Why a toaster from 1949 is still smarter than any sold today (2021)
theverge.com
theverge.com
Likely current super modern $200 toasters use timers and thermometers along with numerical models (some use cameras) to brown your toast, but I don't think they're dumb. The power put into the element (the voltage, current, resistance) can be measured at 2 points, along with air temperature in the toaster or even radiant heat sensors for the toast surface and can all be combined into a Kalman or StateSpace estimator for the toast surface temp and radiant power cooking it.
I don't know that the toast is that much better (for the price) now and they just have different failure modes. I love the old toaster technology (especially the auto rising toast!), but they're far from perfect and were quite expensive in their own time. Be really careful when cleaning them!
p.s. the video is the only interesting part of the article.
Otoh most people _don't_ want to spend $260 (and taxes) on a toaster, and there lies the problem
i would be interested if you have more url's for commercial/restaurant grade products though (quite frankly im irked at buying a toaster that is an absolute piece of trash, among other things like amazon's-cheapness-trend ect ect)
I'm at least glad that the author describes the failings of the toaster and says it only works "most of the time".
What exactly makes it smarter and better than my modern $25 one other than the standard "everything was better back in the day" nostalgia?
It works for all bread types that fit in the toaster. I should know, I bake my own bread (and it's not all sandwich bread loaves).
It is not more likely to burn down your house. Take responsibility for your own well-being and just add a 3 prong cord (and ground it to the outer shell, there's even a screw hole for it).
I have one of these toasters and I love it. It's my favorite kitchen appliance
This exception is actually an example of how everything was better "back in the day". This toaster, which has had its controls removed, is analagous to, for example:
- a personal computer which can only browse the web, or run verified software.
- a coffee mug that keeps your coffee warm, but requires you to install an app in order to set a temperature
- any gaming console (technically the first category)
- cars which have had their buttons removed
- A tv and a roku, that have been glued together for some reason
But it does let you control that. There's a knob for it.
Granted, I still wouldn't pay $260 for this, but it's a pretty cool mechanism nonetheless.
It is an elegant design to to achieve a goal with simpler and fewer parts.
A uC and a dozen sensors and actuators and MB of code is a brute force solution. It's flexible and functional but not elegant. Instead of figuring out some way for a thing to happen by itself, you explicitly write a bunch of code to spell it all out.
Now the uC way is more flexible. You can change the code to change what happens, but that's a separate metric and a separate value. Not all tasks or products actually benefit from it, and it comes at the cost of complexity and reliability and longevity and dependence on infrastructure and supply chain. Personally, I think it's completely and utterly ridiculous that a toaster requires a chip fab.
I know why it's not really that crazy if chip fabs happen to exist anyway for other reasons but the observation of the absurdity does still stand.
This kind of mechanical engineering is really no different from software engineering. You design a series of mechanisms to make things happen, whether through levers and screws and bimetal strips or code. With code, frankly less effort is needed for such design. And yes there could be elegance in code that is not directly apparent to the consumer, much like there is elegance here.
I'm not disputing elegance. I'm decrying the lack of functionality and lack of control by the user.
It's somewhat like the difference between a mechanical interlock and a program with rules that do the same thing.
You could have two solenoids operating two relays, and two extra contacts on each relay to act as sensors, and some code that says if A is on then turn B off, if B is on then turn A off. (pretend for the moment that a single relay can't be both sides at the same time)
Or you could have no solenoids and no sensors and no computer, just a solid bar connecting the two switches with a pivot in the middle. It becomes impossible to press both switches at once, and the function, the enforcing of the desired truth table rule, very much happens "by itself".
The fact that a person designed and fashioned the mechanical interlock does not make the two systems equal, in kind not just in degree.
But all options have a cost so those I do not use have negative value.
My current toaster oven has three dials and an LCD display with a hierarchical menu, the vast majority of which I have never intentionally used, though I don't mind all the bells and whistles because I have learned how to ignore them. But for toasting slices of bread my current toaster is less useful than one in the article despite the proliferation of options because it requires that I mentally estimate the amount of time to toast depending on the bread slice's thickness, composition, and current temperature (i.e. from counter, fridge, or freezer) so I can specify an appropriate amount of time to toast. Occasionally I slightly over- or under-toast something and then deal with correcting that.
