To think things don’t last as long as they once did?

[K8Davidson]

I bought a new toilet seat a year ago, and it broke yesterday. I’m very frustrated because when one issue is solved, something else breaks.

My furniture is mostly antique because I know they will last for the rest of my life!

As a kid I remember our fridge lasted forever. The fridge we had before our current one lasted about 2 or 3 years and we had it repaired twice in that time too. By the time it broke a 3rd time, it felt better value to get another one.

Similarly when we moved in our house there was a really old dishwasher that worked fine. We re-did the kitchen and bought a new one. After about 2 or 3 years the plastic coating started breaking off the drawers/racks. It still worked but we looked into replacing the racks. It was going to be about £240 to do that and it seemed ridiculous against the cost of the machine. We ended buying a second hand dishwasher for £75.

I recently had an issue with my phone (it's about 3 years old) the person in the phone shop said the issue was due to a "very old" sim card! Admittedly they replaced the sim free. I find it stressful to change phones I don't understand all the people who upgrade each time a new one comes out 🤣

In smaller items, I bought a rucksack last year and it lasted 6 months before the strap broke off (I do not regularly overload it)

Our sofa is about 25 years old though, and not planning to replace any time soon.

That's because repair has become impossible. Many manufacturers use special screw which no standard torque-sets cover or the devices are sealed and either can´t be opened or closed after opening. Spare parts are difficult to get and aftermarket parts often cause the device to stop working, because, again, the manufacturer does not want anyone but themselves to replace the parts, if they even offer that service in the first place.

It's called planned obsolescence. It's done deliberately to make us buy more stuff. There are very "right-to-repair" laws in the works in various countries, but the traction they gain is limited so far.

I think the antiques of the future will be the expensive, quality made brands of today.
Some already hold their price as vintage.

Ercol springs to mind. British made and designed. Currently with a British grown range. Similarly, some Scanadnavian designers.

Not everyone spends on quality though. Sadly, the cheap imports but British trade at risk.

Agree.
I found Bosch to be excellent

I found this
30 years ago no problem
moved house 12 years ago had no end of lose seats
at the moment seemed have sorted it

If you’ve a wobbly toilet seat that’s surely about how it’s attached. Take it off and re screw it tight. Loads of videos on YouTube will show you how

Agree to a certain point, but this only started happening about 12 years ago

Sofas do last! Our first DFS sofa lasted 17 years - the guy at the showroom was stunned when we told him while ordering our new one. He said most people replace them out of choice long before they need to.

Thats not my experience at all. Ours are 9 years old and on their last legs. To my mind a sofa should last forever with maybe a reupholster at around 25 years.

A lot of people replace things because they don't match their current decor, rather than it being worn out. I cant imagine that the person that changes a kitchen after about 10 years is keeping a sofa for 15.

Our old sofas were fine for 12 years... replaced as they didn't fit into our new house.

The replacement ones ate crap in comparison... and we thought we went upmarket! Wish we stuck with IKEA...

To my mind a sofa should last forever with maybe a reupholster at around 25 years.

I was looking at reupholstering my sofa, it's the price of a new sofa!

Yanbu, things used to be made to last but consequently they cost more to buy. Now we have planned obsolescence for tech and cheap imports that are of poor quality.

They can, but it’s more profitable to sell sofas that don’t.

I'm worried about replacing my roof. The roof on my house is the original 1938 roof. I hope to live here for at least another 30 years, and if I had to replace the roof now I would expect it to need to be replaced again before I die or leave for a home.

And re the concept of needing to pay more to get better quality, I think the price point is outside of most people's reach. But that most people are in the price point cohort with those who replace kitchens and bathrooms a few times in a home. That drives quality down.

I do also think that because things can easily replaced that we do become complacent and rough/ cack handed with things. I used to take very good care of things that I couldn't afford to replace.

My family’s ikea chairs have made the rounds of all our siblings and are 35yrs old and still look amazing!!

I’ve never had an issue with a toilet seat! Ours are wood, nothing fancy, have lasted years, definitely not expensive.

Don't forget, the item which has survived 30 years will be an outlier. The vast majority will have failed.

People used to rent TVs and the repairs were free.

Coffee machines. Mine is 15 years old, used a dozen times a day, cost £35. Way over engineered, it's ridiculous. At this point I'm willing the flipping thing to break so I have an excuse to buy a new one, but no, it just keeps on going.

Also, my old phone, it's a Samsung S21, bought way back in 2021. I used it everyday for all my emails and internet stuff, and at it would play white noise all night, every night, to help me sleep. I also used it to watch Netflix (even though there is a fuck off huge TV on the wall). So it was in almost constant use, 24 hours a day, for four years straight. It's now been retired and living a far more sedate life as the Sonos controller. That's only because I feel bad about locking it away in a drawer somewhere, so I've given it a job to do, even though I could just use my new phone to control the speakers. But I'd never tell it that.

We rented our tv and video player, video players were notorious for breaking down

I think cheap versions are widely available is why items may not last as long... widely available because we consumers want that, we want a cheaper version and then maybe we'll completely change the entire bathroom sooner so why pay to have something that lasts 20 years if we only need something to last 1-4 yrs.

So if things last shorter periods... it's because consumers are satisfied with the trade off of cheap = don't expect to use it so long.

Big exception is iphones, lol. The hardware lasts well but the Operating systems have planned obsolescence.

Thank you! I’ll look into those brands! My broken one is AngelShield, it looked so sturdy!

No, it has completely broken on one side. Snapped off completely. I asked my Dad to have a look at it (he’s a plumber), he said it can’t be fixed at all.

I asked if I needed to replace the attachments and he said it’s not possible because the part that’s broke is the part of the toilet seat itself.