Household devices

[Levo]

Well, I'm fed up with this post-fordist world.

I don't know how it is exactly in the neighbouring countries but in my family and environment until recently it was still general to have 25-35 years old socialist refrigerators, washing machines, freezers, televisions, radios and other devices in the kitchen. These were maybe old, but were usually either bigger (TV-screen) or stronger (vacuum-cleaner,...) and worked for decades unlike the ones one can buy today, there are made to go wrong in a short time and you must buy a new one pretty soon because the costs of the mend is not worth it.

It's disgusting!

Now the last bastion, our 28 year old washing machine crapped out totally and I don't want to go into details, but it is worse in nearly all features it has, ohh and has a lifespan of 3 years...

Our TV was an East-German colour TV from 1980 and when it went wrong, all the new ones were worse in the main features, the extras we didn't need...And I could go on with the examples

So, do others also have similar experiences? - and now I mainly address it to people in this part of Europe from other countries.

Smaller kitchen devices are of course another topic

Oh, why I am fed up with it, during carrying the old washing machine off of its place my brothers fell it onto my fingers. I can hardly type now

[Aleco]

This is well known here at least Our TV + stereo upstairs from the late 70's works perfectly without failing once. And I use it every day... at least the TV However, modern players of all kinds turn out black and white, which leads us to buying a new TV that'll probably last a couple of years...

[Tenebrarum]

Wow Levo, I totally share your worldview on household electric stuffs

[ILuvEire]

I'm waaay over here in the USA, but I still agree with you. We have a TV from the 70's that's ten times better than all the other TVs (which are brand new). The new one have tons of extra (and expensive) stuff that's totally useless.

My grandma has a micro-wave that's older than dirt. It heats better than our new one. What's the deal. Shouldn't things be getting better, not worse?

[Sol Invictus]

I have no love for old stuff - it is ugly and works badly, we still have some unused stuff at home though, but we have new applicances for years now. Now I hope is time to get new furniture (because I just bought new bookshelf ) and eventualy to throw out old stuff.

[loqu]

I'm usually like Sol Invictus. I don't like old stuff, with technology I'm always eager to get the most modern stuff, that's usually the coolest one I had a TV at home that lasted from the early 80's until 1993, but it has to be fixed by my father a couple of times and in 1993 it decided it wouldn't work anymore. The ones we have had afterwards were way better. Yes, you watch TV equally, but with every model you get better features; for example, that early TV set didn't even have a remote controller.

Same with the washing machine. The one we have now is one year old and it is gorgeous. It washes the same way the old ones did, but the technology is blatantly more modern and it helps a lot: it saves water and detects automatically when the water supply isn't working so that it doesn't get burnt.

I could go on with other devices.

And if not, I just follow the advice of my mother: las cosas viejas na'más que traen miseria; old things can only cause miseries/bad luck.

[Levo]

Wow Levo, I totally share your worldview on household electric stuffs

[Gormur]

I agree. And it's the same with cars. Everything is being made with computerized features nowadays, which are never reliable to begin with. Many people have a short-attention span, so they see something fancy and new and buy it because of its features..not because they think it will last long and not have any problems. I'm not quite sure why things aren't made as well nowadays. Maybe it has something to do with the amount people consume/buy being much higher now than in previous decades..so quantity over quality.

[hreru]

So, do others also have similar experiences?

I do and I don't. Some old things worked very good and for a long time, some not. And it was worth having the stuff you owned mended when it got broken for buying a new one was relatively more expensive than nowadays and above all much harder to get; you will think over buying a new fridge if you must be on a waiting list to get it and then you'll get the one that's just come to the shop and only at home you see what you've bought.

Another thing, more advanced and complicated systems are more prone to breaking, and the improvements don't need to involve only unwated features - energy saving or quiet runnning are rather welcome. Hmm, my mom's earthwaren pot filled with water which she used for a fridge for some time was a very simple machinery and never got broken. True, it saved energy and was quiet at the same time, too.

I still don't know if current washing machine and fridge will stay with us as long as their predecessors, but they're quite fit after some five years of their earthly existence. Let's discuss this topic again in twenty years.

[Psi-Lord]

Although I wouldn’t generalise completely, I also get the impression sometimes that the more advanced technology gets, the shortest the lifespan of appliances and gadgets seems to get. That’s one of the reasons why I avoid unknown / minor brands like the plague.

[Kenny]

I totally agree. Everything seems to be going down the hill instead of the other way around; it's freakin' irritating. Our old washing machine lasted for decades with no trouble whatsoever; while there's always something wrong with this allegedly state-of-the-art one, so we have to call a repairman every once in a while to fix it. They're (the companies, I mean) setting them up to malfunction on purpose just so you'd have to buy a new one in a relatively short time. Reality is one cold-hearted b.tch.

