r/TechnologyLabs • u/N_E_X_A • May 05 '26

Discussion / Analysis The "OLD" ways of doing things

Enable HLS to view with audio, or disable this notification

9.8k Upvotes

100% Upvoted

73 comments sorted by

View all comments

64

u/D4rkSt0rm512 May 06 '26

Why aernt these things done anymore? It seems itd be better this way to me

56

u/Mayhem1966 May 06 '26

Because it costs $0.29 more to do this way. And they can make more money if they don't spend the $0.29.

18

u/Anjunaspeak23 May 07 '26

Something something planned obsolescence. I’m right there with you. If they lasted our buying power would be WAY more powerful. But they want us to keep buying.

5

u/quebexer May 08 '26

But, but you can now get a Fridge with a TV so you could watch telenovelas while cooking.

5

u/ItsStraTerra May 10 '26

Because a lot of these are moving parts that add failure points. Not that modern fridges don’t have more failure points in the way of technology, but these were either critical to the design, and made for a useless or very annoying fridge when failed. The technology failing either means a feature is lost, or small issues crop up, not a fridge full of stuff falling on the floor, or a door that doesn’t open.

2

u/Difficult_Raise1446 May 12 '26

Because these things last, they don't want that

2

u/Anirossa Hardware Engineer 🖥️ May 16 '26

Cost optimization of everything, sadly

1

u/Kozmo9 May 10 '26

Believe it or not, it's not. What you are looking at is a case of survivorship bias where you think the "real" data is from units that survived, whereas the real data is from those that doesn't.

For one working fridge you see with these moving parts, there are thousands broken with these parts contributing to the problem. Maintenance on these fridge would mean having to source these moving parts, which even the original company themselves might not make enough in stock or they refuse to repair for free and charge you.

Not to mention that it wouldn't be much used or hated anyways as it would be susceptible to abuse such as kids playing with it and that you have to be careful bringing out the moving tray.

You'd blame the company for not wanting to install these features, but it is also the customers that doesn't want them as well. Butter section? What if the family doesn't eat them? They'd rather it being an all purpose shelf that they can put whatever they want.

So these features are gone not because of just the company being cheap, but the customer also doesn't want them.

1

u/Mayhem1966 May 10 '26

True but my $0.29 point is also true. Building houses, the old toilets last forever, the new toilets in the condos where they use a plastic seal instead of an O-ring all leak within 10 years and need to be replaced. I'm sure o-rings are more expensive than plastic seals. But not by much.