Stuff these days don't last
Only got 4.5 yr out of our microwave. It just quit. Ordered a new one from Walmart.. same large size 1000 watt less than 50 bucks shipped to the door. How in the world can they produce these, sell them to a store and still make something??
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Our's is going on 20 years! Snowblower 35 years, refer 25, riding mower 20 and the first wife 53 
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I have shoes I bought 20 years ago that are still fine, and shoes I bought in 2018 that have only lasted a year so far. 0 -
throw away items only built to last a couple years then you have to replace it .
as far as price I have comment to my wife many times . I can go on line find some Chinese supplier and buy and have a item shipped free for less than the shipping cost or close to one being sold in the USA . my guess why... just above slave labor in production from raw material to finished product cost huge incentives from there country when selling and of course the old deal they made with the us post office made many years ago to help a struggling country ( dirt cheap )
we had a microwave bit the dust a few years old , I was going to buy a new one the wife reminded me we had the old one in the basement at least 15 to 20 years old dug it out still working like the day we retired it to replace it with a new one
same with tools I have power tools 30 to 40+ years old that still preform as they did they day they were made . not so much with newer similar items
I am sure growing up like a lot of you , we had to make things last and keeping them repaired with replacement parts was a given . now just try and find a replacement part that does not cost as much as the item its self .
I hate tossing anything but newer items its a given :x :x
remember the old days going to any local store with a hand full of tv / radio tubes check them out buy replacements if needed and back in business or the TV repair man coming to your house replace a resistor or tube maybe resolder a connection 25 to 30 bucks ( a lot back then ) in high-school I took over the repairs at home on such items
I still repair upgrade , build and even upkeep every thing we have from the house to the car and all in between . until it comes to some new POS item that just a throw away item even then I will give it a shot at repair nothing too loose0 -
You can't get repair parts for a lot of things these days, or find someone knowledgeable to repair them. I had a microwave fail a couple of years ago and it was way cheaper to junk it and replace it. 0 -
Just got a Frigidaire SxS delivered today to replace my 12yr old GE. $1300 and only a 1yr warranty? Almost identical to the old GE, but no where near the quality. 0 -
Everything is cheap, poorly made crap nowdays. Crap crap crap. There is no two ways about it. There has been a race to the bottom to keep consumers in the United States happy. It is very hard to find something well made now, especially if it has any sort of electrical control or electric motor. Crap crap crap. I could literally rant about this all night. Parts for household appliances as someone said, cost prohibitive to put them in and they are as crappy as the original. We had a dishwasher, think it was about $300-400 new, worked for a year or two, control board went out and so I replaced it, think it was like $125 Then around a year or so later it quit again, again. So we just went and bought a new one since it was like only another $200 to get a brand new one, which we did get a different brand. Tools, crap, electronics, crap, phones, crap, car and farm equipment parts, crap, childrens toys, crap, crap, crap....crap crap crappity crap and I am pretty much ashamed of the world we live in.0 -
Yes, the small appliance repair business shops are like hens teeth to find cause they are disposable items anymore. Razors are throw away. Micros, yes they are. TV's yes sir. Computers mostly outdated when they go bad but when you buy a new one it is already the "old" model. I have trouble with light bulbs lasting the years they proclaim. My two year old freezer went bad. Had a bout half full of stuff. :oops: 0 -
We did it to ourselves. Car, tractor, plumbing, appliance parts, you can't find any made in USA. They all get here in those Conex containers from "The land of almost right." I have even found black iron pipe fittings that came without threads. Like stated before it's mostly crap, crap crap. 0 -
I must just be lucky. I don't have very many problems with the stuff I buy today. I research it and I don't buy the cheap stuff.
Cars and trucks are twice or three times as reliable today as they were back in the old days. The majority of vehicle engines are good for 300,000 miles these day. You don't even need to change spark plugs until over 100,000 miles. A lot of old cars were smoking and needed an overhaul before 100,000 miles especially the 6 cylinder engines. Most all car engines today are 4 or 6 cylinder engines.
Some tires today would outlast a car back in the old days. The Michelin tires on my Hyundai are 90,000 mile tires.
You almost never hear of anyone needing an alternator, radiator or water pump anymore. When is the last time you saw an alternator shop or a radiator shop. They are few and far between these days.
The last refrigerator I bought was back in 1995 and it's never had a problem. Our Maytag Washer and Dryer have been going since 2003 with only one belt replacement on the dryer and they make it easy to replace the belt on a Maytag dryer. I replaced the belt on a Hotpoint dryer back in the early 70s that required tearing the entire dryer apart to get to it. Pulling a car engine was easier than working on that dryer.
We bought a large LCD flat screen TV 5 years ago on sale for $498 at Walmart that's as sharp today as it was 5 years ago with no problems. Every TV I had back in the 60s and 70s had to have tubes replaced every few years. The damn screens would start rolling and flipping and you couldn't get them to stop or you get a blank screen with snow. So you pull the tubes out and take the bag full of tubes over to Five Points Drug Store in town and use their tester to see which one was the problem. And it almost always just happens to be the one tube that they're out of. So you have to go searching all over town to find one or wait for them to order one which always took at least a week.
