The appliance that elicits anger and frustrated at it’s mere sight. The treacherous device that never worked right.
Samsung Fridge (don’t judge me, it came with the house).
I knew it was a “when” and not and “if” it would start having issues, and it finally showed its colors last month.
Front panel buttons either refused to work at all or would cycle through every option continuously and randomly.
Want water? Sorry, only crushed ice today. Want ice? Sorry, just water today. Oh, I actually did want water (starts dispensing). PSYCH! Now I’m going to shoot ice at you and splash water everywhere.
Was about to just toss the thing and get something dumber and more reliable, but decided to roll the dice with a replacement control board from ebay. Thankfully, that worked and I’m only out $80.
Are you sure someone wasn’t pranking you? Cuz that’s hilarious.
Lol, if only. It’s not a “smart” fridge, but it does have a lot of, frankly, unnecessary electronics for what it does. Electronic components that, as any internet search for Samsung appliances will confirm, can and do go bad and are a pain to repair.
I used to really want an icemaker for convenience, because invariably I’d run into a mostly-empty ice cubes tray when I wanted ice cubes. Or I’d fill the ice cubes tray before it was empty, but then I’d partially-melt the ice cubes there and make them unusable until they refroze.
I didn’t care that much about chilled water, because I can throw ice in it. But the ice cubes were a pain.
I even got a dedicated icemaker at one point, when I wanted softer ice to run a small shaved ice machine.
But…finally I figured out what I needed to do differently. Instead of freezing water in ice cube trays and taking the ice cubes directly out of the tray, just go stick a container in your freezer. Whenever you get ice cubes, if the ice cube tray is full and there’s space, just dump it into the container and refill it. Now you have a big container of ice cubes that’s always full. Just replicates what freezer-integrated ice cube makers do. Haven’t had any issues since. Maybe this is obvious to some people, but it wasn’t to me.
You can get little containers that will fit into the door shelves if you want to stick them there:
Oh, I absolutely love my ice maker. Didn’t think I needed one until I replaced the fridge in my old house with one that had one. Now I can’t live without one (except in the dead of winter when I clean it and just turn it off for ~2 months)
Dogs love chewing on ice cubes, especially in the summer. Between keeping bowls of ice cubes out for the dogs and me making margaritas and slushy cocktails all summer, I’d never be able to get by with ice trays.
Dogs love chewing on ice cubes, especially in the summer.
Just as a warning — I don’t know if it’s an issue for dogs, or as much of an issue for them — I once chipped a tooth by chewing on ice. I liked chewing on ice too. Would sometimes put a little black pepper on it. The dentist told me to knock it off, not good for teeth.
That being said, at least the icemaker ice I had was softer, much easier to crush, probably would have been much less of an issue, so if you’re giving 'em ice from one, maybe that avoids any potential issue.
Dogs chew on bones which are much harder, and other than potential for bone fragments/splinters, they’re fine (such was my logic, anyway lol). But for good measure, I asked their vet a good while back, and was given the green light.
The stove in the place I rent. Only been living here maybe 2 years… and that thing is the devil. I thought it was just me getting used to an electric stove again. Nope, that thing is just a piece of shit.
Nothing can simmer, nothing can be left unattended for more than a few minutes (at most), it can’t maintain anything close to a consistent temperature, and forget boiling water before you die of old age… I use an electric kettle just so I can boil noodles in less than 40 minutes
Maybe it’s my pots?.. nope, I’ve tried. Maybe I’ll get better at using it?.. no, and at this point I wouldn’t even want to. It’s just a piece of shit. My mother-in-law is a great cook, and she was pissed when she burned smothered chicken on it… because she hasn’t burned smothered chicken in probably 20+ years; she confirms the stove is garbage
Fuck that stove
Thanks for hearing my rant, I feel a little better now
Edit: I forgot to mention that the fucker is BRAND NEW too. We’re literally the first people to use it. Garbage-ass, giant piece of horse shit…
You could get your thermostat checked. Depending on the stove, it’s something you could probably do yourself. It’s like a ten dollar part, maybe?
