Built in obsolescence

tony_ack

I've had enough of home appliances breaking down a couple of years after you buy them, conveniently just out of warranty. In the last two years I've had loads of pretty expensive-to-replace items give up on me:

-BOSCH Combi boiler (was quite old to be fair)
Gave up in Autumn 2009, and again in 2010 - was a PCB problem the first time which I replaced myself, and the second time it needed a new pump.

-Computer (2 years old) - kept crashing all the time, traced it to a faulty memory stick (CRUCIAL) which is less than 2 years old

-Fridge (2 yrs old)
One day we realised it wasn't cold any more (compressor still worked though..) Luckily we kept the old one as a drinks fridge, so we didn't have to get it repaired straight away.

-HOTPOINT Washer/drier (4yrs old) This has broken down THREE times - twice the washer and once the drier. Once it was something getting chewed up, but the other 2 times were both electrical problems - one was a faulty cut out switch and the other was a PCB issue (busted capacitor - original was under-rated)

-THOMSON Sky HD box (3 yrs old) - Started to lose signal, random shut downs, lost recordings... turned out to be busted capacitors, because the originals were under-rated

-ONKYO AV receiver (2 yrs old) - takes ages to find an input source and then output it to TV. Getting progressively worse. Did some research and it turns out it's caused by a faulty HDMI board, caused by... busted capacitors

-REDRING Shower (1 yr old) - started to pulse (on/off) when first turned on, got gradually worse until it now pulses once briefly, then off, then nothing. I did some research and it turns out it's a common problem caused by a faulty PCB, and replacements are £20-odd... So I had a thought... I had a look at the PCB... surely it couldn't be... yep, it is - BUSTED CAPACITORS!

It wouldn't be so bad if these items were 5-10 years old, but most of them were pretty new. And what makes it worse is that many are caused by the same problem.

I'd like to say it was sloppy design, but some of these are big companies with solid reputations. One off-day would be understandable, but not several from different companies.

So maybe it's cost-cutting. Well, perhaps not. I've just bought a pack of 20 higher-rated capacitors off eBay to fix the AV receiver, and to be honest there are enough there to fix the AV receiver and shower twice over. They cost me £1.45 for 20, delivered.

There are many areas in product design where costs are cut, and a lot of them don't affect the functionality and reliability of the product too adversely. But by introducing poor quality base electrical components you are drastically reducing the lifespan of the product.

Which makes me think it's all a con to make us buy products more often than we would otherwise. Planned obsolescence is no secret - plenty of companies do what they can to make you buy a new product while the old one is still fit for purpose, but the way that components appear to be designed deliberately to fail is dirty. What makes it worse is that the 'capacitor' trick seems to be the standard way of achieving this.

Many people would usually 'get a man in' to fix a faulty appliance, and by the time you add up labour and parts, you start wondering '...would it be worth just buying a new one?' Sometimes when you take it on yourself to replace faulty circuit boards, companies make it difficult to get the parts, either because they don't sell to the 'public', the parts are no longer (or were never) available or they are outrageously priced (a replacement PCB for the Onkyo is almost the same price as a whole new AV receiver - and this is only a small 'daughterboard', not the main PCB...)

So I've invested in a soldering iron. No need to replace the PCB, just the component that's failed, with a better one.

It is actually illegal to engineer products to deliberately fail in the UK, but I guess it's pretty hard to prove that companies are doing this

On a related topic... does anyone else think that the build quality on new cars today is worse than that of new cars 10-15 years ago? No wonder we needed a scrappage scheme to get old cars off the road. Oh well, at least it looks like the car industry has learnt its lesson (don't build cars that will last so long!)

fluffnutter

Perhaps things are simply more sophisticated, and hence vulnerable to failure? In the old days when you harvested your barley with your scythe, chances are, unless the head fell off the handle, you'd be using the same scythe that your dad, and grandad, and grandad's dad used. Your all-singing, all-dancing combine harvester ain't gonna last 4 generations. But it will get the job done quicker whilst it works. Swings and roundabouts innit.

lincroft1710

It would be interesting to find out what part of the world all these appliances were made in.

vyle

Well for some of the things, simply buy from places that offer longer warranties, then they're failing within warranty.

for other stuff like the thomson sky box...well....there's a reason I refuse to sell thomson stuff. It ALWAYS gets returned. They're one of the worst manufacturers about. Pace are pretty close in terms of crappiness. Even an old man I know who used to be a philips engineer and is philips to the core agreed that somebody would be insane to pick up one of philips' pace boxes.

So in summary: If stuff keeps failing outside of warranty, either buy from somewhere that offers longer warranties (John lewis, sony centre, Richer sounds (for a pretty small extra cost)) or buy better quality goods, or both.

lilac_lady

I believe that they're testing a compnent for people who are past their warrenty too! Pot luck!

PlutoinCapricorn

My Sony TV lasted 25 years; the Samsung replacement will be 5 soon.

My fridge/freezer is 13; my laptop and allin1 printer are 5 3/4 years old.

I have never needed any repairs, apart from when I damaged my laptop myself.

Even my cheap plastic vacuum cleaner has run for 3 years.

Perhaps I have just been lucky.

lidlest

My mum's tumble dryer (was my nans) 17 years and counting - My tumble dryer, 3rd one in 10 years.

My mum's cooker - 20 years and only needed new battery thingy - My cooker 3rd one in 10 years.

My dad's record player/tabe deck stereo thing still going strong (got to be 30 years old? ) my ipod keeps breaking and needing repair

The video recorder from gawd knows when still works and I can't count how many DVD players i've gone through.

3 playstations, 2 Wiis, 3 TVs, and 5 computers (in 10 years).

Built in obsolescence seems real to me, nothing lasts anymore

vyle

Ahhh ipods, for people who still believe apple when they say "It just works."

I must admit, I'm on my second wii (the first lasted a week) and second xbox360 (first lasted five years and was a second hand launch model, so can;t complain).

I've only been in my flat 2 years, but all the appliances I got with it are still going strong and all have five year warranties, so I'm not too concerned if anything happens to them.

grayme-m

tony_ack wrote: »

-HOTPOINT Washer/drier (4yrs old) This has broken down THREE times - twice the washer and once the drier. Once it was something getting chewed up, but the other 2 times were both electrical problems - one was a faulty cut out switch and the other was a PCB issue (busted capacitor - original was under-rated)

Just three times? :rotfl:

Ours had two new glass doors, two new sets of bearings, new PCB, new fixings to put the concrete block back, and many more issues.

I once booked the engineer out and asked for him to come the week after too as it would go wrong again (they wouldn't, but it did).

In the end I got the engineer to convince them to swap it over for a new washing machine (no drier).

Seems you were lucky!

Helix

tony_ack wrote: »

-Computer (2 years old) - kept crashing all the time, traced it to a faulty memory stick (CRUCIAL) which is less than 2 years old

Crucial offer a lifetime warranty on all their products (except SSDs), so why didn't you just get the faulty stick replaced.