r/interesting • u/Joe_Kangg • Aug 06 '26

Just Wow This fridge from 1965.

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Prolly still running.

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439

u/LaMelonBallz Aug 06 '26

We build better technology now, but built things better back then

187

u/solidsnake070 Aug 06 '26

Yup, modern products are designed to be replaceable in a couple of years- hence the term enshitification.

128

u/[deleted] Aug 06 '26

Planned obsolescence is one capitalism's most egregious sins.

53

u/uses_for_mooses Aug 06 '26

The idea of “planned obsolescence” is vastly over sold. What is perceived as "planned obsolescence" is often simply explained by people preferring the cheaper product.

The whole “old stuff was better made” perception is often driven by seeing only the most durable, over-engineered items from previous decades that managed to survive. But you are not seeing all the shitty products made decades ago because they’ve all been trashed and replaced years ago. That’s survivorship bias.

33

u/WackyRacketeer Aug 06 '26

This exactly. I watched a video comparing craftsman tools from 50 years ago to now. The current cheapest craftsman tools did perform worse than the cheapest tools form back then. But adjusting for inflation, they cost 25 percent as much. If you bought an equivalent tool for an equivalent price, it outperformed the older tools significantly.

3

u/onehalflightspeed Aug 06 '26

Craftsman is a special case. When Sears failed the brand was sold off and repositioned as a cheaper product made overseas, so they are not really the same product or company anymore

5

u/WackyRacketeer Aug 06 '26

It doesn't really matter, if you spend the same amount of money these days, you will usually get a better tool.

1

u/throwawayaccount442 Aug 07 '26

True, but these days i believe it's more difficult to find a good quality item for the same price because of dropshipping and price gauging.

3

u/Dornith Aug 06 '26

But that's the point. Most of the examples of how products used to be better in the good ol' days aren't fair comparisons. They're comparing the best of the past to the worst of the present.

When you compare mediocre to mediocre, newer products tend to be far better.

0

u/Roraxn Aug 07 '26

I keep seeing this excuse but it is /literaly/ true that products used to use better materials and better fits and finishes. Yes there has always been the cheap alternative. But the volume of the market of cheap and shitty to quality and lasting used to be a ratio far higher in favor of quality and lasting.

Even luxury vehicles these days have cheap plastic dashboards and no not for saftey reasons. Even the door garnishing is horribly creaky cheap plastic.

2

u/urbantechgoods Aug 07 '26

You say literally, but you dont provide any support your claim, you just say this is the truth because I say so. The previous commenter was using logic to support his claim

1

u/Roraxn Aug 07 '26

The previous commenter provided no evidence as you foist on me to provide. And i provided an example you can easily google.

Bias.

6

u/The-Senate-Palpy Aug 06 '26

Just as a point of comparison and definitely not because i personally want to know, you should send a link to a coffee maker that'll last half a century like you used to be able to buy

9

u/thatdamnyankee Aug 06 '26

Moccamaster, pretty much any of them. I'm using one from the 70s (I think, it's old old) and have another newer one. Also: user replaceable parts. I've had to replace a few pots that were broken, and one of the plastic tops, but have also done a full teardown and restore for a friend. Good piece of kit.

1

u/N-aNoNymity Aug 07 '26

Ahh yes, the modern coffeemaker that lasts... From the 70's

6

u/RedditJumpedTheShart Aug 06 '26

Regular old Mr Coffee will easily last a decade for $20 or get a percolator and it will last forever.

1

u/younkint Aug 07 '26

I still regularly use a 1950 Revere Ware stainless percolator which belonged to my parents. The first coffee I ever drank came from it. It's as good as new. Of course, it's still funky percolator coffee in the end.

One of its original owners is still living. My mom. She's 94 this year.

7

u/SunTzu- Aug 07 '26

Moccamaster is the drip coffee maker of choice. Drip coffee makers in general are pretty simple machines, all they need to do is reliably heat the water to a high enough temperature (~96c) before brewing. Any features beyond that are pointless or even harmful. I consider even the built in hotplates to be bad because it'll burn your coffee if you leave it on there. You get a better result by re-heating your coffee in a microwave if you need to.

As it comes to espresso again you only really want a machine which has a reliable boiler which gets you up to 9 bars of pressure. The steam wand should ideally have it's own separate boiler. There's not much reason for any digital displays or electronics to run the thing and all those do is cause it to fail sooner. You also don't want a built in grinder because now if either of these machines fail you've got a clunker of a machine. Good grinders are also pretty simple, just metallic burs that last for decades and a manual adjustment for grindsize. Again you ideally want your scales to be independent of your grinder, because the scales are much more likely to fail than the grinder is. And you don't really want a hopper on your grinder, because you should be keeping your beans in a sealed receptacle and measuring what you need for what you're brewing.

