Thread: sick of this crap

We have been told that most appliances last between 3 and 5 years. For us its been like clockwork, 5 years and replace with new. unfortunately they make them this way so that the manufacturers have a turn around of stock. How can a 20 year old fridge still work, yet a brand new fridge die in 3years? Again, manufacturing.

.... Welcome to the "Disposable Society" .... at it's best

Originally Posted by F4Phantom

I have had a fairly good run from white goods in the past, but lately, ...

... One parts guy I spoke to said there is no more reliable brand only ones with cheaper and more accessable parts, he said go for Aussie brands which are cheaper to fix. I am realising the days of buying an appliance and keeping it long term & trouble free could be over. PAIN!!

And which would be Aussie brands ?, the stalwart of NZ brands Fisher & Paykel, that for the last decade or so has been built in Australia is now built in Thailand. Hoover has gone and similarly Westinghouse is now offshore I believe, so that would leave Simpson.

Can anyone confirm if even Simpson has gone offshore?

Diana

People these days will buy an appliance more for the colour or how it looks in their kitchen rather than sturdiness/longevity. In 4 or 5 years they are going to go and redo the kitchen or change house and get the latest and greatest anyway so no matter.

The manufacturers understand this so design and build their products for that market.

It is not good or sustainable in my opinion.

We must be real old fashioned - our visitors laugh at us - our fridge is a 25 year old Electrolux, the wall oven ( Crown ) and dishwasher ( Simpson) are the ones that were installed in the house when it was built in 1983. They do get minor problems but I keep fixing them - actually sort of hoping they will pack up in a major way so we can "modernise" our kitchen, . We have gone through a few washing machines though.

We've never had a drier and never will have, we use the sun. ( or racks over the central heating vents in winter )

Simpson, westinghouse, electrolux all made here still although not technically ozzie brand still made locally with local parts. I would never touch any asian white goods like washer/ dryer/ dishwasher/ fridge.

It's like everything, one company transfers their gear from Australian made to a factory in China,Thailand,Malaysia,Korea or the Japanese ship their manufacturing plant from Osaka to Schezuan Provence and then the next manufacturer has to do the same to compete with the production costs. I have a customer who looked at a factory in China for A/Cond units. The cheaper units we sell were coming down the same production line as a very well known brand sold here in Australia by a well known celebrity and when they land here they are at least 50-75% dearer and the price of spare parts, well let's not go there. I don't care what anyone says, if you ship production from a state of the atr factory in Australia and/or Japan to some tinpot company in China whwre half the factory floors are still dirt quality is going to suffer.Universal remote controls for A/C units I sell for about $50, try buying the same thing out of anyone of the big manufacturers for under $100-$150.00. The main problem is basically human greed, if someone can supply an item cheaper from one outlet compared to another, the average comsumer hasn't got a clue on the quality difference (and I mean that in the most sincere way) and when they pack up after a year or two peolpe complain about how crappy the equipment is but when I t was bought all they probably did was gloat about how cheap they got it for. Until everyone realises how good the manufacturing base we use to have here in Australia was and we get back to looking after our own backyard and not lining the pockets of a foreign country and stop pandering to these people we will continue to pay through the nose for their inferior products. Sorry for the rave,but I see so much of it in my industry and when I get started I get on a roll.

Cheers Ezy

Hey F4 - you should have a long chat to RonB He has a good history of buying stuff that doesn't work!!

It's like buying power tools these days. I have a lot of stuff from when I built boats 25 years ago, still near enough good as new. Today, if you buy a GMC tool (for about $20 or some stupid price that I can never believe) you can only expect it to last until the end of the warranty period before it buggers up.

Originally Posted by spudboy

Hey F4 - you should have a long chat to RonB He has a good history of buying stuff that doesn't work!!

It's like buying power tools these days. I have a lot of stuff from when I built boats 25 years ago, still near enough good as new. Today, if you buy a GMC tool (for about $20 or some stupid price that I can never believe) you can only expect it to last until the end of the warranty period before it buggers up.

Now if you like to have good power tools you need to get Festool or Fein and they are not cheap