The LIghtbulb Conspiracy aka Planned Obsolesence

[petek]

This a a great video to watch about planned obsolence in consumer items starting with the electric lightbulb and the manufacturers cartel limiting their life span down to 1000 hours. It then goes on to other items up unto today, things like womans nylons, computer printers with a chip that shuts them down after so many prints, etc etc.. lots of vintage footage too.

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[twintubdexter]

Thanks for posting this. It's a very interesting clip and reminds me of the time my Epson printer quit. I contacted the manufacturer and was told that it had reached the end of it's "service life" and I was offered a $20 coupon towards the purchase of another Epson "piece of crap". The printer and several unused ink cartridges went into the recycling bin.

 

[Ultramatic]

Really excellent

<span style="font-size: medium;">Thanks for posting!</span>

 

[cfz2882]

death chip

that is beyond belief that certain consumer electronics has a "death chip"to
"kill" those items after a certain usage period!

 

[arbilab]

1999-2001 I was an engineer for Dell. 2005-today I run a website for Dell customer complaints. One frequent complaint is that the laptop batteries stop working within weeks of the warranty expiration. So I looked into it and indeed there is a programmable chip inside the battery which can be told not to charge. Dell laptop batteries are difficult to replace with generics so the idea is to sell every Dell laptop customer an expensive replacement whether the actual device has failed or not.

So yes, manufacturers are conspiring against customers by cheapening/weakening, even programming their products to fail.

 

[qualin]

This is why I try to buy "Professional" products whenever I can. In other words, I buy what the professionals use. It costs more, but I find I get such a longer lifespan out of them. There is no room for planned obsolescence for these products.

Did you know that Bryston Amplifiers have a 20 year warranty? They also cost $6k too. When I did some work in the broadcast industry, it's all anyone ever considered using to drive the studio monitors.

I wouldn't ever purchase an inkjet printer because that's not what IT professionals purchase. They purchase managed laser printers.

Talking about longevity, Back in 1998, I purchased a Samsung Quiklaser 6000. It's still on the same toner cartridge that came with it when I bought it! It still works. (Yes, it set me back nearly $900 when I bought it, but it was worth it.)

I gave it to my father who is still using it. In the meanwhile, I foolishly purchased a multi-function device that bricked itself as soon as we had a power outage. (You don't connect laser printers up to a UPS.)

Professional multifunction devices cost around $10k-$20k, so I can't afford one. Buying one for $300 seems like a steal, but the old saying goes, "You get what you pay for."

What really irks me is when a person spends a LOT on an item but gets performance and longevity which is comparable to a much cheaper unit.

This seems especially true when it comes to washing machines.

Being in the IT field, what I'm seeing in the stores both amazes me and disgusts me. It used to be that purchasing an HP Laserjet 3 would set one back about $1500... I've seen LJ 3's with over a 1.5 million pages on the clock, which is downright remarkable.

Now, you can go out and buy a laser printer for $80.. it costs almost as much to replace the cartridge as what the printer itself costs.

I personally stay away from anything IT which uses the Gillette-Style of marketing whenever I can. (They call that Razor Blade Marketing.. Pay a low price for the razor, spend a fortune on the blades.)

I wish that HP would build those old LJ 3/4 printers again, charge a hair short of $2k for them and build them so tough and durable like they used to.

BTW, I went to a garage door shop and was amazed they were still using HP Laserjet 4's from the early 90's.. Saw the manufacture date on one from 1992.. The receptionist was thoroughly confused as to why I wanted to see the date. You have to think for a second, that printer is 20 years old.. it's outlasted Windows 3.1, Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows ME (Ugh), Windows 2000, Windows XP and Windows Vista... Back when it was built, the Pentium had just been introduced and 486's were still on the market.. (BTW, The 486 was the first chip to break 1 million transistors, chips today now have roughly 2 billion transistors now.)

I don't know what happened at HP, but there used to be a day when the only brand one would consider in an IT world was HP, because they were so damn reliable. When they did break down, it was a cheap fix to get them back up and running again.

