this post was submitted on 23 Dec 2023
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There's a confirmation bias aspect to this. There were a lot of things made in the 70s that did not keep working for fifty years. You don't think of them because they're already broken down for parts, recycled or buried in a landfill. There are some things that have kept working only because someone put regular care and maintenance into them.
There are a lot things made today that won't make it fifty years from now. There are some things that will.
If disposable culture concerns you, learn how to repair things (clothes, kitchen appliances, furniture, electronics, etc) and buy things that can be repaired (like the Framework laptop).
But that's something that I witnessed change since the 80's and makes the electronic crappier, it's the fact that appliances in the 70's-90's were incredibly easy to fix. It was not rare for the manufacturer to even give schematics in the user's manual. There were shops to repair stuff everywhere and it was something approachable by anyone who could hold a soldering iron.
They also had a far higher price. This changed the effective disposability. E.g. you likely wouldn't pay $500 to fix a $400 washing machine. If it were a $10,000 washing machine, it's more reasonable.
This is why TV repair shops disappeared. TVs got cheap enough that the labour cost would outweigh the replacement cost. I recently fixed a TV with a dodgy backlight. The parts cost £12, but it took me a few hours. If my time was factored in, in a business manner (including accounting for downtime, profit ,and expenses) it would have been over 75% of the replacement cost.
Also, a lot of newer features add complexity and make for more difficult repairs.
Eh, not really. If anything it's easier because all you have to do is swap out circuit boards instead of soldering in new parts.
This. I had a winterized display (leaky roof inspired water damage) and replaced a board and fixed it. Took about 20 min including the time to disassemble the tv itself. $20.
The research to figure out what components caused the problem was significant, however. Because tv repair isn’t a thing anymore even tho it absolutely should be.
FWIW I think this is technically survivorship bias, not confirmation bias (but maybe the latter is a form of the former?)
I do agree, there is probably a lot of shit from the 70s that stopped working early on. On the other hand, I do feel like planned obsolescence is a thing. Look at Instant Pot. They're going bankrupt because everyone already owns an Instant Pot and they all still work.
https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2023/06/instant-pot-bankrupt-private-equity/674414/
The problem in my eyes the failure is in the private equity firm that bought them trying to draw blood from a stone, not the Instant Pot.
Yes, they came out with a 1000 SKU's and over extended themselves to flood the market with the instapot brand. I saw an instapot coffee maker.
Being built to be maintainable and parts shops being common also helped a lot of those things be maintained as well. They didn't even need to be as robust when replacing a part or two was cheap and easy. Now the issue is hard to identify due to complexity and finding replacement parts is so expensive or time consuming that just replacing it is less of a hassle.
Like I did basic maintenance for bearings and belts on a knob and switch only washer we bought in 2004. It lasted for almost 20 years with one service call to replace water seals because I didn't trust myself to get it right. Now we have a 3 year old front loading washer with a bunch of bells and whistles that have already stopped working shortly after the warranty expired that makes horrible noises which I won't work on because everything is a pain to get to and they are just way too complex.
Especially if it's a Samsung, I bet it's the "spider arm" and that the horrible noises are the fractured chunks of metal banging against each other when it tries to spin the drum.
Every fucking water-exposed part in those things is immaculate stainless steel, except for the spider arm which is blatantly designed to corrode to death just as the warranty ends.
Most appliances are not easy to fix because its just a circuit board connected to a machinary, unlike appliances of the past which had mechanical components.
Now, knobs and buttons are replaced by a touchscreen and good luck fixing that on your own.
I remember when one of our local publications asked their readers "what kind of old appliances you still have around at home that you use regularly?" and the article was flooded with photos of 1970s kitchen appliances. Well duh, of course those still work, if you take them out of the cupboard once a year to bake a cake or whatever.