Comments on: Warranties Are Nice But What I’d Really Like is a QUALITY PRODUCT!

By: Chris Lovett

Chris Lovett — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 01:06:19 +0000

I just had to add my two bits. We Americans are trained to be consumers. We are taught that consumption is synonomous with pleasure, enjoyment and self worth.
That’s a chimera that empties your bank account and wastes our inheritance without fulfillment (unless that’s your thing).
Engineering isn’t the problem, corporate philosophy is.
It’s our duty as consumers to support manufacturers who make quality products and shun the ones who make crap. The lines are not black and white as many companys have good and bad products for the same purpose.
Somewhere in there is also seeking the best value so as not to fall for the yuppie trap of ‘it must be better because it cost a lot’.
AS the world gets more complex renaissance education becomes more rare and we narrow our questing for understanding, paranoia and knee jerk reactions might be the norm. We dont fix broken stuff, we toss it and buy a new one.
A lot of newer products are purposefully designed to be unrepairable to encourage this practice.

Vote with your pocketbook! It’s how capitalism works!
I bought a Moen faucet set that looks good and seems to be reliable. However the mechanism for the stopper is made from plastic that, unfortunately, takes too much of the area in the drain pipe. I have to take it apart every couple of months because it gets fouled and the drain runs slow.
Tried to address this issue with Moen and got B.S. and happy horsemanure back. I wont buy from them again.

By: Brian

Brian — Tue, 12 Aug 2008 19:42:42 +0000

This article reminds me of an interesting site I came across a while ago. There is a section in the video on the site that talks about observed obsolescence and planned obsolescence. It’s an interesting watch.
http://www.storyofstuff.com/

By: Jim

Jim — Tue, 12 Aug 2008 17:16:10 +0000

Don’t always blame the engineer. Most of us would love to design the best that is possible, but you would design yourself right out of business because few people would be willing to pay the price.

By: KC

KC — Sat, 09 Aug 2008 15:35:07 +0000

My home was built in 1989 and nothing has been changed. I like the qaulity of the older faucets. My parents built their home in 1976 and just recently (around 2000) replaced many of their faucets and such. The new stuff is so much cheaper feeling. I’ll keep the older, uglier stuff – it just feels like it has a higher quality.

By: Julie

Julie — Fri, 08 Aug 2008 17:09:25 +0000

Ask a trustworthy plumber what they would install in their own house. Two years ago I had the sewer and plumbing systems rebuilt and have not had any problems. My fixtures are made by Danze. I was able to piece together all the pieces I needed by shopping at construction warehouses and online. BTW – they are also the best people to talk to about toilets….they’ll tell you exactly what breaks and what doesn’t.

By: Nicole

Nicole — Fri, 08 Aug 2008 15:12:41 +0000

It generally isn’t the design is poor because the consequences of failure are minimal. It is that the design is forced to be poor for the sake of lowered cost. By replacing say a metal gear in a part with a plastic one, you can cut a few pennies in material cost a few pennies in freight cost and give the consumer a slightly cheaper product (or prevent erosion of profit margins). Unfortunately, it is known that that gear will fail sooner than its metal counterpart.

These are design decisions that are parsed to bits and made not for lack of engineering skill, but for the almight dollar.

By: JLP

JLP — Fri, 08 Aug 2008 14:54:01 +0000

Angie,

I don’t think it’s unreasonable to expect a faucet to last 5 – 10 years. Ten months is inexcuseable regardless of whether or not it’s under warranty.

Sadly, it’s your line of thinking that bugs me the most. People and companies should make better products because IT’S THE RIGHT THING TO DO! Based on your line of thinking, there’s no reason for lower-wage employees to do a good job since their jobs “really don’t matter.”

All failure is important!

By: Angie

Angie — Fri, 08 Aug 2008 13:29:56 +0000

Actually, I am an engineer… I just threw those industries out there as examples.

I’m just pointing out that for a faucet the consequences of failure from either poor design or manufacturing are pretty much nothing. So why overdesign to make it last forever. Meanwhile there are industries where failure is much more important in terms of consequences and warrant the extra effort to put into design and quality control.

By: JLP

JLP — Fri, 08 Aug 2008 13:10:14 +0000

Geoff said:

“I’m thinking they’re bettign that the majority of people will just buy a new faucet rather than fix it.”

Believe it or not, that’s what I almost did because I didn’t want to wait for the parts to come in!

By: Geoff

Geoff — Fri, 08 Aug 2008 13:05:43 +0000

Without shoddy products, how could the world’s corporations keep increasing profits and giving execs their huge paydays? I’m thinking they’re bettign that the majority of people will just buy a new faucet rather than fix it.