Some that come to mind are:
Benchmade - knives Darn Tough - socks Carhartt - good work gear Doc martens - footwear
What are some good reputable brands that you have had for 5 years + with little to no issues or with a lifetime warranty.
Doc Martens are now Chinese made IIRC and don’t last.
Solovair is the the company that used to make Martens and you can still buy that style there. I hear they’re much better than Martens, but also occasionally a mixed review that they didn’t last very long.
I’ll offer a mixed review for carhartt…while they used to be strictly workwear, they’ve started putting up retail spaces in designer clothing areas. Prices have shot up. I had a belt from them that fell apart pretty quick with normal wear. Got a work shirt that’s doing pretty good though. IMO they’re headed down the same road as a lot of brands that get popular - price hikes with decreased quality.
I’ll offer a mixed review for carhartt…while they used to be strictly workwear, they’ve started putting up retail spaces in designer clothing areas.
Carhartt and Carhartt Work in Progress are two different brands, the former is the good workwear one, the later is the designer fashionable stuff. Stick to their non WIP stuff
Didn’t know that, thanks. Figured the retail shops went up so quality was on the way down.
I’ve actually gone to Dickies and they feel as great as Carheart used to be, but it’s too soon to tell yet
Carhartt WIP is designer workwear, modern cuts and softer, higher quality materials that aren’t designed to withstand harsh labor.
Carhartt standard is still classic workwear.
I’ve needed to use Carhartt standard recently and it’s still good, relatively affordable and very durable workwear.
Good to hear the real stuff is still available and affordable. Thanks.
Slight correction: From my understanding, Solovair is the company that purchased the cobbling machinery/factory that DocMartens sold off when they fully off-shored. DocMartens then contracted with them for their limited release, price-inflated, Made in UK boots. As the designs are long out of patent, Solovair also manufactures their own. I see Docs at a 15% markup, just for the name.
I just got some Carhartt “wool” socks for Christmas. They are pilling like crazy after 1-2 wears/washes. They’re less than half wool, so that might be the issue.
I do WFH and I don’t wear shoes in the house, but that’s literally why I wanted wool socks.
I asked my parents for wool socks for Christmas twenty years ago and they gave me a few pairs each of three or four different brands. The ones that have lasted the longest and include a lifetime warranty is Redhead from Bass Pro. I’ve only exchanged them once or twice. They’re tall and thick with high pile wool. I’ve worn a pair almost every day for probably nine months out of the year, sometimes year-round, ever since I got them.
Lenovo ThinkPads
I bought an old model in 2013 and it lived in my backpack through 7 years of school and university. It was dropped hard enough to permanently bend the heatsink, the disk drive cover snapped off, and it regularly overheated from throwing it in my bag without turning it off. It ran windows, dozens of Linux distros (up to 3 at once) and now it’s a hackintosh for when I need a Mac. I’m confident I could buy spare parts and repair it myself if anything important broke.
Yes, OLD Lenovo thinkpads.
Buy yourself a used T400-T430 (and models of that age) if you don’t have very big computing requirements, they are 10+ years old and they will last you another 10+.
If you buy a Lenovo from the last 7-8 years you will get an overpriced piece of junk.
Mine was a L440 so this tracks
I have to take exception to that because I bought a Lenovo ThinkPad in 2018, barely ever used it and now it won’t even turn on.
If it won’t power on at all you might need to let it charge overnight and then try again
Or a new battery? Maybe display?
Or maybe bad charger
I have kept it plugged in for days. It won’t even charge.
Only other troubleshooting step I can think of is to try pressing its “emergency-reset” button with a safety pin if it has one
Thank you. I will look for a tiny hidden emergency reset button that can only be accessed with a pin.
But it literally has no power at all. It won’t even charge.
If it has an emergency reset button that is one of the exact symptoms pressing it can fix
This is no exception. Thinkpad used to be great years (decade?) ago. The stuff they have produced in recent years is crap. I had two work laptops in the last 4 years and both are absolutely terrible compared to the old stuff.
Yeah when I took my issue to Lenovo customer service, their first response was that my laptop has reached the end of its usable lifespan. 5 years!? I’m not wealthy and that thing cost me $1,500 and I will never be able to afford another laptop again.
consumer electronics are engineered for 3 years of use.