Now I'm on a rant...

 

[sudsmaster]

There's a good reason for laptop/notebook computer batteries to have chips to monitor the condition of the battery pack.

Lithium-ion batteries can catch fire or explode if they are improperly charged. It's much more of an issue than with older ni-cad or even NiMH batteries. So the chargers and/or the Li-ion batteries have special electronics to prevent that from happening.

Early on there were a number of news reports of battery packs in notebooks catching fire. I believe they were the Sony brand. It resulted in a big recall.

 

[mrb627]

Top Loaders

So where are they putting the chip in our Top Load washers?

Malcolm

 

[mistereric]

Google "Tin Whiskers" and RoHS. You don't even need a chip in your new washer, it will croak on its own.

 

[vacuumfreeeke]

Pete thanks for sharing that video... I watched the whole thing in awe and disgust. It makes me sick, but was still fascinating.

I got around the whole razor blade thing by buying a doubled edged safety razor.... works great and the blades are so cheap. You really don't need 15 blades in a row to shave with... 1 works fine!

 

[cadman]

That's also one of the reasons most everything I use is "vintage". It was designed from the start to last, and if it breaks, it can be repaired. The newest laundry equipment around here are '06 series 'tags. The microwave(s) are Radaranges. Our stove is a ’60, the main fridge a '65. Heck, the mower equipped tractor is a ’49. Each morning I brew a pot of coffee in the '64 Presto and dump it into a similar vintage Thermos that journeys to work each day. (impressive when you consider the average life of today's drip makers).

The newest car on the property is a full size Blazer. Chevy 350. Independent EFI and ABS. No body computer or electronic transfer case.

It's a pain in the ass getting this IBM 1401 mainframe on the net..... : )
Actually, Apple equipment here. Whether you love or hate the OS, a laptop machined from a solid block of aluminum with countersunk screws and inset glass matches right up with the build quality of old. Just don't ask me to buy a printer!

If you look hard, you might find some laserdiscs, even some newer projection equipment, but I've learned that keeping the complex simple can save a lot of headaches! -Cory

 

[lordkenmore]

I wonder if the build quality of Apple is like the quality of old. Not that I'm picking on Apple--the quality does appear to be higher than most of what's out there now. But I wonder if the computers can last forever more or less like they once seemed to.

I have one desktop Macintosh that was probably used by a professional for the first few years of its life. It was heavily used by me for several years. It's now about 18 years old, and it still works. Only repair I've done is the power supply. The floppy drive is getting a little cranky ejecting disks. (Yes, I still use floppy disks since it's the easiest way of moving data from that machine to my Internet computer. Or vice versa.)

 

[arbilab]

...good reason for battery chips......lithium....
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Safety and optimization is the PRIMARY purpose, but Dell is programming them to refuse to charge when the warranty runs out, when there is nothing wrong with the battery other than Dell wants to sell you another one. And yes the chips can be told to do that. They are not 'standalone intelligence', they can be lied to by the system with 3 lines of code. 'get daycount' 'if daycount = 370 goto' and the goto is the address of the chip and the instruction to turn itself off.

 

[qualin]

To Cadman

At work, I use an HP Elitebook, because they're just built just that well. They're built to entire different stand of quality than normal laptops. Oddly enough, they're not all that much more expensive either.

I personally stopped purchasing Dells because I felt that their planned obsolescence was just too uncanny. I have six laptops which all have broken network jacks, all under normal use, I can't get them fixed, they're basically junk, even though everything else on them works just fine.

Lithium batteries are some of the most dangerous batteries you can buy. LiPo (Lithium Polymer) batteries can be outright dangerous if the necessary precautions are ignored. (Overcharging is a biggie.)

What a lot of people don't know is that Lithium batteries love to combust if they are exposed to air. Since they're sealed units, this usually isn't a problem. However, there was a rash of laptop fires not that long ago because Sony was making batteries which "leaked".

What people don't realize is that all of this junk has to go somewhere... I really admire someone who can keep an appliance working for multiple decades.