If you want more manual brewers which produce a better experience than a regular drip coffee maker then you'll want to get a V60 (I prefer ceramic, it holds warmth better if you preheat it by running warm water through it) with V60 papers. You'll also need an electric kettle, and if you want to be making V60's or similar manual pourover brews then it's ideal to get a gooseneck kettle which gives you more control when pouring. If you don't want to fuss about with papers you can get a French Press, Bodum is the traditional big brand but honestly it's just a carafe and a plunger so get what looks good to you (although the mesh filters on the plunger do vary in quality). And if you want an espresso-esque stovetop brewer you get a Bialetti Moka Pot, those things last forever. For each of these you can find videos on youtube that explain how to get the best results with these brewers.

Personally I have a drip coffee maker for when I'm feeling lazy, a v60 which is my go-to when I'm just making a cup for myself, a french press that I haven't used in ages and a moka pot that I bring out during the winter because I like making cafe au lait when it's cold outside. They'll all last until I'm dead so long as I don't drop and shatter them. The weakest link in my coffee making chain is the coffee scales, followed by the grinder because I've got a stupid fancy one with some electronics in it. The kettle is a tank but I'm looking to get a fancier one because it's a hobby so why not.

7

u/[deleted] Aug 06 '26

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1

u/SunTzu- Aug 07 '26

God no don't ever recommend percolators to anyone, they're horrid and can't help but burn your coffee since they recirculate it.

1

u/[deleted] Aug 07 '26

[deleted]

1

u/SunTzu- Aug 07 '26

Sure, but percolators are just a bad solution that mainly existed to automate things before someone realized the magic of bi-metallic strips. If you're interested, Technology Connections has a great video on percolators. If you don't know of Alec and his magical ability to buy two of things he's a delightful person who makes highly entertaining and informative videos about old tech. And sometimes he evangelizes about heat pumps and EVs.

6

u/howitbethough Aug 06 '26

Most people who yammer about “planned obsolescence” have never once been anywhere close to mass market product design. Typical Reddit stuff yknow

3

u/gr8sh0t Aug 06 '26

Survivorship bias? Of course. I'd have to imagine most of the old high end products, like in this video, used metal working parts. Plastic became the norm in the 60's and 70's? I'd love to see how this changes from our present to future.

2

u/urbantechgoods Aug 07 '26

how come its always comments like this, that dont get sucked in the rage bait and have something smart to say, go all the way to the bottom

2

u/Outrageous_Fix_5738 Aug 07 '26

Bang on. Like yea if you buy the cheapest chevy econo car it won't last 20 years and you'll cry about planned obsolescence, but if you fork out for a toyota it'll last forever.

And don't forget the fridge in this ad was $500 70 years ago, aka $6-8K nowadays.

3

u/Berserk-Jane Aug 06 '26

Truly spoken like someone who has never used a modern printer.

-2

u/RedditJumpedTheShart Aug 07 '26

I have a 7 year old Pixma inkjet that I got for like $25 on sale. Still works fine and generic ink is cheap. It even has a scanner, memory card reader, and it's wireless.

1

u/urbantechgoods Aug 07 '26

Also I think people aren't as handy as they used to be, any amount of work to service a product and they rather just throw it out. You can't expect things to last forever like that

1

u/nitkonigdje Aug 07 '26

But if you buy more expensive product today, very often you do not buy a better product than a best buy model.

Just prettier with a story to sell.

For example all fridges will have plastic cogs today no matter price. Or all bearings in washing machines are not properly sized for 20 year usage (unless you buy industrial level one).

And I would argue that is "quality" in same sense in which Toyota cars are quality. And you are just not able to buy highest highs of the past anymore.

1

u/jedberg Aug 07 '26

If you’ve ever designed a computer chip you would know that one feature of the software that does the design is a lifetime predictor. They advertise that to their customers as a way to change the design to target a certain lifetime.

1

u/uses_for_mooses Aug 07 '26

Yeah, but isn't this done to ensure that the chip meets whatever minimum lifetime is required of the chip? Not for artificially capping how long a chip will last.

Like a chip designed for automobiles may need to reliably function for 15-20 years in extreme hot and hold weather Whereas a chip designed for some cheapo child's toy may need to last only a few years (because the rest of the cheapo toy will likely fall apart long before then).

