Appreciation post: The shop vac at that garage in Tucson

I was down at Manny's Auto on 22nd Street last month, and they had this beat up old Shop-Vac from 1988 that still sucked harder than the new ones at Home Depot. Meanwhile, we just bought a fancy 14-gallon model at my shop that can barely pick up sawdust. Is there a point where older tools actually work better, or is it just survivor bias?

2 comments

2 Comments

the_margaret17d ago

Noticed the same thing with my dad's old Craftsman drill from the 70s. That thing weighs a ton and the cord is all duct taped, but it'll drill through concrete block no problem. Bought a new DeWalt last year that feels like a toy compared to it. Honestly I think companies figured out they can make more money selling us stuff that wears out every couple years instead of stuff that lasts forever.

grant.sam17d agoMost Upvoted

That bit about it weighing a ton is actually kind of the point I think. The old stuff was built like a tank because motors were less efficient so they had to be bigger and heavier to get the same torque. Now they use those little brushless motors that are way lighter but they cram them in cheap plastic housings that can't handle the vibration. So it's not just planned obsolescence, it's also that the engineering tradeoffs changed.