I agree that it is much more infuriating when controls I depend on are removed or shunted off into a car touchscreen menu or appliance-specific mobile app. But for the vast majority of appliances and applications I just want the thing to do the job I hired it to do with minimal questions or interruptions.
FYI, there is a darkness control knob
But that's what the iPhone did, didn't it? Before that most phones (even touch-screen ones) had physical number keys, whereas the iPhone demoted the keypad/dialpad off to a secondary screen in the Phone application. For a while the only time I ever used the keypad when navigating an automated menu, but now that Android has "Direct My Call" I don't even use it for that.
I'm glad that there are still phones with number keys for people who like them, but I'm equally glad it's not illegal to make products simpler for those who prefer that.
Either way, I remain glad that the government has not made it illegal for a company to remove functionality from a product.
What exactly does "toasted and ready" mean? Modern toasters have timers and "a bit more" buttons because people have different preferences. That isn't a design flaw.
If you want to use a $10 toaster, more power to you! If you want to imply that this toaster can't possibly measure and achieve "doneness" of toast, I disagree. It does so in a subjective way, based on a variable input controlled by the subjective preferences of the user, but what it measures is how closely to that subjective "doneness" it is. Nothing impractical or dishonest about that description at all.
Which lever or handle does one use to adjust the intended doneness? Seems like a cool device but I can’t quite figure it out from the pictures.
Here's a listing with the same T-20 designation that shows the knob: https://www.ebay.com/itm/305337386341?_trkparms=amclksrc%3DI...
And here's another listing with the T20 designation (T20A, this time, instead of B), which also has a decent shot of the knob: https://www.ebay.com/itm/116014045221?hash=item1b02f9d825:g:...
You might think "Gee, that's a waste of electricity" using an entire oven to make toast. Where I live, electricity is under $0.15/kwh. It takes about 3 minutes to toast bread on both sides. That works out to about $0.0105 to make toast. If a toaster costs $20, it would take me about 1904 uses of the toaster to pay for itself, not including the electricity the toaster uses. And that's assuming I'm only make the number of slices the toaster can handle (say, 2 or 4?) and not more in the oven.
When I'm trying to get multiple small humans dressed and fed in the morning I prefer to put all the slices in a toaster oven and set the automatic timer. If I used the oven broiler I would have to manually set timers to remind me to run back to the kitchen and flip the bread. And of course if I forget or can't make it back to the kitchen in time then it doesn't take many burnt-on-one-side pieces of toast to equal the cost of a toaster.
I agree that there are niche kitchen gadgets that are not worth the space but it depends on the person. For example, I do not have a dedicated coffee machine, but many people consider theirs indispensable.
If I can spend $50 and half a square foot of counter space to get an extra 3 minutes of sleep every day I would do that in a heartbeat. If I could pay $1,000 and ten square feet of counter space to get an extra hour a day I'd do that in a heartbeat too.
Our differing life circumstances make our tradeoffs different, though I will admit that I aspire to become time-rich enough someday to afford luxuries like spending three minutes a day making toast without a toaster.
Go look for the overheat sensor. Let me know when you find it.
The timer is fully mechanical, it doesn’t pop up automatically at all. The lever is fully mechanical and you use it to push up the bread, there is no spring mechanism
The design risks have value and are worth preserving, but "this device predates safety" is a real factor to bear in mind.
If you decide to splurge on this toaster be aware that you also need a step down power transformer for USA that outputs 100V (domestic Japan power supply).
When people talk about appliances today being built with deliberate "planned obsolescence" (ie, designed to fail within 2 years so you have to buy another one), I like to point the above out.
I don't think modern cheap design is a deliberately malicious move being done to make more money. I think it's a consequence of consumers being short-sighted and VERY price-sensitive. Most consumers, when they go to Walmart to buy, say, a blender, might see the $19 Mainstays (Walmart's own brand), $30 Hamilton Beach, and $100 Ninja, and will opt for the Mainstays that will die in a year of moderate use, rather than the HB that will last 3-5 years.