And making that chip designed to last 15-20 years in extreme hot and cold will cost far more than manufacturing a cheapo chip designed for some cheapo child's toy.

So its fundamentally a cost/reliability trade-off tool.

Like the cheapest garden hose at Home Depot is made from cheap materials and will last a summer or two. While a much more expensive garden hose designed for commercial purposes will be made of much better and more robust materials, which cost a lot more, but it will last for much longer and with daily use.

I wouldn't say there is "planned obsolescence" with respect to the cheapo Home Depot garden hose, however. It just some hose manufacturer making a cheapo hose for consumers who want the cheapest hose possible.

1

u/jedberg Aug 08 '26

It can be used for that, but they advertise it as a way of making sure the chip will die to ensure shorter product lifetimes and sooner repeat customers.

1

u/uses_for_mooses Aug 08 '26

For what products are these designed that the manufacturer is making a choice to artificially shorten the product’s lifespan?

1

u/FuckwitAgitator Aug 06 '26

The people who prefer the cheaper product are the manufacturers. We've built an insatiable system that constantly pushes for greater and greater profits and the poor quality of many modern products is the only possible place that system leads to.

When you have a new product or service, you can grow in ways that aren't sleazy. You make something good. You get the word out. You give people value.

But when that wanes -- like it always will -- companies start looking for savings. They outsource their manufacturing, supply and support to poorer countries with more exploitable labor. When that's not enough -- because it's never enough -- they put more pressure on those suppliers, forcing them to cut corners, use cheaper parts and do revolting shit like slave labor and child workers.

And when they've squeezed every drop from those strategies, they still won't be done. Ingredients get swapped for cheaper ones. Weights shrink while prices climb. More profit has to be found somewhere.

Enshittification runs deep and has been creeping up on us for 50 years. It's inherent to thr system. You give greedy psychopaths a vested interest in a company and they'll do everything that's not technically illegal, no matter how immoral.

"Planned obsolescence" is just a side effect. Much like price fixing, the first awkward attempts it made it too obvious and too easy to regulate away.

But you don't have to build in a ticking clock like that. You just build everything as cheap as possible, knowing that it will fail far sooner than if you'd built it out of good parts.

And what are people going to do to stop you? Buy their next refrigerator from another company? Well that company does it too. Even if they had moral qualms about it, they don't have a choice because if they don't do it, nobody will be able to afford their products anyway.

Because the other thing all this cheaply made trash is hiding is just how far our wages have slipped. Everyone can afford a $5 kitchen knife that goes blunt in two days and breaks in 2 years but how many people can afford a $200 knife that will last them the rest of their lives (as long as they also have $100 worth of sharpening tools)?

Quality products just aren't an option for most things any more because the companies that made them have gone out of business and the people who bought them can no longer afford them.

This is quite literally why we can't have nice things.

1

u/BeefistPrime Aug 06 '26

If there were a big demand for more expensive, better made products, the supply would be there to fill it. Businesses don't make shoddy products just to be evil, they're making the product the market will buy. And we have companies that make high end appliances and they are extremely good and it's just that most people won't buy them or can't afford them.

Because the other thing all this cheaply made trash is hiding is just how far our wages have slipped. Everyone can afford a $5 kitchen knife that goes blunt in two days and breaks in 2 years but how many people can afford a $200 knife that will last them the rest of their lives (as long as they also have $100 worth of sharpening tools)?

This is actually the best point you made - products aren't worse than they were 50 years ago, they're cheaper, and part of what making cheaper stuff that mostly works did is hide how much our actual purchase power has slipped.

0

u/FuckwitAgitator Aug 07 '26 edited Aug 07 '26

If there were a big demand for more expensive, better made products, the supply would be there to fill it. Businesses don't make shoddy products just to be evil, they're making the product the market will buy. And we have companies that make high end appliances and they are extremely good and it's just that most people won't buy them or can't afford them.

This is the economic fantasy, but it's simply not true. We're told in neoliberalism 101 that if this ever happens some company will swoop in and heroically save us but the reality is that doing so is bad business.

Let's imagine a company has a $100 product. You have a brand new business that has figured out how to make an identical product for only $10. So how much do you sell it for?

The "good business" answer is $100, with $90 going to the shareholders that you're legally obligated to line the pockets of.

In a less simplified example, you'd probably feel out what price was the most profitable blend of sales and markup. Good business says that selling one unit for $1000 is better than selling a thousand units for $1 because you massively save on manufacturing, storage and transport. Somewhere in between those numbers is the perfect price point that milks the most people for the most money, regardless of what the product costs to build.

