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Goodbye non-KISS appliances

willbush.dev

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Re: Goodbye non-KISS appliances

#281

Post by thsksbd »

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.

That really isn't a good assumption. The West is undergoing a bureaucratic collapse where incompetent or out right maliciously corrupt people are subverting regulators.

I dont trust regulators and have a five stage reverse under the sink filter. Result? In the last five years in my little section of the midwest:

- I've dodged Pb poisoning when my local water authority switched corrosion inhibitors (note, this is after Flint MI)

- I've dodged vinyl chloride poisoning from the Palestine OH fire that Federal regulators pretended was a nothing burger until dead cows started showing up everywhere.

Not to mention the countless times the lines are fixed and the water comes out brown (this is "safe" because it's iron oxide. Except it is only mostly iron oxide plus all the crud that has caked onto the pipes.)

Best case scenario I trust the regulators. Even then F- ups happen and Id rather have a filter I keep myself.

Re: Goodbye non-KISS appliances

#282

Post by brabel »

mlrtime wrote: post #264
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.

The problem isn't safety , but taste. I'm 100% onboard and don't have any problems drinking tap [in the US]. However, most people now base how water tastes from bottled water. So the preference at home is to not drink off the tap.

The taste depends on the quality of water and what sort of chemicals they deliberately put in the water to keep it "safe" for human consumption.

Here in Sweden and many other European countries, the tap water is indistinguishable from bottled water.

Re: Goodbye non-KISS appliances

#283

Post by Nifty3929 »

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…

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. But they are built to last a long time and be repairable. They have a large part of the laundromat market because the laundromat owners do value these qualities. But they have very little of the consumer market, because consumers don't.

Consumers also tend to favor nice-sounding features that are in fact unreliable and frustrating, such as ice makers in the refrigerator compartment.

Re: Goodbye non-KISS appliances

#284

Post by nicbou »

cqqxo4zV46cp wrote: post #214
nicbou wrote: post #119

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not just the cost, but the hassle of booking someone else to fix your stuff. The same is true with all self-repairs.

Yep. I’ve really had to unfortunately that there are so many things that are very hard to just “throw money at”, unless it’s A LOT of money. Just wrangling someone to come and fix my…whatever…can easily take hours and hours of work, no matter what I’m willing to pay.

This is how I feel about small repairs. Most of the time the five minute fix is easier than dropping the item off at a repair shop.

On the other hand some fixes aren't worth getting the tools and doing the research, nor taking the risk of making the problem worse.

A big part of adulthood is figuring out what is and isn't worth fixing yourself.

Re: Goodbye non-KISS appliances

#285

Post by thsksbd »

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.

A RO undersink system costs $200 dollars. And it blocks everything but dissolved gasses.

Re: Goodbye non-KISS appliances

#286

Post by bell-cot »

Radical Idea: "Landfill" taxes on appliances. Manufacturers of basic, last-forever stuff pay ~0%. Manufacturers of breakdown-o-matic junk can end up paying 100%. And the ability to pay has to be backed by tightly-regulated insurance policies - so CrapCo can't just vanish into corporate shell games or bankruptcy when the tax man comes knocking.

Re: Goodbye non-KISS appliances

#287

Post by crazygringo »

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.

It's not about germs, it's about the taste -- it's about removing chlorine.

I personally don't like my water to taste like diluted swimming pool. After the first time I tried a blind tasting of tap water vs. Brita-filtered at home, I never drank straight from the tap again.

Re: Goodbye non-KISS appliances

#288

Post by BoxFour »

hansvm wrote: post #259
BoxFour wrote: post #230

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I cannot turn my lights on because somewhere, potentially thousands of miles away, some datacenters failed, even if those datacenters could, ostensibly, only give me ads and "improvements" and not any core feature. It appears there's a misunderstanding here. When smart lightbulbs lose internet connection, they still function as regular lightbulbs. In such cases, you simply revert to the traditional method of turnin…

> It appears there's a misunderstanding here. When smart lightbulbs lose internet connection, they still function as regular lightbulbs. That's a better way to install things, but it's not the only way that installation is done, and it's still excessive to need the internet for what could easily be a purely local operation. For device classes where "on/off" has historically been attached to the device itself (washer,…

> That's a better way to install things, but it's not the only way that installation is done

It’s by far the most common. Most people just buy Hue lightbulbs and an hub to use with their existing home setup, which involves physical light switches still being present.

> Pushing closer to tin-foil hat territory…

For lights specifically: If this is a threat model that worries you, it’s quite easy to setup something like home assistant.io with zigbee lights.

Your repudiation appears to be about centralized services, not about “smart” devices as a general concept.

Re: Goodbye non-KISS appliances

#289

Post by startupsfail »

thsksbd wrote: post #281
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.

That really isn't a good assumption. The West is undergoing a bureaucratic collapse where incompetent or out right maliciously corrupt people are subverting regulators. I dont trust regulators and have a five stage reverse under the sink filter. Result? In the last five years in my little section of the midwest: - I've dodged Pb poisoning when my local water authority switched corrosion inhibitors (note, this is afte…

Yes, and it’s a good idea to not trust bottled water as well. You could have some grandpa in Nevada having his own ideas how « Real water » should taste. And then its gets grandfathered and sold at WholeFoods.

https://arstechnica.com/health/2023/10/jury-awards-229m-to-v...

Re: Goodbye non-KISS appliances

#290

Post by alwa »

lelandfe wrote: post #260
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…

> Why do I need voice activated lights My parents are getting older. Their knees appreciate being able to tell Siri to turn off the downstairs lights from upstairs.

This was what made me understand the voice-activated stuff too. I hadn’t appreciated, until hanging around with more people enduring the indignities of aging, how even trivial physical tasks become ordeals.
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