Crap™

30 Replies to “Crap™”

1. The government regulations generally make things worse, whereas market driven innovation generally makes things better than government regulations ever could.
   Also, appliance manufacturers need to start thinking like NASCAR and F-1 auto racing teams. Cheating is the only way to win. Dieselgate was only one facet of auto maker cheating. Those bright headlights that blind you? They actually pass a standard by cheating. There is a dim spot where the test checks the lamp, not the entire headlight

2. swiss watch syndrome.
   a ‘repair’ puts it back on the ‘assembly line’ without the benefit of mass production cost reduction.
   and not all of us are watch repair experts. sooooo . . . .

3. The ex post facto regulation applications really annoy me. An example would be the Ozone Hole craze and the removal of freon from cooling devices. It was expensive for the consumer and manufacturer with questionable results.

   1. I just spent $4500 on a new AC instead of a simple repair/recharge because of this nonsense.

4. It’s easy to blame this on government, but they are only part of the problem. The article mentioned the electronic boards that most new appliances have now, and they are made cheaply to fail. A friend who’s an electronics technician says the price manufacturers charge for micro chips and boards is absurdly high, as they cost little to make, but like auto repair, the profit is in the high markup on parts.
   I had the board go out on a five year old stove a few years ago, the new board was about half the price of the stove, (the old one had cracked for no reason I could see).
   The appliances are manufactured in the third world country with the lowest costs, and the components are the cheapest they can find on the world market, so we consumers are stuck with $3000 washing machines that last about five years.
   On the bright side for manufacturers, consumers have come to accept that an appliance will only last a short time, just as we accept a lot of bullshit these days.
   My old Kenmore dishwasher is about 22 years old, and working just fine, but someone in a third world country, a slave laborer or child is going without rice because I didn’t buy a new one ten years ago, as a good citizen of Mother Earth would have.

   I am consumed with guilt.

   1. “My old Kenmore dishwasher is about 22 years old, and working just fine, but someone in a third world country, a slave laborer or child is going without rice because I didn’t buy a new one ten years ago, as a good citizen of Mother Earth would have.

      I am consumed with guilt.”

      Oh, I can tell… 🙂

      I remember growing up with the same washer and dryer and a TV that lasted a good 10 years.

      Now I buy a new Panasonic microwave from the open-box store every three years or so when one of the internal circuit boards fails. Brand loyalty is becoming a thing of the past because everything is built like junk, no matter how high-end it might seem to be.

5. My favourite complaint is washers. To save water and reduce climate change omissions the new washers don’t use enough water. We have to keep our washer set on “bulky blankets and sheets” or they don’t rinse out.

   1. To get my clothes actually CLEAN in my spiffy new front-loading, water-saving, sanctioned, and labeled washing machine … I have to set it on EXTRA HEAVY DUTY, Extra Rinse, Sanitize Hot water … basically the top setting of every parameter of the machine. Yes … that cycle takes … wait for it … almost TWO HOURS to complete.

      Now, does THAT sound like “conservation” to you? Oh! And I also have to spray and wash pre-treat any VISIBLE stain on the clothes. It’s like having to take a 30 minute shower, just to get all the soap off of you due to the low-flow shower heads mandated in CA. Yeah, I cheated like a F-1 mechanic and drilled out all the restrictors. Drilled out … because the State bureaucrats passed a regulation that they could no longer be removable by the end user.

   2. Running an inefficient appliance through multiple cycle is SO CLEAN.

6. Second look at the Einstein refrigerator?

7. and there’s the fact , that in a practical sense, ENGINEERS are stupid stupid fools.

   1. Hey, as an engineer, I resent that hate crime! 😜 Engineers are smart and clever and well educated people, 😎 but the requirements are generated by marketing people and accountants.

      1. Let STEM be STEM … not Science, Technology, Engineering, and Meddling by government bureaucrats STEM

      2. The marketing people told the Toyota engineers to put the oil filter directly under the exhaust manifold?

         1. No, that was probably accountants trying to minimize manufacturing costs.

      3. “Hey, as an engineer, I resent that hate crime! Engineers are smart and clever and well educated people, but the requirements are generated by marketing people and accountants.”

         That’s the real bottom line, Robert. I’ve read a few accounts by people who used to work for Boeing back when engineers were treated like gods, before the bean-counters arrived and screwed everything up with their cost-cutting measures.

