On 2007-04-26 07:55:26 +0100, andrew@a17 (Andrew Gabriel) said:

In article ,
"Dave Plowman (News)" writes:
In article ,
Grunff wrote:
Worse still is the current fashion for stainless steel kettles - these
take ages to boil. A few years back we were given a stainless kettle and
toaster matching set. The performance of both was awful. We've gone back
to using nice plastic ones, which boil quickly.

Leaving aside the fact I don't like boiled toast I'll warrant both your
plastic toaster and kettle will fall apart long before stainless steel
ones. Plastics simply don't like heat long term.

What's actually happened, as with so many other appliances, is
that kettles have changed from being capital purchases into
consumables. Manufacturers have cleverly changed peoples'
expectations, and kettles, like light bulbs, are no longer
expected to last for years. This gives the manufacturers a
higher and more predicably stable revenue stream. As geoff
said, he chucks his when the element dies, which is a bit
like chucking out your desklamp every time the light bulb dies.
This is also down to consumers not being prepared to pay for
long life in appliances anymore, so such products vanish from
the marketplace.

It seems to me to be more like manufacturers being able to supply cheap
goods from China, but which require a volume to do so. The revenue
stream tempts them as well of course and the ability to undercut on
price. The gullible public then proceeds to buy on price. I don't
think that most people think of it in terms of not being prepared to
pay for long life, but rather that they are stupid enough to believe
that they are getting something of quality and longevity but at a low
price. Then when it does eventually break, they don't feel *that*
screwed.


Strangely, they'll pay for designs which look
to be long life, e.g. those with stainless steel styling, but
most of these are still basically plastic under the skin.

That's why I don't think it's strange. Inherently I think that people
have become unable to discern quality and just look superficially and
at price.





I still have a 30 year old Russell Hobbs stainless steel
kettle which just predates the conversion into consumables.
I can't see any reason why it won't carry on going another
30 years. A couple of years ago, it spent a while being
used as a builders kettle, and got very mucky. I decided
to take it apart to thoroughly clean all the plaster etc
from it, and it came up like knew.

This is the kind that they made for years with the red push switch on
the black handle?

An excellent product indeed. I've still got one..