If they worked forever, where tf are they?

I also remember when a desk fan weighed as much as a bowling ball and could slice your finger off.

Survivorship Bias. The bad appliances are rotting in landfills and at the bottoms of lakes.
I’m sure there are good things now… I’ve just yet to find one.

Or were moderately easy to repair with the right tools and replacement parts?

Yeah. And they were also inefficient as fuck, comparatively expensive, and required maintenance to last forever.

Companies became better at manufacturing and efficiently gauging what they could get away with cheaping out on and passed that along to customers in the form of cost savings while expanding their profit at the same time. You can still buy products that last forever made with modern materials and processes, you just have to pay out the ass for them.

Yeah, gimme the “dirt rubbed into all of the edges” look.

The past truly is a different country.

I pity the fool that has smart appliances.

they still make those. a lot of them, too. and they also happen to be the cheapest options as well, so there’s no reason why you can’t be buying them if you don’t want smart features. there’s a massive market for them still because of apartments.

and if you want something built better, buy a commercial version of the appliance you need. those are made with ease of maintenance as a priority, although they typically cost quite a bit more than the cheapest option.

It’s bad for business. We need them to break down and eventually fail entirely so you buy a new one. And we need to make ad revenue off of you while they’re working.