Timberland boots also last. Docs have gone down in quality
I doubt it matters much, but I’ve had the same cloak from Cloak and Dagger for close to a decade now. The only issue was that the clasp detached, but it was an easy fix.
They are great, so long as you know how to season them and clean them properly. My wife always has problems cooking on them because she doesn’t let the skillet fully heat up well, but I never have had issues with them 😁
I knew if I scrolled far enough I’d see this one. Go look on YouTube for cast iron restoration videos. These damn things would survive anything I believe.
A bit off the rails, since it’s not a particular brand. But anything leather (wallets, belts, pouches, etc). I’ve had my leather wallet for nearly 7 years, maybe more. I haven’t really taken care of it (though I should). It’s been through a lot, and it has held up so well. Leather also ages very well. Whether it’s scuffed or dented, it’ll still look good with added character. As long as you don’t lose it or cut it (and craftsmanship is good), you’ll probably have it for a very long time.
While this is definitely true, it’s important to get quality leather goods in order to have them last. For instance, “genuine leather” is actually the worst grade of leather, and can flake and fall apart in a few years.
I just bought a Schott NYC bison hide jacket that I’m hoping lasts me for the rest of my life, and I bought a saddleback leather wallet (which comes with a 100 year warranty on it) around three years ago and it still looks great: saddlebackleather.com
Quality leather jackets are a bit hard to find. Lambskin leather is light and easier to wear (and is what most people purchase), but (especially if it’s a highly-processed lambskin) may only last a few years before starting to fall apart.
EDIT: For purses, there is a guy who was making the rounds in the national media due to going viral for cutting up luxury purses to see what the quality is of them (he goes by “Tanner Leatherstein”) and he evaluates the quality of purses. I bought my wife a Dooney & Bourke purse at www.dooney.com that has lasted longer than a lot of the cheaper crap she’s used and it still looks very good at 5 years old. “Tanner Leatherstein” says that Coach bags are generally pretty decent quality, and also runs his own shop here which I cannot personally attest to but may buy a gift from for my wife: www.pegai.com
“genuine leather” is actually the worst grade of leather,
I really wish those shenanigans were illegal, where they use words that are normally positive adjectives to mean low tier garbage.
Or even just adjectives at all; like the USDA has multiple grades for beef, two of which are Choice and Select. Those are fucking synonyms you dusty dry twats!
The USPS is similarly convoluted. “First-Class mail.” That’s for the normal “it goes in the normal bag with the rest of the letters” service, but the phrase “First Class” usually means top tier service.
Outdoor Research for hiking/outdoors wear. Great quality and they stand behind their lifetime warranty. My father in law had his winter gloves split open after owning them for 30 years and they replaced them.
I want to agree, and still do for some of their items, but personally have found a lot of their products have gone downhill in the last few years. Quality control is all over on the gloves nowadays, sent two pairs back with weird stitching and a single pencil point tapered finger on liners. I originally liked the vigor midlayer fleece stuff as a budget R1 but it’s pilled and worn super fast and just isn’t that warm anymore.
Their alpine merino base layer stuff is pretty awesome though, and found the ascent shell touring jacket nice and breathable for backcountry stuff. For the most part I’ll just spend a bit extra and go for Patagonia moving forward, which of also consider a BIFL brand.
This maybe a bit of a niche thing but I am using Sandisk Clip Sport mp3 player (although it has lossless FLAC support too) for something like 10+ years of nearly everyday use with no problem, which is crazy.
Also another weird thing is this cheap wireless mouse from A4Tech that lasts still for now like 8-6 years with no single issue. I maybe just rolled natural 20s on random cheap Chinese crap and got a perfect specimen or maybe it’s actually good. I have no idea.
3 years ago I bought a double pack of usb-C to A cables on Amazon. Description mentioned a lifetime warranty so I took a screenshot for future. The only thing Anker wanted to know was the production number (which is on the packaging) and a proof of destruction of the old broken cable. Not a single usb cable survived longer than a year at our household despite Ankers.
Amazon Basics’ line of braided USB cables is comparable to Anker, btw. Lots of people estimate that they’re made on the same production line.
