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Comment by s0rce | Hacker News Reader

I think Kitchenaid's have that too, I remember repairing one years ago with my dad.

They do. I've replaced ours twice in 15 years of ownership (and have 3 more replacements in the junk drawer, since they came 5-for-$10: ASIN B07Y7S33RF).

It's a pretty elegant design. Unfortunately, a lot of people (including my wife, initially) would be prone to concluding that the whole unit was “worn out and needed replacing”.

Yes, they precisely have that. Have repaired three Kitchenaid mixers over the years, from different eras. Even in the higher end machines where it is almost all metal gears and parts, the helical gear box in those too is all plastic parts for easy and cheap replacement, and so that anything getting stuck doesn't burn out a more expensive elctrical motor.

I have an immersion blender that also has plastic gears, and even though the motor is sold as a single unit that is not an FRU, you can take it apart and service it with off-the-shelf gears you can source from eBay.

The two coffee grinders I have, high quality metal burrs, plastic gearing, for the same reason.

My higher quality power tools- track saw, drills, etc, all plastic gearing, metal everywhere else.

It just makes sense when it comes to repairs, though can be frustrating when they strip out.

That said, most consumer crap made today is complete shite.

Most garage door openers too.

Unfortunately, it's an open system, so the grease usually dries out after 5-10 years. Undo the 6 screws and put some marine grease on them every couple years everybody.

I bought and installed a Sommer Evo+ (German made), after Chamberlain, Craftsman products crapped out prematurely. So far, so good (7 years), extremely quiet; slow, but well put together.

Garage door maintenance, every two years, regular as clockwork. In Southern California, with all the dust and the dry desert heat, you have to clean them down and regrease regularly. If you don't, they get real noisy, and then they fail. I've looked at closed system units, but they aren't worth the cost vs the 20 or so minutes of biennial maintenance. I'd rather have $3 of plastic gears strip out that I can reorder through a dozen different supplies than actual damage to my door or the infrastructure that holds the door. Though that has become less of an issue on newer units with excessive force sensors.

Your drills have plastic gears simply as a cost saving measure. Spend a bit more and you get powdered metal gears.

Okay, I'll bite, tell me which drills I should be spending a bit more on?

Not sure. I don't think drill manufacturers advertise these details often because they don't want to confuse consumers.

You can try to watch teardowns, like this DeWalt by Ave: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NHCS7JXfuv0

Gears at 16:40

Yeah, okay, you got nothing.

What are you talking about? You claimed the plastic gears were used as a failsafe. That's not true, higher quality equipment uses metal gears. Drills already have fuses and overload detectors built in.

Go watch some teardowns of cheap stuff vs expensive stuff and stop being a jerk.

I'm not your mom. I'm not gonna explain everything AND shop for you.

> the helical gear box in those too is all plastic parts for easy and cheap replacement, and so that anything getting stuck doesn't burn out a more expensive elctrical motor.

I preferred metal "shear pins" for this function ... much easier to find replacements for at the local hardware store.

Now that I agree with. Unfortunately their usage in lower end products, and also the move to lighter weight products with higher torque due to brushless motors, seems to have reduced their usage. Maybe because they are an all-or-nothing failure point. Unless you really abuse the gear box, plastic gears don't tend to strip out all at once, they just get "worn" or "sloppy." That said, I think a lot of products are a race to the bottom in some regards.

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