I don't entirely buy that. Current house came with a well used beko which I replaced after 10 years as it needed a new clockwork which was 80% of the cost of a new machine. And the replacement Beko was a fraction of the cost of a miele. What is suprising is that all the spares are available for low end machines now. I suspect that is because they all come out the same factory (of course except miele) for the european market, so the TCO calculation becomes quite interesting depending on how much you factor in for you own time...
Google is your friend. You are on my ignore list for failing the turing test.
They are pouring a massive amount of money into trying to become the direct from China version of Amazon.
It is a bit ironic that Amazon used China's model early on of sell at a loss to gain customers and crush the competition, to get where it is.
The Youtube app on my Roku doesn't have add blocker but I stopped using it after being visually assaulted by an obese women wearing nothing but depends in a commercial. I guess the stuff I watch tells them I'm old....
I worked at a Ford dealer in a past life and I remember my boss commenting on something that Ford started doing. He said that they would make money in the short term but lose way more in the long term. It hit me that the people in charge were only concerned about today's stock price.
Let's also not forget that regulation is evil. The less there is and the more we starve regulatory agencies the better we all are. The freer the market the better because it drives competition and that in turn creates better products.
For example, half of Florida is leveled every couple of years. Oops, bad example. Did you know that Habitat for Humanity homes in devastated areas of Florida fare much better? Sure they're built by a bunch of pretty white collar people who don't know the right end of a hammer. But, since Habitat operates across the country, it has to follow federal (much tighter regulations) rather than Florida building codes.
For example, half of Florida is leveled every couple of years. Oops, bad example. Did you know that Habitat for Humanity homes in devastated areas of Florida fare much better? Sure they're built by a bunch of pretty white collar people who don't know the right end of a hammer. But, since Habitat operates across the country, it has to follow federal (much tighter regulations) rather than Florida building codes.
You can't have just part of a free market. If you prop up those that don't do well of their own accord it is not a free market.
As someone that bought a new home, in a highly regulated state, the quality of the habitat for humanity homes might have something more to do with the reason they are built; being that they are built for use, not for profit. I'm betting they have a lot more oversight on the job with things being checked regularly. Most homes in developments are thrown up as fast as possible; time is money and, I'm guessing, they get paid the same if they do a questionable job or take twice as long to do a quality job.. Heck, they let me run speaker and low voltage wiring through the walls before they closed them up. I'm positive that was never inspected so what else wasn't.
When we were deciding on the finishes for our house they wanted a lot of money to go from flat paint to eggshell. I couldn't figure out where the difference in price came from and we passed on it. When we started repainting the walls with paint with more sheen I saw the reason. It showed off the rush job they did on the drywall joints and texture. They actually realized they'd need to spend more time on those if it was finished in different paint and figured that into the price of the 'upgrade'. The same thing with the floors. A crazy high price for tile, because they'd want to smooth the foundation more. Imagine how many corners they cut in areas that we will never see... until a big quake hits.
And our home was built by one of the much more respected builders in the area. Other developments had issues with carpets getting wet when it rained. I knew someone that had stairs with steps that didn't go all the way to the wall, the last 2 inches were just carpet. All in an area thick with regulation and codes. Regulations and codes are only as good as those overseeing them.
As someone that bought a new home, in a highly regulated state, the quality of the habitat for humanity homes might have something more to do with the reason they are built; being that they are built for use, not for profit. I'm betting they have a lot more oversight on the job with things being checked regularly. Most homes in developments are thrown up as fast as possible; time is money and, I'm guessing, they get paid the same if they do a questionable job or take twice as long to do a quality job.. Heck, they let me run speaker and low voltage wiring through the walls before they closed them up. I'm positive that was never inspected so what else wasn't.