I bought a three pack of their lightning cables five or six years ago. Every single one of them sees daily use (at my work desk, in my car, next to my bed) and every single one is still working just fine. Hell, they outlasted the phone I bought them for.
Anker is basically the only phone accessory brand I use. Now that iPhone moved to USB-C, Costco finally carries USB-C cables and they sell a really nice set of Anker cables, and Costco vouching for them tells me all I need to know.
I’ve had an Anker 2 port 3A charger for at least 5 years or so and don’t have any complaints about it. I’ve been an Anker fanboy for a while (albeit, I don’t buy a ton of electronics, but when I do need something Anker is my go-to), but I will say that doing some Googling recently it sounds like their quality might be going down. Just something to be aware of; I’ll probably keep buying from them unless I have a bad experience or keep hearing similar things. I’m just not aware of an alternative that’s as good as they have been.
I’m an Android developer and have owned a huge amount of cables and use them an absurd amount for times. Unfortunately I didn’t have a good experience with Anker cables. They seem to die on me as fast as other brands, usually what happens is phone connection ends up being hit or miss after a lot of use (eg. You have to wiggle it or the connection is lost if the cable is lightly disturbed).
From my personal experience UGreen is currently holding the record for longest lasting cables. So far they have outlasted all of my other cables to the point where almost all of the cables I have left are UGreen because all of the other cables have failed.
-Good year welt leather boots in general last a very long time. I have a pair of chippewa boots that have lasted me since 2016 and they’re still good. Haven’t needed to resole them, they’re very comfortable. I’ve worn them maybe 20-30% of the time(I let them rest at least a day between wears). -Straight razors and DE razors last a very long time, and they can both be significantly cheaper than regular disposable razors and electric shavers. -PIAA silicone windshield wipers (I think many silicone based wipers in general) are as BIFL as can be for windshield wipers. I think I have the same pair on my car from 2016.
PIAA silicone windshield wipers (I think many silicone based wipers in general) are as BIFL as can be for windshield wipers. I think I have the same pair on my car from 2016.
I was very disappointed with PIAA wipers when I got a set.
Expensive, and while they did last slightly longer than the 1-1.5 years I usually expect from wipers, from day one, their performance was noticeably worse than all but the cheapest common brands. Basically they never, ever actually cleanly wiped away all the rain. Streaky and leaving trails of water from day one.
So yeah, they lasted longer, but it was at the level of half-worn-out blades anyway, so to me, it was basically a wash on price of one set of PIAA vs two sets of some other brand…and with the other brand, at least I’d get the two honeymoon phases where they were brand new and working fantastically.
I think you should try another pair and complain to PIAa. My wipers wipe water amazingly, even now. I can imagine some wear over time, but the fact that yours were not wiping well to begin with tells me it may have been a faulty instance (or their quality has dropped significantly recently). Regardless that’s a shitty experience
Since then, I went back to Bosch, which are consistently great, then two summers ago I had a windshield crack that led to replacement, and the replacement company (Safelite) also recommended new wipers (to avoid any glass reside embedded in the wiper scratching the new windshield) and I took them up on buying their own brand to replace…and they’ve been oddly good.
Not as good as Bosch to start, but better than PIAA, and then they’ve gone on to last almost two years at a pretty good performance level.
While I’ll probably go back to Bosch in the spring, I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend these Safelite wipers to anyone.
(My luck: it’d turn out that Safelite uses PIAA for their wipers. 😝)
Tools are kind of a cheat, they’re pretty solid chunks of metal and even halfway decent tools will work a while with care. There are absolutely lemons out there made of junk metal that will shatter.
So a shout out to Harbor Freight. Buy their Icon brand or Doyle hand tools. They are often good enough for some serious mechanics, and absolutely good enough for the home wrench slinger with normal use. Yeah, there are a lot of upper tier tools like Gearwrench that will last forever, but HF stuff will get the job done for cheaper and last just as long.
The normal kitchen aid stand mixer. A no-brainer.
A nespresso-made nespresso. Not the cheap ones made by breville or whatever that are sold at Target. Our Nespresso has been seeing fairly regular use for almost 2 decades. Don’t expect it to literally be BIFL, but it’s doing great.
