January 11, 2008

Planned obsolescence?

Is it now the rule that coffeemakers only last about a year? Mine quit halfway through the brew cycle yesterday, but I got it to work by jiggling it. Today it got about one-third of the way through and quit. No matter how hard I cussed, jiggled or bashed it it wouldn't complete the cycle, nor would its warming plate stay hot.

I guess a year is about all we're supposed to expect for $20, huh? I got the one which just quit in July 2006.

This ain't no off-brand pot, either; it's Proctor-Silex. The one before this was Black & Decker.

Update: The new one (same brand, different model) has a cord that's about two inches shorter than the previous one (and they're both embedded in the base). This means I have to either use an extension cord (not usually a good plan for a machine with a heating element, I'm told), put the coffeemaker on the second shelf of my teacart, or put the thing on the countertop. This means either the top is hard to access because of the cart's upper shelf or the new machine takes up space on my counter.

Do they not teach design anymore?

Upon reflection, I'm going to buy a multi-outlet surge strip and hide it on the second shelf of the teacart behind the bag of filters and the sugar substitute container. That will shorten the distance sufficiently that I can put the thing on the cart where I've been used to finding it for the past 27 years.

Posted by Linkmeister at January 11, 2008 02:01 PM | TrackBack
Comments

I've found just the opposite. My coffeemakers never die. I still have all four I've bought/been given, and they all still work. (knocks on wood...)

Four different brands, too.

Posted by: DXMachina at January 13, 2008 02:35 AM

Four? One in every room?

Posted by: Linkmeister at January 13, 2008 12:17 PM

The first is a tiny Mr. Coffee four-cup that I bought twenty some odd years ago. There's a Braun espresso maker given to me as a gift, the big clunky one I got as a freebie from Gevalia a few years back that made terrible coffee, and the Black & Decker with the thermal carafe I bought about a year ago.

Eventually the Gevalia will be going to Salvation Army, but I never think of it.

I was going to commiserate about the cord length. Anything to save a buck on the new models. The Mr Coffee the ex and I got when we got married came with a plastic pitcher for measuring the water.

Posted by: DXMachina at January 14, 2008 01:03 PM