Ask Lemmy

Electric toothbrushes. They really are superior to regular old brushes, but they tend to break down after less than a year and aren't exactly cheap. Ironically, the last time mine broke I replaced it with the cheapest one and it's lasted longer than the ones before it. Go figure!

If it needs an app or internet connectivity - it can go fuck itself.

We've gone nearly a century of appliances that didn't need this shit. Apps or the Internet itself will not and never will, make things easier to do tasks than they already were easier to do before.

I encountered a gas stove that wouldn't work during a power outage. It had a valve that shut off the gas if electricity wasn't present. Way to intentionally sabotage one of your biggest advantages.

The Oatmeal is correct, the answer is printers

And by extension, scanners

My apartment gym has a Nordictrack treadmill that I hate nearly every aspect of. First of all, it requires you login to use any of the programs, which doesn't really work with 200 potential users. It has lost internet every single time I've used it and needs a restart, even though I use manual mode, the UI buttons are tiny and impossible to read while you're running, and don't respond correctly, and worst of all, there's no goddamn place to put your phone so you can watch Netflix.

Washing machines.

My washing machine 15 years ago would wash my clothes with...uhhhh...fucking water.

Now you can't buy washing machines that actually wash your clothes in water. They all spritz your clothes with a little water then jiggle around your damp clothes for a bit.

I don't live in a desert. I live in a place with access to plenty of water. I should be allowed to buy a washing machine that actually fills up with soapy water and washes my damn clothes.

I could buy a Speed Queen washer for $2,000 from a specialty store, but that's ridiculous. Why can't I just buy a washing machine that washes my clothes? They're ALL terrible now. All the washers in all the big box stores are just...bad.

Not me, but my mother has beef with air conditioners. When I was little, I got sick (to the point of losing consciousness) due to a dirty AC in a hotel, so now she (maybe rightfully) assumes that a random given AC in a public place is filthy. We don't have one at home either - mostly because in this climate we'd only need it for a short time each year, but also because mom thinks it'd be easy to not take care of it properly and let enough filth accumulate.

Coffee dispenser at work. It acts up like it's a printer. Replace left cartridge. Replace right cartridge. Cleaning required. Thorough cleaning required. Unknown leak. Heating water please wait. Unknown error. Fuck that, I'll piss in a cup myself if I don't get my coffee now.

Then there's also the towel roll thing in the toilets. I swear it's stuck for longer time than it's functioning. It'd be a full time job keeping that rolling throughout the day

The fridge. If you close it too hard or too soft, it ends up not closed, but a fingers' width open.

Samsung Fridge (don't judge me, it came with the house).

I knew it was a "when" and not and "if" it would start having issues, and it finally showed its colors last month.

Front panel buttons either refused to work at all or would cycle through every option continuously and randomly.

Want water? Sorry, only crushed ice today. Want ice? Sorry, just water today. Oh, I actually did want water (starts dispensing). PSYCH! Now I'm going to shoot ice at you and splash water everywhere.

Was about to just toss the thing and get something dumber and more reliable, but decided to roll the dice with a replacement control board from ebay. Thankfully, that worked and I'm only out $80.

My crappy electric Philips toothbrush from the internet of shit era. If you press the single button it has slightly wrong it goes into some Bluetooth pairing mode or whatever that you can't take it out of until it gives up 2 minutes later.

Printer

Only 2D since bambulab came