My computer is nearly five years old now and my friends are telling me to replace it. I still have Pentium 166 system boards lying around that still work, but I have no practical use for them anymore. It's a kind of a shame.

Computers are very unique because most companies have a 33 percent (Or 25 percent) exchange policy, where they get rid of machines more than 3 or 4 years old. When a machine gets to be too old, it starts becoming a liability.

Imagine for example, a helpdesk in a large company having to cope with 500 hard drive failures in a day because the IT dept wasn't regularly replacing the systems. Or that the manufacturer was automatically withdrawing warranty support on systems older than x number of years and they only found out about it now after nearly 150 motherboards failed all within one week of another.

It's a very sad reality.

 

[lordkenmore]

"My computer is nearly five years old now and my friends are telling me to replace it."

It's always interesting how for so many people computers become worthless just because they are X years old. They never seem to ask the question of "Does it still do the job?" Or "What benefit will I see with upgrading, and is that benefit worth the cost?"

I have been known to use ancient software on obsolete computers to do various jobs. People laugh at me, but the honest truth is that I can see absolutely no benefit to upgrading. My needs, except Internet, can mostly be met by the software of the late 80s.

Even my Internet computer tends to be behind the times, although it's modern enough to run current, supported software.

 

[combo52]

100 year old light bulb

This part of the film was very amusing but there was never any planned obsolescence to make LBs fail more quickly.  It would be very easy to make every incandescent LB last 100 years, but no one would want one as it is almost too dim to be useful. They should figure how much power this bulb has used in its 100 hundred life vs its light output LOL. Yes there was competitive pressure to bring down the cost of LBs, but the real reason for the short life was efficiency and light output [ the real reason we have light bulbs is economical light ].  And you can still buy light bulbs that will outlast yourself if you are foolish enough to pay to use them.

 

[neptunebob]

And you can still buy light bulbs that will outlast yourself if you are foolish enough to pay to use them.

Oh, Combo, was that necessary?  Sooooo critical.  Sounds like you're not getting enough fiber in your diet. 

 

[kenmore71]

But he's right in terms of fact. Just did some quick research in my utility closet where I have a few light bulbs stashed...

A 100 watt bulb with an output of 1750 lumens lasts 750 hours
A 100 watt bulb with an output of 1230 lumens lasts 5000 hours
A 100 watt bulb with an output of 925 lumens lasts 14,000 hours
That is the trade-off with incandescent bulbs.

In the stage/studio lighting world the trade-offs are the same...
In an Leko spotlight I can use a 500 watt lamp with a color temp of 3200 K and an output of 13,000 lumens that lasts 300 hours OR
a 500 watt lamp with a color temp of 2900 K and an output of 10,000 lumens that lasts 2000 hours.
Also....
I could use a 750 watt lamp (EHG) with a color temp of around 3000 K, an output of 15,000 lumens and a life of 2000 hours OR
I could use an EHF (also a 750 watt lamp) with a color temp of 3200 K and an output of 20,000 lumens but with the limited life of 300 hours.
On the stage it's a matter of trade-offs between output and life. In a film of TV studio where color temp is important there are different issues at play.

 

[kenmore71]

Then there are the old-fashioned "photo-flood" lamps that produced PHENOMINAL amounts of light for the the amount of electricity they consumed but had VERY short lives. As I recall from my childhood and the crazy relatives making home movies, some of those lamps only lasted 5 - 8 hours, but DAMN they were bright for the amount of wattage they used!!!

 

[qualin]

If I could afford it, I would gladly stock up on LED light bulbs with the expectation that they would last at least 25 years without being changed.

The problem is, the technology is still too new and problematic. (Which amazes me because LED's have been around since the late 60's.)

Some friends of mine purchased some LED light bulbs and found that they're nearly useless. Poor light output, poor colour temperature and short longevity, worse than a normal light bulb.

I've already replaced most of the light bulbs in the house with CFL's, but I'm finding that they have a very comparable lifespan to a normal light bulb, so if anything the idea was that we could save money on our power bill. It's not much.

