Who designs these things...?

[tellboy]

It has long since been my belief that almost everything in the home is now designed by art students not engineers.

Interested to hear what others think but hear is today's. My Mother regularly inflicts damage and torture on household equipment. Bits broken off the Dyson, Burns, Scratches on everything else. Yesterday she decided to put metal things in the microwave (again !) and burnt out the magnetron (again). Down to the shops and bought another.

This microwave is fairly light and small and "designed" to go on a work surface. It has plastic feet ! on a shiny work surface. The coefficient of friction is about the same as a penguins wet bum on an ice floe so try and pull the door open and the whole microwave comes towards you. I can think of many solutions to the domed plastic feet but for the moment there is a brand new microwave resting on 4 chunks of Blu Tak.

[ecurB0987654]

Washing plastic feet often restores the friction.

[mimififi]

I always thought that most mod cons were designed by men who had the single interest in making my life difficult and frustrating. However, I recently bought a toatser in a M&S sale because it looked so nice and neat and I thought, "Umm, that will really go with my kitchen and is just what I need". It was beautiful, shiny, curvy, had a really neat little knob right in the centre and a special rising rack for warming bagels.

However, its beauty was matched only by its monumental uselessness; it lasted approximately 5 nanoseconds before becomming irritatingly useless and burning all the bread we ever put in it. It does still, however, look lovely ont he worktop. Due to its uselessness, and the fact that I have lost the reciept and have neither the energy nor the wherefore to take it back to M&S, because of the extra spending that my bank account will incur by me actually being in the store, I relegated the device to the undersurface cupboard, which is full of either items that are rarely, if never used, such as party susans and dimsum bowls.

After christmas when I have my 'new year clean up and get organised, turn over a new leaf and become completely whole again' revolution: It will end up in a skip.

I think your hypothesis has some truth, however, I have since decided that most mod cons are designed by Oompa-loompas who live on a secret Island in the south Pacific and who don't actually have an electricity in which to actually test their appliances before sending them to the western suckers who buy them for their over stocked Kitchens. The tag on the appliance that says "tested and complies with code OOmpa Loompa 542331" and "Qualtiy assured", are in fact both true and misleading.

[polar_bear]

Nice One ! mimififi

Yes must go and use my Toasted Sandwich Maker if I can get all the sticky dust off it.

[WendyS]

Couldn't agree more with you. Every single kitchen appliance we have ever replaced has been nastier and tinnier than its successor. I still mourn my combined gas/electric Cannon 25 year old gas cooker which I foolishly allowed myself to have replaced when we refurbished our kitchen. The first toaster we had when we married lasted about 15 years. Now they, and electric kettles, seem to expire every 18 months. We're still successfully using a 20 year old microwave and as it ain't broke, I'm not going to replace it for a more modern "efficient" model. I suspect they build-in obsolesence into appliances these days to ensure manufacturers meet their annual sales targets.

[AliFlump]

You could have a point there Wendy S, ive got my nanna's old washing machine that she had for as long as i can remember (22yrs) and part of me thinks i should get a new one cos it looks better but then i think no, cos this one works fine and i shouldn't fix what aint broke! also got her fridge freezer actually!!

[mimififi]

I also had a very old washing machine, a twin tub actually, and at the time, my son was in terry square nappies, but the washer was about 30 years old. Now that washer used to get those napppies whiter than is possibly white. Frankly, they were practically see through, such was their purity.

I got rid of the washer as I became a much more modern person, and thought I really needed more automatic devices in my home, so I bought an automatic washing machine. Had another baby (which was less automatic, but still) and could not bring myself to use the same terry squares. I couldn't be doing with Grey/stained nappies and hours and hours of soaking, and scrubbing and frankly it made me dread a nappy change, because all I saw was washing.

So, frankly, new modern appliances are clearly not only designed poorly, but also solely responsible for the enviromental damage of our now breaking down world...
tsk tsk!