Manufacturer's product life expectancies and monopolies on spare parts

[Fordulike]

Conspiracy theory or just a coincidence?

I have always had a suspicion that some manufacturers dont build their products as well as they could, to get the monopoly on spare parts.

Take my shower for example (I won't name the brand to protect the innocent)
Wasn't a cheap one either!!!

A fairly simple concept and affair.
Cold water enters shower, which is stopped from flowing by a solenoid valve.
Switch power on, solenoid opens to allow water to flow into a mini heating canister.
User turns temperature up or down, which alters the flow of water into the canister.
This in turn heats the water hotter or not so hot, depending on the speed of flow.

There's a simple PCB with some logic circuits incorporated, to detect any abnormal conditions.
If the water pressure is not sufficient going into the unit, then it switches the heating canister off.
Prevents scalding the user and damage to the unit.
If the temperature is turned up too high, then the unit does the same as above.

The above safety features are brought into play via simple heat sensing and pressure switches.

The whole shower worked fine for just over a year (1 year warranty ), then would require the odd spare part replacing to keep it running.

Luckily, I can do this myself, but not everyone can. Some would have to pay an expert to come out and fit a part that usually costs no more than 20 quid.
Cost of parts, plus call out and labour charges would be crippling.

My Nissan hasn't missed a beat in 9 years, so why don't some other products last this long?

An elaborate plan to relieve us of our hard earned cash?
Who knows????

 

[mike killay]

It is a well known fact that microwave ovens will rust through within 18 months if they are made of mild steel. Yet they continue to manufacture them.

 

[rog_london]

It is a well known fact that microwave ovens will rust through within 18 months if they are made of mild steel. Yet they continue to manufacture them.

Well known to you, maybe! With all due respect, how long it would take for significant rust to develop would depend on many factors - not least humidity and ambient temperature. If you kept it in your unheated garage all the year round I probably wouldn't argue (much) but a kitchen isn't usually an inhospitable environment, and while humidity might be relatively high while carrying out certain functions such as cooking or possibly laundry, these activities don't occur 24/7...

Anyway, my last microwave ceased to operate after more that 20 years due to a failure in the electronics relating to the timer. The magnetron and associated high voltage electrics was still fine. No signs of any rust at all. I don't think it owed me anything. Its replacement is now at least two years old - no rust, and so far so good.

It might possibly be a different matter if you have one of those combined microwave and conventional oven devices. I have no experience of those, and I wouldn't buy one for the same reason I wouldn't buy a washing machine that dries the clothes after washing them - it seems to the engineer in me to be an unholy alliance of technologies which is bound to end in tears - unless you're a manufacturer, retailer or repairman.

Rog.

 

[mike killay]

I have been through about 6 microwave ovens in the past 20 years. Admittedly they were all cheap ones, but they all started to rust quite soon.

 

[rog_london]

I have been through about 6 microwave ovens in the past 20 years. Admittedly they were all cheap ones, but they all started to rust quite soon.

Sounds as though you were unlucky! The one I had for more than 20 years was a Matsui, a trading name then of Curry's when they had a white-goods shop in most high streets. I still know a couple of people who have exactly that model in working order, so it was obviously popular, and built to last.

The oldest microwave I know is a Panasonic, bought by my father around 1975. It's still going, though neither he nor my mother are! It's one of those which has a motorised timer and it goes 'Ding' when time's up! My step mother has it, and she's now 80, so whether it might outlive her and me too remains to be seen.

My freezer was bought in 1969 (a LEC) - cost me £40 new - that's still working too...

Rog.

 

[flecc]

My microwave oven experience has also been excellent, no problems after many years.

On the thread issue, it's just possible there may be some element of short life design, though I'm sure this wouldn't be to gain a repair income or even spares income, since organising these in today's very large markets is too problematic. Manufacturers prefer a "throwaway and replace" system and for most this is a more worthwhile target for income.

So much depends on the product and scale of competition though.