When we were deciding on the finishes for our house they wanted a lot of money to go from flat paint to eggshell. I couldn't figure out where the difference in price came from and we passed on it. When we started repainting the walls with paint with more sheen I saw the reason. It showed off the rush job they did on the drywall joints and texture. They actually realized they'd need to spend more time on those if it was finished in different paint and figured that into the price of the 'upgrade'. The same thing with the floors. A crazy high price for tile, because they'd want to smooth the foundation more. Imagine how many corners they cut in areas that we will never see... until a big quake hits.
And our home was built by one of the much more respected builders in the area. Other developments had issues with carpets getting wet when it rained. I knew someone that had stairs with steps that didn't go all the way to the wall, the last 2 inches were just carpet. All in an area thick with regulation and codes. Regulations and codes are only as good as those overseeing them.
Sounds like the highest bypass LEAP turbofan in Boeing’s supply chain won’t have sufficient capacity to clear the amount of fertilizer about to hit their intake cowlings.
If this wasn’t so flagrantly and egregiously corrupt, it’d almost make fodder for satire. It’s almost as if the multiple finger pointing parties are more concerned with the safety of the shareholders’ profits than the physical safety and confidence of the flying public.
Or am I being overly cynical?
If this wasn’t so flagrantly and egregiously corrupt, it’d almost make fodder for satire. It’s almost as if the multiple finger pointing parties are more concerned with the safety of the shareholders’ profits than the physical safety and confidence of the flying public.
Or am I being overly cynical?
That's baked into the essence of being American though where the corporation is a holy entity. Works fine if we're talking strictly capitalism where corporations live and die on their product. But when they own political favor we get what we have here. Unchecked capitalism is actually UN-American because it starts mutating into corporate socialism...it's not a problem if you ook up, we got your back.
Not sure what your experience with a Beko has to do with my wife's experiences with Mieles. There is a reason a Beko costs a fraction of a Miele but I never said that they are cheap. A Dualit toaster also costs double or triple of what some other brands cost but since they last at least 5 times longer (none of the toasters I had before made much past a year) they come out cheaper in the long run.
It's not always that easy though..., A Liebherr fridge the size I have in my house costs AU$7,652, which is a ******* fair chunk of change to fork out for a fridge regardless of how long it may last. I actually had this figure in my head, as we know a few people who work for Liebherr's heavy equipment branch here in Perth and we'd spoken about what they are about...and i'd Googled as I hadn't seen them in the usual whitegoods stores.
Not Bosch or ZF, the largest and 2nd largest automotive suppliers in the world respectively.
Both are owned by non-profit, charitable trusts who use the profits for doing good rather than increase stock prices (they own all existing shares).
Let's not forget though that we (in the States at least) are the shareholders. This came about when corporations realized it's way cheaper to them if our retirement depends on investing in them rather than them giving us pension plans. I'm sure some awhole on Wall street came up with that idea.
I must have misunderstood your point then. I've not used a dualit since university and not looked at them since as the timer ticking always annoyed my but I did appreciate the heft. That said comparing a basic (no daft wifi connectivity) 8kg beko to an 8kg miele you have £249 vs £850. So at a minimum of 10 years for the beko (based on domestic usage small children) you might break even at the 30 year mark so for a normal household I am not sure I see the benefit in paying for the quality. In the case with your wife that was close to industrial use and so the calculations are different. I do appreciate the spares availabilty, but as I said the badge engineering going on these days means you can get spares for the cheap stuff as well even though it's almost as cheap in some cases to just replace it.
My Sister in law just moved house and bought a Miele washing machine. I'll report back in 20 years if it's still going.
Necessary caveats
1. Quality of washing is not factored in. My clothes come out clean but that is not a scientific measure
2. Some people like 73 magic programs and some machines offer this. I don't so the fewer options the better for me. Curious as I like options on everything else mind.
3. Being able to say 'of course I have a miele' matters to some especially in certain parts of london. Not to me
4. An ex who keeps taking me to court has a miele and lives in london. This may have soured me against the brand however hard I try not to be influenced.
