Thoughts on Planned Obsolescence - Part One

Why does this Newer Lawn Mower have Drivetrain Failure?

In this video, Jonathan shows a 2017 Husqvarna lawn mower (LC 221A) with drivetrain problems and questions if lawn mowers are being designed to be repaired.

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Yet another bloke blaming the mower companies for the cheapness of the buying public.
And the near criminal marketing techniques of big box stores.
Henry Ford introduced PLANNED Obsolescence and it was done by testing every major part of his model T and downgrading everything that outlasted the first major component to fail.
If the mower companies were planning it then there would be a host of cascading failures just after warranty had expired.
The problem is price pressure applied by the big box stores to continually meet their purchasing price OR ELSE.
The result of this is each and every year corners are cut, like a cable without an adjuster or no covers & guards where people can not see them on the show room floor.
While the buying public continue to reward the big box shops by purchasing from them then the race to the bottom will continue.

Interesting that Honda refuse to go down this route and at least in Australia their market share is increasing because we are used to Victas , Rovers & Superswifts that had a working life of 30 to 40 years.
So there is a bi-polar market where there is the supermarket & big box store absolute garbage that the cheapskates continue to buy, every years or two and the quality market which right now are offering 3 to 10 year warranty

It would be interesting to see what Honda's USA market share is and weather it is rising or falling.
People have been brainwashed that the market economy model will continue to provide them with top quality products at rock bottom prices.
That ended decades ago and now that you can count the numbers of actual manufacturers on the fingers of one hand the system works in reverse because the durability at the bottom end in so low the averaged cost over even a short term will have the cheap mower buyers paying a lot more than the expensive mower buyers

Agree with everything Bert said. And there is a planned obsolescence built into that mower. Because of the fact the average Joe will throw that mower in the trash after 3.5 years regardless if it has had a single failure, because they have to keep up with the Jone's. So the manufacturers have downgraded their product quality to match the buying preference of the customer base, which will want the cheapest mower they can find for their money that meets their requirements today.

I was talking a Snapper dealer a few years ago and he was complaining that they had downgraded the quality of the rear engine mowers to a average life of about 5 years from the average life of about 20 years for that mower. And didn't understand that Snapper is just giving the customer what they want, a mower that they will throw away in 4.5 years on average anyway.

So you now have two different snappers. The regular Snappers sold at dealers, and the Snappers sold at Walmart that are made by MTD, and cannot be warrantied by a normal Snapper dealer. They have to go to a mass merchant support dealer for warranty and parts.

And those seized idler pulleys on a two year old mower could be possible warranty issue if he mower has been purchased less than two years ago, and especially if that one pulley had failed in the first year.

I have a 2017 LC 221A with seized idler pulleys in the shop right now. This is actually the second time that it's happened, the owner said they had to be replaced once already.

I'm going to make sure she isn't using the deck wash port, that will just make them rust faster.

I agree with what ILengine and Bert have posted 100%. Joe Public wants 20 year quality at a 5 year price. Next when he does not maintain it properly, says it’s a manufacturers junk and tosses it to buy another under a different name but same manufacturer. Toro learned its lesson a few years back when they said no more tractors, because they wouldn’t sell MTD junk after a five year experiment to compete in the low end market. You get what you pay for and you pay for your willingness to maintain.

Thanks for sharing your thoughts!

The video was intended to be more about acknowledging the disposable units that manufacturers create, that are designed as disposable (planned obsolescence).

The area we thought about later and could have been added to that video, is that the planned obsolescence units are not marketed in that manner. None of the mowers say "good for about 4 years" on the box or "good for 50 hrs". If they did, I could make a more informed decision when purchasing. Do I want the cheaper one with lots of features rated for 25hrs, or the plain one rated for 100hrs, or the expensive one with features rated for 300hrs?

The other areas not touched are economic, environmental and shop impact of planned obsolescence. My intentions are that part 2 cover the shop impact of those units.

I don't know about touching upon the other 2 topics, as they are so polarized. I already created a ruckus with a few people over that video. I thought it was pretty tame honestly.

Unfortunately customers would choose the lots of features but last 25 hours version over the others. Then be upset that it didn't last more than 25 hours, and then turn around and purchase another mower with a different name but made by the same company with lots of features but last 25 hours

The economics of the lower end mowers is you have to watch the repair budget closely. Doesn't take much in parts and labor to exceed what the mower is worth or in some cases the repair could be more than what a new mower sells for. Not so much on mowers, but some of the box store trimmers because of labor cost, even replacing the starter rope could exceed 50% of the replacement cost.

Still finding it hard to believe that mower in the video had no cover plate over the drive belt and idlers. Pretty decent looking mower otherwise. And not all that cheap either at over $350 or so. Didn't see the rubber wheel drive at least.

I do not see it as deliberate built in obsolescence, just cost cutting.
To be deliberate you would expect to see things like very thin base plate pressings that crack & fall apart at the engine mounting points.
That would allow press dies to do thousands of more pressings which would save a lot of money.
I really see it as retail pressure forcing prices down.
And yes your are quite correct, all consumer durable items should come with a life expectancy rating. But don't hold your breath waiting for it to happen.
A market controlled economy is based on the quite false assumption that the market is informed and can make an informed decision as to the quality & durability of the goods on offer.
However now days you would be lucky to find 10% of the population with those skills.
Thus they either go for the cheapest or the one that has spent the most money advertising their product.
Companies who value their reputation like EATON who refused to make short life junk transmissions
or Honda who refused to make junk engines or trash ride ons exited the market.

The problem for the manufacturers is there is only a short selling season in which time the factory has to pay down the debt that has funded the years production to date and hopefully show a profit.
So if a big retailer like Lowes suddenly says we will only pay you $ 100 per unit for the 150,000 mowers we want next season or we will import the same volume from China.
The local factory has no choice but to sell the mowers to the retailers at that price or face loosing even more sales. But they claw back a little by not fitting the cover over the pulleys that last years model had & perhaps the regular dealers models do have.
Part of the blame also lies with the factories who have allowed the accountants to become managers and run most companies for the benefit of the day trading screen jockeys because their bonuses are tied to the share price & not the overall profitability of the company.

Ryobi on the other hand is a perfect example of a built in obsolescence company.
They make well designed , comfortable to use products that usually can not be fixed because they are held together with tangs that break off when trying to open them up.
Then there is next to no availibility of spare parts unless the company that made the product is also making a similar item for another brand.
They regularly replace a product with one that has no interchangable parts with the previous models and any model life is generally only a few years.

Market-based is the worst economic system for delivering quality goods for a reasonable price--except for all the rest. No single person, or small group of people, can do a better job of creating an economy.

You can buy a good mower if you wish. It may not be at the price you want to pay.

You can buy a mower for a low price. It will not be the mower you wish it to be.

Not all mowers are cheap pieces of junk; good mowers are not affordable to all people.

Somewhere in the middle is where most deals are struck--you buy what you can afford. If that's the $99 Big Box Special, you buy it and hope it lasts long enough for better times to come so you can afford something better. If it's a $10K+ Skag to mow your 1-acre lot, that's your decision, too. But it's nice to have choices instead of having government intervene and create a workers' paradise where the store shelves contain nothing at all.