need to squeeze in more wine and beer.

Quite a lot of my fridge is taken up with random jars that I'll probably never eat. A bigger fridge would just enable more of those.

Re: Goodbye non-KISS appliances

#139

Post by leoedin »

beAbU wrote: post #131
kmoser wrote: post #23

My parents have a clothes drier from the 1970s and a fridge from the 1990s. They have needed repairs, but they were infrequent and not so costly as to necessitate buying a new unit. My A/C is only four years old and the maintenance guy is telling me one of the fans is drawing too much power and will need to be replaced soon. Despite the part being free under warranty, they want $600 to replace it. This seems to be st…

That dryer will probably use a shocking amount of power. Depending on local power costs a modern compressor dryer will easily pay for itself in a couple of years compared to sticking with the old one.

Yeah, I did the maths with a heat pump drier and found it would pay for itself in electricity savings in a couple of years. And that was before the cost of electricity in the UK tripled. It uses something like 1/4 of the electricity per load, and because it's unvented all the heat remains in the building envelope.

Re: Goodbye non-KISS appliances

#140

Post by cassepipe »

bee_rider wrote: post #121
mewpmewp2 wrote: post #108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why do Americans have so big cars then? Seeing the cars was most shocking thing for me when visiting US.

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…

An evolutionary arm race then

Funny but it seems more complicated : https://youtu.be/oOttvpjJvAo?si=1KfRQYKZLdg4d5Bo

Post reply on HN