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New UK plan "could spell end of throwaway culture" (BBC News)

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thinkfat:
It's not regulations that make cars expensive and unreliable. It's the "race to the bottom" that you get everywhere within our economic system. You don't get the "best" product, you get the product that makes the most profit for a manufacturer. Regardless of safety of operation as I might add. Example: Boeing. You know how manufacturers recall products for safety hazards: Only if the expected cost of lawsuits outweighs the cost of fixing the defect. Regulation steps in there and forces manufacturers into complying to certain standards. In the Boeing example, the authority got too tangled up with the manufacturer and failed their own processes. But that doesn't void the need.

The cars we can buy now are the result of manufacturers desperately trying to differentiate in a replacement market: Everybody who can afford it already has a car. So we're urged to buy a new car in ever shorter intervals to keep this business model afloat. It's not sustainable and manufacturers are trying to find replacements: Transportation as a Service is one such model.

I wouldn't be able to fix a carburetor. Or adjust it in a satisfactory fashion. But in the past you'd be able to call up an expert and have it done for money. The manufacturer will not do it, it's not in his interest (or you will pay from the mouth for it). Example: Apple doesn't fix iPhones. They coerce you into buying a new phone. It's not in their interest to extend the service life of their products. They want, need, you to buy a new phone. The won't rescue your data from a phone that fell into the toilet, they will provide a cloud backup service for money.

But nowadays it's becoming difficult to find an expert to fix your stuff, because the manufacturer makes it difficult on purpose. By withholding information and parts. There are people that can fix ECUs. There are people who could fix broken Teslas with failing eMMC chips. It's difficult, but it can be done. If parts, documentation and tools were available. This is what the Right to Repair is about.

unknownparticle:

--- Quote from: SiliconWizard on March 12, 2020, 05:21:57 pm ---
--- Quote from: unknownparticle on March 12, 2020, 04:58:00 pm ---Dyson prices are just outrageous!!  Circa £400 or more for a vacuum cleaner, hairdryer or fan, WTF!!!  Full marks for their PR, advertising and marketing crap that  persuades people to pay those prices though, very clever!!

--- End quote ---

Which allows them not to directly compete with the low-cost gear market, which is the real clever part here.
It's not just about margin. It's about market positioning.

--- End quote ---

Which is lying about the benefits and quality of the product. 

Cubdriver:

--- Quote from: unknownparticle on March 12, 2020, 04:07:19 pm ---LED lamp life is very much dependant on the type of light unit it's installed in.  If there is free air flow around the lamp, it is likely to last a reasonable time, although I doubt any will last into the 10's of thousands of hours that is often claimed.  The lamps I've had fitted in light units with restricted air flow have never reached even a 1000 hours, some as little as a few hundred.  What will ultimately dictate longevity is the dreaded capacitor in the PSU, the LED chips themselves, if of good quality could potentially go for 1000's of hours, but the caps will prevent that.  Any  LED's I've had in outside fitments do about 6 months before they fail.  Overall, incandescent bulbs have LED's beat for longevity in my experience, but at a cost!

--- End quote ---

What kind of LEDs are you running?  I have about 95% of my house switched over to them for better than 7 years now, and can't think of more than perhaps 1 or 2 failures.  Several are in outdoor fixtures (including fixtures that are turned on automatically at dusk and run for 4-8 hours per day, and have been doing so since 2012), and they have never failed.  Most are Philips or Cree, or Eco-Smart (I believe that's a Home Depot 'house' brand), and all, in my experience, have been near faultless.

-Pat

james_s:
I have about a half dozen LED bulbs that are already >10,000 hours and still going strong. I can't comment on the "tens of thousands of hours" claim because I haven't had them long enough yet but so far so good, I've gotten my moneys worth, those heavily used bulbs have paid for themselves already several times over.

Regarding Dyson, they are expensive but I bought both my regular upright and my cordless vacuums on sale at a price that while higher than many vacuums, was quite a bit cheaper than they usually cost and they have been fantastic, I have very few complaints. I spent more overall on cheaper vacuums that I was never happy with and in retrospect should have just bought the Dyson in the first place, it's the only bagless vacuum I've owned that wasn't more trouble than it's worth. I can't speak for their marketing because I've never seen it, I don't watch TV and I don't think they are heavily marketed in the US. Someone I know who had one suggested I check them out so I did, 10 years later I'm still happy with my purchase. It's funny when I hear people who will drop $15k on an oscilloscope complain about a few hundred bucks for another tool you will use regularly for years.

blacksheeplogic:

--- Quote from: bd139 on March 12, 2020, 08:27:45 am ---Real problems that we need to deal with are these though:
2. Printer cartridges

--- End quote ---

The eco printers with refillable ink bottles are difficult to find here and I were on close out sales. Why? - the self righteous everyone else should buy $300 printers but I will continue to buy the cheap $30 printer, after all 'I' can just throw the printer out when it runs out of ink.

If you want to actually do something about instead of this cheap political talk, go walk the walk and start supporting products like printers with refillable ink bottles and maybe if enough consumers start actually spending the extra manufactures will put more of these products back in the market.

My view is if your not supporting the cost of re-usability, stop preaching....

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