I went "Office Space" on my coffee maker this morning. Why are modern products crap?

[Throd]

The damn thing was the most poorly designed piece of junk from day one. This morning it crossed me for the last time. I took great glee in smashing it to bits in the driveway after fighting with it for three years. Black & Decker no less. When I was a kid the name meant quality. How did this thing even make it out of the design lab?

[Brickbat]

1. Because they're made in China.

Generally speaking, that's my answer.

[baldguy]

2. Because inept operators think percussive maintenance is warranted in most situations.

[Throd]

3. Well designed products don't require percussive maintenance.

All a good coffeee maker should need is an occassional cleaning

[MiddleFingerMom]

4. No comment on the subject. Just have THIS to say 'bout your screenname:

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.

[jxnmsdemguy65]

5. B&D's degenerated into a sh*t product years ago...

if you want a good coffee maker, try a Kalorik..http://kalorik.com/#/Home/

I like this one: http://kalorik.com/#/Products/Coffee_Makers/item_TKM20208/

[Deep13]

9. Most of these respected manufacturers are just names now anyway.

Just labels to be rented to Chinese importers. That's why different companies all sell the same thing now.

[Throd]

11. Thank you. I will look into that product.

[NightWatcher]

6. when your Chinese plastic crap breaks, it's time to go buy more Chinese plastic crap

engineered obsolescence

thank you Wal Mart

[Captain Hilts]

7. Cheap crap made in China by folks who don't give a damn. nt

[Deep13]

8. I ask myself that all the time.

Wasn't there a time in this country when everything wasn't crap?

[Throd]

10. I have a '59 Oldsmobile that runs like a champ.

[mikeytherat]

12. When several Brauns and a few B&Ds committed suicide at an early age, I went back to my French press

mikey_the_rat

[Paper Roses]

27. RE: the Braun. I got to a point that I would buy them at yard sales.

All I wanted was the top section if the hinge was still working. I donated the glass carafes or just left them at the sale. I bet it is the same model.

The machine made good coffee but the hinge affair at the base of the top, under the basket kept snapping so that the control cup on the underside would just hang down. At first I thought it was a fluke, it has since happened to 6 of this particular model. Really bad design. It is no longer made. I called Braun ages ago. I could buy a new coffeemaker for the price of a replacement top.

I have a very nice fancy coffeemakers that I pull out if I have guests. Too many parts for every day use plus it is a pain to clean. For now I keep using the easy one and follow a particular sequence to swing the top closed and allow the pot to slide in.

[HughBeaumont]

13. No CCC product is complete without a Hogan Leg Drop to finish it.

Cheap Chinese Crap deserves nothing less.

[Kali]

14. it lasted THREE years!?! you got a GOOD one!!!!

when the shiny new $10 one kicks we keep going back the the gross old tan and brown Mr Coffee that screams 1975. But the bastard WORKS.

[Orrex]

15. At a 2008 garage sale we bought a steel Tonka jeep circa 1973

Still in nearly perfect condition, and the seller indicated admiringly that no particular care or upkeep had been performed in all of that time.

Last Christmas we bought a modern plastic Tonka ambulance. It was broken within 12 hours of normal play.


We are told that manufacturing is more efficient and cost-effective and yields a superior product, but all real evidence shows this to be a lie.

[JCMach1]

16. Don't even get me started- U.S. is great compared to hear for appliances

Just today we went through something like the 4th in-line hotwater heater in 7 years. We have had 4 different washers and two different dishwashers. The new one is crap and will be dead soon too.

Our crappy European style dryer goes for repairs about every 4 months.

And our university keeps buying the same crap brands over and over again. I want to slap the idiot who approves only 5kg front-loading washer dryers for a family of 4!

Think about it... 5kg is tiny. You have to fill it half-way to use the dryer function... this effectively means you can wash and dry the equivalent of a pair of jeans one pair of socks and if you are lucky a pair of underwear! :grr:

[jmowreader]

18. You've gone through FOUR tankless water heaters in seven years?

As fucking expensive as those are they should be absolutely flawless. And people wonder why I recommend tank-type ones:

"You have a tankless water heater!"
'Yes, it saves lots of energy.'
"The water is cold!"
'Yes, that's how it saves energy: It never fucking works.'

[mikeytherat]

19. And you have to crank it WIDE OPEN to get it to work.

"Hot" water tap must be flowing at 2.5 gallons per minute before it kicks in.

mikey_the_rat

[JCMach1]

22. These are typically better than that... however they have their problems

Maybe it is due to the de-salinated water here???

Either way, they are crap. Nothing like waking up in the morning to a waterfall in your bathroom.

[JCMach1]

21. Is actually more than that, that's just the master bath

also one in the downstairs toilet and one in the kitchen.

[jmowreader]

23. They don't sell tank-type units in the UAE, do they?

When people ask me what I recommend for a high-performance water heating system, my answer is always the same: buy an 80-gallon water heater with a 12-year warranty and bury the bastard in insulation. We're talking at least R-49 wrapped around the unit, including underneath, and foam insulation around both pipes leading to the unit and (preferably) on all the hot water plumbing in the house. If you look at the comparative savings of a tank-type vs a tankless, the tankless naturally comes out ahead (naturally because the company that publishes the comparison is selling tankless water heaters) but check the tank unit: they ALWAYS compare it to a 40-gallon water heater with a 6-year warranty. (First lesson of water heaters: more warranty equals more insulation.) Enter the concept of thermal mass. To understand, get two frying pans and put them in the oven. Make one a regular discount store stamped steel pan, and the other a cast iron pan. Leave both in the oven at 350 for about an hour. Then pull them out and set them on the stovetop. In an hour the stamped pan will be back to room temperature. Go ahead and cook lunch in the other. You won't need to turn the stove on. The thermal mass of the cast iron pan held the heat for a long time. The same holds true for your water heater: if you've got a LOT of water sitting in there, it's going to hold heat pretty well.

[JCMach1]

26. No tank water heaters here that I know of...

They CAN be more energy efficient especially if you turn them off an on as needed.

However, if they just sit in the on position, I doubt they are more efficient than a tank.

The other is durability. In Florida, I have a waterheater from the 1940's that still works extremely well and is well-insulated. Over here, the in-line heaters drop like flies. My theory is the desalinated water causes them to croak.

The only silver-lining is that I don't own the villa, so maintenance takes care of it.

[jmowreader]

28. It might also be the pH level

If you've got really alkaline water over there, that would do it.

[One_Life_To_Give]

17. Because we buy based on Price and not Quality

A Bunn of 20yrs ago anyway would still be working. And you could probably pass it on to your Kids, grandkids etc. when you pass. But instead of investing in tools to last generations we collectively buy the model that is maybe $20 less. Manufacturers have learned that to stay in business they must compete to provide the cheapest piece of crap because thats what we collectively choose everytime we walk into Walmart, Target etc.

[TK421]

20. Black and Decker products have been shit for at least fifteen-twenty years now

we had some of their products, and there was always something wrong with them

[pokerfan]

24. One word

Plastics!



Serial. My last printer died after only a year because a plastic gear broke a tooth. My Black and Decker coffee grinder died after three months because a plastic gear broke a tooth. There's a pattern here.

[juajen]

25. MIC. baby, MIC. NT