[loqu]

I get the impression (and I have usually read it in a couple of places), that the problem is much more important in Eastern Europe, and that's because Soviet technology was really robust and built-to-last. For example, I have read that the best calculators in the world were Soviet ones, and that they could fall to the ground a lot of times without suffering damage. On the other hand, Japanese calculators are so fragile that they are dropped once and they lose half of the numbers or pixels on the display.

[ILuvEire]

I get the impression (and I have usually read it in a couple of places), that the problem is much more important in Eastern Europe, and that's because Soviet technology was really robust and built-to-last. For example, I have read that the best calculators in the world were Soviet ones, and that they could fall to the ground a lot of times without suffering damage. On the other hand, Japanese calculators are so fragile that they are dropped once and they lose half of the numbers or pixels on the display.

I'd think that things in that era would all be built to last. We (Americans) didn't have the materials (or work force) to churn out a new TV all the time, you had to stick with what you had for a long time.

[Sol Invictus]

As far as I know Soviet stuff had bad quality and was ugly, people just don't have enough money to always buy new things unless the old ones can't be fixed

I totally agree. Everything seems to be going down the hill instead of the other way around; it's freakin' irritating.

Bloody pesimists

[Aleco]

As far as I know Soviet stuff had bad quality and was ugly, people just don't have enough money to always buy new things unless the old ones can't be fixed

... becaus eit was old (according to you post above) ? But seriously, I'm just like you in many ways. Around really old stuff, it feels so poor and sad somehow. Modern stuff is more clean and comfy! But I guess I don't mind that when our stereo mentioned above only looks a couple of years old Things could be nice-looking in the old days as well! But then quality oozed from them as well!



But seriously, how come it's then so expensive with all these new quality-less products?

[kibo]

Most of the older appliances in my house is made by Gorenje and they are not that different from newer ones in physical look. But I don't understand why would anyone want to use old TV sets. Not even my technophobic grandparents want to go back to something with only 10 channels and no remote. The still hold on to an old vacuum-cleaner though. I'll have to find a way to sabotage it.

[Lada]

As far as I know Soviet stuff had bad quality and was ugly, people just don't have enough money to always buy new things unless the old ones can't be fixed

Soviet stuff may be didn't have the best design in the world, but it had very good quality. Our ZIL fridge worked for 40 years, and now we still have Minsk and one more ZIL which are working for more then 20 years already.
Hair-dryer works for about 30 years and it's not so ugly by the way and doesn't differ a lot from any new one.
Soviet radio "Sputnik" is still working, another radio without any name, works for 40 years, nothing can brake them, if it doesn't work for a moment, you just hit it, not too strong of course
Then TV sets - they were big but worked OK, washing machine was too loud actually, vacuum cleaner was crazy loud hehe, what else.... even mini rail road which my dad bought in 1980 is still working.

So, do others also have similar experiences?

I have only in one case, when we bought a new iron and it broke down in a year, while the previous one worked like for 20 or so years. At the same time Japanese TV set works also very good, for about 15 years already, washing machine is also good, computers work OK (one for 10 years), you know it depends, it's wrong to say that all new devices are worse, everything depends on many factors. May be it's worse only for you, but not for another person

But the worst thing is that you just don't have any choice between international brand and your home brand, that's damn sad, all Russian production has disappeared in nowhere, even bicycles

[nighean-neonach]

I can't say much about the Soviet stuff, but one thing I've often noticed is that clothes were - on average - of much better quality in the 70s and 80s than today. I'm a bit into that vintage stuff, and I still own lots of original 70s clothes from my mother. They are almost all still perfectly okay, and they were not exceptionally expensive back then, just average stuff, corduroy trousers, knitwear, blouses, etc. If I buy stuff at an equivalent price level today, it often falls apart after washing it a few times Even really expensive things are not necessarily of better quality. I suppose this is because many people are not really interested in long-lasting clothes, they don't want to wear them for more than one season anyway...

[Hoogstwaarschijnlijk]

O, but seriously, they make things with worse quality just so that you have to buy new ones more often.

We have the same experience with the dishing machine, the thing just doesn't clean our dishes that good as the older machine did.

[Sol Invictus]

As far as I know Soviet stuff had bad quality and was ugly, people just don't have enough money to always buy new things unless the old ones can't be fixed

... becaus eit was old (according to you post above) ?

Because it was allready made with faults, people lacked motivation to do they work well and materials were bad or so I've heard, probably it always wasn't so and probaly even when it was it somehow happened to work and could be repaired when it didn't (and had to be robust because some people repair stuff with gentle kicks ). As far as I care - it was ugly and harder to use.
P.S. For a reason unknown all this topic reminded me old joke about Siberian toilet (you got two sticks - one for hanging your coat, other to ward of wild animals) in comparison to high-tech Japanese toilet - you probably wouldn't want to use either