The motor industry is highly competitive and the element foremost in the consumer's mind is reliability, given the multiple problems a breakdown causes, so this factor has always driven the market. A manufacturer who makes an unreliable car will go out of business quickly, so they daren't. Their business model is to construct a fake need for regular servicing, at least annually, in order to maintain an income for a dealer network which in turn supports their ongoing sales. This large dealer network and servicing in turn creates a worthwhile market for spares and the consequent income. The artificially high price for those spares and the labour costs of servicing not only creates income for both manufacturer and dealer, it also drives desire for car replacement to avoid all those costs. The rental market illustrates this with it's two yearly change of cars for new ones.

The inkjet printer market is also a very different model. For companies such as Epson for example, all the income is from genuine ink sales, the printers being sold at or below cost, so the last thing they want is for the printer to stop working. As I've found myself once, phoning Epson when a printer failed resulted in a service engineer calling and correcting the problem. The cost of that is all out of proportion to the low printer cost, but obviously thought worthwhile if I continue to buy their very expensive inks. And yes, they did ask what ink I was using before sending an engineer!

And of course vacuum cleaners that use bags are a similar market to inkjets, the desire being to keep the cleaner working and using bags.

So, looking at those contrasting examples where long hardware life is desirable in each case, I don't think there's any established pattern of making things for short life, though some exceptions might exist. My own experience bears this out, a fridge 31 years and a washing machine 27 years, both thrown out still working fine just to get the benefits of more up to date ones. My old microwave chuntering along fine, as is a 13 year old Epson 760 inkjet printer, and I've even got a fully working early 1930s Pentax 35 mm camera, with bellows!

 

[Fordulike]

I think an important issue here, is how manufacturers deal with a suspected design fault in their product.
Customer feedback, coupled with the requirement to supply high volumes of a faulty part, would indicate a problem very quickly to the manufacturer.
If not dealt with efficiently and quickly, as you quite rightly mention flecc, they will soon go out of business.

There's been a few incidences of car manufacturers dithering about with regards to owner safety.
The recent French car problem, where the brakes of some cars can be operated accidently by the passenger, springs to mind.
They prattled about for a while, before admitting there was a fault with their cars.
At the opposite end was Toyota. Quickly admitting liability and correcting the issue.
I know which manufacturer I would buy from in the future

Back to my shower saga.
I've replaced the same part again and again over many years, and the part has never been modified or improved.
Feedback on shower forums (sad I know), indicates the part is substandard.
It's not a particularly expensive part, just inconvenient when it fails.

Why don't I buy a different brand of shower, some will say.
Well, I spent a lot of money on this one. It's got an oddly angled water inlet, and to replace it with another brand would mean modding the inlet pipe and retiling.
Things I shouldn't have to resort to as a consumer.

 

[flecc]

The recent French car problem, where the brakes of some cars can be operated accidently by the passenger, springs to mind.

This feature if made intentional could find favour with insurers, wives and mothers-in-law. Maybe one for the rear seats too!

I've heard a lot about problems with shower systems, them seeming to affect all varieties of these. I suspect it's not an industry that attracts much engineering designer talent. This, coupled with the multiple disciplines* necessary is likely to lead to designer weaknesses in at least one of those areas.

* Electrical, mechanical, plumbing, hydraulics, materials including metals, plastics, synthetic rubbers etc.

The scale and cashflow of such as the motor industry permits the employment of specialist designers and/or companies to deal with all these variants, but the smaller and very cost competitive shower industry probably cannot afford such luxuries. So I can envisage one man situations often inadequately trying to handle all areas and aspects of design.

The relative newness of the shower industry and it's product variants may also mean inadequate knowledge as yet. The much older and very experienced washing machine industry has been able to develop a vast pool of generic materials and design knowledge which makes design life much easier, just copy others and change the box. The same was true of refrigeration where for a long time the complete compressor units were made by a tiny number of very capable specialists like Frigidaire and fitted in all sorts of makes.

Maybe the shower industry will get there, but the small scale per manufacturer, the four fundamental shower variants and the low cost/income all militate against that.

 

[Fordulike]

If only Nissan built shower units