I've just watched an interesting movie on polish CNBC chanel. I was albe to find it found it on youtube: lasts ca. 1h, narration is in english, subtitles in some unknown to me language, some interviews in german/french.

I find this interesting because it matches my personal experiences when I tried to replace my old washingmachine with a new one that will be as durable as the old one.
So if you have an hour free:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6HnW6Mm5sUI

Subtitles are Norwegian :D

Anyway, watched this when it aired here 1 month ago. Quite alarming to see what's been going on behind our backs, not to mention all the environmental issues caused by planned obsolescence

We all use a lot of equipment that has a form of planned obsolescence. And the trend keeps growing ( partially with the help of legislators as they seem, certainly at suprantaional level, to attach a lot of importance to the interests of the industrial / globalization lobbies.

I realized that when a 30 months old diswasher suddenly died. The rubber of the pump had somehow molten without obvious reason. I had to replace the whole pump and guess what, 18 months after that the pump died again, exactly the same cause. The common point : the dishwasher came with a 24 months warranty ( 24+6 = 30) and the repair with a 12 months warranty ( 12+6 = 18) .

Then I discovered that a computer would start behaving weirdly after 3 some years. Simply replaing the thermal paste proved an efficient (and cheap repair ).

Just my 2 cents

I've known most of this stuff, I'm very environmentally and economically conscious and prefer the do-it-yourself approach, trying as hard as I can to fully understand everything I use, but this is interesting all the same. I've watched the first ten minutes and will continue watching the rest. It's pretty sickening stuff, but it shouldn't come as any surprise.

My mother, thrice, had found a product she bought to fail within a week after it's warranty has expired, and while luck might have a factor in it, I think that's being too generous and not giving corporate greed nearly enough credit. ¬_¬

Lightbulbs having a dramatically reduced lifespan, and printers and ink cartridges ignoring the ink-level at a certain percentage, are two of the most well-known of these planned obsolescence, and there is an increasing number of layman who are growing wise to just how real this is. Hell, the phrase "They don't make 'em like they used to" has been in our vernacular for quite some time, this should be a surprise to no one.

I don't really care about the money that I am out personally from this trend. What gets me are the wasted resources.

I took a page from the military Planned Maintenance System. Keep your stuff clean, keep it in good repair (who here even owns their owner's manual, let alone follows the recommended maintenance on them?), and don't abuse it through unnecessary overuse or putting sensitive parts in environments they're not supposed to be in.

Companies want your money, and it's a stupid company that does so by making sure their products break; why if they don't last would you go right back and buy another from them?

I've always thought of drm as a form of planned obsolescence.

Because you need it. The problem is when all the major companies making a specific type of product agree that their products should have a limited lifespan, you don't really have a choice as a consumer.

When your light bulbs go out, you go buy new ones. Doesn't matter who makes it, as they all have approx. the same longevity. And they're all designed to last for a lot shorter than they could have.

The specific company you bought the last light bulbs from might not gain anything when you go out and buy a competing type of light bulbs, but it evens out over time. What's important is that the industry as a whole makes a lot more money than they would have if they made their products to last.

I'm not one to say that regulations have never done anything good (I'll just say very little good), but situations like this is where regulations can get in the way of an honest person who wants to provide a superior product from doing so.

You should probably watch the documentary.

We refer to the projected lifespan of a product as "Poisson distribution" and that determines the term of the warranty. It is no coincidence when your device dies a week after the warranty has expired.

Fun fact: capacitors are the easiest component to force fail.

When our 35-year-old washing machine needed to be repaired, the repairman specifically told us, "Do not EVER EVER let this machine die." Modern washing machines are designed to last 10 years at most, whereas older washing machines were designed to last FOREVER. So far, apart from that one instance (which was an easily repaired hose) it has consistently worked just as well as the day we bought it.

The same cannot be said of practically any other mechanical or electronic device in the whole house.

Okay. Will do. I'm familiar with planned obsolescence and didn't think this would be any different than what I already know so I admit I was commenting on what I've seen before from different sources.

We have to get rid of shit somehow to keep artificial scarcity limping along and we can't blow shit up in first world countries too often. That's only for other places.
Your repairman was probably bad at math, new motors quickly save the whole cost of a new machine in just a year or two compared to a 35 year old machine.

You do have to count manufacturing energy, but it's still a net savings. Anyone running 35 year old appliances is probably losing money in the long run.