I bought a Lenovo 82k100lqus and I baby it. I try not to even open it or plug or unplug anything. external peripherals with a powered USB hub let me get away with this most of the time.
and I still think it’s going to break exactly 3 years into it’s life. I can hope not, tho.
They are going downhill and less user serviceable these days. Talking T series, the old workhorse. Older ones are still good.
I have a 2011 Dell latitude that’s a similar story. It’s a jellyfin server now
I was extremely skeptical when IBM spun off that division but time has proved me wrong. The Lenovo rinkpads have been much better than I ever expected them to be.
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.
Osprey Packs - Back packs.
I love mine.
Second this
Miele (European) (dish) washing / dryers / fridges
The vacuum repair guy on Reddit also loved their vacuums.
Their vacuums are incredible, as are their ranges.
Source: Rich friend.
They also have some 3d printable parts on their official Thingiverse and Printables profiles
Wow that is awesome. When I need a washing machine I’ll check them out!
We bought a bag less vacuum 4 years ago. The turbo brush for pet hair stats showing some wear but the whole thing works solid to this day. Even the flimsy feeling handle is still fine Edit: EU - Germany
In my experience, much better than Siemens/Bosch.
Unlike those, Miele doesn’t seem to have entry-level-priced equipment that just sucks in term of quality.
Nothing wrong with both Siemens or Bosch (or Miele). But Miele’s do break down too. My friend’s recent Miele Twindos washingmachine’s sensor died after only 2 years just outside guarantee, seems to be a fairly common problem with twindos machines. Expensive to repair too. 1400 Euro washing machine.
We have a Siemens iq500 dishwasher, an iq300 washing machine and dryer that run reliable for over 10 years. 3 appliances for about the same price as my friends Miele.
Also you get what you pay for and a lot of consumers can’t afford 1400 euro for a washing machine anyway or pay for the expensive repairs. Comparing entry level with top tier hardware on brand suckability seems quite odd.
They cost a small fortune, but I think they still are as good as their decade old reputation.
Patagonia for apparel and Red Wing for footwear.
Was looking for this.
Always bought Patagonia, and they just repaired a 26-year-old ski vest for me, for free, as the inner lining was falling apart.
Red Wing’s imported footware isn’t at all durable. They do still have some models made in Minnesota that are supposed to live up to their reputation.
i kind of can’t believe how long my Seasonic PSU is lasting. It’s been on continuously for the last like, 12 years. unreal
Have you tried unplugging it with things powered on to make sure the battery is working? The batteries are supposed to be replaced every couple years, I found out when I started having power outages last winter and my (seasonic) PSU just turned off when the power flickered and PC was running. I bought a replacement battery off Amazon for cheap and it was easy to swap out.
PSU is different than UPS. PSU is the Power Supply Unit and doesn’t have a battery. UPS are Uninterruptable Power Supplies and do have batteries. Seasonic only makes PSU’s.
Yup that’s my bad, I misread the acronym and I guess imagined the brand of UPS I had.
For the Euros- if you need to replace any parts in your toilet, buy Geberit.
I frequently have to replace cheap flush mechanisms and filler valves, and I always replace with Geberit.
I have Geberit flush mechanisms that were installed in the 80s and if they start to leak, you pop them out and replace a washer. No tools required
Speed queen washers and dryers. LGs and Samsung’s drop like flies in comparison. They are expensive but they are made in the United States and last donkeys years. I’ve heard of people moving out after 10 years, and taking their speed queen dryer with them.
Also, in general, hand made Japanese knives. Any knife will keep cutting if sharpened but most of “sharpness” is thinness of the blade. That’s why we don’t use meat cleavers for daily prep. Japanese knives are made to be thinned and polished, as the edge will become thicker with repeated sharpenings. Other knives will get thicker and thicker and become complete carrot crunchers. These can be thinned too but it’s much more difficult with only sharpening stones.
Additionally the handles are easily replaceable by anyone, western style handles require destructive disassembly of the existing scales and rivets.
Japanese knives are great if that’s your preference but that excludes a lot of other BIFL knives worth considering.
Wusthof in particular should be on the list as well as Global. In general kitchen knives are more forgiving in the BIFL category because a lot of it is just properly caring for what you have.
I worked in kitchens for a long time. I can’t get a grip on Japanese knives. Give me good old German steel.
