I honestly 100000% believe that people use this term incorrectly almost all the time. Planned obsolescence is when something is deliberately made to break quickly so that you buy another one.
What is happening here is different - it's a question of "how do we make it as cheap as possible and last as long as the warranty".
They sound the same but they really aren't. No one is designing these devices to break deliberately. But companies absolutely are swapping metal cogs for plastic ones because a plastic cog won't break during the warranty period and that's what matters.
Sometimes there is a good reason to use a more breakable plastic part. Baratza coffee grinders are sturdy and well-designed, but there is a plastic gear in the power chain between the motor and the burrs.
That gear isn't plastic because it's cheaper than a metal gear, it is a sacrificial part.
Suppose you get some coffee beans with a rock in them. The burrs seize up because they can't grind the rock, and you don't notice it in time to cut the power.
Imagine that every part in the power chain is as sturdy as the motor and the burrs. The motor may burn out, or else it manages to force the burrs to turn, ruining them.
Now you have to replace either the expensive motor or the expensive burrs.
Instead, the plastic gear fails, saving the motor and burrs. This gear is cheap and easy to replace. (Baratza may send you one for free, even if the machine is out of warranty. Their customer service is second to none.)
So there are some cases where a breakable plastic part can avoid damaging or ruining the more expensive parts.
Of course one could imagine other ways of solving the "grinding a rock" problem. Maybe some kind of sensor to turn off the motor if it seizes up? But that would increase the cost of the grinder, and who knows if it may have other failure modes. Since this is such a rare situation, the sacrificial plastic gear is a simple and effective solution.
When I was a kid, our family went to a drive-in theater in the family station wagon. I decided to watch by sticking my head out the back window. My dad decided to close the window; thankfully he realized my head was there before he finished. I'm glad I never got to find out if there was a plastic gear in the mechanism.
Not true, those things are deliberately designed to blow as soon as possible after warranty expires. Open any device, look for the capacitors near the energy supply.
Those do not like heat, and if you model the heat correctly, you fit the bell curve of expiration exactly after the 2-3 years after the warranty expires.
If you improve the cooling of the area, most devices lifetime can be doubled.
I always wondered why no repair shop takes advantage of this, by offering a doubled warranty, for defusing planned obsolescence ahead of time.
It can be hard to move the capacitors without having to redesign the entire power supply, as increasing the distance will increase the inductance. Increased inductance will make most power supplies less stable. One thing I have done in the past when I haven't seen any ceramic capacitors on the output side, on switching power supplies, is to solder a surface mount ceramic capacitor under the electrolytic output capacitor to reduce the ripple it sees, which will reduce the amount of heat generated internally.
An easier thing to do is remove the heat better. This can be done by making sure that the intake air first cools the capacitors (outside air->caps->transistors). Since most power supplies these days are shoved into a plastic box with no venting, it can be easy to add a few vent holes and a small fan. If you do this, make sure that all of the capacitors are discharged before handling as not all power supplies have bleeder resistors to make sure the capacitors self-discharge in a reasonable time period.
What really is the difference? If you know a plastic cog has a 90% chance of breaking after 6 months you're effectively planning on it breaking. You're basically arguing that intent matters more than the effect of creating disposable products.
Yes that's the entire point of `planned` obsolescence. The word itself quite clearly signifies a requirement for intent to be there. If you make your product as cheaply as possible and because of this it does not last long does not mean it's planned obsolescence. It's just a cheap product.
Not really. You can buy a hammer made out of metal, or a plastic one for half price. The plastic one will break long before the metal one would. Is the manufacturer "planning" for breakage? Or it is just a side effect of the product being cheaper?
Real planned obscolescence is making software that requires online authentication and then switching off the auth servers 3 years in so that the customers have to buy a new version. That's a deliberate action.
> Is the manufacturer "planning" for breakage? Or it is just a side effect of the product being cheaper?
It can be both.
I was in a hardware store looking at painter ladders and noticed many of them had the two sturdy metal ladders kept together by a piece of plastic. Pretty much everyone would think they were extremely durable, while actually the weak link would soon wear to make the entire product useless. Was it incompetence or planned obsolescence? I have no idea, still I wonder why I spotted the problem in 5 seconds straight although I am no engineer.
>> What is happening here is different - it's a question of "how do we make it as cheap as possible and last as long as the warranty".
They are choosing to ask this question.
But it's possible to ask other questions.
Let's take the example of the Gigabyte "Ultra Durable" mothers.
It's a motherboard series with some improved parts with a focus on reliability. And they are relatively cheap parts. And supposedly the really increase the reliability of this motherboard.
Using inferior parts that don't represent a substantial savings in hopes of having the device last just barely as long as the warranty so the user will have to buy a new one IS planned obsolescence.
I think even if the motivations can have different origins, they can lead to the exact same thought process and product.
So yes, strictly speaking they are not the same and they can lead to different outcomes, but I am not sure how much of a difference it makes in terms of real world results. Sure, it depends on the cost structure of the product and a few other factors, but in the end many products will just break right after the warranty period.
When my first electric razor stopped working, I decided to open it up and figure out why. It turns out the connection from power to the motor rotor was by graphite rods, similar to pencil leads. It's certain that the graphite was designed with a specific lifetime in mind, and once it ground down to nothing you got metal-on-metal grinding that destroyed the motor.
This assumes that you've noticed the problem before irreparable damage occurs, and you're familiar enough with motors to know what to look for and where to find parts. Neither was true in my case.
> No one is designing these devices to break deliberately.
Except if you design something to break right after the warranty (or as close to it as you can get using the cheapest materials possible), that is what you are doing.
1. They don't want consumers, or third party repairs, seeing Factory Repair Information. (They pick, and choose which appliance repair shops get the information, and it's tied to sales. Try finding a independant repair shop these days?)
2. They usually don't sell parts out side of warranty. When they do, they are marked up very high. (If enough models were sold, the part might have a genetic equivelant.)
3. It seems like they make repair just difficult enough, so people just buy new again? I have a family member who admits Bosh appliances are overpriced, and have short lives. She still buys the brand? I believe Bosh psychologists know why?
4. Right now I have two Bosh appliances on life support. I fool around with electronic repairs so I have them kinda working. If you get an E13 error on a Bush Washer, it's usually the drain pump. In order to open the door, you need to shopvac the water from the drain hose.
5. I've noticed the weak spot on Bosh appliances is the computer, and I get it. It's not the best enviornment for electronics. Make the computer boards similar to vechicle boards. It's pretty rare for a vechicle's computer to fail. Meaning they are built for a nasty environment.
I don't know why you have so much trouble with Bosh, they're up there with other well known brands such as Sorny, Panasomnic and Magnetbox.
On the other hand I have a cordless Bosch drill/driver set I bought refurb, they've held up to years of neglect and (not pro) use. Maybe give them a try next time?
Edit: jokes aside, that's good information. Fwiw I had to babysit a little tube for an hour+ to drain a Samsung washer to get at the drain filter. I wish I could have used a shop vac to speed that up.
What is happening here is different - it's a question of "how do we make it as cheap as possible and last as long as the warranty".
They sound the same but they really aren't. No one is designing these devices to break deliberately. But companies absolutely are swapping metal cogs for plastic ones because a plastic cog won't break during the warranty period and that's what matters.