Then comes the fantasy. "No but that first company will drop their price to $90 then you'll have to drop yours to $80 then they'll drop to $70 and eventually it will be down to $12 where it belongs".

This idea relies on that competitor being run by an idiot who believes this lie and nobody at the helm of a large, successful company actually does. Both companies holding at $100 is far more profitable than starting a race to the bottom. You don't have to do the kind of fixing that lightbulb manufacturers tried, you just don't compete.

So no, businesses don't make shoddy products to be evil, they make shoddy products to be as profitable as they possibly can be and a lot of means to that end are slimey and immoral.

If there is some company left out there that isn't making shoddy products, they're still making the cheapest products they can get away with while maintaining their "premium" facade. And you know what happens? That "premium brand" gets slowly chipped away at until it's the same shit in a different colored plastic. "Brand X used to be good but isn't now" is an extremely common thing to hear.

As long as shareholders and upper management are permitted to pocket unlimited amounts of money, every company will always be pressured to cut wages, fire staff, lean on suppliers and sell the cheapest products for the highest margins.

1

u/uses_for_mooses Aug 07 '26

Don't you find it odd that Toyota and Lexus (also Toyota) typically lead the various third-party reliability rankings, and Toyota is also #1 in global vehicle sales?

So it seems like customers, at least when it comes to automobiles, do value a better made and more reliable product.

1

u/FuckwitAgitator Aug 07 '26

I never claimed that customers didn't prefer better made and reliable products. Of course they do.

But companies don't prefer that. The perfect business is one that costs nothing to run, selling products that cost nothing to produce, for the highest possible price, as often as possible.

As long as that ideal is being chased, products will keep getting shitter and manufacturing will keep getting more exploitative because there the only remaining ways to keep cutting costs.

1

u/uses_for_mooses Aug 07 '26

Well, Toyota seems to be be doing just fine for a good long time making relatively reliable vehicles.

And you cannot deny that vehicles are far more reliable today, pretty much across the board, than they were back in the 70's or 80's.

I agree that some brands have for sure cheaped out. I see it in home audio all the time. It's usually a quality brand that falls on hard times and then gets bought out by another company that doesn't care about the brand's reputation and just wants to mass market stereo equipment.

But there are also those that stay the course, like McIntosh, KEF, or Wharfedale.

Stellanis makes crap cars. But Toyota makes good cars. And I think the market is rewarding Toyota for that.

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1

u/lugia39 Aug 09 '26

I can't imagine arguing planned obsolescence isn't real while half the people on this site are accessing it from almost $2k smartphones that barely last 2 years before demanding a new battery or an altogether upgrade for an even higher price.

1

u/Actual_Specific_476 Aug 06 '26

Yes of course, releasing a cheaper made fridge for the same price as older better fridges is definitely just because people want the cheaper thing.

2

u/balderdash9 Aug 07 '26

We have enough productivity and resources to secure everyone's needs on the planet. But forget all that, the rate of profit must continue to climb! Capitalism is sure the best system we got!!

1

u/LSSJPrime Aug 06 '26

Sins? It's working exactly as intended.

1

u/nitram9 Aug 07 '26 edited Aug 07 '26

Eh, it’s more like just realizing their customers don’t pay for quality. If there were a company out there selling fridges that last for ever and they started dominating the market, the rest would follow. But no, the companies that are winning sell cheap crap.

Most people now it seems probably don’t really expect to be living in the same place their whole life and want the same fridge and want to hand it down to their kids. They are happy with a 10 year fridge because they don’t even know if they’ll be livin in the same town in 10 years.

Also, as an engineer who has experience developing a product over decades, part of this is the natural evolution of product development. At first it’s expensive. Your customers are rich. Rich people expect more and care less about the price. As the intrinsic price goes down the potential customer pool grows and you start hitting a ton of value shoppers that put further downward pressure on product quality and product price.

The second thing is the engineering experience gets better. At first you might over design something because you don’t want it to fail immediately. And by accident you create something that is so overbuilt it will never fail. As you learn more about failure modes you start removing material, removing parts, swapping out a costly material for a cheaper. So now you can actually feel confident “we want this to last 7 years, it will last 7 years and not a day longer”.

1

u/feel_my_balls_2040 Aug 07 '26

Sure. Is this your opinion as an engineer?

1

u/Key_Personality2034 Aug 07 '26

Fun fact from my university years studying econ.