Then our friends gave us all of their old CFL's because the colour temperature is way too hot. (9300 K vs 6500 K) .. so we'll keep those until they all burn out.

I actually completely ruined the inventory at the local Home Depot because all 20 of my Phillips CFL's burned out before the end of their 3 year warranty. Amazing.

 

[neptunebob]

Kenmore 71,

For a stage light, I thought the color output "temperature" was variable, depending on how far the dimmer was adjusted.  Or are there some dimmers that keep the color the same (though I dont know of any).  Is it possible to use smaller bulbs to keep the light "white"?

 

[kenmore71]

Neptunebob,

The color temp. is variable depending on the dimmer setting. The color temps that I listed above are at full rated voltage. The color temp. goes down as the lamp is dimmed. I have never seen any actual data that outlines the actual drop in color temp in degrees Kelvin related to voltage reduction. I don;t know if the curve would be linear or exponential in nature. I do know from experience that stage and studio lamps tend to go "red" as the voltage is reduced.

 

[neptunebob]

Kenmore 71,

For a stage light, I thought the color output "temperature" was variable, depending on how far the dimmer was adjusted.  Or are there some dimmers that keep the color the same (though I dont know of any).  Is it possible to use smaller bulbs to keep the light "white"?

 

[sudsmaster]

A word about the supposed higher quality of older goods.

What I think happens is that the older stuff we see still usable today is the cream of the crop, so to speak. The higher quality stuff that was bought by families or individuals who took care of it, had it properly maintained, etc., so that it hasn't wound up a lump of rust in a dump.

And there have been, over the past few hundred years, a LOT of manufactured products that were cheap, shoddy, or just not built to last, and have wound up part of the rust stream. We just aren't as aware of them because of the very reason that they didn't last to our day.

Look at a Walmart, a Kmart, or a Target store. It's packed with shoddy goods that probably won't last more than 30 years, if that. Why? Because stuff made to the lowest common denominator cuts corners, is cheaper to make, and cheaper to buy, and that's what the public generally wants. And that hasn't changed over the centuries.

This makes vintage appliances and other goods all that more valuable from a social perspective: for every vintage washer that we might enjoy finding, restoring, and using, there are likely hundreds of others that had much shorter service lives and wound up as scrap somewhere. It's not to say they were bad products, they were just built to a price point and an economic decision was made when they gave out to replace rather than repair.

I happen to own a number of older cars, and I've gone through at least one of them mechanically thoroughly, bringing it back to good running and cosmetic condition. It's an interesting challenge and the ease of working on the older stuff is offset by the scarcity of parts and in some cases knowledge of how older technology was supposed to work. But when I compare these old rides with cars made today, it's unquestionable that the newer cars are far better designed. They are more efficient, require far less maintenance, and last many more miles at higher speeds than the cars of the 50's and earlier.

Periodically I'll hear someone say, in reference to a vintage car, "They don't make them like that any more". To which I sometimes reply, fully mindful of the softer alloys, the more maintenance intensive technology, and the lack of many safety features, "Thank God!". I'll get a puzzled look, and then I'll have to explain that the "good old car" wouldn't do today as a daily driver for most anyone with a commute. It just isn't built to take the higher speeds, longer distances, and longer intervals between servicing. And, when something breaks, it often is a treasure hunt to find a replacement, and finding someone to work on an older car can be nearly impossible unless you're going to do it yourself.

Don't get me wrong, I love old washers and cars and stuff, but I also think it's important not to get an overly rosy view of what it was really like in the day to purchase, use, repair, and replace products. There was just as much crap on the shelf and the car lot back then as there is today, if not more.

 

[arbilab]

shoddy goods that probably won't last more than 30 years
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Typo, right? You meant THREE years. Dell targets the center of their failure bellcurve at 3 years. Some don't last 3 MONTHS. Some NEVER work. NOBODY in the "old days" designed stuff like that.

Can't well compare cars, washers, and mostly-non-mechanical electronics. Washers don't undergo 1/10th the thermal cycling and tolerance clashes a car engine does.