We’re just planning on moving now, cause we hate this place and there’s a multitude of problems: A/C can’t keep up with cooling the house, costs a fuck-ton in energy bills, the management company won’t fix shit and they’re a nightmare to work with. They tried to blame us for rats getting into the attic, when it was a known problem before. Took us 2 months to make them hire pest control, and then acted like we should be grateful for normal-upkeep, and not having rats get inside
The neighborhood is actually nice, but the big-name management company are basically slum lords with a smile. But we had 3 dogs at the time and rental options were few, that had a fenced yard and would accept 3 dogs. 2 of them sadly passed this past year, and as much as I miss them and it wrenched my heart… we realized we could probably find something better now and not need such a large yard (our last dog is old too, and doesn’t romp in the yard anymore. He just enjoys little walks now)
The stove is just one of the things I hate about this place and I don’t want to fix any of their shite, even for $10. We’re just making it work for now
I trust your mom. She’s gonna be right.
My crappy electric Philips toothbrush from the internet of shit era. If you press the single button it has slightly wrong it goes into some Bluetooth pairing mode or whatever that you can’t take it out of until it gives up 2 minutes later.
Anything made by Samsung.
Appliance-wise at least.
Samsung SSDs are great and industry-leading in terms of reliability
A refurbished 2019 tablet I got from them that is supported by LineageOS has been giving me trouble on the flashing side of things, so I’ll second this.
I bought a cheap espresso maker off Amazon. It’s so cheap that nothing can be adjusted, not the pressure, the drip, the heat, nothing. Every single shot I pull from that thing tastes like burnt ass. I even invested in some nice expensive espresso beans, and no luck. The cheap machine is in fact a piece of crap. I should have known better.
How much was it?
It’s this one. I bought it on Amazon for the same price, $29.99: IMUSA Espresso Machine
Did you buy it because it says it’s American?
No i kid, i kid.
But seriously, is that an espresso machine or filter coffee brewer? I see a portafilter but also a giant carafe like for filter coffee. You should submit that to James Hoffman on YouTube and see if he makes a video about it. Also how big is it?
Air Fryers.
It’s a tiny convection oven.
Yes, and it’s glorious.
I don’t have space for a full sized oven, and I am also convinced the little guy turns out better results than the proper convection oven my mom used to have.
Yeah, but it has its use. I make tofu nuggets with mine almost exclusively, can’t really do it with a normal convection oven in my experience.
Technology Connections has shown me that air fryers are just a glorified toaster oven. They don’t do really anything better, so just stick to a toaster oven.
Convection toaster ovens are the best though. They let you “air fry” in a far better form factor, and you can also toast and bake in them.
I keep trying to use my convection toaster oven as an air fryer, because goddamnit an air fryer is just a small convection oven and so is this!
It never turns out well and then I say, see? Air fryers are stupid.
I suspect the 10x larger fan on an actual air fryer makes a difference, but I’m not willing to give up the counter space to try.
I love air fryers. I would absolutely get rid of my toaster oven/conventional oven.
I’m not here making giant roasts or pies. I’m just trying to heat up some nuggies and fries.
They cook so much better.
Best way to reheat pizza. Also, I’ve been making garlic feta fries in there lately that aren’t quite oil crisp (and I’m picky about my fries) but are worth eating. (1 part black pepper, 2 parts salt, 2 parts garlic powder, 4 parts oregano, as much feta as you’d like). We really only get out the big oven for stuff like pizza, calzones, meals for large gatherings, stuff that doesn’t fit in the air fryer.
The box stores make this spanakopita, it cooks up so well in there. I practically live off the stuff.
The hvac control panel.
The furnace and ac units are both great, but the control panel will sometimes just, idk, dissociate. I can change settings and it displays them, but they don’t “take”. It won’t relay those changes to its bigger brethren. In order to snap it back to reality, I have to go out to the garage and flip the breaker because there’s no other way to power cycle it.
There are spiders in the garage. And they are prolific with their webs, especially where I need to walk to get to the breaker panel.
So when the hvac panel glitches, it’s a whole ordeal to fix it.
There are spiders in the garage. And they are prolific with their webs, especially where I need to walk to get to the breaker panel.
https://old.reddit.com/r/homeowners/comments/tqpqjh/how_to_keep_spiders_out_of_garage/
bugs such as flies , gnats, mosquitos, beatles, etc. are attracted to the light and just fly in when the garage door is open. Spiders are just a natural consequence of having bugs there.
I don’t know to what degree that light attraction is the cause, but if they’re eating light-attracted bugs (which I think would really be moths), one solution might be leaving a bug zapper in the garage. If they’re getting fried by the bug zapper, they can’t be food for spiders.
I’ve had issues with moths getting into the house. I had a tiny zapper that ran off UV LEDs; those faded and became less effective in a few years; the device was clearly overdriving them. But I’ve been pretty happy with a larger one that has UV fluorescent tubes that just keeps trucking. I set that up on a (battery-backed, so doesn’t reset on wall power loss) timer to only run at night. Seems to work well enough for me.
