extended warranties

[kz0e]

Rant alert.

I never bought them. Back in the 80's as a young pup engineer I ended up doing the engineering end of reliability for the latest disk drive we were designing, learned the conventional wisdom about failure bathtubs etc. As s result I viewed extended warranties as salesman pocket padding, refused to buy em. Bought a vcr once and after telling the salesman I didnt want the extended warranty another salesman behind the counter told me I'd be sorry when it failed in two months, told him if it was going to fail in two months I didn't want it in the first place, and of course I meant it.

Three months ago I bought a balck&decker battery vacuum cleaner, and for some reason bought the 5$ extended warranty without thinking about it, well the darned thing failed today.

Last week I had a stack of about 20 sheets of standard printer paper to staple, went through three or four staplers around the office and every one of them wouldnt do it, jammed up, finally found one of the old black ones I remember we all used to have and no problem, did what it was suppose to do.

Seems the junk factor is way up there. That old theory about bad money chasing out good is holding up well (start shaving coins and soon there will only be shaved coins), seems quality doesnt count any more.

A friend was going on about what a POS the xbox gaming console is compared to others, huge return rate, but it's a bit cheaper so it's outselling everything (didnt verify this, assuming it's true). According to him this was the business plan behind the thing.

All that said I do shop at walmart, still, not sure where to go if I did decide to pay more, and then have no reason to trust I'd actually be getting a better product.

Sheesh, cant trust much anymore. Seems I almost expect crap, and dishonesty is just part of the daily grind nowadays. The commercials I hear on the am radio morning show I listen to seem downright insulting, exotic mint coins, get rid of credit card debt free, and on and on.

Ahh, actually feel a little better now, thanks for listening. Need to get that transmit antenna up so's I can cathart on the air 8^).

Larry

[k4kyv]

Sheesh, cant trust much anymore. Seems I almost expect crap, and dishonesty is just part of the daily grind nowadays. The commercials I hear on the am radio morning show I listen to seem downright insulting, exotic mint coins, get rid of credit card debt free, and on and on.

You must have missed the one I heard on some syndicated political lunatic fringe AM talk show, hawking a miracle herbal cancer cure.

Don't you love it when a piece of consumer junk craps out after a couple of years, you find that it's some simple, cheap but specialised part that failed, and you order a replacement only to be told that the part has been "discontinued", as if the piece of crap should have even needed a replacement part when it was brand new?

Dr. Brinkley may have died decades ago, but his ilk live on.

[Opcom]

Sad state of affairs. I see ancient "box fans" in my great uncles' homes that are >40 years old. The box fans I buy at cheap-o-mart, I expect to get about 1000 hours from them. I have learned to run them on low or high, never medium. One difference is the quality old fans used a series tapped inductor to change motor speed. New fans use a tapped motor coil.

[K3ZS]

Along the same line is the "energy star rated" things.    My last refrigerator was an energy star  Maytag and it worked like crap and after a few repairs it gave out completely.    I replaced it with an inefficient Frigidaire which seems to work much better.    The Maytag dishwasher I have is a piece of crap.   It saves energy, runs for several hours but doesn't get the dishes clean.    I used to get Maytag years ago for its reliability but no more.    I read that to get the energy star ratings the appliance has to compromise on performance.    I would rather pay a few bucks more in the electric bill and have reliable working appliances, no more energy star for me.

[k4kyv]

Sad state of affairs. I see ancient "box fans" in my great uncles' homes that are >40 years old. The box fans I buy at cheap-o-mart, I expect to get about 1000 hours from them. I have learned to run them on low or high, never medium. One difference is the quality old fans used a series tapped inductor to change motor speed. New fans use a tapped motor coil.

Same with ceiling fans.  The old ones used a "speed coil", which is a tapped inductor in series with the motor to achieve three speeds: high (no coil),  medium (part of the winding) and low (the entire winding).

I never had any trouble with the ones with the tapped motor windings.  Actually the ones I have seen have two or three separate windings, wound over a common core for the speeds.  But I am talking about ceiling fans with real motors, ones that weigh about 60 lbs and have a cast iron frame, in which you can see the coils of windings and spinning rotor when you  look through the vent holes in the cover plate, and have a refillable oil reservoir that constantly bathes a ball thrust bearing.

