c/bought-it-broke-it

miab87•1d ago

Vent: My cousin's two cent comment about my leaf blower made me question everything

So last weekend my cousin Dave came over to borrow a ladder and saw my new leaf blower sitting in the garage, one of those $180 cordless ones from Home Depot I got back in October. He laughed and said 'you know my 20 year old one from my dad still works, you young folks just buy junk and toss it.' At first I got defensive, but then I started thinking about everything I've thrown out this year, a $60 toaster that lasted 12 uses, a $90 drill that stopped after 3 projects, and a $40 Bluetooth speaker that wouldn't hold a charge after a month. Meanwhile my grandpa's old mixer from the 70s still runs at my mom's place, and that thing has mixed more batter than I've seen in my life. Is it really that companies make things flimsy on purpose, or are we just not bothering to fix stuff because repair quotes run $100+ when a new one is $80? Has anyone else had that moment where a relative's offhand comment made you rethink all your recent purchases?

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emery879•4d ago

Was I wrong about those cheap air fryers or did I get lucky?

I bought a $39 air fryer from a discount store in Tucson back in March. Everyone online said they die in 2 weeks or catch fire. Mine has run almost daily since then, no issues. But my sister got the same model and the heating element went out after 3 uses. So which is it, cheap tech is a gamble or a steal? Anyone else have a budget buy that either shocked them or confirmed the warnings?

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victor_carr25•6d ago

Spent $340 on a wifi router that died in 11 days, what a waste

Bought a top rated wifi router from Best Buy last month and it worked fine for a week, then the 5GHz band just stopped showing up. Called support and they walked me through resets and firmware updates for 2 hours before admitting it was a hardware issue. The catch was I had to mail the old one back and wait 2 weeks for a refund, so I shelled out another $60 for a cheap backup. Has anyone else had a new router fail that fast, or did I just get the one dud out of a thousand?

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graceprice•7d ago

My $80 blender died after 6 smoothies, the warranty was a joke

Picked up a NutriBlast 500 from Target in Portland last month because my old one finally gave up. Blended maybe 6 smoothies total before the motor started smoking and the whole thing just stopped. Customer service said the 1 year warranty only covers the base if it's a 'manufacturing defect', but they refused to look at it without a receipt and I lost it. Has anyone else had a blender die this fast and actually gotten a replacement, or am I just stuck buying another brand?

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fisher.mary•9d ago

Cheap tire pressure gauge vs the $40 digital one, guess which lied to me

Bought a 5 dollar stick gauge at the gas station last month, it said 28 psi so I added air. Turns out it was really reading 34 and my tires were overinflated the whole time, shop in Dayton caught it during an oil change. Anyone else had a basic tool give them bad numbers and cost more than just buying the good version?

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wendy_park76•11d ago

The $18 drill bit that lasted one hole before snapping, I found the fix in my dad's old toolbox

My cheap set kept stripping screws so I bought a fancy cobalt bit from Home Depot, it broke on the second screw, but my dad's rusty old bit from 1985 with a hex shank and some cutting oil has drilled 30 holes without a problem so far, anyone else find older tools just outlast the new stuff?

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vera_lewis•12d ago

Turns out my torque wrench was the problem, not the bolts

I spent six months blaming cheap hardware for stripped lug nuts on my truck in Boise. Every job I did, same issue, nuts would seize or cross thread no matter how careful I was. Finally a buddy watched me work and said I was cranking it way past the click on the wrench. I had been using it like a breaker bar, not a precision tool. That click is the stop point, not a suggestion. Since I actually started lifting off at the first click, zero stripped nuts in three months. Maybe it's just me, but how many folks out there are overtorquing their wheels without realizing it? Has anyone else had a tool they were using wrong for ages and only figured it out by accident?

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charliehill•13d ago

TIL a $20 surge protector can kill a $400 fridge, but not the way you think

Last month in Tucson my new fridge started tripping the breaker every time the compressor kicked on. Took me 5 days and two electrician visits before we found the surge protector I'd plugged it into was wired wrong from the factory, the neutral and ground were swapped. Has anyone else had a so-called 'new' accessory cause more damage than the thing it was supposed to protect?

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williams90•16d ago

Old crock pot vs new one, 12 years apart

My mom gave me her 2006 Hamilton Beach slow cooker when I moved to Austin, and it finally died last month. I bought a fancy new one with a digital timer and probe, but the heating element gave out after just 8 uses. Has anyone else gone back to the old rotary dial style after a new appliance flaked out, or am I just unlucky?

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martin.angela•16d ago

The state fair blender that gave out after 3 smoothies in 2009

Back at the Indiana State Fair in 2009 I bought one of those infomercial blenders they demo on stage, the guy pureed a whole pineapple and I was sold. Got it home, made two smoothies that week and it smelled like burning wires on the third. I called the toll free number on the box and they told me to ship it back at my own cost, which was like 14 bucks for a 30 dollar gadget. That was the day I stopped buying anything with a demo person, no matter how cool the trick looked. Now I just stick to my old thrift store Oster that's older than my kid and still runs. Has anyone else gotten burned by those fair or mall kiosk demos, or is it just me? What's the worst one you've seen?

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mason847•18d ago

Bought a $150 dehumidifier, killed it in 3 weeks in my basement in Columbus

Got one of those small ones for my crawl space after the rain in May. Worked great for like 10 days, then the fan just started screaming. Opened it up and the filter was caked with dust, plus the coil was frozen solid. Found out you're supposed to clean the filter every week if the space is dusty, not every month like the manual says. Also the drain hose was kinked so it kept shutting off. Now I set a reminder on my phone every Sunday. Anyone else had a unit die from neglect like this or did I just get a dud?

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