Strongbags. Designed for flight crew, but anyone can buy it. Super-durable gear for travel. Maybe not fashionable in the trendy sense, but it’s well made and as close to BIFL as you can get. Doesn’t have the trendy cache of Fjallraven and the like. Had one of their coolers for 15 years now.
An odd one: Bestek. Bought one of their car power adapters. 12v with 3 12v sockets and 4 USB out. Damn thing won’t quit. Charges all the family’s devices on road trips plus runs the dashcam.
Kent comb. Yeah, it’s just a comb. However, that cheap shit at the chain drug store (like Goody) cracks, loses teeth, and is just cheap. Unless you deliberately abuse the Kent comb it will last a lifetime.
Knipex smooth jaw plyers were sort of an accidental purchase, my last $50 I ever spent at Sears.
I won’t use any others when given the chance. Easy to wipe clean, very strong action, and the handles have a bend so you kind of can’t pinch your fingers when gripping something small. I love em.
I have known and seen so many people make that mistake, and the story always ends with them replacing it with another brands, the smart ones under warranty, the stubborn ones out of pocket.
It might be dead when I get home this afternoon, but I’ve been lucky with my Samsung fridge. I got it as a deeply discounted discounted floor model 9 years ago.
Hosted a party and someone had leaned up against the ice/water buttons and put it into store/demo mode so everything looked fine but the compressor was disabled. The button combo should have been impossible to trigger accidentally but they did. I had defrost problems after that until I took the back panel out and cleaned the drains. That was 6 years ago and it’s been good.
I think all French door models are designed to die. Run far, far away from those.
I think it was Technology Connections that did a video on French door fridges. One major problem with them (among the countless others) is airflow. Refrigerators have one refrigeration unit for both the fridge and freezer. The air is cooled in the freezer and moved to the less cool fridge. Cool air is denser than warmer air so it falls. Conventional fridges (freezer on top) were designed that way on purpose. When the freezer is on bottom you add levels of complexity and work against what has already been proven effective. That’s not a problem, per se, because humans are ingenious. But in order to compete with traditional fridges these companies have to do this at the mercy of the lowest bidder.
I’ve had a bonavita electric kettle for 5+ years and it’s been great. I just use it for heating up water ~daily and have zero complaints (not sure if there is anything else that you would be looking for an electric kettle to do). I’m pretty sure it was like $50 on Amazon.
Thanks, I’ll check it out. Yeah, there’s not much features to expect from a teapot other than maybe specific cutoff temperatures for brewing exotic sorts of tea. Other than that, reliability is the main concern, and I’ve had even the seemingly well built ones suddenly die on me for no particular reason.
The one I have you can set temperature that it heats to and tell it to either hold that temperature or get to it and then it’ll just cool off if you don’t use it. It has more settings but I’ve just had it set to 194 for forever.
I will say that I swear I spent closer to $50-60 for mine but it’s at like $105 on Amazon right now which is absurd. But looking at the price history on camelcamelcamel the price really has climbed a bit over the past few years. It used to drop around $60-70 a bit. Ridiculous how expensive things are getting.
We’ve been through half a dozen fridges at least in the last 10 years. They’re all horrible now. The best one we’ve found Medea convertible. You can change it from upright freezer into a refrigerator if you want. We use it as a fridge, and got a chest freezer. I’ve tried every other brand i can get my hands on, and none of them last. It’s horrible.
We’ve replaced our Samsung washer, dryer and dishwasher with LG. Which has been pretty rock solid so far, our Samsung range finally died recently and all the LG ranges we looked at were absolute trash using the cheapest metal imaginable. We ordered a whirlpool this time, not sure how well it’ll work out… Find out tomorrow I guess
If there’s one brand I’m not buying again it’s LG.
I know of two LG dishwashers (mine and my parents) that have… issues.
My fridge from them is okay but I’m fairly confident there have been a few times that freeze portion had gone significantly above its set temperature because some popsicles melted. I’ve also had issues with the ice maker design not actually knocking down the ice so I have to open up the door and bang on it to break it loose, at which point a few pieces of ice fly onto the floor.
My oven/electric range from them well … so far so good on that one. I do wish there were actual knobs/buttons instead of the weird “touch” buttons but that just seems to be the trend these days.
