sick and tired of new scrap appliances.

[Stanley Doble]

I love the modern "functional design" school that thinks it's clever to make a radio or appliance out of flat black plastic with charcoal gray lettering so small you can only see it from 6 inches away with a powerful flashlight. Apparently being able to use the controls is not a "function".

 

[LizzieMaine]

That whole aesthetic was dropped onto the waiting world by a generation that never grew out of its childhood fascination with Star Wars paraphernalia.

 

[AtomicEraTom]

Okay, a little side note of scrap appliances, is the repairmen they send to fix them when they fail!

So, today I had a repairman out to look at my washer and dryer. The timer isn't working right on the dryer and I showed him. He told me "Well, why don't you just use this setting, it works fine on this one." I explained that I don't use that setting, as it doesn't get my clothes dry enough, and after much back and forth of how he thought I should just use the setting that works and forget about the non-functional one, and me thinking that all the settings should work, since he's a REPAIR MAN, I finally just said forget it. It wasn't worth arguing over.

 

[Shangas]

Heh. Sounds like my dad.

The way I see it, if you have to do this to get this, but you gotta do this first before you do that, but only after doing this that and the other at the very start, and then pressing this button after five minutes and IT WORKS FINE!!!

...that means it's broken.

If it don't do what it do when it's supposed to do it the way it does, then it ain't fine.

Something that my dad isn't very good at. Half the crap in our house doesn't work as a result.

 

[AtomicEraTom]

I see nothing wrong with making do, and it's the first time I've ever called a repairman for an appliance. I almost always fix them myself, or just deal with the quirks. Dryers are kinda dangerous, and a guy I worked with just had a fire in his house caused by one.

I put the dryer on before bed one night, and woke up the next morning and it was still running. That's when I knew I couldn't ignore the quirks anymore.

 

[jamespowers]

Okay, a little side note of scrap appliances, is the repairmen they send to fix them when they fail!

So, today I had a repairman out to look at my washer and dryer. The timer isn't working right on the dryer and I showed him. He told me "Well, why don't you just use this setting, it works fine on this one." I explained that I don't use that setting, as it doesn't get my clothes dry enough, and after much back and forth of how he thought I should just use the setting that works and forget about the non-functional one, and me thinking that all the settings should work, since he's a REPAIR MAN, I finally just said forget it. It wasn't worth arguing over.

Geez, too bad my repairman is so far away from you. I would send him out to you and he WOULD fix it if you wanted him to do so.
He came out and fixed the PLASTIC gear drive blew out a few months ago. He said he was surprised the plastic gear lasted as long as it did.

 

[jamespowers]

I see nothing wrong with making do, and it's the first time I've ever called a repairman for an appliance. I almost always fix them myself, or just deal with the quirks. Dryers are kinda dangerous, and a guy I worked with just had a fire in his house caused by one.

I put the dryer on before bed one night, and woke up the next morning and it was still running. That's when I knew I couldn't ignore the quirks anymore.

Oh yeah! Dryers are not to be trifled with. I have had an electric dryer catch fire before. Good thing I was there with a fire extinguisher handy. Washers you can usually handle yourself. I just don't.

 

[AtomicEraTom]

He told me the transmission is shot in the washer.

 

[jamespowers]

He told me the transmission is shot in the washer.

You can get those from APD out here easily.
http://apdappliance.com/index.html

 

[LizzieMaine]

Okay, a little side note of scrap appliances, is the repairmen they send to fix them when they fail!

So, today I had a repairman out to look at my washer and dryer. The timer isn't working right on the dryer and I showed him. He told me "Well, why don't you just use this setting, it works fine on this one." I explained that I don't use that setting, as it doesn't get my clothes dry enough, and after much back and forth of how he thought I should just use the setting that works and forget about the non-functional one, and me thinking that all the settings should work, since he's a REPAIR MAN, I finally just said forget it. It wasn't worth arguing over.

The thing to do in a situation like that is to tear out the whole heat-setting-control system and replace it with a high-wattage wire-wound rheostat that you can set for any temperature along a range. And then tear out whatever it uses for a timer and replace it with the mechanism from a clockwork kitchen timer. It ought to be possible to do both of these things with a drill, a soldering iron, some mounting screws, and a little patience. Stick it to The Man! Subvert Techonology!

 

[V.C. Brunswick]

That whole aesthetic was dropped onto the waiting world by a generation that never grew out of its childhood fascination with Star Wars paraphernalia.

And some of them must be powered by The Force because it seems like only a Jedi Master can get the damn things to work right.

 

[rjb1]

I'm coming in late to a great topic, but having read the whole thread it's right in tune with my own thoughts on the subject.

I have told a number of people (jokingly) that the word "electronic" comes from the Greek word meaning "You can't fix it." More often than not they give a quizzical look and say something like, "Yeah, that fits..."

