It's called obsoletion, as in a manufacturers requirement for products
to become obsolete or to have a limited life span. If products were made
to last forever, how would the CEOs be able to afford their mansions,
vacation homes, jets and luxury cars?

Same problem here, the heating wires are not the same as the old days, they are two parallel wires with the heating material embedded between the two wires and the electricity is applied across the two wires, sort of a parallel system instead of series. I think the idea is that if the wire breaks it won't spark and start a fire?

But they do seem to degrade and it is the heating element wire itself that degrades, not the controller. I have been searching for the right kind of replacement wire but it must be hard to find. If you could find the wire, the repair would be easy.

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