Buy it for life: Durable, Quality, Practical • Hacker News Board

Re: Buy it for life: Durable, Quality, Practical

#31

Post by lupinglade » Sat, Apr 17, 2021, 10:19 PM UTC

rolleiflex wrote: post #28

bushbaba wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s always amazed me that high carbon steel / cast iron / stainless steel pans aren’t more commonly used. You literally are buying it for life. They cook the food way better. And a small amount of oil is all that’s needed for eggs and other non stick applications

I’ve bought into the cast iron hype a few years ago, and I have found it a little overhyped. There are several reasons why cast iron is not a common component of the average kitchen today. Here are mine: - The non-stickiness of cast iron has probably been best in class in its age. Today, we have Teflon. Teflon is so non-stick we have trouble having it stick to the pan when making pans. My understanding is that nothin…

Properly seasoned it will be as non-stick as Teflon or better. Especially carbon steel, which is also lighter - the main down side of cast iron is weight. Teflon flakes are much worse for you than a bit of iron ever will be (not really an issue in these amounts).

Re: Buy it for life: Durable, Quality, Practical

#32

Post by jack_pp » Sat, Apr 17, 2021, 10:22 PM UTC

lupinglade wrote: post #29

zmmmmm wrote: post #25

It's been an interesting evolution as I have aged to observe myself going from one end of the spectrum to the other (mainly, as I've accumulated more wealth). I'm now at the point where I crave quality at just about any cost because it's abundantly clear to me that buying crap is bad value. Many of the few high quality things I bought early on in life are still with me and I love them. But so is a huge amount of the…

It's not always the price too, often enough the higher quality item can be cheaper, just less of a fancy package maybe. A lot of companies blow all their budget on advertising and packaging instead of product quality and research. Knowledge is key. Especially be careful in stores like TJ Maxx, Home-sense and such -- lots of lowest quality fancy packaged junk to be had there.

One example I'm aware of is headphones. A while back everyone thought Beats are the best because they were expensive and had good marketing but really they were shit and you could get much better quality for less price

Re: Buy it for life: Durable, Quality, Practical

#33

Post by RcouF1uZ4gsC » Sat, Apr 17, 2021, 10:22 PM UTC

lupinglade wrote: post #19

bushbaba wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s always amazed me that high carbon steel / cast iron / stainless steel pans aren’t more commonly used. You literally are buying it for life. They cook the food way better. And a small amount of oil is all that’s needed for eggs and other non stick applications

They cook the best too - a good carbon steel pan is worth its weight in gold. Non-stick is utter garbage in comparison - and you're cooking on plastic and eating pieces of the coating. Food cooked on carbon steel or iron tastes so much better.

> and you're cooking on plastic and eating pieces of the coating.

And with cast iron, you are cooking in random organic polymers and eating them. The patina of cast iron pans is random organic chemicals.

Re: Buy it for life: Durable, Quality, Practical

#34

Post by mikestew » Sat, Apr 17, 2021, 10:22 PM UTC

dehrmann wrote: post #8

ilovecaching wrote: post #5

Instead of BFL, I only buy products that I'm ok with getting destroyed or products I have a laid out upgrade plan for. Example: All of my pants are Levi's 501s. I can get them for 50-60 bucks, which is nothing. They last a really long time, but they're not made in America nor do they have a lifetime warranty. BUT I don't have to worry about spilling stuff on my pants or going through the tedious process of filing war…

You should see how much made in America Levi's cost.

You’ll be buying them used, because they’re no longer made:

https://www.heddels.com/2019/09/levis-no-longer-producing-50...

Re: Buy it for life: Durable, Quality, Practical

#35

Post by bigmattystyles » Sat, Apr 17, 2021, 10:23 PM UTC

imiric wrote: post #20

desine wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

With no disrespect (especially with children, I know their destructive tendencies well enough), this sounds like a shunning of responsibility, and irks me. Our cheap, disposable consumer goods are ending up in landfills, our plastic waste has permeated every square inch of the earth, and we continue to justify these destructive habits. If you need something, you should care for it, you should maintain it, and you sho…

I was about to post a similar comment, but you summed it up nicely. The landfill reality and the pollution they cause, especially from e-waste, is devastating: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/burning-truth-...

