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Goodbye non-KISS appliances

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Re: Goodbye non-KISS appliances

#271

Post by peterleiser »

htshnr wrote: post #104
darreninthenet wrote: post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I really have no idea how to reply to this without sounding like an ass so apologies in advance. Well yeah duh if the door was shut properly every time fridges wouldn't need door or temperature alarms at all (most have an audible one already). But it's called an alarm for a reason, sometimes shit goes wrong and it's handy to know before all the food has been at room temperature all day. We had a freezer door pop open…

> Seriously your response showed such a lack of thinking of real world situations and usage I can only assume you work for the Google UI team or something Laughed out loud. This is gold.

LOL'd as well, which caused my 1.5 year old to laugh; He gets it. Every time I use the Google Cloud Platform web UI I feel like someone is reaching through the monitor to slap me upside the head for not doing Infrastructure as Code.

Re: Goodbye non-KISS appliances

#272

Post by screye »

leoedin wrote: post #138
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.

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 big…

> Does food in the US not go off?

Sadly, you're right. It doesn't.

In my experience, american fridges contain products that do not perish as easily. Lots of frozen goods and processed foods. Even the fresh foods seem to last longer out here. Milk lives for 2 weeks, their bread is unkillable and longer lasting greens (Kale) are more popular.

Re: Goodbye non-KISS appliances

#273

Post by jader201 »

mlrtime wrote: post #263
brodsky wrote: post #25

When we upgraded our appliances, the "smart" or "wifi-enabled" ones were specifically avoided like the plague. "Dumb" appliances - especially fridges, for some reason - are becoming hard to come by, but they do exist. Electrolux, KitchenAid, even LG all make some no-frills models that can save both money and frustration. Hopefully those companies continue serving the "luddite techie" market.

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…

I had never heard of Subzero before this post, and just looked them up.

$10k-$15k for a refrigerator?

I’ve only ever owned fairly “basic” refrigerators (e.g. LG or GE), that are about 1/10 of that cost, and have never had any problems with them going out or even degrading in quality (e.g. 10+ years). Maybe needed an ice maker repair, but that’s about it.

Do people need to spend that kind of money for a refrigerator that lasts?

Maybe if you’re going to be in your home for 30-40 years, but not many people stay in one place long enough to outlive these “basic” refrigerators. And even then, I’d argue that a $1k-$2k refrigerator can still last that long.

(I’m using “basic” in quotes here because I feel like our refrigerators weren’t even the bottom tier — they’re quite large, and have the features we need. But now seeing other brands that cost as much as some vehicles, to some they may seem basic.)

Re: Goodbye non-KISS appliances

#274

Post by kevin_thibedeau »

inferiorhuman wrote: post #227
darreninthenet wrote: post #193

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I said it was handy not something I would go out of my way to get... the fridge has it so it's useful. I don't understand why so many people on here are so offended by a useful feature that from most people's perspective is just a feature the fridge has rather than one they shopped for.

I'm not offended by you enjoying a feature, but I see that feature as a net negative. An R&D budget is more or less a zero sum situation. Money spent developing temperature sensors is money not spent on something else. Fridge quality today is lousy enough (and warranties + return policies have all but evaporated) that spending money elsewhere would've been a big win. Even if we're not talking reliability, I had to re…

It isn't zero sum. They could simply add the gizmos and keep the important bits the same as their refined, reliable 20 year old designs. What they're actually doing is actively spending engineering resources to enshittify what was already perfected to boost profit.

Re: Goodbye non-KISS appliances

#275

Post by SteveNuts »

bluedays wrote: post #270
em3rgent0rdr wrote: post #254

If you want to keep it simple, don't even bother with filtered water and just drink out of the tap. It is safe in the developed world. If you are concerned about germs, which can get through the filter anyway, you should boil the water instead.

I live in an area with high levels of PFAS in the water, so this isn't always true.

I’d be shocked if home appliance filters are capable of filtering PFAS anyways.

Re: Goodbye non-KISS appliances

#276

Post by fauigerzigerk »

em3rgent0rdr wrote: post #254

If you want to keep it simple, don't even bother with filtered water and just drink out of the tap. It is safe in the developed world. If you are concerned about germs, which can get through the filter anyway, you should boil the water instead.

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...

Re: Goodbye non-KISS appliances

#278

Post by RajT88 »

api wrote: post #242
RajT88 wrote: post #231

My fridge is not pretty, but it has been running for 20 years straight with the only hiccups being power outages. I really do not expect that a newer fridge will last as long. I may try and find something in brushed aluminum off Craigslist which has been sitting in someone's garage since 2000 when this one eventually goes. I have an aunt who has had a fridge running without issues since about 1962. It is all white ce…

Real world control systems need to be able to scale up and down. Our financial and corporate systems only know how to scale up, middle along, or fail catastrophically. There is no mechanism in the world of capital and corporations for scaling something down gracefully if a market is mostly saturated but we still need some of something. One solution could be to side step the issue by getting really good at flexible ju…

We're heading this direction. There's a number of industries which technology has enabled them to move closer (or completely into) a manufacture-on-demand model where it's economically feasible to have small production runs (sometimes of even a single unit).

T-Shirts are probably the first one I am aware of which got there. But strangely enough, Guitars are moving that way. It used to be to get a signature series you had to be a pretty big artist. These days, there's players from cover bands getting signature series! You look through all the lists of signature series guitars, and quite a lot of them have been released in just the last ~12 years. PCB's are going there now too - I've read on HN itself hobbyists talking about how cheap it is to get individual custom boards printed for them for projects shipped from China. Manufacturers taking production runs of less than 100, and happy to do it.

It's worth noting - production on demand doesn't provide any guarantee that the products will have good longevity. In fact, many printed-on-demand T-Shirts are pretty crap and you end up tossing them after a couple years.

Re: Goodbye non-KISS appliances

#279

Post by mlrtime »

cranium wrote: post #4

At first, I thought "Wow, this guy knows a bunch about fridges!" but then I realized it's not by choice. I like not having to know anything about my fridge except basic maintenance, it feels like a gift now.

Well it kind of is by choice. Unless the author enjoys this type of work he could have easily bought a no-feature fridge that lasts for 10-15 years.

Re: Goodbye non-KISS appliances

#280

Post by _dark_matter_ »

SteveNuts wrote: post #275
bluedays wrote: post #270

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I live in an area with high levels of PFAS in the water, so this isn't always true.

I’d be shocked if home appliance filters are capable of filtering PFAS anyways.

RO definitely does. Other filters can as well, but maybe not as well. https://www.cnn.com/2023/03/14/health/pfas-water-filters-wel...
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