Ask Lemmy

I have a Samsung printer that simply hates me. Whenever I need to print something urgently it will disappear from the wifi. It shows up for a few milliseconds when restarted and disappears again. However when you have the time and energy to investigate the problem it works flawlessly.

The ice compartment of our fridge. It's always a fucking compressed block that needs manually smashing up. I fucking hate it so much.

I keep buying cheap toaster ovens. I keep paying the price for it. At least I know my smoke alarms work

Everything with a built in lithium battery that isn't easy to swap. Phones, headphones, vapes, the weird gameboy thing I got offa aliexpress.

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.

Most modern refrigerators. They have tons of features (ice makers, water dispensers, screens) that are unnecessary.

But what gets me really going is the shelving, specifically door shelving. Most manufacturers have moved to clear polycarbonate for the “wall” around the shelf which is specifically not recommended for shock loading. For example, the load that is applied when the door closes and the condiments slide into the retaining piece. To get a fridge with metal means upgrading to a luxury model.

And don’t get me started on the fact that door shelving overlaps with interior shelving. Go look at a 1940s Shelvador and learn how to build a proper appliance.

Frankly, most appliances bother me:

• microwaves have UI issues, but I do like Panasonic’s genius inverter line.
• stoves have too many features and electronics. A true commercial style stoves without gadgets and gewgaws to break is hard to find for home use.
• so many dishwashers simply don’t clean dishes. Modern ones (imho) get too hot
• Most washing machines are way too rough on clothes.
• what the fuck is even with dryers? If people in the UK hang their clothes to dry, you can too (tropical climates may be an exception). Thankfully heat pump dryers are becoming a thing.

The Oatmeal is correct, the answer is printers

And by extension, scanners

Nothing makes me particularly angry, but I'd really like if my washing machine had an accurate sense of time. It's so far off sometimes I might as well just pretend there's no timer. 1 hr 10? Come back in 1 hr to find it's got 58 minutes to go. Which is sometimes 10 minutes but might actually be 58. Or 30. Or 70.

Dumb fucking thing. Doesn't even do multiple cycles in a row so it's not like the timer resets for the next bit.

1. My docking station. The screen sometimes goes black for a second or two randomly. I have had this problem with all kinds of docking stations.

2. My egpu dock. It works great but I have to plug it in after boot or it won't be detected.

3. My samsung galaxy S22 (my last sasmung phone). The camera sometimes doesn't work presumably because a ribbon cable inside is loose.

Smart phones, then closed driver GPUs and compute units, then probably printers.

Printers/Fax machines.

I wouldn't call it an appliance, but I almost always use cast iron for beef.