<story><title>An Antique Toaster That&apos;s Better Than Today’s [video]</title><url>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1OfxlSG6q5Y</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>denton-scratch</author><text>Toasters do not all &amp;quot;work well enough&amp;quot;. Shout if you have a toaster that you bought less than 5 years ago, that is still working. I think they&amp;#x27;re supposed to start failing after a year or two.&lt;p&gt;[Edit: if it&amp;#x27;s older than ten years, say how old - they made them better back in the olden daze]&lt;p&gt;These devices are sold for ten euros&amp;#x2F;dollars, or so. You really can&amp;#x27;t do good product design to that sort of price point. People expect to have to &amp;quot;recycle&amp;quot; them.&lt;p&gt;I bought a toaster for which you can order replacement heater elements, or a new timer. You can dismantle it and reassemble it with a normal electrician&amp;#x27;s screwdriver. The timer is clockwork.  The whole thing&amp;#x27;s very steampunk.&lt;p&gt;It cost about 8 times as much as a &amp;quot;disposable&amp;quot; toaster. I don&amp;#x27;t know if it was a good deal; I&amp;#x27;ll tell you in a few decades. But if I don&amp;#x27;t have to bother with replacing it, from my POV that will be money well-spent; I&amp;#x27;m sick of replacing  stuff that should still be working. I&amp;#x27;m sick of &amp;quot;hardware&amp;quot; that&amp;#x27;s really made of tissue-paper. And I&amp;#x27;m sick of furniture that&amp;#x27;s made of wood-chips.&lt;p&gt;&amp;lt;&amp;#x2F;rant&amp;gt;</text></item><item><author>tompccs</author><text>There&amp;#x27;s a simple reason why this toaster was discontinued, and that&amp;#x27;s because it can&amp;#x27;t be made from commodity components which are used by all toaster manufacturers, as well as in a variety of other domestic appliances.&lt;p&gt;Plus, assembly looks quite intricate and probably highly manual.&lt;p&gt;It&amp;#x27;s beautiful, sure, but go and buy a toaster today and see how much premium people are willing to pay for a designer brand with no functional advantage.&lt;p&gt;Sadly toasters all work &amp;quot;well enough&amp;quot;. This is a textbook example of great engineering being trumped by globalised economics and fickle consumers.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>ImprovedSilence</author><text>Right.  It’s unreal how hard it is to find decent shit built to last, and don’t tell me I’m not willing to pay a premium for it, because I am willing.  What I don’t like buying is shit branded as upscale high quality that is really the same garbage underneath.&lt;p&gt;I’m sure there a number of different elements at play here, but one aspect I’ve seen happen time and again is private equity buying out a company and using that strong brand to make progressively shittier and shittier goods, for the same or higher price, while still retaining enough critical mass mindshare that the brand is still “quality”.</text></comment>
<story><title>An Antique Toaster That&apos;s Better Than Today’s [video]</title><url>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1OfxlSG6q5Y</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>denton-scratch</author><text>Toasters do not all &amp;quot;work well enough&amp;quot;. Shout if you have a toaster that you bought less than 5 years ago, that is still working. I think they&amp;#x27;re supposed to start failing after a year or two.&lt;p&gt;[Edit: if it&amp;#x27;s older than ten years, say how old - they made them better back in the olden daze]&lt;p&gt;These devices are sold for ten euros&amp;#x2F;dollars, or so. You really can&amp;#x27;t do good product design to that sort of price point. People expect to have to &amp;quot;recycle&amp;quot; them.&lt;p&gt;I bought a toaster for which you can order replacement heater elements, or a new timer. You can dismantle it and reassemble it with a normal electrician&amp;#x27;s screwdriver. The timer is clockwork.  The whole thing&amp;#x27;s very steampunk.&lt;p&gt;It cost about 8 times as much as a &amp;quot;disposable&amp;quot; toaster. I don&amp;#x27;t know if it was a good deal; I&amp;#x27;ll tell you in a few decades. But if I don&amp;#x27;t have to bother with replacing it, from my POV that will be money well-spent; I&amp;#x27;m sick of replacing  stuff that should still be working. I&amp;#x27;m sick of &amp;quot;hardware&amp;quot; that&amp;#x27;s really made of tissue-paper. And I&amp;#x27;m sick of furniture that&amp;#x27;s made of wood-chips.&lt;p&gt;&amp;lt;&amp;#x2F;rant&amp;gt;</text></item><item><author>tompccs</author><text>There&amp;#x27;s a simple reason why this toaster was discontinued, and that&amp;#x27;s because it can&amp;#x27;t be made from commodity components which are used by all toaster manufacturers, as well as in a variety of other domestic appliances.&lt;p&gt;Plus, assembly looks quite intricate and probably highly manual.&lt;p&gt;It&amp;#x27;s beautiful, sure, but go and buy a toaster today and see how much premium people are willing to pay for a designer brand with no functional advantage.&lt;p&gt;Sadly toasters all work &amp;quot;well enough&amp;quot;. This is a textbook example of great engineering being trumped by globalised economics and fickle consumers.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>nextos</author><text>What you are saying is sadly the reality today within most product categories.&lt;p&gt;For example, go to a totally different category: clothing.&lt;p&gt;In the great age of US sports clothing, tees were slowly knitted by machines called loopwheelers. E.g. tees from Champion.&lt;p&gt;These days, they are crap. If you want a nice tee that will age well and last really long, you need to buy from some Japanese brands that try to imitate old Champion tees. The price is really high, and you&amp;#x27;d most likely need to import or buy from a high end shop.&lt;p&gt;I try to buy good stuff that lasts ages. I don&amp;#x27;t care paying a big premium. I try to live with around 100 items. But its really hard.</text></comment>