Planned Shaving Obsolescence

I recently came across another example of planned obsolescence.

I am growing tired of having to fix broken stuff. I also hate having to buy new stuff because of small broken things in the stuff i already own. There is just so many pre-designed points of failure in every appliance (and even in clothes!)…

This is what happened.

We have a shaving machine at home. Everyone uses it to shave, and I also use it to cut people’s hair. The brand is Remington.

The charging cable has a little plastic piece above the mini-usb connector, that goes into a little space on the machine, above the mini-usb port. I have always wondered what this does. So, since my brother was complaining that the machine does not work anymore, I decided to take a look before going out to buy a new one.

This is what it looks like. Black is machine cover and cable and the little plastic part, green is the electronics plate, silver is usb port, gray is some metallic parts and orange is usb connector.  

 

So, what happens when you connect the cable to charge the machine, is this:

Note the little, triangular plastic piece which pushes the metallic part upwards and so makes it touch the other metallic part.

This seems to lack a reason to exist. If the two metallic parts don’t touch, then the machine won’t charge. No charge, empty battery. Empty battery, no shave and no haircut. No shave and no haircut == new machine needs to be bought.

And sure enough, this is what had happened. The two metallic parts could not touch, because the upper one had bent upwards, most probably due to a lot of usage.

And so, when I plugged the cable, the result was this:

 

 

Now, couldn’t they have made the metallic parts sturdier, so that they do not bend with time and usage? Of course they could! Could they have removed this stupid part all together? Probably yes. But would Remington make the same sales of shaving machines? Probably no, because there would be less “broken” machines.  

 

Companies look for profits in the short term. Stuff like this, however, give them a bad name, as people who buy their machines will start noticing how quickly they fail. But do the companies like Remington care? No. No, because each person who notices and complains is alone. Yes, you/I could write to someone with more power and time, but I am not too confident something will happen. Aren’t there rules for planned osbolescence? There definitely should be!

In the end, after thinking a bit, and swearing a bit in the general direction of Remington’s HQ, I bent the little metallic piece back into place and made a note to 3d print a cover for it that will keep it in place permanently, as the bending will eventually break it.

I hate planned obsolescence, and I hate companies who design stuff with it in mind. Make stuff that is durable and effective and I will gladly pay for your reasonably priced product.  

 

 

Some beards were harmed while writing this post, so here is the final show of “The Beards”, to restore the balance.