Rant: Modern household appliances are of poorer quality

[westcliffe01]

The ice makers take up quite a bit of space in new refrigerators so we have opted to buy models without ice makers and benefit from the extra space in the freezer. We make ice the old fashioned way and are never wanting for ice. The more crap you add to your appliances, the more there is to go wrong. A further point is that I suspect the newer refrigerators can be more easily be damaged by rodents than the older models. the newest double door one we bought for over $1100 has just a piece of cardboard underneath. A mouse would be through there and into the "guts" where there are control boards and wires running everywhere in a matter of minutes. I know this because the previous one we bought for a second house was even more expensive, that one did have a very thin steel sheet covering the bottom but still had plenty openings big enough to let mice in and that house had plenty mice. During the fall mouse migration we would be trapping up to 12 mice a day at strategic points that we knew they would emerge from in search of water. I had a couple of families move into that refrigerator and so there was finally a great purge after which I added some woven steel mesh to key points to lower the entry and it seems to have worked. The mice can still hide underneath the fridge but not get inside it...

 

[2manyrocks]

When they delivered the new refrigerator last month, I thought they had left some of the shipping cardboard on the bottom. Turns out, that thin piece of cardboard is supposed to stay in place for airflow. Then the thing ran for over 12 hours to cool down, and I was not impressed with the loudness compared to the old one we had.

 

[dodge man]

If you take a refigerator, place it in a small insulated space, turn it on high with the doors open, that space will become warmer, not colder.

Kind of like putting a dehumidifier and a humidifier in the same room and letting them fight it out.

 

[CADplans]

There is zero chance that today's appliances are of poorer quality.

In fact, the appliances are of FAR SUPERIOR quality, and all the comments in this thread prove it!!

Poor quality is when a failure occurs due to a missed assembly on a Friday after 3PM.
Once in a while that happens.

These new appliances are being produced with "Planned Obsolescence"!
This is demonstrated by how many of them are failing,, exactly as designed, and planned.

 

[tom3]

And repairs are about impossible. Neighbor had a couple year old Whirlpool front load washer, big unit with all the bells and whistles, not cheap. Plastic start button quit working. Tore it apart (youtube helped a lot) and found there is a small plastic rod on the back of the button that hits a micro switch had broke off the button. 89 cent part. No such thing, have to buy the whole circuit assembly for $400. We got some JBweld & rigged up a fix. And about any new fridge has a built in water filter, specific design, replace every six months, $60 item - but get a subscription and it's 10% off. Real deal there. And nothing on a TV these days is fixable, just toss it and buy a new one.

 

[tom3]

Fridges aren't heaters, so yes, if you have the thermostat in the fridge set to 40, and your garage is 0F, the fridge will never come on, and eventually, it, and anything in it will get to 0F.

I put a night light in our garage fridge, 7 watt filament bulb. Makes just enough heat to make it kick on some. This fridge was listed as good for an unheated garage too, just a come on apparently.

 

[check]

Anybody price the cost of a replacement plastic vegetable crisper drawer for a refrigerator? YIKES!

Yup - $100 each! We keep cracking them by jamming too much stuff in.

 

[JethroB]

With all the electronics in appliances I put little cube surge suppressors ($10) on them. On more expensive items such as StarLink internet equipment or PC’s I use a small UPS ($50).

Amazon.com

 

[MossRoad]

Yup - $100 each! We keep cracking them by jamming too much stuff in.

Ours got cracked when it was left extended out a bit and someone (might or might not have been me ) closed the door on it.

I wonder if I could buy a 3D printer large enough to print these drawers, and make a side business selling replacement drawers. That's how expensive they are!

 

[MossRoad]

With all the electronics in appliances I put little cube surge suppressors ($10) on them. On more expensive items such as StarLink internet equipment or PC’s I use a small UPS ($50).

Amazon.com

A whole house surge protector is less than $200.

 

[not2old]

The automatic popup lid on our deli drawer broke, first one side and sometime later the other. Some JB Weld and stainless screws and it's been fine for several years.

 

[Cougsfan]

Regarding old appliances; When my Dad was a young man he had a job delivering ice house to house so people could replenish their ice box. When I was growing up he always referred to our refrigerator as the ice box. At times I still inadvertently refer to our refrigerator as an ice box, which prompts my my kids to razz me about being a little bit older than the hills.

 

[2manyrocks]

There's a Three Stooges episode where they are the ice men trying to deliver ice up a long flight of stairs, but the ice melts before they get to the top.

 

[ponytug]

With all the electronics in appliances I put little cube surge suppressors ($10) on them. On more expensive items such as StarLink internet equipment or PC’s I use a small UPS ($50).

Amazon.com

I think that these are good units, and they have the new UL1449 rating, with a protecting voltage of 400V, which is what to look for if you want to protect electronic devices. Many surge suppressors have much higher ratings of 600V or 900V.

A whole house surge protector is less than $200.

I have a whole house surge suppressor as well, but most of the ones that I have looked at have higher clamping voltages, so I think that there is some benefit to having additional surge suppressors scattered around the house. I think if it like a trampoline with a couple of folks standing at different places, and each person (surge protector) draws down the trampoline fabric (the surge) where they are standing. You can keep the surge at the electronics lower by clamping close to the electronics.

All the best,

Peter

 

[ponytug]

Regarding old appliances; When my Dad was a young man he had a job delivering ice house to house so people could replenish their ice box. When I was growing up he always referred to our refrigerator as the ice box. At times I still inadvertently refer to our refrigerator as an ice box, which prompts my my kids to razz me about being a little bit older than the hills.

We still have an ice box! I guess that makes us older than dirt...

No idea where I could find block ice these days.

 

[2manyrocks]

Some pictures would be awesome. I've always wondered how an ice box was constructed and insulated.

 

[ponytug]

@2manyrocks I will get a photo. Ours was home built sometime in the early 1900s in a line shack for cowboys working a large ranch (half a million acres-ish). Not a particularly nice one.
Here is a Cadillac version

(Ice block in the upper left on this one.)

Usually just two galvanized boxes, one over the other, sometimes side by side. Ice goes in the upper one, and the melt water often went into a tank for cold water. Meat, or other perishables went in the lower. Insulation was pretty much anything; wool, sawdust, etc.

All the best,

Peter

 

[Jstpssng]

Regarding old appliances; When my Dad was a young man he had a job delivering ice house to house so people could replenish their ice box. When I was growing up he always referred to our refrigerator as the ice box. At times I still inadvertently refer to our refrigerator as an ice box, which prompts my my kids to razz me about being a little bit older than the hills.

My grandparent’s house had a converted ice box for a refrigerator, up until the time he died in 1979. (She had already passed away) My parents replaced it with a new refrigerator. I wish that I still had the old one.

My other grand parents had a “Ben Hur” freezer, which my parents brought home when they emptied the house out. It eventually rusted out but they saved the logo; an emblem of a guy in a racing chariot. Go figure.

 

[jyoutz]

A whole house surge protector is less than $200.

Our electric company will install one if requested and bill &5/month extra on the bill to pay for it.

 

[bigtiller]

Regarding old appliances; When my Dad was a young man he had a job delivering ice house to house so people could replenish their ice box. When I was growing up he always referred to our refrigerator as the ice box. At times I still inadvertently refer to our refrigerator as an ice box, which prompts my my kids to razz me about being a little bit older than the hills.

I never seen my dad mad, but one time he was frustrated with mom and referred to her as the ice box.

I was in dutch for giggling.