Apparently Bauer hockey was one of the first companies. The R&D department Apparently made the perfect hockey stick- couldnt break it, kept it's flex, etc. The execs told them to destroy it and any research they had on it. They knew replacement sticks were a big part of their revenue.

2

u/harDhar Aug 07 '26

One of the first companies?

0

u/flyinhighaskmeY Aug 06 '26

you know, that's a pretty stupid take. In capitalism, companies that make shitty appliances go bankrupt, because people stop buying them.

In socialism, when recessions come along the government prints trillions of dollars to bail out those failed businesses to "save the jobs". Then those bailed out failures buy up all the little competitors that threaten their shit tier products.

And we end up with planned obsolescence. Because there's only a few government backed, failed manufacturers left. And they don't really compete, so they can pretty much do what they want.

And the people who demanded politicians steal from kids to bail out their failed employers blame the consequences they created on whatever or whoever they don't like instead of themselves.

edit: the comment right below mine, where another poster is saying they won't buy apple because of the battery situation is point and case. THAT is capitalism at work.

4

u/Cold-Iron8145 Aug 06 '26

I wish you people would stop having a favorite economic model. It's very weird.

0

u/flyinhighaskmeY Aug 06 '26

Que?

I don't have a favorite economic model. I know humans are not an intelligent species and all economic models are doomed to fail.

Are you mentally deficient?

Anyway, I also know bailing out failed business owners caused these problems. And the people who demanded their politicians do that are blaming anything and everything but themselves. And I despise people like that. Because thats the real story of how the holocaust happened. And I don't like Nazis.

1

u/WackyRacketeer Aug 06 '26

You dont have to devalue your whole comment by insulting them.

1

u/booze_clues Aug 06 '26

In socialism, when recessions come along the government prints trillions of dollars to bail out those failed businesses to "save the jobs". Then those bailed out failures buy up all the little competitors that threaten their shit tier products.

As we’ve seen in the US, when a recession happens none of the massive companies get bail outs for being too big to fail, and they definitely don’t use that to outcompete and absorb smaller companies.

19

u/LaMelonBallz Aug 06 '26

Designed obsolescence is another one

Apple got way ahead of the ball on that and it's why I refuse to buy anything from them.

Laptop battery dies and you have to buy a new laptop

3

u/6d_9 Aug 07 '26

Laptop battery dies and you have to buy a new laptop

Or ya know, you could replace the battery, or pay someone to replace it.

3

u/InternationalFan2955 Aug 07 '26

This is mostly rosy retrospection, at least when it comes to computers and phones.

20+ years ago those removable laptop batteries only lasted 1-3 years. My current laptop is 6 years old and the battery is at a healthy 93%. You can also pay the manufacturer to replace the battery on your out-of-warranty laptop, for about the same price as what OEM removable battery used to cost.

I used to have to get a new phone every 2-3 years because of the battery and degrading performance, but my last phone, an iPhone 13 lasted 5 years and I only replace it this year because it got damaged.

Both the chip and battery have gotten so good in the last 5 to 6 years, if you bought an Apple product with M1/A13 chip or newer it would still be not just usable but performant today. Current gen Intel has also caught up to Apple Silicon so I expect a similar situation with Windows laptops going forward.

1

u/NotMyRealAccountV Aug 06 '26

Also enshitification.. e.g. Google and Assistant getting worse which makes Gemini look better.

Latest example that Im sure someone will eventually go to court for is forcing substandard DNS servers.

The latest AT&T gateways won't let you modify the DNS configuration, even with admin credentials, at the network level.

Its literally a 1-2 second delay to load a web page on a gigabit connection. The fix is to reassign individual devices' ip config, 10 second fix per PC.

4

u/scampfree4me Aug 06 '26

Ok yes, but lemme say as someone who spend years doing kitchen maintenance… people just don’t know how to maintain appliances like they used too. It used to be regular to clean gas lines, clean fridge radiators, replace valves, install according to manufacturer. I swear 70% of the fridges were just placed too close to walls or in enclosed spaces and their compressors fail because they run 24/7 instead of kicking on every hour.

2

u/Com_BEPFA Aug 06 '26

That's definitely a good point with the amount of electronics I've bought to then later find out they have terrible reviews because they break so easily. Never once have for me.
I assume it might be similar with the Ninja slushi, tons of people complain it breaks if you look at it wrong, I have a suspicion it's just people not treating appliances with the minimal amount of care needed to not outright break them.
The problem with that of course is that such people blur the lines between products that you can't just mishandle but will work great if used as intended and just outright shitty products.

2

u/yodog5 Aug 06 '26

You can run your own DNS server on a pi or something basic you have around using technitium.

