A fridge from 70 years ago has better features than the fridge I own now • Hacker News Board

Re: A fridge from 70 years ago has better features than the fridge I own now

#331

Post by stickfigure » Mon, Jul 31, 2023, 4:56 PM UTC

idlewords wrote: post #185

ethbr0 wrote: post #113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have a Sunbeam Radiant Control toaster that still works flawlessly. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=1OfxlSG6q5Y They used a shielded bimetalic thermostat to measure the radiant heat coming from the toast surface , instead of a timer, to establish doneness (consistently toasting despite heating element variance) and implemented the mechanical lowering & raising of toast without a single motor (which is why 60+ year ol…

But how do you cancel without a cancel button?

You move the darkness slider all the way to the "light" end for a second. For all the machine's faults, this one wasn't a big deal.

Re: A fridge from 70 years ago has better features than the fridge I own now

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Post by dublin » Mon, Jul 31, 2023, 4:57 PM UTC

api wrote: post #187

jrochkind1 wrote: post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I mean, in general, things we buy today are a lot more "affordable" while being lower quality. Googling says the average cost of a refrigerator in 1950 was $250 to $400 (for 10 cubic feet -- a fridge today is 20 to 30 ft^3), which would be $3K to $5K in 2023 dollars. If you pay $3K to $5K for a fridge today (for a fridge 2-3x as big as the 1950 fridge), do you get a better longer-lasting one? I'm not sure.

They're only more affordable if you don't amortize the cost over a long period of time. You either buy high quality once or buy low quality multiple times. I've found that you usually have to go to high-end brands and/or "commercial grade" to get quality anything in the appliance space. A decent heuristic is also where it's made. For high-end brands some have certain models made in places like the USA and Germany and…

There is no product from China that I can name that is viewed as "quality" or "reliable" There is a reason that "Chinese shit" has effectively become a single word - it's a well-earned association.

And despite being a leading IoT innovator for decades, myself (I designed and manufactured the world's first embedded web-enabled wireless and PoE sensors), there is almost nothing useful in having WiFi/Net-connected appliances, especially if they require an app or cloud services of any kind. (Seriously, what kind of state do you really care about even for monitoring, much less control, in your appliances? Unless you're a wack job, pretty much zero...)

Re: A fridge from 70 years ago has better features than the fridge I own now

#333

Post by secabeen » Mon, Jul 31, 2023, 4:57 PM UTC

troupe wrote: post #310

lotsofpulp wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You do not even have to use commercial units. Go to Costco.com or HomeDepot.com or Lowes.com or BestBuy.com and you can filter for fridges without unnecessary frills and see many options. There are at least 7 different simple top freezers at Costco, and at least 3 French door freezers without even water dispensers. Not sure what else people want, other than to complain.

The thing that usually breaks on my refrigerators is the plastic shelves. They just don't seem designed to last more than 4 or 5 years at the most. I'm not sure how to filter for "has shelves that don't decompose when kept cool."

Interesting, all the fridges I've seen have glass shelves, and usually metal framing/brackets. The drawers are plastic, and eventually do go, but replacements are available.

Re: A fridge from 70 years ago has better features than the fridge I own now

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Post by secabeen » Mon, Jul 31, 2023, 4:58 PM UTC

gruez wrote: post #141

vGPU wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

See: Samsung fridges. A huge touchscreen and a water pump/ice maker that will fail in <5 years are standard.

>See: Samsung fridges. A huge touchscreen and a water pump/ice maker that will fail in They still make models that aren't like that[1]. In fact last time I bought a fridge I specifically looked for a model without those features because they're known points of failure and I don't use them. [1] https://www.bestbuy.com/site/samsung-25-cu-ft-33-3-door-fren...

This one is a french door model, which means a complicated double-door latching interface. Single-door is even simpler still, and half the price! You pay almost $700 just for the french door element.

Re: A fridge from 70 years ago has better features than the fridge I own now

#335

Post by dustincoates » Mon, Jul 31, 2023, 4:58 PM UTC

BeetleB wrote: post #309

dustincoates wrote: post #223

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Precisely. If you want a high-end dinner and an open bar with a lay-down bed while you fly, well you pay for it, and if you fly Emirates, you can even have a shower thrown in.

