"My grandmother's refrigerator ran for forty years. The washing machine she bought in the 1970s? Still spinning when she passed away. Meanwhile, I'm on my third coffee maker in five years, and don't get me started on the laptop that mysteriously died two weeks after the warranty expired. This isn't just bad luck or nostalgia talking. There's something fundamentally different about how products are made today versus decades ago."
"The shift from "built to last" to "built to replace" has become so normalized that we barely question it anymore. But maybe we should start questioning it. After digging into this phenomenon and talking to repair technicians, engineers, and people who've watched this transformation happen firsthand, I've identified eight products that perfectly illustrate this decline in durability. Some might surprise you."
Household appliances built decades ago often lasted for decades because they used simple, robust mechanical components and minimal electronics. Modern appliances increasingly include complex electronics, control boards, and feature-driven add-ons that fail sooner and are expensive to repair. Repair costs frequently approach or exceed the price of replacement, discouraging fixes and encouraging disposal. Technicians report seeing many more five-year-old units than twenty-year-old ones. Examples include refrigerators with failing control boards and jammed ice makers, and washing machines shifting from metal gears to fragile, energy-efficient designs. The overall trend reduces product longevity and increases waste.
Read at Silicon Canals
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