But back to my original point, because of price sensitivity of consumers, capitalist competition creates a race to the bottom on prices, and quality suffers as a result. I don't think it's part of a sinister plan to make you buy a new one every year. And for the people that are willing to pay for the higher quality, good brands still exist. For your blender, that's probably going to be Vitamix or Blendtec.
The issue is that there's many categories of products where high-quality, long-lasting options simply no longer exist, and where the amount of money you pay has no impact on its quality or longevity. In fact, paying more gets you more bells and whistles that can fail.
At least in Europe, probably before 2030. That was in the Boost4.0 consortium document I had to read around 2019. I don't know if the law is pending or in application yet, but EU manufacturing sector know it's coming.
Someone in another comment said that the KitchenAid comes with a plastic gear so that if the motor is overloaded, the gear breaks rather than letting the high-power and expensive motor burn out.
I see signs that we're kinda sorta getting there, in France we have for instance Darty Max subscription which for a fixed price (starting at 12€/month) will come to your house and fix your appliance. But I feel like it's way too slow coming, and they don't have backward feedback (yet?) to tell which OEMs are doing well, which are doing shit.
You're gonna buy it from a restaurant supply company, and it's gonna cost 4 figures. Just like in 1950.
The fewer & simpler parts isn't just a win for the manufacturer although all manufacturers are always striving for that.
A dumb piece of wire if it does the job, is far smarter and more valuable to the end user than something unnecessarily complex and delicate that will die from something as silly as static or a leaking cap or a fall or a spill or a hot day.
Companies produce new products with computers in them not because it's needed or better, but simply because it sells. In a capitalist environment, they must always be making something new and appealing, and it really doesn't matter what defines "new" or "appealing" at any given time.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ue-1JoJQaEg https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E3p_Cv32tEo
All strictly better than anything you can buy for any price today. So many things have improved since then, but basic consumer goods have almost entirely degraded to worthless crap.
You can still get metal gear ones, but they're a little pricier.
Besides that they seem the same to me
Because of this there are lots of units “for parts” on eBay and will often even mention that it just needs a new worm gear. This is an easy fix and how I got KitchenAid in my kitchen for under $150
My parents are basically unable to use their TV without writing down lengthy instructions on how to switch from cable to Netflix to live local news using 2 controllers, and I still get tech support calls nearly every week owing to Wifi issues, someone accidentally activating an obscure accessibility setting, or other random issues.
Are you really claiming that an $1800 vacuum today is worse than an $200 vacuum from 1956, or that a $200 vacuum today is worse than a $200 vacuum from 1956? Because the latter is dishonest and untrue.
Similarly, the first kitchenaid mixer H-5 was introduced in 1919 and cost $189, which is about $3,500 today.
Do you really think that the original kitchenaid H5 is better than a $3500 mixer today? For reference, here's some ideas of what you can get in that price range. https://www.webstaurantstore.com/14255/commercial-mixers.htm...
The reality is that people want to spend a tiny fraction of what their grandparents did and think they can still receive the same quality.
Try spending 10% of your yearly income on a vacuum or a mixer and see how long it lasts. The only difference is that your grandparents didn't have the option to spend 20X less on a cheap version.
I doubt any vacuums made today other than some commercial ones will last over 30 years. They are great when new but not built to last.
For vacuums, any quality vacuum will claim it will last for 20 years. When I bought my entry level Miele for 1/10 the price of what my grandparents paid for their vacuum, they proudly promoted that the motor in it would last over 20 years.
The thing about a 30 year old vacuum is that it likely went to a repair shop (or was self-repaired) a half dozen times over that 30 years and became a "Vacuum of Theseus" where very few components may truly have been original. You can still do this today with any medium or high end vacuum. You don't have to buy a $150 Shark Crap, you can buy a quality repairable brand and keep it 20+ years, and you'll pay 1/10 or 1/5 what your grandparents paid. You don't have to buy a $2000 vacuum like they did.
My Miele is 5 years old and has needed zero repair and still operates fantastically with basically no wear. While I doubt the entire thing will make it to 20, Miele continues to sell the design and parts and I don't doubt I can repair it in 5 or 10 years when the first part breaks.