"Quality" Appliances

I was all set to take you on a spiritual journey filled with peace, serenity and hope. That isn’t going to happen now that my coffee maker has decided to go defunct.

Irritated as I am at spending an hour trying to figure out why my coffee maker won’t work, I am more irritated at the fact that it is barely two years old and apparently worthless. Well, not completely worthless… the clock still works, because God knows we need another clock in that kitchen! Seriously, we have four. So as a last resort I used my espresso maker, which, well, really is not the same thing. I like my coffee strong and black and preferably free of fine particles, something my espresso maker thinks is perfectly acceptable. Oh well, at least I’ve had a few barely tolerable drinks of the elixir of life.

When did it become the norm for appliances, small or otherwise, to have such a limited lifespan? Do we blame the big box stores for luring us in with their low prices or ourselves for demanding more and more disposable products that soon the market is flooded with everything from disposable diapers (which, don’t get me wrong, they are awesome) to disposable cell phones. Is this really the best use of our resources? Could this be partly why we are in an economic depression, in that we have bought so much crap that requires annual and biennial replacement we could no longer sustain our “quality” of life? (On a side note, the chickens are all staring at me through the sliding glass window in our dining room right now instead of, I don’t know, digging up weeds and eating bugs like they should be because, c’mon, I actually let them out of the damn coop! What the hell is going on around here?!)

I firmly believe you get what you pay for, but when one spends $70 on a coffee maker (which, let’s face it, in the world of coffee makers, this is still in the baby prices) one should expect it to last longer than a couple years. I’d expect that much or shorter from a $10 model, but a name brand at the high end of the price range? Grrr… Trust me when I say I’m not a brand snob, as The Sunbeam Corporation’s Mr. Coffee coffee makers are far from high end, but I’ve never known one to stop working. Break the carafe on a fairly old model which is difficult to replace? Yes. Simply up and die? No.

Before I break down and get a new coffee maker, which yes, I’m going to probably end up having to do because nobody needs to see me sans coffee as it would be like putting a plate of French fries in front of Chris Farley in drag while on a diet, I’ll do a little research. Maybe there is a quick fix I can do to get it up and running again, but knowing my luck it’ll cost more than a new disposable coffee maker.