Doc Martens are not a good buy for a while now. Standards of quality have dropped loads and my nephew has had two pairs fall apart from the DM store in the last 8 months. Red Wing, Thorogood, Solovair among others, but avoid Doc Martens when buying for life.
Unfortunately they’ve outsourced to Vietnam. I can attest I have several USA made go ruck packs … and they do still sell a few like that. But they’ve mostly outsourced; YMMV.
It really depends on the job, I guess. I wore the Danner Reckonings for about 2 years straight and they were a little rough looking but still in great shape. The tip of the boot where the sole curves up the front was starting to peel. The worst I did with them was mountain climbing and some very wet environments.
Some of the dudes I worked with were sent to an area with a lot of lava rock, which absolutely shreds boots.
My opinion is they were garbage in the 80s/90s too. I would wear the soles down like an eraser in a matter of months. Warranty or not, that’s not bifl to me.
I have that problem with all kinds of shoes and trainers, regardless of the price tag. I bought a pair of Adidas Men’s Hoops 3.0 a few months back and to my surprise, the soles haven’t worn down on them yet.
But I feel like it’s only a matter of time until a hole starts developing in the soles, which means they’re gonna be waterlogged in any kind of wet weather.
That’s kind of the nature of the soles they use, but there’s not really such thing as a sole that won’t wear (and if there were, it probably wouldn’t be comfortable to walk on). Instead high quality boots are made to have the sole be easily replaceable using constructions like Goodyear welt, stitchdown, and Blake.
Doc Martens got sold and moved the production to Asia. The dip in quality is very noticeable.
The people who used to produce Doc Martens now work for the company called Solovair. I haven’t tried their stuff butt apparently they’re as good as Doc Martens used to be.
Having worn Doc Martens most of my life i’ve now switched to Solivair, last pair of ‘Docs’ i bought wore through the upper in 6 months and ripped my feet to shreds, the Solovair i replaced them with are still like new after a year and are the comfiest boots i’ve ever worn.
The only downside is explaining why you’re wearing ‘knock off Docs’ to hipsters, but i generally go with ‘They’re Doc Martens with all the Vietnamese Child Labour taken out (allegedly)’
i would loooove to get a pair of solovairs, but i can’t get over the slight silhouette change where the “ceiling” part of the boot (i know nothing about shoe anatomy terms) has a slight bend inwards as it reaches down and connects with the “floor” :(
I’m not sure what bit you mean, I have the classic 8 hole boots and the shape is the same from my perspective?
There are differences as i went Matte finish for the Solovairs and obviously the stiching is a different colour (smooth sided sole too) but i’m more concerned about the quality/fit/longevity of my boots than the Docs aethetic anyway.
Same thing happened with Blundtstone. Production moved from Tasmania to Vietnam. They swear everything is the same, but I’m looking at these two different pairs of boots …
You’re probably better off wearing something like Red Wing’s Iron Rangers, though there’s multiple brands that are pretty good. Meermin comes to mind for Europeans. Solovair if you’re really into the Dr Martens look.
/r/goodyearwelt used to be a good resource for shoe stuff, not really sure if there’s something comparable on Lemmy yet.
I’ve kept a pair of Docs around because I still think they make a great fashion staple, but having a pair that could actually be comfortable/good again would be amazing
Yes, they got rid of the lifetime warranty and I personally haven’t worn them, but people tell me their old ones work well and have a similar opinion as yours.
JanSport backpacks. My wife had the zipper wear out on the backpack she has had for ~20 years. She contacted the manufacturer. They don’t make that particular bag anymore so they just sent her a comparable equivalent with almost no questions asked.
Yup they will just send you a new one. I’ve been using the same black jansport bag for > 5 years. As far as I can see the new ones they sent has the same quality as more than 5 years ago.
Miele, but I think they recently got bought out and enshittified. Their vacuums and dishwashers were built insanely well, sometimes you can still find old stock. They last decades.
Pacsafe backpacks too. Mine has lasted well over a decade. Fuck jansport and all those backpacks that fall apart.
My mom still uses a Miele vacuum that she got gifted by my grandma when my mom moved out. That was almost half a century ago. It’s definitely worth it to check second hand marketplaces for old models
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