I’ve had a set of Zwilling knives for almost two decades now, still in pretty good shape
I’ve had wusthof handles break on me and they are a pain to replace. You have to drill the rivets, remove the scales, glue new ones, drill new rivet holes, hammer new rivets and then shape them. With Japanese knives you tap the handle off and put in a whole new one.
Another issue with wusthof is that the bolsters on their chef knives are way too large. They weigh the know down and makes it annoying to sharpen. Over time it will develop a recurve and won’t contact the cutting board. Your only option is to grind it down, which is a big endeavor because they’re so damn big nowadays.
They’re still great knives but because of those issues that Japanese knives don’t have, they aren’t the best BIFL option for me.
I get that everybody has their own preference but BIFL is more about quality of materials, durability, reputation of the company etc.
I’ve had wusthof handles break on me and they are a pain to replace.
How so? You just send it to Wusthof and they replace or repair it. Seems pretty BIFL
Another issue with wusthof is that the bolsters on their chef knives are way too large.
My Wusthof Ikons have no more bolster than my brothers Japanese set. I assume you’re talking about the Classic line of Wusthof?
You raise issues based on your preference but that doesn’t impact them being BIFL. They’re well made, hold an edge and Wusthof stands behind them 100%.
I dropped my utility knife once and it bent the tip. I shipped it to Wusthof and they took care of it, only cost me shipping. I also had a knife block that split, for that they wanted a picture, then they shipped me a replacement and asked me to destroy the old one. I used it in a campfire. Seems pretty BIFL to me.
Speed queen washers and dryers.
This is the one to pay attention to. Speed Queen is what every laundromat uses, because they’re fucking rock solid and don’t need a lot of maintenance. They don’t have as many bells and whistles as a Samsung, but they’ll outlast two or three Samsungs and still be cleaning just as well as the day you bought it.
They also cost as much as 3 samsungs. I am all for buy-it-for-life, but when I can buy a nice Samsung with bells and whistles, have a better wash, lower energy use, and more flexible options on how the clothing is being washed- then why would I not buy the Samsung? My Samsung washer was 800 and the dryer was 600. A speed queen starts at 2400 each. I could buy 3 washers and then 4 dryers for that. Plus I save money on the energy cost with my Samsung eco settings.
I have a house filled with buy it for life where I can and where it makes sense. And when I bought the washer and dryers I looked into speedqueen. It didn’t make sense. And before people start saying things like “good luck replacing them in 3 years” they are already 5 years old. My 1400$ is 5 years in and doing just fine.they could break today and need to both be replaced, and I am still ahead. I think speed queen is one of the few BIFL brands that I disagree with.
They outlast BEACAUSE they don’t have that many bells and whistles.
Give me an old whirlpool from 15-20 years ago, those things where tanks before they started making them “Smart”
I’ll throw a weird one in here. If you want to do any smart home automation stuff, Lutron. Their stuff is famously bulletproof and generally “just works” and almost never needs troubleshooting.
It can be a little pricy for a light switch, but it will work with just about any platform you want to use. Also, all of their wireless switches work without internet.
But why do you want a WiFi enabled light switch?
You don’t. The Lutron switch is not wifi. The Lutron hub is not wifi.
100% you don’t want WiFi smart home devices.
WiFi is really handy because it’s easy and accessible, but as you add devices, you wind up with WiFi network issues.
Because these devices can just talk to the internet, they can talk to their manufacturer’s websites and tell them everything they learn about you from your network, such as all the other devices on your network, any open file sharing protocols (and the files on those devices), any other devices that are willing to talk to the WiFi device. So - literally - everything on your network becomes exposed to the manufacturer of the device. It’s unlikely the manufacturer would be nefarious, but they would extract all your data.
And if the device has poor security, opens a port to the outside world, or - as I discovered this weekend on my soundbar - just has a root ssh shell with no password requirement, it could pose a security risk to you and your devices.…. And I just remembered outbound federation is currently broken on my instance and maybe one person will actually see this comment. Fuck.
Convenience, automation, remote control.
Flexibility. A hardwired switch is choosing your lighting configuration at build time, but when you have light bulbs that can all be controlled individually through software, then you want a switch that can interact with that software.
