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Quality Gone Backwards

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  • Quality Gone Backwards

    We live in the most technologically advanced society of all time.
    Never before in evolution has there been greater knowledge.
    Yet...in some things we are going backwards.
    Here is my list of a few...

    Tap washers. The more digi-tech, the worse they are in reality, leading to premature failure and even instant hammering
    Electric blankets. Poor materials and electronics and it's a merry-go-round of warranty claims and outright chuck away
    Shoes: the ones that are repairable and long-lasting, all leather now are in the $1000 region and shoemakers almost extinct
    Televisions: A mixed bag. The pre-solid state ones were bad, the solid-states lasted well but the new breed blow power boards
    Car panels: True, they no longer rust, but so thin you can push them in with your finger. The old ones were of thick steel, like tanks
    Power tools: Made and priced to be disposable. Plastic instead of aluminium or steel.
    Furniture: Flat pack rubbish with no craftsman-made dovetail and glued joints, rubbish "wood" if you are lucky
    Houses: Relaxed buildings codes to conserve wood makes them creaky and flimsy. Hardwood has disappeared from framing.
    Fruit: picked green for long supermarket shelf life but bitter and tasteless. Strawberries, stone fruit, figs, tomatoes are prime examples

  • #2
    Originally posted by robusto View Post
    Televisions: A mixed bag. The pre-solid state ones were bad, the solid-states lasted well but the new breed blow power boards
    The power supplies are actually very reliable, possibly more so that they used to be. Same with the mainboards, very reliable. The issue with LED backlit TV's (the entire market for the past 5-7 years, before OLED came out) is the LED's themselves fail over time causing a sound but no picture fault.
    If you probe the power supply LED driver output with the TV on, it will show as a low/no output. It is however working fine, the supply is just in protection mode due to the faulty LED/LED's.

    I agree with the rest of the points, maybe not power tools so much. Nothing wrong with plastic if it's used appropriately. If manufacturers replaced parts that should be metal with plastic parts than that's a problem.

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    • #3
      at least toilet paper has gotten softer

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      • #4
        Internet speeds have improved... chuckle chuckle.

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        • #5
          Originally posted by saeco_user View Post
          at least toilet paper has gotten softer
          Bringing the paper fodder experts in on this one:

          https://www.choice.com.au/home-and-l...e/toilet-paper

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          • #6
            Originally posted by robusto View Post
            Car panels: True, they no longer rust, but so thin you can push them in with your finger. The old ones were of thick steel, like tanks
            Have you seen videos of old vs. new cars in safety tests? There's a reason we don't all drive around in "thick steel, like tanks" anymore

            Totally agree with you with fruit, family went apple picking earlier in the year and the apples were still fresher tasting and crispier than supermarket apples even after a couple of months!

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            • #7
              I think society has offered options of everything.

              In prior times you got shoes from one place and fruit and veg from one place. Quality was almost lineball.

              These days people want cheaper items, and to do that your fruit is bought in bulk and stored. Shoes are glued and not Goodyear welted etc.

              Sure there are some expensive washing machines that are terrible but that’s a new force in marketing.

              You can find these things but you need to look.

              Alden shoes are $4-500
              Visit a growers market
              One of my butchers does great beef
              A local iga makes tortillas on site.

              You just need to look at the vast options out there and work out if you are prepared to pay for it. For some items I am. For some I’m not.

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              • #8
                I was actually going to start a rival thread on things which have improved....I wanted this one to highlight the things that haven't...

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                • #9
                  having been a technician for better part of 25+ years things have gone from soldering new wiring and repairing items to throw away and too costly to repair,
                  I miss being a proper technician, probably explains why I like messing with coffee machines, they are mostly the same the big commercial ones.

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                  • #10
                    In January on the hottest --45 degrees-- day of summer bin Melbourne a Samsung air con tech came to repair my unit under warranty.

                    A 10 cents capacitor had blown on a circuit board. Did he remove the capacitor and solder in a new one?
                    Nope. New board. That's what we've come to.

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                    Had it been out of warranty the cost to me, he said, would've been $1000. Half the cost of indoor and outdoor units combined.

                    All for the cost of a horseshoe nail...er...cost of a 10 cent capacitor.

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                    • #11
                      sadly most techs wouldn't even know how to show which is the positive polarity side, even thou most electrolytics its printed on them!

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                      • #12
                        Originally posted by robusto View Post
                        A 10 cents capacitor had blown on a circuit board. Did he remove the capacitor and solder in a new one?
                        Nope. New board. That's what we've come to.
                        Then he would have had to bring additional equipment to set up and carry out the repair, extending the repair time. Then, he would need to stress test the system to ensure the capacitor was the only issue, and not a symptom of another fault. Again, further increasing the repair time.
                        Samsung may also know of a flaw in a certain range of units with this board and have revised the design to prevent it from happening again. This is common.

                        Far more effective to supply a brand new part to promptly complete the repair and satisfy the customer then have the old part returned to them at a later date for stripping down or refurbishing and reuse. Some companies I deal with require that I collect used warranty parts and send them back periodically for repairs to then recirculate them into the system.

                        Sure, it's a lot different from how things used to be, but not really any worse.

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