Why does new equipment fail early

rustyboy21

Quizzical_Squirrel wrote: »

I'm comparing this to my parents' sofa which was bought in the 1960s, my sister's in 1979. Both still in use every day and my sister is very wealthy so replacement cost isn't an issue.

I can beat that. I have in my rear lounge a 3 seater sofa and 2 chairs, which my Dad's mum bought from Blackler's in Liverpool in 1935 ! It has been recovered Umpteen times, new base cushions and is still going strong.


I can't get rid of it. My Dad used to ask every time I saw him if I still had it and don't get rid of it. I know for a fact I was born on it, as well as 3 other family members !


I want to get rid of it, but feel guilty. My Dad will come back and Haunt me, I know! lol

googler

I'm still using Cassette Decks that I bought in the 1980s, and the Revox reel-to-reel recorder that I bought in 1978.

The loudspeakers that I bought in the early 1980s would have still been going strong if the foam surrounds hadn't decayed two or three years back....

My turntable dates from the late 1980s too.

Nilrem

Mankysteve wrote: »

Planed obsolescence as others have said

Partly, although also people don't seem to realise that if they have the choice between two machines that appear to be the same spec and one is much higher priced than the other, the higher priced one may be using metal parts rather than plastic, and go for the cheaper one.

I remember a fairly common problem with PS1 or 2's where the laser stopped working properly, and people found it could still work if they hung it upside down.
IIRC it was a very minor change in the design from the early batches to later ones, they replaced a metal shim that the laser arm moved over, to a nylon one.
The nylon ended up wearing out (you'd get a concave groove along the middle of it where it had the most wear, and the servo driving the arm couldn't cope with it sticking), and by turning the console upside down you eliminated that issue.
Not planned obsolescence (it cost Sony for almost every PS2 in subsidised hardware), but a very simple part change to reduce manufacturing costs by a fraction of a penny a unit.

That sort of thing is quite common with now, as people really don't like paying even an extra tenner for something unless it has an "added feature"
It's a little like my first DVD player (a much loved Toshiba 220E), lasted me about 10 years and many thousands of hours of use before it's power supply started dying (the symptoms were obvious, as the motor would rev up/down in a regular pattern - it was probably a single dud capacitor*).
In the same time frame some of my friends/family went through 3 or 4 cheaper models that cost half as much because their drive mechanisms weren't as well made

You see the same sort of thing with a lot of stuff, plastic is cheaper to handle/shape than metal, so gears that used to be metal are now plastic, and wear out in a fraction of the time, because people want their devices cheaper and lighter


On the flip side, with most white goods you can still do some repairs to keep them going if you're willing to do some research**, things like heating elements on tumble dryers and cookers are often available cheap (I think it cost me £15 to replace the heating element on our last dryer, which kept it going for another 4 years until the bearings died aged 10 and masses of use).
The problem is, that a tech/repairman can cost £50-75 to look at the items, and that means that if the thing is only worth a couple of hundred new, most people won't do it.


*I wasn't going to muck around with the mains side of things on a device without a wiring diagram or at least a guide as to the likely fault, not for the sake of something that, at that point could be replaced very cheaply.
I did however repair a pair of very nice Dell widescreen LCD's for about £5, they had a common known fault on the incoming tuner with a pair of capacitors that would die after about 4 years (if I had taken them to a tech it would likely have cost me £50-100 as it takes a fair chunk of time to dismantle and reassemble them).

**I've got our old washing machine in the garage as it broke down (first thought was that the belt had died as the symptoms suggested that, and i replaced it), when I get the chance I'm going to have a look at it, as I suspect it's either a bad joint on one of the wires, or the control board, if it's the control board I can't do anything, but a bad joint/loose wire is relatively easy to deal with (just time consuming and I didn't have the time to take to look at it when it died, so we had to get a new one, if I can fix it, this'll go as a spare or to friends)

yangptangkipperbang

50Twuncle wrote: »

– things are not designed to last these days................................Why – Surely with resources running out and technology improving – things SHOULD be made to last longer than previously ?

There is absolutely no point in a manufacturer making something to last longer - inevitably at a higher cost.

"Fashion" dictates that the vast majority of equipment is replaced long before the end of its working life. Why make an iPhone that will last ten years ? It only has to last 18 months until the next model comes out.

Most people don't want a 30 year old fridge in their kitchen - especially when the new neighbours visit for the first time
A 20 year old TV in the lounge ???

cyclonebri1

The other factor is repair costs.
The cost of repair of even a decent piece of kit becomes unsustainable due to labour costs, in effect we want to much £ to repair them. Compared to the original build costs in say china, malaysia, mexico etc, it's a no brainer.

They become throw away items, even as far as cars.

You know we thing we are in recovery economicaly, and we may well be but just consider what will happen if south america and africa ever get into gear??????????