81–90 of 238 posts
I've picked up these from hard rubbish a couple of times, but they did tend to burn the toast a bit; kind of wishing I had tried to re-furbish them, now knowing how the mechanism works.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I've thought about this for a while. Imagine a line of "dumb" dishwashers, toasters, ovens, stoves, microwaves, etc., all well-designed and made with sturdy materials. Unfortunately, I think they'd cost 6-10x going rate as modern "smart" appliances, and also the market for them would be restricted to HN commenters.
I have wondered too. I am on on, like, my fourth toaster. They work for a few years then fail in some non fixable way. So I toss and order another from Amazon. Think of all the material waste. Not very eco-friendly. But it’s another 30 bucks and comes next day … Is there a market for ‘buy it for life’ toaster. The question is will people pay 2-4X as much as cheap china toaster? Would you pay $150 for a lifetime toast…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I've thought about this for a while. Imagine a line of "dumb" dishwashers, toasters, ovens, stoves, microwaves, etc., all well-designed and made with sturdy materials. Unfortunately, I think they'd cost 6-10x going rate as modern "smart" appliances, and also the market for them would be restricted to HN commenters.
Washing machines were one of the first applications for microcontrollers. If you have an electric motor that's supposed to speed up, slow down, reverse, spin fast etc., all on a schedule, it's a no-brainer (pun intended). It's usually the pump that fails, but the controller-cards often fail too. Pumps and controller cards are, of course, outrageously expensive. These things are supposed to fail. Back in the day, they…
The big problem is that on the consumer side, it's pretty much impossible to evaluate durability of goods. Is the $80 toaster much more durable and better built than the $40 one, or is it just a "premium" offering that has the same internals but with a fancier appearance.
If anyone is looking to buy one, I recently bought a restored Sunbeam T-20 from timstoasters.com and love it. He even replaced the plug with a polarized one.
His whole channel (called Technology Connections) is probably my favorite one on YouTube, can’t recommend it enough! My favorites are his series on refrigeration and heat pumps, for example this one: https://youtube.com/watch?v=7J52mDjZzto Edit: to clarify, this article is based on an old Technology Connections video, and the creator of that video has lots more!
Technology Connections is hands down one of my favorite Youtube channels. Another guy worth mentioning that tickles the brain cells in a similar way is Isaac Arthur: a guy that breaks down science fiction into science fact, and explores what we could actually do someday in the future, and pokes fun at the stuff that will probably never happen but has become familiar tropes anyways. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCZ…
I can contribute another simple example of a kitchen appliance that didn't necessarily get smarter: the cooking plate! Remember the good old cookers with rotary switches? Those actually had up to seven different stages of heating (see schematic here http://www.herd.josefscholz.de/7Takt/img16.gif )! While the new digital ones are... digital - i.e. they switch the plate on and off repeatedly to produce different amount…
And on the switching behavior, I believe that is more related to just how induction cooking works rather than the way you control it. The values on the control panel are not exact anyway, you are always going to have to get a feel for how they work for your setup.
I moved from a house with an induction stove to a classic gas stove and its an absolute nightmare. Cooks slower and takes 50x the effort to clean.
I can contribute another simple example of a kitchen appliance that didn't necessarily get smarter: the cooking plate! Remember the good old cookers with rotary switches? Those actually had up to seven different stages of heating (see schematic here http://www.herd.josefscholz.de/7Takt/img16.gif )! While the new digital ones are... digital - i.e. they switch the plate on and off repeatedly to produce different amount…
Not to mention the digital ones are more prone to failure.
Re-making these toasters is probably a great idea for a kickstarter.
Yeah, my question after reading this is why can't I buy a modern version of this toaster? Would it be too expensive? Just seems odd.
Shitty blogspam article that just copies the original video by Technology Connections
I've used quite a few toasters in my years (including this one), but don't understand why, as the toaster gets older, it tends to burn toast. I've noticed this from both cheap, and not-so-cheap toasters. Any ideas what changes in a toaster over a few years of use to cause this? I've picked up these from hard rubbish a couple of times, but they did tend to burn the toast a bit; kind of wishing I had tried to re-furbis…
When there are a lot of food particles at the bottom that detritus can increase the heat from the heating elements. So, the best way to avoid this is to clean the appliance.