It Just Doesn't Work

Why can you buy a toaster that can't toast a whole slice of bread? A listener’s dismay sets Fraser, Nick and Peter off on an investigation into everyday products that fail at their basic job. From dripping teapots to unpeelable bacon packaging, why do familiar design problems persist?
We distinguish between things that wear out, things that are badly made and things that don’t work even when they work. Along the way, we discuss planned obsolescence and the Phoebus light bulb cartel, survivorship bias and why five-star reviews can tell us so little about long-term reliability.
Peter introduces the “doorbell paradox”: we want more sophisticated products, but adding features also creates more opportunities for failure. And Nick offers a surprisingly optimistic conclusion: perhaps good design has already solved more of our everyday frustrations than we notice?
Links:
Tas's offending toaster and the partially-toasted bread it produces.
Appliance brand reliability survey from Which?.
The 'Bathtub Curve' of failure rates.
A Redditor achieves the impossible and opens a packet of bacon using the pull-tab.
Lifetime of electrical appliances becoming shorter and shorter (2016)
The Phoebus Cartel
The Teapot Effect

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