Just about everything made today is better than back in the "GOOD OLD DAYS" which was BS. When it came to mechanical or electrical stuff there were no good old days. I was there and I remember that crap.0 -
my microwave and washing machine were bought in 1984. the dryer was bought also, but replaced in 1989... still going strong 0 -
I will agree with smitty on one point the cars do out last the old ones ( as for style and looks well that's a different topic ) I remember as stated 100k miles no one would touch a car unless it was dirt cheap and they had no other choice . technology has helped in material and tolerances in a lot of things . I worked at a car manufacturing company ( engine division for 26 years . it was amazing how tight the tolerances were kept in machining and assembly even the bearings were measured in microns to get the best possible fit on each journal on the crank and rods just part of why they run so much longer . suppliers were held to tight tolerances on any part supplied or they were rejected
as for other items most are just disposable and reflected in the cost . my memory is not all that great on TV's but it seems I can go buy a flat large screen ( compared to the 21 " of days gone by for less than what was paid back in the 70"s
found this and copied part of the article for fun
"In the early 1970s a good, 21-inch console color television might cost you $500. In today's money that would be around $3300. A good tabletop set might be $350, or about $2200 today. Neither set would offer remote control, nor anything close to high definition and certainly not high dynamic range. Its limited user controls might include Color and Tint, which were invariably set wrong by either the manufacturer or the user, and horizontal and vertical tint controls to keep the picture from rolling or tearing"0 -
late 60's drove over to the neighbors one eve to see the first color tv....oh WOW.... 0 -
Good post, but the EPA requirements have made somethings no as good. Diesel engines are more troublesome along with any 2 stroke engines. They just went to far to fast, but eventually they will get these rightSmitty500mag wrote:I must just be lucky. I don't have very many problems with the stuff I buy today. I research it and I don't buy the cheap stuff.
Cars and trucks are twice or three times as reliable today as they were back in the old days. The majority of vehicle engines are good for 300,000 miles these day. You don't even need to change spark plugs until over 100,000 miles. A lot of old cars were smoking and needed an overhaul before 100,000 miles especially the 6 cylinder engines. Most all car engines today are 4 or 6 cylinder engines.
Some tires today would outlast a car back in the old days. The Michelin tires on my Hyundai are 90,000 mile tires.
You almost never hear of anyone needing an alternator, radiator or water pump anymore. When is the last time you saw an alternator shop or a radiator shop. They are few and far between these days.
The last refrigerator I bought was back in 1995 and it's never had a problem. Our Maytag Washer and Dryer have been going since 2003 with only one belt replacement on the dryer and they make it easy to replace the belt on a Maytag dryer. I replaced the belt on a Hotpoint dryer back in the early 70s that required tearing the entire dryer apart to get to it. Pulling a car engine was easier than working on that dryer.
We bought a large LCD flat screen TV 5 years ago on sale for $498 at Walmart that's as sharp today as it was 5 years ago with no problems. Every TV I had back in the 60s and 70s had to have tubes replaced every few years. The damn screens would start rolling and flipping and you couldn't get them to stop or you get a blank screen with snow. So you pull the tubes out and take the bag full of tubes over to Five Points Drug Store in town and use their tester to see which one was the problem. And it almost always just happens to be the one tube that they're out of. So you have to go searching all over town to find one or wait for them to order one which always took at least a week.
Just about everything made today is better than back in the "GOOD OLD DAYS" which was BS. When it came to mechanical or electrical stuff there were no good old days. I was there and I remember that crap.0 -
It's called "Planned obsolescence", designed and built to fail at a certain point in time. 0 -
It's a two-pronged fork. Technology has made a lot of things many times more reliable, but countering that is the ever-shrill cry of "I want it cheaper!"
They can make it better or cheaper, but not both. Choose the wrong one and you're...well, forked.0 -
Smitty500mag wrote:I must just be lucky. I don't have very many problems with the stuff I buy today. I research it and I don't buy the cheap stuff.
Cars and trucks are twice or three times as reliable today as they were back in the old days. The majority of vehicle engines are good for 300,000 miles these day. You don't even need to change spark plugs until over 100,000 miles. A lot of old cars were smoking and needed an overhaul before 100,000 miles especially the 6 cylinder engines. Most all car engines today are 4 or 6 cylinder engines.
Some tires today would outlast a car back in the old days. The Michelin tires on my Hyundai are 90,000 mile tires.
You almost never hear of anyone needing an alternator, radiator or water pump anymore. When is the last time you saw an alternator shop or a radiator shop. They are few and far between these days.
The last refrigerator I bought was back in 1995 and it's never had a problem. Our Maytag Washer and Dryer have been going since 2003 with only one belt replacement on the dryer and they make it easy to replace the belt on a Maytag dryer. I replaced the belt on a Hotpoint dryer back in the early 70s that required tearing the entire dryer apart to get to it. Pulling a car engine was easier than working on that dryer.
We bought a large LCD flat screen TV 5 years ago on sale for $498 at Walmart that's as sharp today as it was 5 years ago with no problems. Every TV I had back in the 60s and 70s had to have tubes replaced every few years. The damn screens would start rolling and flipping and you couldn't get them to stop or you get a blank screen with snow. So you pull the tubes out and take the bag full of tubes over to Five Points Drug Store in town and use their tester to see which one was the problem. And it almost always just happens to be the one tube that they're out of. So you have to go searching all over town to find one or wait for them to order one which always took at least a week.
Just about everything made today is better than back in the "GOOD OLD DAYS" which was BS. When it came to mechanical or electrical stuff there were no good old days. I was there and I remember that crap.0 -
microwave new in 1984 still using riding lawnmore mtd 1999, ford 150 1994, 0
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