Gas stoves and ovens. Make me crazy. No matter how much you spend on them they're all built for ease of construction rather than ease of cleaning.
But here's another general problem I see a lot: Tools and equipment that's going to be exposed to water a lot, and are made out of plain carbon steel.
- A pizza cutter I had: Yes, the blade is nice stainless steel. The rivet used to hold it in place is steel. It rusts. Making something out of stainless but then using regular steel fasteners is kind of, well, stupid.
- Some jars with metal lock-down clasps: Very nice glass jars, good seal on the top...and the metal is all zinc-plated steel. In this application, the zinc plating is good for making the steel look slightly blue. And that's about it. (Unless you intend to use the jars to hold dry goods only, and you never clean them.)
- A liquid soap dispenser. I thought the dispenser was made of chromed plastic. Nope. It's steel. It's rusting.
- Spray bottles for cleaners: This is mainly encountered in generic brands - the spring is made of something that easily corrodes in the cleaning solution, so it only works for the first day it's used.
Protip for manufacturers: Plain carbon steel is mostly iron. Iron and oxygen get along really well. Water helps this process along very effectively. Iron oxide is not iron.
Yes, stainless steel is more expensive. Yes, 400-series stainless costs a bit more. (Or for some applications, maybe check out aluminum.) Even a low-grade 300-series will at least offer some corrosion resistance - and then your marketing people can have a collective orgasm when they're told that they get to put STAINLESS STEEL on the packaging.
But using the wrong material for the job means that you're making a product that's broken before it's even finished.
And if you're going to paint steel to keep it from rusting, anywhere that that coating is damaged, such as by tightening a fastener to it, can become a focal point for corrosion.
I hate how the majority of combustion appliances rely on indoor air to combust. Why can't they all have 2 pipes like high efficiency furnaces have? I'm talking stuff like hot water tanks, fireplaces, wood stoves, etc. They should all have an intake so outside air is used for combustion which would stop cold air from being sucked into the house. A heat exchanger could be used so the heat from the exhaust is transferred to the intake so the air from the intake is preheated for better combustion. This is more or less solid state, so even a wood stove could have a setup like this.
In fact this is not just limited to combustion, take a portable air conditioner for example. It has a pipe going outside to exhaust the heat from the condenser coil and compressor. Well if you are sucking air and putting it outside, air has to replace it. Where does this air come from? Outside. So you are cooling a room and dumping hot outside air into it at the same time! It makes no sense! I modded my AC unit to prevent this from happening and doubled it's efficiency, but at $600 it should have been built that way! Two pipes. An intake and an exhaust.
Let me add, that I just stare at my dishwasher during the summer when the A/C is running and wonder why they don't exhaust to the outside? I see all that hot water vapor venting into the house and all it would take is a little 1 1/2" exhaust vent.
Even if properly insulated, the outdoor intake would be a continuous source of heat loss in the winter. More heat would be lost than saved. Especially with the water heater located on the cool floor of the basement.I hate how the majority of combustion appliances rely on indoor air to combust. Why can't they all have 2 pipes like high efficiency furnaces have? I'm talking stuff like hot water tanks, fireplaces, wood stoves, etc. They should all have an intake so outside air is used for combustion which would stop cold air from being sucked into the house. A heat exchanger could be used so the heat from the exhaust is transferred to the intake so the air from the intake is preheated for better combustion. This is more or less solid state, so even a wood stove could have a setup like this.
Portable air conditioners are inherently inefficient due to the stated issues. Of course, this leaves room for improvement.In fact this is not just limited to combustion, take a portable air conditioner for example. It has a pipe going outside to exhaust the heat from the condenser coil and compressor. Well if you are sucking air and putting it outside, air has to replace it. Where does this air come from? Outside. So you are cooling a room and dumping hot outside air into it at the same time! It makes no sense! I modded my AC unit to prevent this from happening and doubled it's efficiency, but at $600 it should have been built that way! Two pipes. An intake and an exhaust.
Is it venting during operation? If not, leave the door closed for 10-20 minutes after the cycle completes to allow the water vapor to condense into water droplets and fall into the basin. Venting hot water vapor into the house may eventually warp any wooden cupboard above the dishwasher.
We need a tool that opens ketchup and hotsauce packets and squeezes them out. It should be easy to clean, and easy to take with you to a fast food joint. There is virtually no ingenuity applied to this extremely common activity.
Gas stoves and ovens. Make me crazy. No matter how much you spend on them they're all built for ease of construction rather than ease of cleaning.
why is it that we can put a man on the moon, but every can of shaving cream I've ever used "leaks" from the top?
:hmm:
And I've seen articles about "onshoring" now - some companies are slowly bringing back manufacturing operations, or going back to American manufacturing facilities, simply because it's difficult to control quality when the product is being made in China. But still for many, dirt-cheap labor and government-subsidized materials trumps everything else. The "solution": Just set a shorter warranty period.In the past, retail stores (such as Menards, Home Depot, etc.) would purchase these items from a domestic, American engineering company that had engineers focused to control the materials used by domestic manufacturers. Engineering costs increased for standard products such as you describe that are easily reverse-engineered.
Chinese manufacturers have reverse engineered such products at a much lower cost, thereby enticing retail stores to switch from their reliable, high cost, domestic engineering manufacturers to the low-cost Chinese manufacturers. The retail store may hire a small team of inexperienced engineers to attempt to control the quality of items purchased directly from the Chinese manufacturers.
Or if they are able to test, they could easily get trumped by management.Unfortunately, the Chinese manufacturers use their own, low-cost, reverse-engineered materials to replace standard American materials that may or may not be protected as intellectual property here in the U.S. and the Chinese materials are definitely of questionable quality.
The one or two engineers at the retail stores are overwhelmed by the quantities of items their store purchases directly from China. Thus being unable to properly test the materials in the products. This lack of proper QA control highlights the usefulness of the American engineering manufacturers since American firms actively control the material quality, often through a close relationship with a specific Chinese manufacturer.
I'd figure that if there's a way to have solid control over every aspect of production, that consistent quality would be possible from Chinese manufacturers.I have found Chinese manufacturers to be good in machining but not all are good. Chinese engineering is currently of low quality and needs to be closely monitored. I have found it necessary to teach Chinese manufacturers which materials to be used. Nothing can be assumed with them, everything must be explicitly stated.
Yup. They're where the US was many years ago, at the start of our own industrial revolution.Chinese manufacturers are like children in a professional world, lacking good quality engineering education, and making low level mistakes that no American engineering manufacturer would ever make. However, the Chinese do what they are told to do, if they are professional enough to handle the basic machining and mold making on their own.
A common issue - power supplies that are not only efficient when under load, but also efficient when the device is in a standby mode.I just read an article on yahoo a couple days ago that said that set top cable boxes are now the largest energy drain in your home. They use as much as a 21 cu.ft. fridge.
http://green.yahoo.com/blog/ecogeek/1419/set-top-boxes-are-the-1-household-energy-drain.html
That's got to be stopped.
Fast food. Continued use of this product can lead to obesity, diabetes, etc. It is by far the most expensive "product" in the food category because of the cost of treating people who use it.
Re-engineer it ... please!
Home audio receivers. Still waiting for the iPod of receivers that has an intuitive display/remote without 100 cryptic buttons/features I don't need.