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Comment by PorterDuff | Hacker News Reader

Thanks for the article. I was looking to replace a chipped old Pyrex measuring cup about a month ago and found myself going down this same rathole of research.

It all makes perfect sense as I just naturally assume that all old-school US consumer goods go through the same sequence of events:

1) sell the company, close US factory 2) license the name to a manufacturer in China 3) cost reduce, cost reduce, cost reduce 4) profit!

You could make a good BOLTR-like youtube channel by weighing and measuring changes over time in common products. The KitchenAid mixer would be a good one.

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AvE has one video on the KitchenAid, if I recall correctly he was actually surprised that it was still pretty well-built.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0qKp-0h9P18

Most of them are still made in a factory in Greenville, Ohio.

In the early 2000s there was a lot of talk about KitchenAid switching to plastic gear housings. They switched back after a few years either due to backlash or warranty issues.

Here's a cool comparison of wahl hair clippers from 50 years ago and a modern pair:

http://grathio.com/2016/08/teardown-same-product-fifty-years...

> due to backlash or warranty issues.

I see what you did there. I suspect it was unintentional, but it’s quite pleasing nonetheless.

I had one. It broke just outside of its warranty period. I opened it up. Plastic gears and complete junk inside of a tough-looking metal housing. Same with their blender; broke pretty fast, with relatively mild use.

It depends on which model you get. I think lower-priced models are mostly plastic gears, but the video I linked is the professional model. Those use metal gearing etc.

That's my guess. The model most people have is not the one that AvE took apart.

To do a proper review, you'd tear apart an early mixer that was from the Hobart era in addition to one from 25 years ago.

> ... and found myself going down this same rathole of research.

Surely you meant rabbit hole, not rathole.

In the case of the time wasting abilities of the internet, it's a rathole.

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