We should charge the disposal cost upfront at the point of purchase. I know it’s political suicide but it would solve quite a few issues.

Re: Buy it for life: Durable, Quality, Practical

#36

Post by JohnCohorn » Sat, Apr 17, 2021, 10:24 PM UTC

ilovecaching wrote: post #5

Instead of BFL, I only buy products that I'm ok with getting destroyed or products I have a laid out upgrade plan for. Example: All of my pants are Levi's 501s. I can get them for 50-60 bucks, which is nothing. They last a really long time, but they're not made in America nor do they have a lifetime warranty. BUT I don't have to worry about spilling stuff on my pants or going through the tedious process of filing war…

It hurts me a little to see “50-60 bucks” for jeans referred to as nothing. I now grudgingly buy similar $50-60 Levis or Eddie Bauers because my wife likes them better than jeans that cost half as much. Looks some common basic jeans at Walmart are still ~$15 which is amazing since that’s what I remember paying for them like 15 years ago.

Re: Buy it for life: Durable, Quality, Practical

#37

Post by soneil » Sat, Apr 17, 2021, 10:25 PM UTC

tracer4201 wrote: post #4

Some of the product listings are not great. I see non stick skillets that I know won’t last than a year or two with moderate use. Otherwise I like the concept.

I was surprised to spot apple's "magic mouse" there too. I'm fairly close to an apple fanboy, but even I'd admit non-replaceable batteries isn't compatible with "buy it for life"

Re: Buy it for life: Durable, Quality, Practical

#38

Post by lupinglade » Sat, Apr 17, 2021, 10:28 PM UTC

RcouF1uZ4gsC wrote: post #33

lupinglade wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They cook the best too - a good carbon steel pan is worth its weight in gold. Non-stick is utter garbage in comparison - and you're cooking on plastic and eating pieces of the coating. Food cooked on carbon steel or iron tastes so much better.

> and you're cooking on plastic and eating pieces of the coating. And with cast iron, you are cooking in random organic polymers and eating them. The patina of cast iron pans is random organic chemicals.

I've not seen our cast iron or carbon steel pans flaking off into food like I have seen with Teflon. I doubt there is much of anything harmful coming off during cooking -- not any more harmful than the cooked food itself likely.

Re: Buy it for life: Durable, Quality, Practical

#39

Post by colanderman » Sat, Apr 17, 2021, 10:29 PM UTC

jack_pp wrote: post #32

lupinglade wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not always the price too, often enough the higher quality item can be cheaper, just less of a fancy package maybe. A lot of companies blow all their budget on advertising and packaging instead of product quality and research. Knowledge is key. Especially be careful in stores like TJ Maxx, Home-sense and such -- lots of lowest quality fancy packaged junk to be had there.

One example I'm aware of is headphones. A while back everyone thought Beats are the best because they were expensive and had good marketing but really they were shit and you could get much better quality for less price

At the same time, in keeping with the theme of the article -- spend the $75 for a good (i.e. well-regarded for your use case) pair of headphones if you enjoy music. It is absolutely night and day compared to $10 crap.

Re: Buy it for life: Durable, Quality, Practical

#40

Post by genericone » Sat, Apr 17, 2021, 10:30 PM UTC

lupinglade wrote: post #27

float4 wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> and you're cooking on plastic and eating pieces of the coating There are actually ceramic non-stick pans, in which case you'd be eating sand if I understand the concept correctly.

Non-stick pans do not last. The ceramic coating option is terrible and everything will stick to it with a vengeance within about 6-8 months or so if you use it regularly - our experience with Cuisinart.

Non-stick pans require a bit of care as well. The trick is to ensure no sudden temperature changes to the pan, which will differentially expand/contract the cooking surface. Differential expansion/contraction between the top and bottom surface will crack the non-stick coating in no time ( think expansion cracks in concrete and sidewalks ).

What that usually comes down to is to let your non-stick pan cool to room temperature before you run water over it, even if you like seeing all that steam. Also, you weren't expecting to sear meat with your nonstick anyway so don't slap a massive cold slab of meat on your unoiled non-stick either.