More duff stuff

[Yorkie]

Erm, am I being thick? Rostfrei seems to be spelt correctly to me (it's German for rust free).

It's still a lie though, whatever language it's in.

Though the literal translation is indeed 'rust free', if I'm not mistaken, (I often am!), that is the term used in German for our equivalent term 'stainless steel', which no doubt applies to the blades of the scissors, but certainly not to the central hinge pin!

Lots of terms in other languages aren't quite what we may imagine them to be. The French for example, adopt what seem to be English terms but are often used in odd contexts. For example 'footing' which we might think is playing football or perhaps walking, is the French term for jogging. Quite why they use 'footing' rather than 'jogging' is one of life's mysteries.

In the same way, the French term for box ('boite') is also the word they use for a tin or a can (of peas or beans say). And as in the UK, they often use words as slang that won't appear in the dictionary - just as we might say 'what's on the box tonight?' meaning the TV - they also use the word in that context. 'Boite' is also a slang term for a night club.

It gets worse with sayings such as 'window shopping', which to the French would only mean shopping to buy windows. The equivalent French term for 'window shopping is 'lecher la virtrine' - literally to 'lick the glass' - 'vitrine' being a shop window or display cabinet.

[pwdrive]

I've licked the glass in a night club David, does that count for owt.

Lawrence

[Refugee]

I didn't think of looking at other European languages before posting the photo in the first place.
The scissors came out of an NOS flight case with a set of NOS kitchen knives in it sold out of the back of a van for about the price of the flight case alone at Maplin prices. There was enough reasonable stuff in it as a whole to make it worth buying. The guy had a whole van full of them all wrapped in cling film and was selling them to the workers on trading estates and so on.

[Radio Fixer]

I'm not so sure about that. In my experience, Bosch equipment is no longer up to the quality that it used to be. And I guess that that is because they are trying to compete with the lower end of the market: to do that, the name 'Bosch' will certainly help.

Al. / July 15, 2013 //

Well, what can you do? Bosch is still more expensive than many other makes and so there is some profit in it and hopefully more to spend on R&D and better material and screwing together. This is the Skoda versus BMW thing again.

But we keep on with what experience has told us is good. On our third Bosch dishwasher, some did better, the last did 7 years and used at least once a day. I may have been able to repair it but it was doing odd intermittent things on the programmes, nothing easy like a leak. No point at that age in getting the Bosch engineer in! So as we can afford to let it go we bought the almost identical model. Time will tell.

All the rest of the white stuff is Bosch and doing very well but then fridges and freezers normally last a long time. Had a look inside the 2 year old microwave (blown bulb) and that is impressively put together. Washing machine, again about 2 years old is fine so far and the proud user seems pleased with ease of use and performance. I have no idea how to use it, nor do I want to learn!

Gary

[Yorkie]

Bosch, Neff, Siemens - all the same outfit, and all have their weak point, notably those in regular use, such as flimsy plastic door handles on which thee fixing points held in place by self-tapping screws fracture, door hinges, catches, interlocks etc. They share many identical parts. EG:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Bosch-Neff-Sie...2a1f79c5a5

You might wonder, as I do, why there is such a huge proliferation of models - after all, they're not very innovative, sexy or stylish things - just domestic white goods - a big box with a rotating drum, with blocks of concrete to stabilise it, plus water feed and drain pumps, seals, pipes within, a timer. Not exactly putting rockets into space.

You can tell which parts fail just by looking at the spares availability.

Elements in cold fill washing machines (which most are these days) have to work harder than in hot fill.

A common problem on machines of most makes is the blocking up of the spray bar in the fabric conditioner tray, which becomes evident when the conditioner doesn't disappear.

There's no point in designing any item in which the cheaper parts will long outlast the most expensive part and I dare say that there's scope for reducing the life expectancy of many parts in domestic appliances. What's the point in having anything that outlasts the life of say the motor or drum - the two most expensive parts, which effectively write-off the machine if/when they fail?

I dare say that many domestic appliances seen at the recycling centres aren't broken, but simply discarded due to 'remodelling' kitchens/ utility rooms.