Earlier Lizzie mentioned that when she was gone she wanted to be really "gone" and not reachable electronically. I agree, and therefore have no cell phone (and don't want one).
On that topic, I remember reading a science-fiction story (from the 1950's, I think) which postulated a world in which *everyone* was required to be electronically-connected 24/7 by cell-phone-like devices. The only people who had any privacy, and could be free of that technology, were the rich and privileged.
That is such a great commentary about where we are and where we may be going.
If anyone else has read that story and knows its name (and author) I would be grateful to know it.

 

[LizzieMaine]

Orwell's dystopia in 1984 included a lot of that idea -- "telescreens" in every home that couldn't be shut off except by high members of The Party. And of course, The Borg in "Star Trek" are the very embodiment of a plugged-in-always-connected-24-7 society. "Resistance is Futile" indeed.

 

[Gregg Axley]

I'm not mentioning specific appliances, for fear of jinxing myself and having "said" appliance give out.
My wife and I were discussing this topic a short time ago, as it relates to mixers, stoves, etc.
What we both wondered is "did the great appliance manufacturers go out of business because they made a product that lasted too long" or "did they go out of business because products were made cheaper (in price by chinese for example)?"
Gone are the vacuums that last 20-30yrs, now you are doing good to get 8yrs out of one due to all the plastic.
We've found ourselves paying more for a brand name because it gets good reviews for reliability and longevity.
When years ago this was commonplace, and everything was made that way.

BTW, speaking of being connected...
I'm connected at work, but not at home.
I only answer the home phone for family, otherwise it goes to voicemail.
My 2 cell phones are on the dining room table, and I don't answer either of them after 5pm.
At work I watch all these people with their "I" this and their "I" that, moving their hands about in odd manners, to try and show pictures of a deer, a video they find amusing, or to take a picture of something they see in the office.
Uh no thanks, I don't need any of that.

 

[rjb1]

Lizzie - Thanks, but even though those are sort-of on the topic, I *think* that this was a short story (not novel or TV) and I also *think* that it was written in the Golden Age of Science Fiction (late '40's - through the 50's). It could be a bit later, but I don't think so. It sounds like something that Asimov would have written, but so far have not been able to find any of his that fit.
My vague recollection was/is that it really fit the current "I" this and "I" that mentioned above, but in the story it wasn't because people wanted to - it was compulsory, except for the few.
Whenever I savor the idea (and pleasure) of not having a cell phone I think of myself as being one of those privileged-characters in the SF story.
(One of the most extreme example of electronic-device-addiction that I have seen recently was an idiot who was texting while driving a motorcycle at 60 mph in heavy traffic. Where is Darwin when you need him?)

To get back to the main idea, one reason that older cars, appliances, and etc. were so long-lasting was that engineers didn't have computers to "optimize" the design by making it as small and light as possible. I had a couple of courses on that topic (design optimization) in grad school and I used to irritate the professor by calling it "barely-adequate design", instead of "optimized design".

 

[jamespowers]

To get back to the main idea, one reason that older cars, appliances, and etc. were so long-lasting was that engineers didn't have computers to "optimize" the design by making it as small and light as possible. I had a couple of courses on that topic (design optimization) in grad school and I used to irritate the professor by calling it "barely-adequate design", instead of "optimized design".

More like Optimized Obsolesence Design. In five years you buy a new one because the old one in a pile of junk that you can't fix anyway.

 

[LizzieMaine]

The Golden Era equivalent to that kind of "design" was called "Muntzing," after a rather dubious entrepreneur named Earl "Madman" Muntz, who parlayed a fortune gained selling cheap used cars across Southern California into a short-lived electronics empire. Muntz was a cut-price seller, and built his goods to undercut any others then on the market -- he was one of the first sellers to produce a television set to sell for less than $100. But rather than using a team of engineers to design a quality product that could sell at a low price, he'd have his crew take three name-brand TV sets, say an RCA, a Philco, and a DuMont, and dismantle them component by component, noticing the point in each circuit where the set failed to operate. He would then use that as the basis for his own design, a set designed to operate with the fewest and cheapest components possible, which he would then sell in a fancy plywood or pressed-metal cabinet painted to look like fine veneer. A "Muntzed" set would work for a while, but not very well, and not for very long.

In his day Madman Muntz was the electronic equivalent of a medicine-show huckster selling snake oil to the rubes. Today he'd be hailed as a genius and pioneer of modern product design.

 

[jamespowers]

In his day Madman Muntz was the electronic equivalent of a medicine-show huckster selling snake oil to the rubes. Today he'd be hailed as a genius and pioneer of modern product design.

He sure would be. The cases would have to be plastic and soybean though.

 

[W4ASZ]

I have no cell phone, yet we may be "assimilated ?"

Resistance is not futile, I contend !

 

[V.C. Brunswick]

And at the same time they seem to use a very tough plastic for the packaging. Even candy wrappers are hard to open without scissors or a knife.