         1. Any manufacturing business where any decisions of consequence are made by accountants is well and truly screwed.

8. To have low energy consumption it’s necessary to have weaker lower powered motors driving lighter but flimsier components for longer periods of time leading to early failure. Integrated designs make it more difficult to replace failed components so it’s cheaper to scrap and replace the broken machine with an even flimsier machine.
   In what real world is this sound?

   1. In the ideological one

      1. Idiotlogical.

9. If any product name or description contains the 3 letters E, C, and O in that order, it’s safe to say they misspelled “crap”.

   1. I avoid anything with eco, emviro amd greem associated with it.

10. Routinely restart the washer after the wash cycle to get 2 rinses to get the soap off. I replaced my cabinets and in the process threw out the dishwasher because I got tired of it effing up. Kids gone and cook very few complex meals. Dishes take five minutes max. Nothing lasts anymore.

11. Widower, living alone.
    My washing machine is a little 10lb/load wash/spin thing from China. 6 years old now, paid for itself in 1st year.
    Only use 2 burners on my ancient electric coil stove, use big toaster oven and store pots and pans in the range oven.
    No dishwasher, but if I ever see a good small countertop one go on sale, I’ll probably get it.
    The west is all eco, so…lead-free solder all over the place, leading to tin whiskers shorting things out.
    China has surpassed much of the west in terms of quality now, as far as appliances are concerned.
    Cookware, knives, well, Taiwan does OK, so does Brazil for stuff that performs 90% as well as German or American stuff costing 3x as much.
    The west is now totally Eloi, many too lazy, decadent or stupid to even brew coffee without one of those stupid pod machines.

12. Manage a multi unit apartment with 200 appliances and other equipment, and can personally attest to this situation.

    Crap software, LED and CPUs replaced hardware like buttons and dials, along with crappy stove burners. oven controllers and leaky dishwashers. The new crop simply does not stand up to use.

    At home have 14 year old GE appliances that have next to zero maintenance, along with buttons and dials washer and dryer. 20+ years old and still going strong.

    Would hate to have to.replace with the new trash currently offered.

13. 2 years ago, I bought a high-end oven, made in Europe. Took 3 months to arrive. When the installer opened the box, 2 of the panes of glass in the door were shattered. Took the supplier 3 weeks to decide to replace the entire oven, rather than just the glass or door.
    The replacement oven took 2 months to arrive. Installed it, turned it on. It ran for literally 3 seconds before crashing. Supplier decided to repair, rather than replace. Keep a long story short, 3 master control boards and one keypad over the next 3 months, they couldn’t get it working. Decide to get a refund, and went with the cheapest,most basic oven available instead….not even a built in clock! It arrived 5 days later, worked when set up, no problems at all, after almost two years.

    1. Prestige is painful.

14. Maytag top loader in my basement. Came with the house 28 years ago. Still works just fine.

15. I actually worked for CAMCO back in the day, when we were transitioning to new refrigerants, new insulations etc.
    Obviously everything was more expensive, the new insulations in the doors and cabinets were less efficient, so doors and side walls had to be thicker to meet more stringent energy requirements. Unless you doubled the steel content, you had to make the door skins and cabinet walls thinner. When I was a kid in what eventually became Mississauga, we had an Admiral plant down the road, an Inglis plant to the north, and several other appliance plants within an hours drive. I had neighbours and relatives working at these places.
    When I left CAMCO in Hamilton, I went to work for one of their suppliers, and travelled to customers in Mississippi, Kentucky, Iowa, Montreal, Ohio, North Carolina, Whirlpool, GE, Frigidaire/ Electrolux, Viking Range, …. None of those factories exist anymore. In particular, GE appliance park in Louisville at one time employed 20,000 people in 7 buildings. GE appliances became MABE, a Mexican company, and they eventually were bought by Haier, a Chinese company. No GE built in NA. Regulations were a major part of what killed 100,000 jobs, only the Chinese could build a refrigerator for less than 3,000 with all the environmental regulations, even the Mexicans were mostly out of it.

16. Huebsch Alliance Laundry Systems manufactures products under the brands Speed Queen, Primus, Huebsch, IPSO, and UniMac, still made in Ripon, Wisconsin.

    Great products and warranties, although I see some digital boards now, our Huebsch washer has a completely mechanical timer and selectors, no electronics. Top load with a real agitator, it’s basically a coin box washer without the coin box..