About the only kind of ceiling fan you can buy new nowadays are cheap little P'sOS made in Asia that have a fake motor: a little sealed unit about the size of your fist, tucked away inside what looks like the motor housing but which is really just a thin sheet metal decorative shroud.

Our old Maytag clothes washer finally crapped out after nearly 30 years.  The motor smoked and the chassis was almost rusted away, so we decided it was time to replace it.  The Maytag guy about 12 years ago told me even back then to keep that machine running as long as I could because the newer ones were crap.  Our old one had a scroteful gearbox with counterweight under the rotating tub.  He showed me the inside of one of the newer models and it had a much smaller gearbox and no counterweight.

The best one we could find as a replacement was sold by Sears & Roebuck.  We brought it home and hooked it up.  So far it hasn't failed, but when I hear it run, it sounds like it is really groaning and that some major part of the power train is just on the verge of breaking from the strain, and could go at any moment.  I did take a look inside before moving it into position, and you guessed it: it is almost identical to that crappy Maytag one the repair guy showed me.

I understand that only one or two manufacturers are making nearly all major household appliances these days, and the various brands simply put their own logo on whatever generic POS comes out of those factories.  Kind of like the generic satellite fed crap-for-programming spewed out by commercial radio stations from coast to coast.

But then, I would guess a plastic Yaecomwood ricebox would get an energy star rating, but a good solid plate modulated class-C 100% duty-cycle tube type transmitter would not.

[W1RKW]

The last NEW car I bought which was back 2000, when it came to signing the papers to take delivery the salesman was pushing an extended warranty on it.  I looked him straight in the eyes and told him don't even go down this road because I cancel the deal right here and now and go find something else.  He hemmed and hawed and I told him a 2nd time I don't want the car if you think it needs an extended warranty, I'm buying it for it's supposed reliability. He didn't get the money and I drove away with the reliable car.

[N3DRB The Derb]

we are 1 payment away from paying off our 2004 dodge ram 1500. Chrysler files for bankruptcy. 

oh well, been a great truck - still has original brakes, never any trouble. 102 K on it now.

On ceiling fans: Hunter still makes a outstanding product.

[W2DU]

Don, until reading your post #4 today I have been trying to figure out what POS stood for. After seeing the context in which you used it today my numb brain finally figured it out. Thanks!

Walt,W2DU

[WB2YGF]

As I said in another thread, I keep an extended warranty on my Sears dehumidifier because the fan motor craps out every 12 to 18 months.  It's a known issue but they still have not done anything about it in over 5 years.

[WA1GFZ]

Don,
Our last washer a Sears lasted 31 years and I replaced the belt once. The new Sears I bought was just as heavy so I'm hoping.
I had a maytag POS dishwasher that sounded like it was full of rocks.
I hear maytag was bought out again and should improve. The lady in our local parts store told me that when I replaced the dryer belt a while ago. A sears that will be 20  in 5 weeks.
Nothing worse than junk

[k4kyv]

On ceiling fans: Hunter still makes a outstanding product.

Probably the best, but they moved their manufacturing plant from Memphis to Taiwan.  The original motor has been replaced by a "skeletal" motor, in which the part that used to be the rotor is now stationary and contains the coils.  The part at the rim, that used to be the field coils is now what rotates.  This is basically  how the cheap fans work, and this style is commonly called a "spinner" because the outer case of the motor is what actually spins round.  The difference is that the skeletal design is open, so ventilation is provided for.

The skeletal motor is smaller than the original style motor, but it is mounted inside the original size cast iron frame, and weighs close to the same as the old ones, and the thrust bearing is still a ball bearing in a refillable oil bath.  Hunter has a patent on this new style motor, claiming it is quieter than the original style because it is less prone to the 60~ vibration, but there is debate whether maybe they really just wanted to cut costs.

I would say that the original style motor is to current production as a Gates BC1-F is to a BC1-T (ignoring the factory move to Asia), or that those early cast iron fans are the BC-610's of ceiling fans.