I live next to protected wetlands and in a generally swampy area. Yes, there are clouds of insects.
I’m not a fan of spiders and dealing with cobwebs, but since moving here, I have declared a truce with them. We try not to keep any lights on near doors to minimize bugs getting into the house when we come and go. And UV sticky traps are very effective and always shock me with how many they can accrue overnight. We have a regular bug service coming too. Creepy crawlies are just part of life here.
It used to be printers but I switched to a Brother laser printer about five years ago and its been trouble free while having reasonable print costs. You can even force it to print on empty for a bit longer, although you shouldn’t push any laser printer too far on empty as you can wreck them.
Toasters are my big gripe. Its been proven that they have massively reduced costs at the expense of longevity and toasting efficiency from what we had decades ago. I have an expensive toaster (from Sage), and I have still had to replace micro switches on the buttons. While it does a better job of even browning than a cheap toaster its still far from the level I expect.
I would buy one of those expensive Japanese toasters or a commercial toaster oven but I do not want that much counter top taken up by it. I would rather just cook my toast in a cast iron pan now, far better finish.
Printers/Fax machines.
Get yourself a Brother brand laser printer. Best damn printer I’ve ever used. Every device auto connects as long as it’s on the wifi and it’s never failed to print in the thousands of sheets I’ve ran through it, with and without the software package they offer. Basic drivers are good enough for 90% of what I’ve needed
Or for low tech bulletproof reliability, a vintage HP 4050DTN. Mine has lasted a quarter century and two degrees on only 3 toner cartridges, a JetDirect module upgrade, and paper. It’s still working with the original fuser and rollers, although they’re beginning to need replacement.
I wouldn’t call it an appliance, but I almost always use cast iron for beef.
Do printers count? I fucking HATE printers.
Came here to say this. F all printers ever made.
After some half a century of existing they are somehow still annoying to use.
Try industrial label printers. They are like printers on hard mode.
Stop buying shitty ink jet printers and get a laser printer. Pretty sure the Brother MFC my dad purchased a decade ago will outlive him.
I do think that most people would be happier with lasers, especially on the “clogged nozzle and requires regular use” front (though now there are also lasers that also do the “razor and blades” sales model, with a cheap printer and more-expensive toner).
However, there are legitimately some people who do need inkjets for one reason or another.
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Lasers, and especially inexpensive lasers where the manufacturer wants to shave down power supply costs, have a brief period of very high electrical draw when they are powered on. This is why you’ll typically see UPSes with warnings saying “don’t plug laser printers into this device”. This probably isn’t more than a minor irritation for most people, but I bet that it can overwhelm small inverters; there are probably people living full-time in RVs or something for whom this a problem.
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Even relatively-inexpensive inkjet printers today can produce what I’d call pretty impressive photograph prints if paired with fancy photo paper. Color lasers — and I’ve never bothered to even get a color laser — do not print photos that look remotely as nice as inkjets do. I don’t print photos — I have screens that can display photos perfectly well — and if I really wanted to do so, I’d go to one of the many stores around that do have the ability to do really fancy photo prints. But if someone were into that, they can’t really substitute a laser printer or most other types of printers for that. Maybe dye-sublimation printers, if those are still a thing. kagis Appears so.
Yeah some laser printers can for sure pop a circuit breaker in older houses
hPLJ4 gobbled 600w when firing up. You better believe it popped some breakers.
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I got a Brother printer. I hate it less than my HP and Cannon ones I used to use but it’s still a printer. A sin which cannot be redeemed
I’d enjoy my Epson Eco tank printer more if it wasn’t trying to constantly update firmware, apps, drivers, etc.
I’m not setting up faxing. Stop asking.
Printers are a given, I figure.
I have a black and white samsung printer that is like a decade old with the only maintenance being adding the powdered ink and replacing the roller thingy a couple of times. Always works, never had an issue, printed thousands of pages over time in spurts of hundreds at a time and even not printing for like two years.
On the opposite end inkjet printers are the fucking worst computer accessory I’ve ever dealt with. They have always been a shitshow even before they started the ink pricing shenanigans because they are finicky and unreliable to start with.
mine has said that all the ink is critically low and I’ve just ignored it for the past few months and it just keeps going.
Nearly same here, but mine is from 2010 and all I’ve ever done is replace the original starter cartridge of toner with a generic one once, and that was 12ish years ago and 2 cross-country moves. I’ve maybe printed a thousand pages ever.