Car mechanics are much better than they were 50 years ago. Because the machines that make them are much closer tolerances. But marketing and bookkeeping have worked against engineering the whole time. Marketing = more complicated, more to go wrong like electronic washer control modules. Bookkeeping, more corners cut, like computer and washer materials.

Result, 10 years ago stuff might last 10 years, like my washer and puter did. My car still works fine after 26 years. But NONE of those things bought today will last that long. And that's not because we CAN'T, it's because we deliberately decided NOT TO.

 

[tolivac]

Keep in mind todays cars contain more ELECTRONIC devices in them than cars built years ago.So that will affect their life.

 

[sudsmaster]

It depends of course on the product genre.

Of course electronics etc have planned obsolescence. They might still work fine in 10 years but you won't be able to get any new software/apps/jollies to run on them. Even TV's are changing fast. We've seen it go from CRT to Plasma to LCD to LED and now 3D is the hottest ticket.

I have one 42" LCD set, and three CRT's, two still hooked up to digital broadcast converters. The CRT sets still work fine, just low resolution etc.

 

[launderess]

Cheaper To Make - Cheaper To Buy

When it comes to appliances at least we've been down that road here in the group so many times it's worn a groove. *LOL*

Long ago appliance makers had a decision to make, build rock solid things (for the most part) like they were and depend only on new home/remodel sales, or simply let things die a natural death and *have* to be replaced.

Once you go the second route it opens the door to all sorts of cost cutting measures that may or may not lower the quality, but affect the bottom line none the less.

Frigidare and other *greats* saw what was coming down the pike and decided (for many other reasons as well) to get shot of the appliance business. After the post war housing boom began to fade, and the inflation of the 1970's took hold it was clear to some that the "major appliance* market was starting to mature. Once that happens you have to think long and hard about how to compete, if you want to at all.

Maytag,Whirlpool,General Electric and WCI between them hold patents and trademarks to nearly 80% or more of the major appliance market and could have resurrected any of the old designs and built them "they way they used to", but obviously that never happened.

The other side of the coin is consumers probably would balk at paying (adjusted for inflation) what the "old built like a tank" appliances would cost today. There is a reason why white goods are called "major appliances", and at one time it was a serious purchase expected to give decades long service.

 

[combo52]

Appliance Life Spans

Rich your thoughts on new vs older products were right on the money.

 

There have always been junky major appliances, I have been in this industry long enough to say that overall [ like new cars ] Major Appliances today are better and will last longer [ with far fewer repairs ] than ANYTIME in the history of major appliances over the last 50 years.

 

But as always if you want LONG Life look for brands and products that have a proven track record and have good parts and service available. If you are picking appliances like most of us select Cell Phones you will get similar life spans out of them.

 

[sudsmaster]

It's been mentioned here before, but if you look at the costs of the first decade of the residential automatic washing machine, these were MAJOR purchases for families in the 50's.

We're talking $200 to $300 for a decent machine, at a time when the average house might have cost $10,000 and the average annual family income might ranged between $4,000 and $6,000 between 1950 and 1960.

Today an average decent washer might cost $500, while the average family income is more like $40,000/yr. Clearly a major appliance purchase is no longer the huge hit to the family's fortunes that it was in the 50's. Along with this, that washer back then represented jobs for more Americans, and more human labor (and touch) was involved in their manufacture. With a decent design and quality materials, this could mean a superior appliance with a long working life. It could also mean, since the machines were assembled by hand, that they were more repairable by hand as well, as opposed to modern machines with monolithic components assembled by robotic welders etc. - which components have to be replaced entire rather than disassembled and fixed. There used to be people who could rebuild mechanical timers - but I don't know anyone who can fix a blown modern washer control board (oh, well, I take that back. I fixed a loose buzzer connection on the control board on my Neptune dryer a few months back, lol). But those monolithic components ARE easier to install in the factory, and because they are often sealed and plastic they actually might be more reliable than their older equivalent assemblies.