Dont get stressed if you think your system isn't "Good Enough"...

[Beobloke]

I have a personal dislike of Dyson products for many reasons, the main one being that plastic bearings are self degenerating once they get grit in them. They may produce purer air and cleaner surfaces, but they are expensive..

It's interesting you mention Dyson. I must confess I've always been a bit of a fan. I think their older, mains-powered upright cleaners are brilliant and as the owner of a long haired cat and someone who also recorded one of the highest results ever seen by the local hospital for allergy to house dust when my eczema was tested, I appreciate their cleaning abilities and ferocious suck! I have a DC-07 and a DC-14 and they perform superbly and parts are cheap, plentiful and easy to fit when they are required.

However my recent experience with their HD-01 Supersonic hairdryer has royally pissed me off. It is my wife's and is around 5 years old and last year it began cutting in and out as you wave it around. Now given that I have had to re-terminate the mains leads into the above vacuums a number of times, as they perish where they enter the machines, this is most likely the problem.

However, I was shocked to learn recently that the item is no longer supported by Dyson, repair shops won't touch them as they can't get spares and Dyson could offer me no service information. Never mind, I'm an engineer - I'll have a crack at it myself. However, looking at a "tear-down" video of one on the web, it appears that to take it apart, you have to break it (although, I'm obviously still going to give it a go when I get 5 minutes). What a crap piece of design (or an ingenious one, if you're a conspiracy theorist like Marco! )

My email to the UK CEO of Dyson was ignored and so, I'm afraid they have lost me as a customer, although I think they had anyway given their move to battery-operated vacuum cleaners. Our friends have one and it's crap. Definitely a perfect example of newer not being better.

[Haselsh1]

Good enough for what..?

This has been said so many times in the past but your system is an expression of you. It should suit you and no one else. If your system is 'not good enough' then it can only be to your ears as that is what it is tailored towards or are you trying to impress everyone but yourself..? It is your personal expression. It is not for anyone else.

Of course I was just as guilty as anyone else until I changed my outlook on my sound system.

Now I don't give a flying FCUK for how it sounds to other people. Those days are so far behind.

There are things to get really stressed about. Hi-Fi is no longer one of them

[Macca]

Or if you'd rather keep it hi-fi related, what about the very best examples of vintage loudspeakers, compared with what's being produced now? Has streaming music really usurped the sound of a reel-to-reel tape machine?

Essentially. how often, over the years, either consciously or unconsciously, have you traded quality for convenience, or simply been a victim of blindly following trends, and worse of all trading feel-good factor (the joy of using and owning something of real quality) ultimately for the opposite?

Or when has a so-called 'labour saving' device ultimately turned out to be something that sucks the fun out of life, and which ultimately has served as a tool to dehumanise you...?

<Discuss>

Marco.

other than hi-fi equipment I don't buy anything unless I absolutely have to. Fridge and washing machine were bought used almost 20 years ago, furniture all second hand, either free or cost very little. except for the bed and mattress which I got new again 20 years ago now.

I did buy a new kettle last year, only because a mate was staying and he broke the old one which was 20 years old. Even then it still boils it's just the lid that is bust.

I expect the new one to last 20 years at least which is probably longer than I will.

Never followed trends with these things, don't even know what the trend is so could only follow it by accident/coincidence anyway

Can't recall ever replacing anything where the new one was worse than the old.

Don't really see what the issue is. I suppose if you are the sort who fetishizes ordinary household appliances and objects it might be of some concern but thankfully that's never been me.

[walpurgis]

The only 'appliance' I've bought in the last few years is an extra freezer in February before last when Covid 19 was getting a foothold here. That was a smart move!

[Macca]

I notice a lot of people, mostly but not exclusively women, like to change the fridge, hoover, furniture, kettle, toaster etc every couple of years even if there's nothing wrong with them.

No idea why but probably explains why Dyson don't make their vacuums easy to repair. Not enough users require that functionality.

There's certainly a gap in the market for a toaster that will accept normal sized slices of bread. I've done the market research and everyone wants one but no-one makes one. What's that all about?

[walpurgis]

There's certainly a gap in the market for a toaster that will accept normal sized slices of bread. I've done the market research and everyone wants one but no-one makes one. What's that all about?

What's normal sized bread here, is not elsewhere. I expect the British market isn't big enough to cater to, although I believe some toasters are OK. The last LIDL one I had was fine.

[Macca]

I am going to introduce one for British bread then, 70 million potential punters, may not be enough of a market for Rowenta or whoever but reckon I'll still sell enough to make a packet.

[struth]

What's normal sized bread here, is not elsewhere. I expect the British market isn't big enough to cater to, although I believe some toasters are OK. The last LIDL one I had was fine.

yes not many do british bread. obviously ours are bigger. Mine is the usual ;do half and turn over. There were the odd one that did whats known as a "warburton loaf slice"

[struth]

Modern loo's are a good example. Now too low, and the flush only uses half the water, resulting in you having to flush 10 times and thus using 5 times the water and when old you cant reach them... They wanted to change mine; i chased them!!

[struth]

I am going to introduce one for British bread then, 70 million potential punters, may not be enough of a market for Rowenta or whoever but reckon I'll still sell enough to make a packet.

i'll back you.