41–48 of 48 posts
These are such a horrible horrible idea, particularly the shower variant. You just can't have fine control when the thing moves in two dimensions, you want a little bit more shower pressure? How about I burn you instead? Whats wrong with having one dial for temperature and one for water pressure?
Earlier quoted context omitted.
No wonder our grandparents generation were good with mechanical things. If they were looking at materials like that all the time - I feel like you'd build an intuitive sense of how common household devices work pretty easily if it were so clear and accessible.
Materials like this are infinitely more accessible to us than our grandparents generation. We all have devices in our pockets that can get to service manuals for our products in minutes. I can have common parts at my door overnight from Amazon with the press of a button on my phone. Every local hardware store carries replacement cartridges and gaskets for common faucet types. The reason our grandparents generation wa…
This state of affairs is partly due a change in the nature of products. They are in general more complex and no longer meant to be repairable. They are meant to have shorter life spans, and if serviceable are meant to be serviced by professionals. How much that is an improvement for the consumer, is questionable IMO.
These are such a horrible horrible idea, particularly the shower variant. You just can't have fine control when the thing moves in two dimensions, you want a little bit more shower pressure? How about I burn you instead? Whats wrong with having one dial for temperature and one for water pressure?
A quality faucet gives you fine control with a single handle. The difference with low quality stuff is striking. The price too.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Materials like this are infinitely more accessible to us than our grandparents generation. We all have devices in our pockets that can get to service manuals for our products in minutes. I can have common parts at my door overnight from Amazon with the press of a button on my phone. Every local hardware store carries replacement cartridges and gaskets for common faucet types. The reason our grandparents generation wa…
Manuals are fairly easy to find, but in my experience they are dumbed-down. They mostly contain simple Ikea-like instructions and a lot of legalese CMA warnings. That is not a dig at Ikea. Their instructions are great for assembling flatpack furniture. But servicing a faucet, a garage door or a lawn mower is on another level. This state of affairs is partly due a change in the nature of products. They are in general…
I just linked to the full CAD library for the modern version of these parts, though. It’s not dumbed down.
Use the search phrase “service manual” and you can find documentation for every appliance in your house. I frequently fix appliances for friends and even neighbors and have yet to be unable to find the service manual.
Same for cars.
I’m so confused by this comment section. Why is everyone convinced that the situation is so much worse today?
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Materials like this are infinitely more accessible to us than our grandparents generation. We all have devices in our pockets that can get to service manuals for our products in minutes. I can have common parts at my door overnight from Amazon with the press of a button on my phone. Every local hardware store carries replacement cartridges and gaskets for common faucet types. The reason our grandparents generation wa…
I mean, a generation or two ago, people frequently learned to do things like replace spark plugs and alternators and mess with oil changes. My generation learned how to plug computer components together and install operating systems and drivers. The reason people did that is because they (more or less) had to. The generation being born today will need neither of those skill sets. Cars, by and large, stay working for…
These are all things I learned to do myself and have done recently (even the alternator).
Like I said, it’s easier than ever.
I’m kind of baffled that I’m getting downvoted for saying it on HN. Anyone with a little resourcefulness and a willingness to get their hands dirty can do these trivial operations too.
I wonder what font was used, couldn't tell.
Oh my god, actual dimensions on a drawing, part numbers, AND service instructions!?! I work on industrial equipment with 1/10th the documentation presented here. Cool find, op!
Is this a US thing? We renovated the apartment in Germany in the last year and every faucet and piece of equipment that we got has a manual including a table with list of parts and technical drawings and how to take it apart. We also got from the original owner all the manuals of the existing things, and this helped a lot in finding the proper part to replace and fix the bathtub drain. None of this is old stuff, the…
My other comment pointing out that these materials are still available and easily found online is getting downvoted.
I suspect a lot of the comments and arguments are coming from the perspective of people who haven’t done any of this type of work, so under a thread about a historical document they assume that the content of the document was only available in the past?
This is on of the stranger comment sections I’ve seen on HN lately. The comments about how only our grandparents learned how to do things like read manuals or change oil in their career is really revealing.
These are still very common in Sweden. I installed one when I renovated my kitchen a couple of years ago for example. Different design of course, but the same mechanism. 2 out of three bathrooms have similar ones too! Iirc the shower in the guest house does as well, but memory is fuzzy and I'm currently too far to check
When shopping for a home in Sweden, seeing a kitchen without single handed faucets is a telltale sign that the whole kitchen was designed with form prioritized over function.