I want to fly from LA to NY with these amenities. Will Emirates fly me there?

You're not getting a shower or a stand up bar, but the rest, sure: https://www.cntraveler.com/story/where-to-find-lie-flat-seat...

(I even had a nice salmon meal on my last business flight between Austin to LAX, in fact, which seemed opulent, but I wasn't complaining!)

Re: A fridge from 70 years ago has better features than the fridge I own now

#336

Post by bigbillheck » Mon, Jul 31, 2023, 4:58 PM UTC

dublin wrote: post #297

rsynnott wrote: post #250

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think freon fridges were inherently mechanically any more reliable than fridges using modern refrigerants. If anything slightly less so all else being equal, I'd have thought.

ALL older appliances were way more reliable than any you can buy today. I'm just old enough that all our appliances are from the 1980s, plus a huge chest freezer from the 60s or 70s bought secondhand on Craigslist for $45. They are simple, reliable, faster, and work better than their modern counterparts. Our refrigerator, bought in 1989, has never had any problem at all. They can be easily fixed, and parts are still…

> ALL older appliances were way more reliable than any you can buy today.

Sure, if you only consider all the older appliances that have survived this long.

Re: A fridge from 70 years ago has better features than the fridge I own now

#337

Post by pfdietz » Mon, Jul 31, 2023, 4:59 PM UTC

brewdad wrote: post #314

pfdietz wrote: post #181

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We've had very good experience with Bosch dishwashers.

My only complaint with mine is that, since it doesn't have a heated drying cycle to conserve energy, dishes are sometimes still quite wet when it comes time to put them away. I've found using the recommended rinse agent and putting them away within an hour of the wash cycle finishing helps tremendously. Since the thing runs at only 41dB, I don't mind running it any time of day. EDIT: typos

Does yours pop the door open when it finishes? Mine does, which lets the dishes dry more after that happens.

Re: A fridge from 70 years ago has better features than the fridge I own now

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Post by JohnFen » Mon, Jul 31, 2023, 5:00 PM UTC

In my opinion, most (but certainly not all) manufactured things from 70 years were much better than the same manufactured things now are.

Things now are cheaper, of course. But I'm far from convinced that's a good thing. It means that the things are disposable, and it's one of the things that is advancing ecological destruction.

Re: A fridge from 70 years ago has better features than the fridge I own now

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Post by lotsofpulp » Mon, Jul 31, 2023, 5:01 PM UTC

klyrs wrote: post #298

maccard wrote: post #146

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You don't need to go to anywhere near that price to get before you hit a sweet spot. For like $600 including tax one of the biggest retailers in the UK will sell you the most energy efficient fridge on the market with a 5 year guarantee. Like most products, you're reaching diminishing returns at a certain point and that seems to be it as far as I can tell.

Frankly, a 5 year guarantee is pathetic. Appliances lasting 25 years was once unremarkable.

Without proof of 25 year warranties, I call bullshit.

If a seller had a product good enough to offer a 25 year warranty, and they could sell it for 5x cheaper than a product with a 5 year warranty, they would not have stopped selling it, because people would not have stopped buying it.

Re: A fridge from 70 years ago has better features than the fridge I own now

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Post by amluto » Mon, Jul 31, 2023, 5:01 PM UTC

masklinn wrote: post #134

usefulcat wrote: post #119

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Commercial ovens have no or minimal heat insulation This seems counter intuitive to me. Why would I not want more insulation in an oven that's going to be used a lot more? Seems like the cost of the insulation would be amortized more quickly than in a home kitchen, since a commercial oven is presumably being used a lot more?

Possibly because you want very responsive temperature control, if the oven has a lot of insulation it's more efficient but it responds much more slowly to temperature decreases.

This should be straightforwardly solvable with an improved control algorithm.

A well insulated oven cools much more slowly with the door closed, so a control algorithm can’t recover as quickly if it overshoots the set temperature.