<story><title>They Used To Last 50 Years</title><url>http://recraigslist.com/2015/10/they-used-to-last-50-years/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>psadauskas</author><text>&amp;quot;The only explanation...&amp;quot;? What about &amp;quot;never attribute to malice...&amp;quot; and Occam&amp;#x27;s Razor.&lt;p&gt;I think a more likely explanation is that in the majority of cases when shopping for an appliance and your choices are a $1500 one and a $2000 one, you buy the cheaper one. This forces manufacturers to compete on price, and to cut costs wherever possible to remain profitable.&lt;p&gt;Additionally, I just spent 30 seconds googling and a washer&amp;#x2F;dryer set cost $495 in 1953, which is ~$4500 in today&amp;#x27;s buying power. You can buy a cheap washer&amp;#x2F;dryer set these days for $500 on sale, which is pretty incredible. I don&amp;#x27;t know what super heavy duty high end washer&amp;#x2F;dryer you could get these days for $4500, but I bet you could find one that would last 50 years.</text></item><item><author>prodmerc</author><text>I&amp;#x27;ve worked on hundreds of domestic appliances.&lt;p&gt;Newer ones from any manufacturer are indeed failing more often, and are designed worse.&lt;p&gt;The only explanation is that this is on purpose - just like cars or laptops or smartphones, they are designed to fail faster so you buy new ones. Planned obsolescence, plain and simple.&lt;p&gt;The best appliances today, by the way, are made by Bosch&amp;#x2F;Siemens and Miele. None of the other manufacturers come close, period.&lt;p&gt;Interestingly, the high-end machines from Bosch&amp;#x2F;Siemens made in Germany are higher quality than the ones made in Poland, China, Spain or Turkey.&lt;p&gt;Same design, but it seems they use lower quality electronics and metals, as the most common failures are with the motors, control boards and bearings.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>M_Grey</author><text>Well that, and a home appliance doesn&amp;#x27;t cost 1&amp;#x2F;7th of your annual budget anymore. Some things were built to last because to justify the expense, they &lt;i&gt;had&lt;/i&gt; to last.&lt;p&gt;James May (unusually) made a very good point that the &amp;quot;good old days&amp;quot; is an illusion created by survivorship bias, nostalgia, and failure to understand economics. The survivorship bias especially should be obvious:&lt;p&gt;Lots of cheap crap was made throughout the years, but it &lt;i&gt;didn&amp;#x27;t survive&lt;/i&gt;. We only have examples of the stuff that managed to survive, or was notable in some way. The $50 Smartphone equivalent of the 50&amp;#x27;s was no more notable than today&amp;#x27;s version, and no more long-lasting.</text></comment>
<story><title>They Used To Last 50 Years</title><url>http://recraigslist.com/2015/10/they-used-to-last-50-years/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>psadauskas</author><text>&amp;quot;The only explanation...&amp;quot;? What about &amp;quot;never attribute to malice...&amp;quot; and Occam&amp;#x27;s Razor.&lt;p&gt;I think a more likely explanation is that in the majority of cases when shopping for an appliance and your choices are a $1500 one and a $2000 one, you buy the cheaper one. This forces manufacturers to compete on price, and to cut costs wherever possible to remain profitable.&lt;p&gt;Additionally, I just spent 30 seconds googling and a washer&amp;#x2F;dryer set cost $495 in 1953, which is ~$4500 in today&amp;#x27;s buying power. You can buy a cheap washer&amp;#x2F;dryer set these days for $500 on sale, which is pretty incredible. I don&amp;#x27;t know what super heavy duty high end washer&amp;#x2F;dryer you could get these days for $4500, but I bet you could find one that would last 50 years.</text></item><item><author>prodmerc</author><text>I&amp;#x27;ve worked on hundreds of domestic appliances.&lt;p&gt;Newer ones from any manufacturer are indeed failing more often, and are designed worse.&lt;p&gt;The only explanation is that this is on purpose - just like cars or laptops or smartphones, they are designed to fail faster so you buy new ones. Planned obsolescence, plain and simple.&lt;p&gt;The best appliances today, by the way, are made by Bosch&amp;#x2F;Siemens and Miele. None of the other manufacturers come close, period.&lt;p&gt;Interestingly, the high-end machines from Bosch&amp;#x2F;Siemens made in Germany are higher quality than the ones made in Poland, China, Spain or Turkey.&lt;p&gt;Same design, but it seems they use lower quality electronics and metals, as the most common failures are with the motors, control boards and bearings.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>gcb0</author><text>don&amp;#x27;t look any further,  I bought a 3k washer and dryer combination from LG 4 years ago. It boasted a ten year warranty!&lt;p&gt;the paint, drum, motor, finish,  everything looks like new. But, the controller board burned.&lt;p&gt;I know my way around electronics, mind you, I can see exactly what is wrong (burned transformer), but the whole board is covered in some gelatin that makes any repair impossible.&lt;p&gt;the power input board is also water proofed with the usual epoxy that you can chip away and do your repair. but the controller board gelatin thing makes it impossible!&lt;p&gt;oh, and that board not only is NOT covered by the ten year warranty (only the drum and motor)  but not a single place carry it. even LG cannot provide me that part for any money in the world. discontinued they say. after 4 years.&lt;p&gt;if anyone want to pick it up and drive the pristine electronics with an Arduino, msg me. machine is in socal though.</text></comment>