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My mom's old egg timer lasted 40 years, my digital one broke in 6 months
I was cleaning out my mom's kitchen last weekend and found this little metal egg timer she's had since before I was born. It still works perfect, ticks away just like always. My fancy digital timer I bought from Target last January already stopped beeping and the battery compartment is glued shut or something. It got me thinking about how we replaced all this simple stuff with gadgets that just don't hold up. The stat that really got me was from a forum I saw where someone said the average kitchen timer lasts about 14 months now versus 30 years back in the 70s. That can't be right can it? Has anyone else noticed their kitchen gadgets dying way faster than the old stuff?
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hayden_craig9517d ago
That cheap plastic shell is exactly the issue, especially when you drop it and it shatters while the old metal one just gets a scratch. They've basically swapped durable materials for fragile ones that break fast so you have to buy another one.
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shane_clark23d ago
Funny you mention that, because just last week I dropped my digital timer and it cracked right down the middle. Meanwhile, the old metal one my dad left me from the 70s still sits on my counter like a little tank. I guess progress is just making things more fragile, or maybe I'm just getting clumsier.
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the_max23d ago
Flip it around and think about the materials themselves. That old metal timer was probably made from actual metal and glass, stuff that just doesn't break if you drop it a couple times. But my digital timer feels like it's mostly air and a thin plastic shell, plus a circuit board that relies on a tiny wire holding everything together. It's not just planned obsolescence making things worse, it's that modern gadgets are built like cheap toys with zero tolerance for real life. How much would a properly made digital timer even cost these days that wouldn't just shatter after one fall?
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