On Mon, 27 Oct 2008 17:52:03 +0000, Archon wrote
(in article ):

E Z Peaces wrote:

ausgesnipt
Some UK kettles have 3kW elements, while some US kettles have 1.75kW
elements. So it takes 45 seconds to boil a cup of water in the US and
26 seconds in the UK.

Standard US outlets are for 15 amps. Most homes use 20-amp wiring. If
enough Americans were impatient, there would be 20-amp kettles, which
could heat the water in 33 seconds.

It appears that the most common size of Dyson vacuum in the UK is 1400
W. Some US vacuums use roughly that much. If US vacuums really aren't
as good, the problem must be something else.
HSN were advertising some lousy vacuum based on its 1400W or wattever
(pun) power, the power it consumes probably totally unrelated to the
work done.

A friend o'mine bought a super-dooper HD Whirlpool washing machine to handle
the load from her incontinent, disabled kid. A long time researching and
taking sales advice.
The machine was HUGE, seemed built like a tank. It was heavy and gawdawful
expensive and could take a king-size heavy-tog quilt with room to add,
probably, a sofa and the family dog. It had great, industrial type styling
and we had a celebration party 'cos we were all so impressed. (yes, really.
loads of people watching a washing machine with glasses of bubbly... sad but
true.) Everyone thought it was a 20yr investment.

The trouble was that NOTHING came out clean. The KS quilt, clothes,
underwear, ordinary shirts... everything. Had an engineer out to check it. It
was up to spec. No faults anywhere - except in the design for performance.
She tried every recommended combination of detergent, heat, agitation, voodoo
incantations, payload size... No matter what, everything was dirty and
covered with felt-ish fluff. The manual even referred to this as a known
"feature" of this type of machine and called it something like "nubbing" or
"bobbling" or whatever, saying it may be an initial problem with some fabrics
and could be cut down by using their speciall no-nubbiing, anti-bobbling
zero-beading chaff-stopping detergent. Very expensive special detergent, that
is. The very expensive special detergent was duly bought, and used. No
improvement in the bobble-chaffing nub beading at all, and the clothes were
still stained, dirty.. and covered in all this raised pile stuff.

The machine was great at accelerating wear in its payload but lousy at
cleaning.

She got her money back as the machine was argued not to be of merchantable
quality - i.e. it didn't (couldn't) perform its intended task of being a
washing machine.
This, apparently was America's Finest - at least as far as those of us in the
export slipstream are aware.

This begs all sorts of questions..

er.. Do you guys in the USA who have carpet cleaners that don't clean, and
washing machines that don't either... er, ahem... well. what I mean is....
I hope that showers work O.K. at least.. :-)

Maybe the domestic machines are different.

Personally, I love USA engineering. I prefer over-robust materials - cast
iron, milled alluminum (!) bolted together with proper fasteners - to the
oriental approach, which is to work to incredibly fine tolerances but to
specify very thin cheese as the construction material. I love the apparent
non-obsolescence of the USA paradigm which implies that in a post apocalyptic
world we can all get by, fixing stuff with a hammer and baling wire, making
spares as needed with the help of the local blacksnith. It's just got a
better feeling that knowing you'll need a dedicated computer with constanly
updated firmware to make the most basic adjustments to your hedgetrimmer,
toaster, motorcycle, router and yes indeed, _washing machine_... It's the
sort of thing that drives us to working with wood, isn't it?

The rub comes when the tank-like build quality is not matched by _functional_
quality, either through crap design (Whirlpool washing machines, so it
seems), lousy tolerances in manufacturing (AMC Harley Davidson) or
anally-retentive tolerance specifications (M16 carbines ??)

When USA conservative engineering is combined with marketing honesty, you
guys turn out gear that rocks. It doesn't happen all the time, however, and
that needs a little consumer honesty to point out. Just 'cos something is
marked "Made in the USA" doesn't mean it's going to trump the competition,
regardless. Often it does, but there's no sense in getting all fierce and
patriotic to try and flog a dead horse - at any price.When it works, it
works. SnapOn tools, etc.. The process is not automatic, though. Badging a
thing "American" does not confer quality. Neither does "Made in Japan." It
can often be an indicator that something has a high probability of being
superior, but it's only a probability marker. The quality comes from
something else, but hey, it feels good to support the home team, and there's
nothing wrong with that - just let's not get confused about the issues.