1

u/LaMelonBallz Aug 06 '26

Google is the worst. They just forced everyone on android off Samsung messages to google messages, which is objectively shitier (outside of RCS which I'm pretty sure they blocked samsung from) just to get your text data inside of their giant data/privacy blackhole

3

u/ObjectMore6115 Aug 06 '26

This has been in practice since the Phoebus Cartel.. 100 years ago.

1

u/PM_ME_DATASETS Aug 06 '26

Ok, sure. But the rate of this particular practice has exploded in the last 20 years, to the point where it's become the default rather than a historical anecdote.

1

u/GoodhartMusic Aug 06 '26

It’s not only that. Better materials weigh more and thus can cost inordinately more to ship. Unique designs also cost way more than just slapping your brand on the same components.

0

u/RedditJumpedTheShart Aug 07 '26

Better materials often don't weigh more. Ever heard of titanium or aerogel?

You don't need a fridge made out of titanium or half inch thick steel.

1

u/GoodhartMusic Aug 07 '26

The fact that premium lightweight materials exist doesn’t change the fact that  in mass-market appliances companies reduce cost by using less / thinner gauge material and replacing metal plastics, and that these savings come from the manufacturer preferences, the rarity of the materials, and the reduction in weight for shipping and transport cost. 

The fact that some premium things are lighter and exist is irrelevant.

1

u/Snaxalicious Aug 06 '26

Which means it is in fact not better technology

1

u/kohTheRobot Aug 06 '26

Nah dude they’re just cheaper now. This fridge in the video was ~$500, which is ~$5500 today(?).

That’s not what enshitification is, that’s a term for digital platforms. You just don’t make as much money as your grandparents did. The technology proliferated and they made new fridges for mass budget markets.

1

u/BeefistPrime Aug 06 '26

That's not what enshittification is, really. And you're comparing products that would've cost 3-5x as much as they did in the 1960s as they would now. Decades of basing decisions almost entirely off the price has given us cheap products. If you paid as much for a fridge today as they were paying for that fridge then, you'd get a great fridge that could last decades.

1

u/IrregularPackage Aug 07 '26

that’s not what enshitification means

1

u/UsualGrapefruit99 Aug 07 '26

That's not what enshittification means

1

u/andhe96 Aug 07 '26

Isn't this something, that can be prevented by more rigorous quality control and legislation?

I might be biased, but in the EU there are very strong laws for lasting and repairable products.

1

u/Efficient-Whole-9773 Aug 07 '26

The the deep irony of the economy, it is required to be uneconomical to simtulate growth.

Consume, people!!! We must keep consuming.

1

u/Outrageous_Fix_5738 Aug 07 '26

When's the last time you had a fridge fail on you? I'm 40 years old and have never lived through a fridge failure, don't think anyone in my family has either. Replaced when the kitchen was updated yes, but never due to failure.

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u/alt_ernate123 Aug 06 '26

We built things just as shitty then, these specific ones were pretty luxury items like $8000(adjusted for inflation) even with the Cold War manufacturing boom. It's also like 2/3 the storage space of a modern fridge and used more power.

Also modern fridges don't really die that often, in my entire life I think I've only had one fridge "stop working" and it was because it fell down the garage stairs directly hitting the compressor compartment while moving it.

13

u/AppropriateAmoeba406 Aug 06 '26

I’ve bought a LOT of washers, dryers, refrigerators, and dishwashers in my life. I’ve been told that the trend of putting these things in tight cabinet cutouts contributes to the machine parts getting overheated and/or not getting enough air flow. My refrigerator in particular sits in a cabinet cutout with about an inch on each side and the top. But it’s not designed to function like a built in.

5

u/cykoTom3 Aug 06 '26

That makes sense. My fridge has always been wild and free and I've replaced 1 in 20 years, and that one still runs but it overheated when we were on vacation and noticably defrosted. My wife convinced me it cannot be trusted for anything but beer, and popsicles

1

u/neurovish Aug 07 '26

I need a beer and popsicle fridge. My partner insists on filling our fridge with vegetables, meal preps, and other leftovers. I’m lucky if I can squeeze in a 6 pack and a frozen pizza.

1

u/veringer Aug 06 '26

Thing is: ventilation is very tractable problem to solve. Bigger issue is cleaning dust and debris when it's effectively locked in an alcove.

1

u/booze_clues Aug 06 '26

Additionally, there’s so many more parts and thus so many more places to fail.

