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Goodbye non-KISS appliances

willbush.dev

301–310 of 499 posts

Re: Goodbye non-KISS appliances

#301

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...

Is an activated charcoal filter like in a fridge or Brita or something enough to filter out that kind of contaminant?

Re: Goodbye non-KISS appliances

#302
post #294

One of the happier things I’ve done for myself lately, at the advice of this forum, was to get a rock-solid, dumb, black-and-white Brother laser printer. It sits there and just does its job and I never have to think about it. Does anyone have any tips as to the white-goods equivalents? Fridge, freezer, laundry machines, that kind of thing?

A commercial fridge and a chest freezer.

Re: Goodbye non-KISS appliances

#303
I don't quite understand why the author didn't stick with with Maytag since his washer is still going strong? My family owned a couple of Maytags growing up and I thought it was a budget brand. But recently, I used the Maytag "commercial" washer, dryer, and dishwasher. I was really impressed and follows the KISS mentality closely. No frills, just works.

Re: Goodbye non-KISS appliances

#304

It's very fun to get angry at appliance makers - but if they actually made the appliances that we think they should, they would go broke because nobody (except a few of us) would buy them. This is how these newer "smart" appliances started taking over in the first place. As evidence, check out some of the manufacturers that do make higher-quality dumb appliances, like Subzero and Speed Queen and notice how little con…

That sounds like an argument in favour of[0] centralised planned manufacturing — we can't get good stuff, because short-lived shiny products outcompete boring high quality products.

[0] this doesn't mean it's a sufficient, let alone universally applicable, argument in favour; I'm well aware of many examples of central planning failures.

Re: Goodbye non-KISS appliances

#305

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…

You could move to my small village in New Mexico and join the water board. There's about 70 of us on the water system, and we could use more people to help provide oversight. The well itself is about 500 yards from my front door, and the water tank and pump house are right up the hill, I go by them on most morning walks.

Re: Goodbye non-KISS appliances

#306

Tried reading the article, but couldn't figure out what's the difference between side by side and french style. Tried looking online but it didn't help me either

See this comment: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39238010#39238589 tl;dr: side-by-side = one side freezer, one side fridge. french door = freezer on bottom, fridge on top with two doors

thanks

Re: Goodbye non-KISS appliances

#307
WRT washers/dryers it makes more sense to buy a refurbished one from Craigslist. There are folks who buy and fix old units as a side hustle and the ones I’ve bought from them are wayyy cheaper and run so much better than any newer unit I’ve owned.

Re: Goodbye non-KISS appliances

#308
post #298

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It's increasingly difficult to get high-end performance with a simple device with a good user interface. It's actually not at all, but people [in general, not here] want Cheap + Features. There are expensive "prosumer/consumer" level no-feature refrigerators but people don't want to pay for them.

Are there particular brands or manufacturers that you look to for this quality, or do you look more to the price or “commercial-grade” positioning as a signal?

You need to do your research. Because a manufacturer/brand can make one product (sometimes just one item in a lineup) very well, but the rest of the products not so much. So a well designed kitchen with "prosumer" appliances will be a mix/match from a bunch of different brands.

I've stated earlier here that I've had Sub Zero refrigerators last 10-15+ years with mostly no maintenance, however you will spend around $7k at the low end. For kitchen appliances talk to chefs who work with these brands daily or read around their forums.

Most people don't want to do this or will vote with their wallet by buying something cheap that needs replacing in ~5 years.

Re: Goodbye non-KISS appliances

#309

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 don't want the chemicals they add, so until my well is put in, I use a countertop carbon filter.

Re: Goodbye non-KISS appliances

#310
post #301

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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...

Is an activated charcoal filter like in a fridge or Brita or something enough to filter out that kind of contaminant?

No.
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