Inkjet printers clogging and requiring ink refills aside, I don’t think I’ve ever been unhappy with (2D) printers. I’ve used…continuous-feed dot-matrix printers, a thermal wax printer, laser printers, a text-only line printer, and a continuous-feed plotter. They all worked pretty well.
And honestly, I’m still kind of impressed at what inkjet printers can turn out on photo paper, even if I wouldn’t buy one for my own uses.
I had one very elderly Apple laser printer that I picked up once that someone was throwing out. Back in the 1980s and 1990s, laser printers were wonder printers that business users might have, but home users mostly didn’t have in their price range — fast output, sharp text, but expensive; always wanted one, but I wasn’t going to buy one. It didn’t have much memory, so there were some limitations on the complexity of what it could print. I rigged up the
lpd
on my computer to do all the rendering of vector Postscript images and convert it into a fax-compressed raster image and hand it off to the printer, so aside from taking a while to transfer the resulting image to the printer, it could pretty much handle anything. It served for something like ten years, with the remainder of the original toner cartridge lasting something like five of that, and I only tossed it because I wanted a higher-resolution printer, not because it had any problems functioning. I could probably still be using that thing. Kinda have some warm fuzzies remembering that ancient thing still soldiering on.
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My docking station. The screen sometimes goes black for a second or two randomly. I have had this problem with all kinds of docking stations.
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My egpu dock. It works great but I have to plug it in after boot or it won’t be detected.
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My samsung galaxy S22 (my last sasmung phone). The camera sometimes doesn’t work presumably because a ribbon cable inside is loose.
Have you tried replacing your HDMI cable? That might causing the Docking station issue
I have had the problem with a variety of cables. I think its a software issue. Wiggeling the cable does not cause any issues. The screen never looses signal its just briefly black.
But I guess it can’t hurt to try more cables.
This is why I switched to display port. It seems to work so much better. Also see if your dock is overheating. I’ve had that happen in the past and caused flickering issues.
I tried displayport too. My main dell 4k monitor had some issues with it. I updated the firmware maybe it works better now.
I have two monitors. Depending on where I plug in, it uses MST or no mst.
Also good tip about the overheating but the dock has a fan and remains quite cool during operation.
It’s difficult to debug since sometimes it works for two days and on other days it hap’ens constantly.
The screen sometimes goes black for a second or two randomly.
replacing your HDMI cable
I think you’re onto something. I have two HP cube shaped docks on my closet now waiting on a return box. The third is holding, but only because there’s also a reg key for windows that will lose compression on the HDMI and make it not resynch so often.
I still get the blinks, but they’re daily instead of hourly. I can dig it out if it’s valuable and the cables are good.
I’m also using a steetek/PWay/etc 2x2 HDMI KVM switcher downstream of that dock, so I can switch between two contract desktops for my k,v and m as the day cleaves to night.
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The Oatmeal is correct, the answer is printers
And by extension, scanners
Why scanners?
The big or small ones?
Commercial use scanners, size isn’t necessarily the distinction
Devices designed to scan thousands of pages a minute have very finicky mechanics, but come in hand sized to office copier sized
Just that 1) Their mechanicals are hard to maintenance and have very little tolerance for fuckery and 2) the software is universally terrible and badly written for a device you are literally paying ten grand to own.
If my work computer counts as an appliance, then that (I have been using a mac for 2 years now for work and am hating nearly every moment of it).
Other than that, I’m not really sure I have one.
What are your biggest pain points?
inconsistency of shortcuts between apps (even things like terminal, where I spend a fair bit of time). I find copy/paste physically uncomfortable to do. Various jankiness around docker (can’t use docker-desktop or the UI, which worked fine, because no license, but trying colima and various things, some of our projects just will not run on m1 or m3) is another pain point. Also just shortcuts and workflow in general (some of which is apparently because I keep the laptop closed and only use an external monitor; I can’t use any shortcut keys to change within windows of the same app (Chrome, for instance)). There’s more.
I hate how ctrl+home works because it almost never does what decades of use in windows/most linux window managers told me it should do and goes to the top of the whole page instead of the top of whatever input has focus. Terminal doesn’t even seem to have this (I can do something like win ctrl+direction_arrow with option, but in terminal 99% of the time where I want to be is at the head of the line).
The microwave, because my roommates insist on having a model that beeps every 30 seconds after it finishes cooking so you don’t forget you had food in there. They still forget, though. It just gets on my nerves while I try to wash some dishes while waiting for the microwave to finish, or if I’m using it as part of prepping while cooking.