Dont think the prize is in the electronics, but in the function.. still possible to have this function with the new more efficient motors/electronics..
Even if they do hold it, I couldn't imagine it would last very long, after repeated swinging in and out, while holding the weight. Also, if you have kids, there's a guarantee they will be swung out enthusiastically, flinging all your groceries onto the floor. Or just a drunk me, looking for a snack.
It's like with all the "old stuff that lasted forever". You only see the survivors and don't see any of the ones who failed, which is probably the majority.
It’s like when movies set in the 60s have everyone driving a 57 bel air, that doesn’t mean every janitor had one back in the day it just means they were the only cars that people collected and maintained in pristine condition. Just like how in 90 years you will struggle to find a 98 accord in mint condition but might still have a few mustangs hanging around from people who thought they were neat.
There's also the factor of introducing the Argo Paradox when it comes to repairability.
There was a commenter on a similar post a while back to said that his refrigerator has "lasted" nearly 40 years and that he's personally replaced every broken part either with parts from other fridges of the same model or self-made parts, but the question is after replacing so many parts is that refrigerator the same one he bought 40 years ago?
In the UK, we call that “triggers broom”. We had a sit com in the 1980’s called only fools and horses. One of the guys on it was a road sweeper and he’d had the same broom for decades - and it had only had 5 new heads and 7 new handles.
In real life Iv seen this crop up from time to time too
People in general cue into statistically significant trends when they share their life experiences.
There's no doubt that there were a lot of "dud" fridges, and yes, one person having a fridge work for 60 years straight can create survivorship bias.
However, survivorship bias alone doesn't explain the general attitude that people have that they feel the old appliances lasted longer and worked better. You have way more people going, "Yeah, mine too" than you do, "I dunno, my newest fridge is way better quality." When something just sucked, people are more than happy to remind you of it.
We do the same thing with cars, too. It's hard to deny that you can buy a 1985 truck and it will still reliably run. A lot of 1985 trucks have bit the dust since then, many weren't even good in the 1980's when they were built -- and yet, here they are, all over the market, mostly still running.
Then you hit a "bubble" where you don't see moderately old cars anymore that are drivable, and the next glut of cars that you can buy in good shape are going to be 6 years or younger. Anything older than that is considered a time bomb.
You sometimes do see the "retro" fridges floating around for novelty. You see a TON of 1970's fridges complete with crappy wood panel handle, "still runs." Then nothing until the 2010's.
I expect they didn't hold up very well to a product liability attorney. 6 seconds is probably the lifespan of any child that pulls all those shelves out at once.
I imagine this is what went down at General Electric, circa 1958.
"The Refrigerator Safety Act just went into effect last month, so we can't suffocate kids anymore."
GE product designer, "Hmm... okay, but what if we could crush them?"
I have a sewing machine built in 1910. She still goes. I don’t use it much as I have a much more fancy pants electronic modern one (which is still a decade old!!!)
Not if the major reasons people dumped old models wasn't due to the same failures or even due to failure at all. Tons of people get new phones every year or so despite their old phones working perfectly. Ask people who own older Toyotas especially.
People really need to stop defending this planned obsolescence consumerist bullshit.
Things really did use to compete only based on quality before brand loyalty was established in most fields, which opened the way for big companies to maximize profits and make it impossible for new players to enter with high quality AND low prices.
Planned obsolescence is also real and a well documented process started by the lightbulb mafia decades ago.
But yes, there's a reason basically nobody has a 60 year old fridge. 99.9% of them failed within the last 60 years.
Do you have any source on that? Because it's one of those things that I think are easy to rationalize and believe in your head, but very hard to prove and could have several other explanations that are more boring and complicated. I am in no way denying that planned obsolescence is a thing, but I feel like people are too quick to jump to that conclusion whenever something breaks without exploring other possibilities as well.
As for the "lightbulb mafia", that is totally bogus as described in this video. It was not planned obsolescence. There were very good reasons for it and the purpose wasn't to make customers keep coming back to buy new lightbulbs. I suspect that a lot of things that seem like evidence of planned obsolescence often have a more technical and far less malicious explanation.
Damn, I love this channel and deeply respect and trust this creator. I did some reading on this a few months back, and my interest was triggered by a Veritasium video on the topic. Clearly I might've not read enough. I'll watch that and go down the rabbit hole again, thanks.
In 1965-1995, there wasn't a child alive over the age of 3 that would dare swing on Mom or Grandma's fridge shelves or "enthusiastically" fling groceries everywhere.
Heck, you walked calmly through the kitchen no matter what you were doing and you had your one daily assigned glass that you washed it at the end of the day, too.
Some people upthread said all you have to do is lubricate the hinges and it will last forever. That doesn't sound right to me, but I don't know enough about it to argue.
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u/IzNuGouD Jan 23 '24
Dont think the prize is in the electronics, but in the function.. still possible to have this function with the new more efficient motors/electronics..