I have ten kids so about 40 loads of laundry per week. We have two washers and dryers to keep up but my favorite machine is our maytag ‘commercial’ (it’s not really but it’s pretty heavy duty) with the retro looking plastic selector knobs.

It uses a lot of water but I don’t live where water is anywhere near scarce and you can set it to use less for smaller loads. Stuff gets nice and clean in just a quick 25 minute cycle. It also has a true hot wash as an option, some machines are getting rid of hot washes. I do wish it can a warm rinse option but if I really need that I just reset it to run another wash cycle as the rinse.

I did it two days ago.

If you’d like to shop more often or on your own ask your roommate to get you a bunch of low value gift cards. You don’t need a membership to shop with a gift card and you can pay any overage yourself so it’s fine to get $5 cards to use for this purpose. You just won’t be able to use the gas station.

Not sure if this helps but walmart in the US has some surprisingly good quality saucepans that fit that bill exactly. They’re around $40 which is pricy for Walmart but they’re on par with pans I’ve bought for more than twice that. I want to say tfal is the manufacturer. Stainless pot with a stainless and glass lid.

I wish they still made them like this. We went through several tonka dump trucks before we stopped replacing them. The kids loved pushing themselves around in them but they kept breaking.

I’m not sure it’s the socks. That’s not much wear per pair. Are you wearing them around the house instead of slippers and/or walking outside, even briefly, with them on?

I only wear socks when I have shoes on and 20 or so pairs of cheap ones last me a decade. I usually have to throw them away because the elastic wears out rather than they get holes.

Planned obsolescence is something like a phone that stops supporting new software and no longer functions because of it. Poorly made appliances are just poorly made. They quit working because the quality is low.

It makes noise and crinkles? I’ve owned a down comforter for years and that’s not normal. They don’t make any more sound than a thick blanket makes. I wonder if they use a plasticky material for the baffles or something. If you explain what’s happening they might consider it defective and under a warranty.

Came here to say this. There are different sizes of lids but a lot of their jars use just one or two of the lids. Plus it’s all glass. For fridge storage just set the glass lid on top, no need to fuss with the ring and clips.

The larger sizes get away with using the same lid by using a ‘tulip’ shape where the jar has a wider diameter about 1/3 of the way up.

I’ve owned a good quality down pillow for over a decade and it’s still in great shape. I fluff it up every few days and always keep a zippered cover on it. It’s getting towards needing some extra down added since it does lose some ability to maintain full loft after years of use but that’s it to keep it going. It was an investment though at about $250 (I bought it from a place that manufactures domestically using down from geese that were raised for food).

Mine had holes by the third wear, same thing happened to a friend who had them. They’re super expensive and seem to be hit or miss. For some people they last years and for others one wear. Super disappointing and of course they won’t exchange them because they claim I must have done something wrong. I’m not sure what because their ads show them being pulled on with pliers.

A lot, maybe all, of their enameled steel is made is China and is not really a bifl product. The made in France enameled cast iron is though.

Berkey filters are not well regarded here. The company refuses to use the industry standard testing that everyone else uses while still claiming their filters are the best in the world. People who have tested water from them show varied results.

I used to have one and after some research got rid of it. We now have a basic home filter plus some emergency filters. Sawyer squeeze and lifestraw family are both good options.

It looks like the standard model is $150 which seems reasonable for a made in the US, lifetime warranty, non chromed stainless steel product of this quality.

https://www.razoremporium.com/rex-supply-co-envoy-stainless-steel-3-piece-de-razor/

Is the tall piece a handle or funnel to fill it?

$10 for a small pack of lead test sticks would be money well spent.

I own a couple pairs of these and while they’re amazing quality and will last forever they’re fussy and need frequent adjustments and oiling of the joint. The kitchen shears are good as an all purpose pair (I think they’re called turnton) but unless you’re going to be very careful with them the rest are really only for careful use for sewing and tailoring.

You’re looking to get a minimum of 182 wears out of each pair of socks which I don’t think is realistic. A larger quantity would reduce the number of wears per pair in five years or you’ll need to reduce the amount of time you expect the batch of sock to last you.

I’ve had the base model for about 15 years with zero complaints. I think the fancy programs are only needed if you’re using the friction to heat soup or doing other more complicated tasks. I’ve never had anything come up that I couldn’t do with the base model (on off, 10 variable speeds all controlled with knobs and switches, no buttons) and were pretty adventurous when it comes to cooking. I even have the dry grinding container for spices and have used it to grind wheat. The thing is a tank.

The filters are very expensive and they’re not third party verified the way every reputable filter is. For unknown reasons berkey only puts out their own data that magically shows their filter to be the best in the world but won’t do industry standard testing.

We used to have one and got rid of it both because we don’t trust the company and because even with hard water the filters didn’t get clogged. We ran the same water through a basic sawyer squeeze filter and it needed frequent back flushing. People have even shown that berkey black filters cause dissolved solids in the water to increase.

Something to think about - those $170 filter sets are completely hollow. They’re made to look like a nice solid filter when they’re not. They’re not even a thick filter with a hollow core, they’re maybe a 1/2” thick around the edge and the rest of what they’re selling you is air with a plastic base glued on.

A Sawyer or other backpacking filter will serve you better and is much less expensive. For home base sort of use the family or mission lifestraw filters are a good option.

Vicks makes a basic one with a large readout and easy to replace battery. Even with little kids ours has been working perfectly for years. They’re about $10 and are sold at drugstores and grocery stores.

The two good models are the ‘speed read’ and the ‘comfort flex’ versions. The ‘rapid read’ one (it’s gray instead of blue) is terrible. We had one and got rid of it.