As with German cars and motorbikes, part of the price paid is the 'brand premium' - the extra amount they can charged for the perceived quality of German products, and often it is just a perception - not borne out in reality. The one thing that Bosch, Neff, Siemens, do have is excellent back-up service. We have a Siemens washing machine on which they were rash enough to offer a ten-yr warranty. Fine - we've already had as much back in breakdown costs as we paid for it! Well trained engineers who carry all the parts on their vans that fail often - what's not to like?

[AlanBeckett]

I replaced the flimsy plastic door handle on our Fridge/Freezer with a hand-carved Aly one - worked a treat.
Don't be silly David, the plroliferation of Models is to stop you comparing prices properly and hence overcome any problems with RPM. You'll find lots of very similar Models all with slightly different Specs and all at different prices.

Alan

[Retired]

Hi,

Bron's got the best dishwasher Gary and it seldom breaks down; ME;

Regarding washing machines; over the years we have bought cheap and more expensive makes but at the moment we own a Beko one of the cheapest available; it must be three years old now and so far apart from the water supply hose springing a leak it has worked without problem; when it fails it goes to the tip and we buy another cheap Beko.

When our last washing machine broke down we were quoted around £100 just for a new circuit board; the machine was dumped and the Beko bought.

Beko have been having a lot of bad press recently but so far our washing machine is doing its job.

Kind regards, Col.

[Radio Fixer]

Bosch, Neff, Siemens - all the same outfit, and all have their weak point, notably those in regular use, such as flimsy plastic door handles on which thee fixing points held in place by self-tapping screws fracture, door hinges, catches, interlocks etc.

You just must be very unlucky or have people who use more than reasonable effort David.

Our Bosch Fridge which must be getting on for 10 years old is as good as new on all hinges, handles, trim, bulbs etc. The only broken item is an inner door over a butter compartment caused by me closing the main door with it open.

On our 3rd dishwasher over getting on for 20 years and none have had any of the items you mention break or replaced.

The washing machine is about 3 years old and so far no probs.

We bought a Breville kettle some years ago, at least 5 maybe more. Reviews on Amazon said all good apart from the flimsy plastic tab on/ off switch. What are they going to do? thump it? Its about 5-6mm thick clear plastic and of course is plenty strong enough unless abused. Perhaps they perceived it to be weak as it was clear? Maybe if it had been silver grey metal looking then nothing would have been said.

Does anyone else get the feeling that there's a lot of "Aint it Awful" on this site?

Gary

[camallison]

Erm, am I being thick? Rostfrei seems to be spelt correctly to me (it's German for rust free).

It's still a lie though, whatever language it's in.

Though the literal translation is indeed 'rust free', if I'm not mistaken, (I often am!), that is the term used in German for our equivalent term 'stainless steel', which no doubt applies to the blades of the scissors, but certainly not to the central hinge pin!

Lots of terms in other languages aren't quite what we may imagine them to be. The French for example, adopt what seem to be English terms but are often used in odd contexts. For example 'footing' which we might think is playing football or perhaps walking, is the French term for jogging. Quite why they use 'footing' rather than 'jogging' is one of life's mysteries.

In the same way, the French term for box ('boite') is also the word they use for a tin or a can (of peas or beans say). And as in the UK, they often use words as slang that won't appear in the dictionary - just as we might say 'what's on the box tonight?' meaning the TV - they also use the word in that context. 'Boite' is also a slang term for a night club.

It gets worse with sayings such as 'window shopping', which to the French would only mean shopping to buy windows. The equivalent French term for 'window shopping is 'lecher la virtrine' - literally to 'lick the glass' - 'vitrine' being a shop window or display cabinet.

More accurately, proper German terminology for stainless steel as used in cutlery is "Edelestahl". I am sure there is also a DIN-standard for the fulcrum pin too - if the blades are stainless steel, then they would make the pin from stainless.

Colin (half-native-speaking Anglo-German)

[Nick]

Does anyone else get the feeling that there's a lot of "Aint it Awful" on this site?

Yes

The general level of grumbling seems to bubble along nicely - I'm sure that there is a statistically significant correlation to the mean outdoor temperature in the Midlands...

Basically, if you buy decent quality stuff, treat it nicely and maintain it, generally it lasts a long time.

You'll all be aware of the various "triangles of doom" (or truth!) - e.g. for cars "fast, cheap, exciting - you can have any two".

For white goods, try "cheap, reliable, long-lasting" (or make your own up).