Comment on Some things were better in the good old days
cattywampas@lemmy.world 4 weeks ago
Survivorship bias. All the ones that broke aren’t around anymore.
They were way more repairable though. We had a gas dryer that lasted 40 years and was only replaced because we moved somewhere without gas.
It was basically a big egg timer with an electric mover and a gas burner. You could fix anything on it with a crescent wrench, screwdriver, and off-the-shelf components from the hardware store for about 9 bucks.
The replacement dryer has had to have $1000+ circuit boards replaced more than once.
The WTF here is not necessarily that some component on the circuit board failed, but that the manufacturer charges $400-$1000 for it with a straight face and gets away with it when they undoubtedly have that board made in China for about $4 per unit.
The big thing you and a lot of posters are missing is what happens when those parts aren’t made anymore. With a standard motor that uses a start capacitor, you can get that cap or motor as a generic part or from another manufacturer, if your modern appliance eats its vfd board now, you can replace it for $$$. If it dies in 8 years, its probably already been discontinued and you are sol even if you wanted to pay for it.
Also imprecise engineering tended to overbuild things.
Thanks to better manufacturing techniques, engineering analysis, and the fine humans in management, we have gotten really good at barely building a machine that lasts just long enough to be out of warranty.
Increase in precision (materially and economically) then leads to rebound effects; higher precision should lead to lower material flows, but the opposite happens because the technological progress broadens the market when possible
But there’s WAY more surviving devices from 1960 in 2020 than there will be from 2020 in 2080.
Yeah also forever means from when you were 8 until you moved out, only 12 years… Appliances can still do that today.
Look at Mr Moneybags over here, with enough money to move out
Samsung has left the chat…
The ‘modern’ stuff breaks down faster due to 1) the fact that engineering has improved so much that obfuscation can be planned without compromising functionality. 2) ‘Modern’ stuff tries to cram in multiple features which are not necessary for its basic function. For this I blame the lack of diligence from buyers. The increased complexity means more parts that can fail. I bring up the example of SystemD (no offense to anyone, user’s choice).
Right but none of the ones made these days last. Some > none.
I’m assuming CFC might have been a better coolant, that’s why those old fridges are so good
Which is fine. You’d think they’d just refine those further. Today we’d have ultra efficient tanks that take little water, little energy, and never break.
Everything breaks eventually. Entropy always increases.
FelixCress@lemmy.world 4 weeks ago
Not necessarily. Less parts, less complex mechanisms = lower probability of something breaking down.
FireRetardant@lemmy.world 4 weeks ago
Also there was a time where companies actually cared. They would send the engineers for the next model out with service techs servicing current models to help them find the common failure points and help make things more servicable.
UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world 4 weeks ago
:-/
Planned Obselence was pioneered nearly a century ago. You might have individual service reps or salesman with a soul. But no company has ever carried about more than profits.
Prunebutt@slrpnk.net 4 weeks ago
Longevity was supposedly a goal for manufacturers in the GDR.