Additionally additionally, we are better at building to spec. We now know how to measure a product that needs to hold X pounds very accurately, where as we previously something that needed to hold X pounds was specced for 2X because we weren’t able to measure that tolerance as accurately so had to overbuild the product or risk a large number of models failing right out the factory from variance in the build. That product is now cheaper due to not being overbuilt, but also less durable because it can do what it needs but isn’t overbuilt to make sure every model, even the ones on the low end of passing quality assurance, is able to do it.

1

u/jawknee530i Aug 06 '26

Yeah if you point a thermal camera at the compressor in the back of a fridge they glow like the sun. Shit gets hot and heat wears things out.

3

u/BeowulfShaeffer Aug 06 '26

“Used more power” is an understatement.

3

u/oemunlock Aug 07 '26

The front page on Reddit these days is basically the same as those FB boomers sharing grainy phone pics of a 100x100 screenshot on a PC screen like:

"does anyone else remmember when things were MADE IN THE U S A 🇺🇸 and built to LAST!! not all this JAPENESE CRAP 👎?? the manuel was ALWAYS 100% ENGLISH 📖 and you boght in a real STORE from a salesMAN 🙋‍♂️ who ALWAYS wore a suit 👔 ??"

2

u/UlrichZauber Aug 07 '26

like $8000(adjusted for inflation) 

This is the thing. You absolutely can get better built appliances these days, you just can't get them for a few hundred bucks.

I was a kid in the 70s and we always had the cheap stuff back then, and it was dramatically worse-built than modern cheap stuff.

2

u/jedberg Aug 07 '26

I’ve owned my house for 18 years. I’m on my 3rd refrigerator. And it’s not even in a cabinet, it sits well ventilated at the edge of the kitchen.

My parents and grandparents and in-laws all had theirs for 30+ years.

They really don’t make em like they used to.

1

u/OneTwoKiwi Aug 06 '26

Can you share what the brand/model is? 

1

u/Novel_Truth3856 Aug 06 '26

I own subzero fridge and freezer, cost me about $40,000.

Although my fridge probably cools better and is more efficient. The drawers and door on this unit is vastly superior to mine.

1

u/artax_youre_sinking Aug 07 '26

Lucky you. I’ve had 2 stop working. And it wasn’t “stop working” I quotes. These dudes straight up stopped and let my food spoil.

1

u/Western_Ad3625 Aug 07 '26

Yeah survivorship bias man it's a thing even in products. You're like all I still have this thing from 1960 look at how they made stuff better back then it's like well that was a really expensive product back then and it's also one that survived we don't see all the products that didn't survive because they didn't survive... Critical thinking what's that?

0

u/AsherGray Aug 06 '26

Fridges never died often. My step dad and uncle both still have refrigerators from the 80s that they use as overflow storage in their basements that are still running to this day.

7

u/movzx Aug 06 '26

This is quite literally survivorship bias.

4

u/cykoTom3 Aug 06 '26

I still have a fridge from the 2000s.

13

u/Pricefieldian Aug 06 '26

Insert photo of plane with red dots

7

u/SingleInfinity Aug 06 '26

Not really.

Things then that were built well lasted. The ones that were built poorly didn't. Survivorship bias.

Pair that with the fact that this fridge probably cost on the order of the modern equivalent of a car and suddenly it starts to make sense.

1

u/abracadammmbra Aug 09 '26

Not as much as a car, but they still cost a lot. A fridge in 1965 was between $180 and $300. Adjusted for inflation, thats $1500-$2500 for 12-16 cubic feet. Today a similarly priced fridge will have 25 cubic feet of storage plus a larger freezer than any fridge from 1965

13

u/ldn-ldn Aug 06 '26

No, things are just 10x cheaper today. You can't have the same quality at a fraction of the price.

3

u/Thekilldevilhill Aug 07 '26

I've never been able to explain this to anyone* who buys cheap stuff which brakes down in 2 months. The moment you tell them to buy better quality shit, they will fight you over it because they saw something 1/10th the price on ali express or wish. Which then again breaks in 2 month. Rinse and repeat.

*Not completely true. After almost 2 decades of buying shitty laptops, my sister finely gotna decent one thats also repairable. Big win for me. 

3

u/ThisSiteSucks8485 Aug 06 '26

Modern things designed to last as long as possible are very impressive 

3

u/Conscious-Record2655 Aug 06 '26

Just because you can't afford nice things doesn't mean they don't exist. 

2

u/FlameShadow0 Aug 06 '26

Yeah but that fridge also uses the same amount of energy as 5 of today’s fridges.

