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Comment by fn-mote | Hacker News Reader

Parent was funny but almost a non-sequitor.

I appreciated the kernel of truth: industrial fridges will not come with adware in the foreseeable future. Buy industrial.

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I mean, my point was that there are actually three different ways you can spend a lot of money on a fridge, and it's a lot like with PCs.

You can buy:

• a big ugly powerful repairable/durable industrial one (like a server);

• an average-sized, somewhat-fancy (because high-trim), repairable/durable commercial one (like a workstation);

• or an average-sized fancy "aesthetic" one, made by a design company rather than an appliance company, that isn't repairable or durable (like one of those bespoke "sleeper desk PCs.")

The same goes for most things you can spend a lot of money on. A sound system, a vacuum cleaner, a car, etc. In each of these cases, "premium" has these same three distinct meanings. None of which involve showing you ads. But all of which have their own trade-offs. And all of which are usually quite a bit more expensive (each for their own reasons) than the highest-trim product sold directly to the average consumer by what you'd think of as a "consumer brand."

What are the good brands of commercial/industrial we should be looking at?

I think it depends on the field or industry. I seem to remember seeing commercial TVs by Samsung when we were buying ours. Similar display specs, almost twice the price, no smarts, and 5 years warranty. They were designed for hotels I believe and came with a few features for that. Similarly hospitality aimed brands often are designed to withstand more abuse and cost a bit more. If you like whatever product you encounter or use in a commercial setting, just ask about it. There’s a decent chance you’ll be able to buy something similar.

Oh also, for vacuums at least, shop vacs are apparently the way to go. And for audio, DIY beats the pants off anything commercial (unless you don’t mind spending thousands of dollars more).

For fridges? True Manufacturing.

I once bought a commercial dishwasher. It cost twice as much used as a domestic dishwasher would have cost new, and I had to add a 220 outlet and run some new plumbing; but the kitchen in that house had no space for a normal dishwasher, so I had to be creative. I put the big machine on my back porch, just outside the kitchen door: it was ugly, loud, and absurdly fast. Once it came up to temperature, it could wash a tray of dishes in three minutes flat. Great for cleaning up after dinner parties. It was certainly a kind of luxury, in a brute-force way.

Buying industrial works in many circumstances:

- consumer kitchen mops break in 1-2 years. Get the commercial one for 2x and it lasts

- my bike is locked to an 25mm thick toughened steel industrial eye-bolt (set into concrete) which cost < $10. A consumer item intended for that purpose costs ~$70

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