“The Real Reasons Your Appliances Die Young,” via @isaacgreene. It’s not just planned obsolescence. It’s also
- government regulations aimed a lower energy efficiency
- people just wanting something new
- price wars
- the inevitable breakage that comes with higher technology
The writer also says that useful lives of appliances may not have decreased as much as you’d expect. Her advice if you want repairability and durability is either go dirt cheap or high end.
I’ve turned this into a blog post so Rachel will see it. (Hi, Rachel!) We’ve gone, what?, a year without a dishwasher now? Rachel flatly refuses to buy appliances that don’t last, especially when they’re not essential. She’s also mad about tariffs. So she has been washing dishes by hand ever since the day she left Lowe’s in a huff. Now and then I ask her if she’s ready to give in. “No,” she says with a flinty eye. “At least not until Trump is out of office.”