5. I do appreciate quality engineering, but sometimes have to just buy based on lifetime cost.
Fun fact a standard modern black and decker electric drill has a design life of 30 minutes. I have a black and decker jigsaw from the good old days (metal body) thats been handed down twice.
In the UK they build houses on the flood planes of rivers and then top it off by buying IT systems to predict the floods from companies that have been selling IT systems that don't work to government departments over many years.
A company has recently been outed for selling non working IT to the UK postal service.
To top it all off a flood prediction system was supplied by the same company that has just been outed for the river Trent valley. They have just been flooded. A bit of damp in carpets is small fry.
You just can't make it up.
Boing have been outed by a cabin pressure out incident. They have been sold door blanking plates that do not work.
Boing have not yet even got over there dodgy IT problem with the system between the stall detector and the flight deck even after those two flights crashed. The auto pilots went mental.
Heidelberg offset printing machines made after 2020 have a problem, the PLC restarts at random, you have to enter all the settings again.
That is irritating and wasteful, it can take a half hour to get back into production.
On a machine typically costing $ 1.25 million, which is 25% more than the Japanese competition, it is getting difficult for them to explain to customers who were used to their quality, a friend has converted machines from the 1960s being used for punching sheets...they never break, and if they do, everything is available.
To put that in perspective, it is a centuries old company, and at one time had 57% of the market worldwide.
As for washing machines, as they get more complex, they do get more difficult to service, particularly for models which were not popular.
Vertical single tub machines with clock work or motorized timer / controller start here at just about US$ 80, and the most complex front loaders with all the bells and whistles approach the US$ 900 mark...your choice.
That is irritating and wasteful, it can take a half hour to get back into production.
On a machine typically costing $ 1.25 million, which is 25% more than the Japanese competition, it is getting difficult for them to explain to customers who were used to their quality, a friend has converted machines from the 1960s being used for punching sheets...they never break, and if they do, everything is available.
To put that in perspective, it is a centuries old company, and at one time had 57% of the market worldwide.
As for washing machines, as they get more complex, they do get more difficult to service, particularly for models which were not popular.
Vertical single tub machines with clock work or motorized timer / controller start here at just about US$ 80, and the most complex front loaders with all the bells and whistles approach the US$ 900 mark...your choice.
Black & Decker (and Wolf) plants in the UK closed long back.
Stanley merged with Black and Decker, their old rival, in the face of Chinese competition.
Bosch has sold their power tools business (and name rights for those items) to their long term Chinese supplier.
Conclusion: here, the construction site workers prefer Bosch drills, Makita angle grinders, and Hitachi marble cutters.
On a budget, Chinese brands, and local Indian made (at times Indian branded Chinese goods) are purchased, some are excellent.
Cheapest 1/4" drill is only $10, use and throw.
I am able to get service and parts for my old IFB branded front loading washing machine, it is a Bosch / Siemens licensed unit, motor and pump are German, switches (including motorized cam type controller) are Italian, the thermal switch in the door is American!
It had a Continental belt, German, replaced with a Megadyne (American brand), made in Italy.
No ties to any names in above 2 posts...
Stanley merged with Black and Decker, their old rival, in the face of Chinese competition.
Bosch has sold their power tools business (and name rights for those items) to their long term Chinese supplier.
Conclusion: here, the construction site workers prefer Bosch drills, Makita angle grinders, and Hitachi marble cutters.
On a budget, Chinese brands, and local Indian made (at times Indian branded Chinese goods) are purchased, some are excellent.
Cheapest 1/4" drill is only $10, use and throw.
I am able to get service and parts for my old IFB branded front loading washing machine, it is a Bosch / Siemens licensed unit, motor and pump are German, switches (including motorized cam type controller) are Italian, the thermal switch in the door is American!
It had a Continental belt, German, replaced with a Megadyne (American brand), made in Italy.
No ties to any names in above 2 posts...
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