Were phosphates a health hazard? I don't remember, I was young when they were banned where I live, but the main reason for the ban here was eutrophication.

That's probably about how old mine is too

No it's not. That's the nature of making something inexpensive.

How much did your 50 year old Maytag cost then and what is that adjusted for inflation? A comparably priced unit today is likely well built too.

You can absolutely still get parts for stuff today too. Not sure where you're getting the idea that you can't get parts for any new items from.

And one guy saying a thing doesn't make it true. Like y'all downvote people who actually design products telling you planned obsolescence isn't a thing because you get your info from memes.

You're looking at this the wrong way. They aren't being designed purposefully to fail. I don't know of any engineer that has ever been told to make something fail prematurely. This is especially true because consumers don't typically buy the same brand appliance to replace the one that just died a few months after you got it.

I've been on the engineering side, and this is how it actually works:

A manufacturer or a big box store or whoever will have a lot of data showing that if an appliance is priced at $X, then they can expect to sell Y number of them. So from that you can plan out your margins and costs. Well, the most sales happen (surprise) when the appliance is at the cheap end. But that also means your margins are very thin, so you need to cut costs everywhere.

So the engineer will cut back on materials or durability as long as it still keeps it working within the warranty period. So a plastic tub instead of metal. Or thinner metal. Sometimes a new technology, manufacturing method, or outsourcing, will save money without reducing build quality, but most of the time it does.

The solution to this is pretty simple: if you want better quality then you will just need to pay more for it. You simply can't have an appliance that lasts decades without spending way more than you probably think is reasonable. Just take some of your examples from 50 years ago and plug their prices into an inflation calculator. If you want a long-lasting replacement, then that number is about what you should spend for about the same number of features.

Long-term parts support costs money. Keeping those parts in the supply chain and on a shelf somewhere for years costs money. Long term customer support for a product costs money. Making that part better built to last longer costs money. It all adds up. That's why when a smaller-scale manufacturer tries to scale larger (ie. go to the bigger market with smaller margins), long term parts support is usually one of the first things to go.

You can still absolutely buy very durable and long-lasting appliances. They just cost a lot more. And the higher cost you go, the more your market shrinks.

Eeeh okay yes but I have a counter.

Apple recently has ensured their products can remain obselete when they fail, by ensuring chip manufacturers do not sell their chips to consumers for hardware level motherboard repair.

Now you might be thinking, "well apple made the chip they can do what they want with it". That's not the case. They literally take a consumer purchasable chip, tell the manufacturer to change the pinout, to make it proprietary so you can't replace the voltage regulator or whatever that is a known failure point of the computer.

If that is not planned obselecense, then we clearly are taking the definition of the words in a completely different way. No, they didn't plan on changing the pinout to directly cause their laptops to fail, but they clearly made an anti consumer decision to incentivise throwing your old computer away and getting a new one. Thus, planned obselecense. The executives know exactly what they're doing when they make this decision. They know it will result in more profit for the company.

In my opinion the trend of anti repair is equivalent to planned obselecense. The end goal is the same. Get the consumer to "just buy a new one".

That article has a cool evolving history of dishwasher design. And I'd be surprised if things weren't less diverse in the market, honestly. One important thing I would add is that Bosch is one of the most popular dishwasher manufacturers worldwide and their products are offered under multiple brandings. This and the fact that they all effectively function the same easily corroborates your findings, without making anything generic about it.

All I can tell you is at the end of the day, your Siemens is literally a Bosch manufactured unit.

No, they were screamed at to cheapen the design or fear going out of business. It had nothing to do with costs.

Over 20 years ago, I wanted to be an engineer to build quality appliances because I already saw the writing on the wall. In the downturn of 2001, I ended up working with some engineers at an electrical company (slave wages and working conditions) that were laid off who did that for a living. They told me how the real world works and set me straight. Thankfully, I dodged that bullet. Before that, I was a big gear head and wanted to work on cars for a living but during the last portion of my college schooling, I talked to a mechanic who owned his own business for 28 years and he sternly warned me not to get into the business. It's hard dirty work, being exposed to horrible chemicals, exhaust fumes, crappy working conditions, and extremely difficult to keep up with newer evolving technologies. The pay also does not even begin to reflect the work unless you own your own business. That's the only way to make in the automotive world without going poor and destroying your body before retirement age. Another dodged bullet.

Nope, my mothers 2001 Camry (still going) is over 300K miles. I replaced the drivers side door handle (about 250K) and drivers side window regulator (290K). Other than regularly scheduled maintenance, that's it.