For instance, let’s say you do something crazy and unprecedented like add a lamp to your room, with hardwired switches now you either have two switchs in two different spots to deal with every time you enter a room, or you need to call an electrician to wire up a switched plug. If your switch was instead a software switch you could just reprogram it to also control the lamp.
The door from my driveway opens into my office. The light switch in my office is in a really shitty place. When coming into my office at night, I have to navigate to the light switch in the dark to turn on the light.
Or, at least I did. Now when the door opens at night, the light in my office comes on at 10%.
Stuff like that is why.
It’s one way of wirelessly communicating between devices of different types.
You can have a WiFi-enabled light switch that you can control with your phone without it connecting to the internet.
I have my lights set to turn on slightly before I am supposed to wake, turn off after I go to work, before I return from home, and after I go to bed. I’ve recently added mmwave sensors to turn them on and off based on my presence within a room. I can do all kinds of automations that I could do manually sure but if I don’t need to and can minimize the amount of excess energy waste then why wouldn’t I want a wirelessly controlled switch and or lights?
And yes most everyone can do this. Google Home Assistant and get lost in the rabbit hole.
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.
Yep, I’m on year 8 with my red wings; besides some gashes in the leather over the steel toe, still kicking and comfy.
USB-Cable - Anker
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.
Someone is going around downvoting everyone who says something good about Anker without replying to any of the comments.
Poor etiquette, imo
They look good indeed. Can you also recommend their USB chargers? I am looking for a 3A USB charger with at least 2 ports.
For the last one I had one of the pins broke and got stuck in the outlet, it was a very funny experience.
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 got one of their 100W chargers and it’s awesome. Can charge my MacBook from work, but is smaller than the bundled Mac charger.
Can power my personal surface + phone + wife’s phone.
It’s great!
Anker cables and USB splitters are the absolute best.
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.
Already mentioned in thread, Anker cables. It has very good threaded covers that are strong and hard to damage. Internal copper cables and the USB ends are also very well made so there is no chance for it to fray or crack.
Bought a pair pack over 6 years ago. Still haven’t used the second cable because the first one is as good as new.
Also NGK spark plugs lol.
This is what everyone told me, so I bought a two pack of Anker branded cables. Both of them broke and wouldn’t charge without being held at a weird angle within a month. I bought an Amazon basics cable after that and it has worked for years just fine.
I seem to be in the minority here, but I will never buy Anker again after this awful experience.
The main thing that kills cables is sitting a phone in portrait on one’s chest and having it plugged in for charging. That creates a nice 90-degree or nearly 90-degree bend that just destroys the cable over time.
Anker has been hit-or-miss for me. It either craps out early, or lasts much longer than it has any right to. They’re still my go-to for cables, because I usually lose or give many of them away before they have a chance to show their worth
I’m in the same boat. I’ve bought their cables at least 3 times at 3 different points in my life. All of their cables have failed within about a year. That being said I use them extremely heavily because I’m an Android app developer. I have many test devices and I’m constantly plugging in new devices and sometimes have up to 3 devices connected at the same time. I’m also not just charging the devices as I’m transferring data between the computer and device.
I’ve now got NGK plugs, leads and coils in my 21 year old car. They definitely don’t need replacing often. Especially of you go iridium.
The Anker Powerline 3 Usb C cables are amazing. 100W rated, nearly impossible to tangle and I’ve had no issue with them being used continuously for either my phone or laptops, including surviving a lot of falls, being pinched, run over by a desk chair, etc. I have two and would buy more but I’m waiting for USB C to up the max wattage before I do. The colors are also a nice touch.
For hiking and camping gear: Savotta
If you’re not from Finland you’ve probably never heard of them but I’m yet to buy one product from them I’m not satisfied with. They make gear for the Finnish defence forces aswell.
I really like Osprey. High quality and very functional. I used a kid carrier for both my kids and it was great. I also have a day pack from them that I love. My main backpack that I don’t get to use much these days is a snow leopard II by North face from 1992 I think. That’s a pretty good run.
Savotta is bombproof. I have their Jääkäri S,. M and L, as well as their Keikka 50L and 80L. Used the Keikka duffle bags as check in luggage for international travel, and they’re still as good as new. They use stainless steel hardware on the Keikka duffles on the stress points. All their bags are made from 1000D Cordura with a rubberized liner, so they’re quite water resistant.
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
