Rant: Modern household appliances are of poorer quality

MossRoad · Feb 6, 2023

ponytug said:
Wow! That's closer to a direct than I ever want to be. Yikes!

Yeah. I was shaking. I was worried the house was gonna burn down.

I've had a few close calls with lighting.

Wife and I were tent camping and a thunderstorm came up. We were sleeping on cots and water was raging through our tent. Lighting was hitting all around us. We actually hugged each other, apologized to each other for anything bad we've ever done, and kissed goodbye!

Another time I was maybe 8 years old out stomping through the woods with two friends in a snowstorm, and lighting took out a Sycamore tree about 20' from us and knocked us into a creek.

And when I worked at the airport I had quite a few lightning strikes on our hangars. No place to hide. You're standing in a huge metal building on a field in a thunderstorm! You could feel the hair on your body stand up and WHAM! BOOM!

not2old · Feb 7, 2023

About ten years ago I got caught in a thunderstorm on my motorcycle and got soaked before I could find cover so just kept going. Lightning struck about 100 feet away and I shook so hard for several minutes that I almost lost control.

BnRidge · Feb 7, 2023

stuckmotor said:
and if there's a way to turn off the annoying alarm that tells it's finished cooking, I can't find it.

I finally took the control cover off and crunched the buzzer with a pliers. Nasty thing. Buzz once is great, but every 15sec means either listen to it or, get up, open the door, slam it as hard as you can, sit down. Thing finally died, and the new one we made sure the alarm is once and done.

JethroB · Feb 7, 2023

Oaktree said:
I've seen it at some convenience stores, not as common as cubes though.

Heh. Back in the 70s a place I worked had converted an empty office into a computer room. Of course the room got very warm since it was always closed off and didn't have extra cooling. Building maintenance guy went to Sears, picked up a window A/C unit and set it on a table in the middle of the room.

I had a very similar experience with a growing server room getting hot . Mentioned it to our Operations Manager who is also an engineer. He surprised me with a $400 portable AC unit from Lowes the next day. He insisted that no exterior venting or drains were required. Self contained he said like the picture on the box. He is now president of the company

MossRoad · Feb 7, 2023

I had a fiend who was sitting with his family in the kitchen waiting for dinner to finish cooking. Lightning came through the window, blew a ceramic floor tile up, and then blew the door off of their oven. Ruined their dinner.

And they needed a new oven, so it's appliance related.

My next door neighbor called me over to take a look a their TV that stopped working. It smelled like smoke. Noticed burn hole in the wall behind it, and on the other side of the wall in the kitchen, and up towards the ceiling of the opposite wall in the kitchen, and on the exterior siding outside of the kitchen.

Lighting killed their Curtis Mathes, the most expensive television in America, and worth it.

Streetcar · Feb 7, 2023

I had control board on my dishwater go bad, the machine would start but not go to the step step unless you manually pushed the button for that phase. $500 part for five year old machine. bought new machine

ljjhouser · Feb 7, 2023

I used to think Jenn air and Maytag were excellent products. Then several years ago, they bought out by Magic Chef and built in the same factory. They don't seem as good anymore. Not sure Jen Air is still made.

Back then, you could buy a $400 appliance and get a part for it for $20.
Seems today, you can buy the same appliance for $1100 and a simple switch will cost$300.

I put in a new HVAC system last year. The furnace has a variable speed motor. The furnace cost $1200. I was told the cost of the motor if I needed to replace it was $900.

Oaktree · Feb 7, 2023

ljjhouser said:
Back then, you could buy a $400 appliance and get a part for it for $20.
Seems today, you can buy the same appliance for $1100 and a simple switch will cost$300.

If you can even find one. Doesn't seem like all that long ago that most cities of any decent size had at least one appliance parts dealer. Do they even exist anymore? Haven't seen one in years, online only these days.

mrmikey · Feb 7, 2023

We've got two in our area, you call one local and you get answered in the other side of the country who in turn has to confirm the local shop has the part. The other never seems to have anything.
Tried to get a freezer and fridge door gasket for my 5 year old fridge...a cheapie but it does work well. Each gasket is $125 for a piece of extruded rubber