241–250 of 732 posts
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That's always the line. The left out part is how rigorous the spec is.
Well, at least there is a spec, unlike many consumer goods that are just cheapest product no spec.
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“Engineered to fail” and “planned obsolescence” are both pejorative rephrasings of “consumers prioritize price” Engineering is an exercise in prioritization. If 90% of consumers buy the cheapest blender on the shelf, the blender made with the cheapest materials wins. Hobart still exists, and still makes good blenders. Consumers just started buying new designs that were more cost efficient. If you look at the prices o…
the shop vac pro i bought had a one-time current fuse soldered down (not replacable with a holder). over time all of these machines get a little friction in the fan assembly and blow this fuse. yes, you could argue that making this fuse replaceable would add $0.05, but we all know that its not because 99% of the purchasers wont crack it open, figure out whats going on, and short the fuse. you can argue that by keepin…
Like the Hobart mixer from this article, I always find it interesting that many of the best "overkill" objects are simply ones from the early/mid 20th century before manufacturers figured out it makes more economic sense to pump out low quality shit that will break just after the warranty expires. I'm into old school espresso machines, and there is a robust market (and some fascinating refurb videos) for older, lever…
I've been considering the economics around a startup company that exclusively produces home appliances & tools that are purely electro-mechanical in design. I know I am not alone in saying that I would happily pay a 2-3x premium for any appliance if it were engineered properly and actually left out all the ridiculous technological bullshit it never needed in the first place. To this day, no one at Best Buy can explai…
Let's take an object I'm quite familiar with: an espresso machine. Some like the classic Rancilio Silvia are 100% electromechanical. It's nice and simple, but there are downsides:
* Temperature regulation is very coarse, because it's done with thermal relays.
* There's no timing. All manual.
* There's no water sensor.
* There are potential failure modes.
It's a machine that'll be happy to try to keep pumping nothing until the pump burns out, and that produces variable results depending on the user's timing and precision. Popular add-ons include a PID controller to fix the temperature regulation, a pressure gauge (analog is fine there, but digital could also be used for safety), and a stopwatch.
Once you look into coffee forums frequented by the fans of well made coffee, you see that one really sought after thing is control and precision. Precisely controlling the grind, the amount of coffee, the amount of water, the temperature and the timing. Notice something? It's all stuff that electronics excel at, and humans suck at. Controlling timing, weight and water flow is a perfect task for a machine, which it can do with impeccable precision.
And along with that stuff, it can improve safety eg, by noticing things like "The heater has been on for a minute yet temperature doesn't seem rising -- maybe the sensor is broken". Plus quality of life thing like warming up on a timer, and automatically turning off afterwards.
The issue isn't with electronics but with electronics being applied in the wrong direction.
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Work/utility gloves are a good example where the commercial-grade options are awesome compared to what is at Home Depot. For example, Ansell HyFlex gloves are standard issue in Amazon warehouses and they’re awesome for chores around the house too. They fit really well (and come in more sizes), they’re durable, and they are comfortable to wear for extended periods of time.
https://www.homedepot.com/p/Ansell-Glove-HyFlex-11-542-Light...
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Dishwashers are another example. You could buy a commercial one but it will come with no roll-out trays (you load up different plastic racks for different things and you can load a rack while the dishwasher is running) and it’s designed for an environment with lots of ventilation (you just open it when it is done and let the steam get ventilated away) which people are unlikely to have in their own kitchens. Other ite…
Maintenance is huge. A lot of products even in the supposedly "disposable" everyday category people buy for lower prices have maintenance instructions that would significantly increase their lifespan if actually followed. Misuse resistance means consumer products generally still work if you skip maintenance the manufacturer told you was necessary (which industrial products might not), but it may shorten the product's…
I could get behind some of these. Like that Hobart mixer. Granted, I don't use a mixer 24/7 in a bakery, but my first Kitchen Aid overheated and broke after ~5 years. I'd prefer if commodity things, like computer mice, were made to last, and not $5 pieces of cheap plastic that end up in landfills. But I'm the person who complains about the tons of cheap plastic trash sold in 0.99 stores while able to afford $500 mixe…
Commercial kitchen equipment isn't always set up for 120V single phase operation. If you really want to rewire your house to mix 20 gallons of dough at a time...go for it I suppose. But do the homework first.
You could get a 3 phase commercial standby genset installed and have the remote annunciator for it mounted next to whatever monster 3 phase stand mixer in your kitchen. All in all this would run you ~50K USD.
Every day people spend far more money on way stupider bullshit than what I just proposed.
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Maintenance is huge. A lot of products even in the supposedly "disposable" everyday category people buy for lower prices have maintenance instructions that would significantly increase their lifespan if actually followed. Misuse resistance means consumer products generally still work if you skip maintenance the manufacturer told you was necessary (which industrial products might not), but it may shorten the product's…
TIL I should read the all in one tab packaging and probably buy salt.
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Dishwashers are another example. You could buy a commercial one but it will come with no roll-out trays (you load up different plastic racks for different things and you can load a rack while the dishwasher is running) and it’s designed for an environment with lots of ventilation (you just open it when it is done and let the steam get ventilated away) which people are unlikely to have in their own kitchens. Other ite…
This is the same for laptops, but most of the people (I assume?) buy Macbooks for programming which is... kinda weird, since it's difficult to repair. Than business laptops like the Z-book, ThinkPad or insert Dell business laptop eg; Latitude 7000 series (Dell XPS isn't a business laptop from my perspective.)
I’ve been using a 2012 MBPr that still works great/is pristine, other than losing some rubber feet.
Having a user friendly OS with *nix-ish tooling in a high build quality package is (debatably) only available from Apple. I will happily upgrade to an M1 MBP once the next gen is released.
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Dishwashers are another example. You could buy a commercial one but it will come with no roll-out trays (you load up different plastic racks for different things and you can load a rack while the dishwasher is running) and it’s designed for an environment with lots of ventilation (you just open it when it is done and let the steam get ventilated away) which people are unlikely to have in their own kitchens. Other ite…
This is the same for laptops, but most of the people (I assume?) buy Macbooks for programming which is... kinda weird, since it's difficult to repair. Than business laptops like the Z-book, ThinkPad or insert Dell business laptop eg; Latitude 7000 series (Dell XPS isn't a business laptop from my perspective.)
Why would I care? If it breaks, I tell my company to pay the repair bill or buy me a new one.
Fyi, I have an industrial fan in my home similar to the one listed at the end of the article [1]. Beware, they're loud as hell and not really suited for indoors use. It sits dormant now. I replaced it with a smaller Vornado [2]. Powerful, nearly silent (can't hear the motor, only the blades), with a durable sealed-bearing motor. Much better. [1]: https://king-electric.com/products/high-velocity-air-circula... [2]: ht…
If it's cold my HVAC would cycle and would get temperature swings. I installed a vornado space heater and it worked wonderfully. It had a continuous air flow and would keep the temperature in the room very stable.
And then it wore out and I got a new model with electronic controls, which didn't work so well. The original had mechanical controls and were set and forget. I believe the electronic model would reset after a power failure, and would have a timer that would turn it off after using it for a while, both non-features.