Is it just me or is there anyone else perplexed by the way modern
products
seem to have got worse rather than better?

i.e.:

toasters- that toast slower because the elements don't get as hot..so you
end up with cooked bread rather than nice surface toasted bread. even
quality toasters like Dualit have evolved(!?) so that the elements don't
glow like they used to in my uni days at the campus.

We've never had a toaster in forty years which has toasted our (home made)
bread well. We alwys revert to an ancient and probably illegal one.

Kettles- that are noisier that they used to be...mainly due to the use of
'optidisk' elements. Why??

Never heard of optidisk, our kettle's fine, it was Spouse's grandmother's
and doesn't even whistle, just sits on the gas.

Hairdryers- SWMBO has two, one she's had for five years...nice and quiet,
larger motor running slower, but then due to a clogged filter, she
assumed it was broken

... and you didn't look at it first???

unfortunatly, she didnt give me an opportunity to do so. she just went out
with the credit card and brought one.


and bought a new one, same make...what a racket! the high pitch row is
enough to deafen you!

We use towels. Hair driers are for cleaning wax off the floor and other
surfaces.

Cars- we bought a ford focus for a runabout day to day car...perfectly
competent car...but- the road noise!...my old Citroen bx..made to a
price...is quieter at 90 than the focus is at 60! same as the missis's
corsa...its a top of the range one, but its still bloody noisy! what's
going on? don't people care about these things nowadays?

I dobut have no idea what a car sounds like at 90. Isn't that illegal?

Obviously i didnt realise i was doing that speed and as soon as i noticed, i
slowed down to 70. ;-)


Hoovers(vacuums)- that only last a year, then they've had it, or their so
poor at doing the job you take em back to the store to get a different
make. we have been getting through a new Hoover every 1-2 years of late.
now I've resorted to buying a dyson(despite vowing not to a few years ago
with my experience of the dc01), with a 5 year guarantee, so hopefully it
will last.

I've never been happy with the efficiency of any vacuum cleaner which is
another reason I'm glad we have hard floors mostly. Spouse uses the Oreck
in the hall, stairs and landing, seems to work well. When he uses a little
one inside the car (annually) it makes a heck of a racket. Our old Hoover
Junior was reconditioned when we got it and we ended up fifteen years
later on our knees feeding dirt to it.

Nothing's perfect! But on the whole I do feel that things are more
efficient than when we were younger. Cars are certainly more reliable. I
haven't had to hand crank an engine for thirty years.

Mary

steve