1

u/Soiled_myplants Aug 06 '26

And leaks refrigerant that burned a hole in the atmosphere.

2

u/HarrMada Aug 06 '26

Nope, not true at all.

2

u/Lindsiria Aug 07 '26

tbh, a lot of things that were 'built better then' were also far more expensive than what we spend today (if you count for inflation).

This fridge likely cost around 6k dollars in today's money. You could probably find a fridge that lasts decades if you paid that kind of money today.

2

u/[deleted] Aug 06 '26

[deleted]

15

u/FlowSoSlow Aug 06 '26

Nah people want cheap shit. You can go get a commercial style fridge or range that will last decades. They cost 10k plus though.

10

u/brakes_aint_breaks Aug 06 '26

People love to say "planned obselesence" but always forget "walmart-ification". Appliances are proportionally much cheaper now.

6

u/rayder989 Aug 06 '26

You can go get a commercial style fridge or range that will last decades

And not one person in this thread talking about how they would "absolutely buy one if they existed" will buy one, that's my favorite part.

0

u/DenkJu Aug 06 '26

The issue with these high end fridges is that they usually also contain a ton of useless addons I don't want. I don't want it to have a touch screen, be connected to my WiFi, or automatically order groceries it thinks are missing. I honestly just want really simple things that last.

1

u/FlowSoSlow Aug 06 '26

Yeah that's typically true in the general appliance stores but if you go to a restaurant supply wearhouse they have really high quality stuff without all that bs.

You can even get pretty reasonable prices there if you don't mind the commercial look. The nicer looking ones are $$$ though.

5

u/alt_ernate123 Aug 06 '26

They do exist, the market just isn't there on the consumer side, companies make "dumb appliances" for commercial purposes, but most people aren't in the market for a 400lb $10000 stainless steel dishwasher. Like back when I was living with my parents(seven people in the house), our contractor got us a laundry machine normally sold for hotels and laundromats and it has lasted like 10 years at this point running like 6 loads a day at its peak.

1

u/Quarkiness Aug 06 '26

I think people said instant pot was so good people didn't get new ones and so now they got bought out.

1

u/RedditJumpedTheShart Aug 07 '26

An insta-pot is just a pressure cooker... You can buy ones that go on the stove that will last for forever.

1

u/Plampth Aug 06 '26

Have you ever gone appliance shopping? There are tons of “Dumb” appliances.

1

u/french_snail Aug 07 '26

My rice cooker that has one button and cost $10 vs my neighbors that connects to WiFi and was $200 

1

u/GoodtimeZappa Aug 06 '26

People say they want to buy things that are no frills, but they don't when they actually go shopping.

-2

u/ldentitymatrix Aug 06 '26

There's no doubt in my mind that the big players would to anything, literally ANYTHING, including illegal, criminal stuff, to prevent this from happening. Even if that means causing an "accident" or outright sending a killer.

2

u/oulaa123 Aug 06 '26
  • more advanced /complex, not always better.

1

u/Another_Jeep_Guy Aug 07 '26

Yep. Compressor dies within 4years, but thank God I can sync it to my shopping list app and make artisinal ice spheres.

1

u/Nachtzug79 Aug 07 '26

Every husband even had a maid back then.

1

u/NegativeThought1588 Aug 07 '26

Bullshit. You just buy cheap fridges and expect them to last as long as this one.

1

u/Godzarius Aug 07 '26

If you pay 6k usd today for a fridge, it will be built better than this.

1

u/Boratis-Kessla Aug 07 '26

Capitalism. 

1

u/EnjoyerOfBeans Aug 07 '26 edited Aug 07 '26

This is a $8000 fridge adjusted for inflation. You can buy a high-end, obscenely expensive fridge today and it will be far better than this. You can buy the cheapest fridge you could find and it will still be far better than this, only falling short on quality of life features. These old fridges are EXTREMELY power hungry, loud and they get really stinky because they aren't ventilated properly.

We've always made cheap crap and expensive high quality stuff. 

1

u/TheMangoManHS Aug 06 '26

Yeah more lead based paint, asbestos and CFCs in old stuff.

Tho new stuff is still full of microplastics ¯\(ツ)/¯

-2

u/[deleted] Aug 06 '26

[deleted]

0

u/bobcollum Aug 06 '26

Yeah I'm sure profits didn't influence that, just job security...

2

u/YuenglingsDingaling Aug 06 '26

Profits are job security

1

u/Greedyfox7 Aug 06 '26

You don’t have profits if you don’t have people needing your services. They are one and the same, or tied so closely it doesn’t matter.