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BoilerButtSlut t1_isffziz wrote

Reply to comment by NWO_Eliminator in Dishwasher keeps going by Atlantic76

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

I'm calling bullshit on that. It all comes back to cost at the end of the day. Longevity isn't free. It costs money. Adding costs can easily kill a program. I've seen a few cents increase in costs completely cancel years-long programs.

Cheapen the design literally means reducing the cost.

I don't know of any engineer ever that was told to reduce a product's lifetime without any gain out of it (lower cost, easier production, better parts availability, etc): unless you own 100% of the marketspace, people can easily just buy your competitor's product and you don't gain from it.

I'm sure there's a handful very niche companies (where there is indeed market capture) where something like this happens, but it's so rare I can't think of any example.

Most of the time I just see people getting what they pay for. I have no trouble finding quality stuff, it just costs more than what most people think is reasonable.

My wife's family think I'm insane for how much I spend on appliances. Years later I've yet to buy another dishwasher/blender/washer/dryer/etc while they are on their 2nd or 3rd set.

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NWO_Eliminator t1_isg58mm wrote

I got this information from the engineer directly. I don't know what else to tell you.

Spending extra money on an appliance use to be a guarantee for a better built, longer lasting design. That is not the case anymore.

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BoilerButtSlut t1_iskscnx wrote

It was never a guarantee. You can buy something expensive and have it still be crap.

However the reverse is patently false: you can't cheap out on cost and end up with quality. It is impossible to buy quality without spending more money for something like this.

We have example of stuff lasting 20+ years in today. This isn't a lost art. There are companies that still make quality stuff, especially since commercial businesses rely on these. Ive designed stuff that is sitting on shelves right now and I know how the business works.

If you don't want to believe that, that's on you, but you're just making things hard on your self for no reason.

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