This Used To Be Me


 
Pat G

Pat G

TVWBB Emerald Member
Every 2 or 3 years I would be back at Home Depot or Lowes buying a $200 POS gas grill because the last one had fallen apart. So glad I discovered Weber. My current gas grill that I bought and refurbished last year was manufactured in 2002.

 
It's funny my wife and I were at Lowe's a few days ago and saw two guys loading a similar POS grill (like I used to buy) in the back of their truck. I said to my wife "they'll be sorry in a year or two". She said maybe that's all they can afford?

But it's false economy. If buying new pay more up front but buy a weber or broil king and you won't have to replace it. Or better yet buy an old weber for next to nothing and refurbished it for about the price of one of those POS grills.
 
Unfortunately, it's rare to find any quality product of any kind anymore. I like the new Yeti coolers, but you pay a premium for them.

My style is to obtain old, awesome items and refurbish them. Like the Genesis 3000, like my 2000 328i, the 1997 E150 conversion van, etc. Older stuff, even by only a decade or two, seems to still have some of that older mentality of build it well. Heck, my 1928 house, while challenges abound, is astonishingly well built. Not like you see today.

I guess I'm just saying "I'm old".
 
Totally agree with you guys.
Pay a small dollar amount for a quality product made several years to several decades ago is my choice.

It's not just grills...check out the appliance forums to see the number of people upset with current day dishwashers, washing machines, refrigerators, etc. They just do make products to last these days.

Jeff
 
Some of my favorite possessions are really old and much better than their newer counterparts. Things like my two weber genesis. Several 50+ year old Gillette double edge safety razors that shave better than anything modern. And several 50+ year old cast iron skillets that seem to just get better with age.

Regarding appliances though that's kind of tricky. I have no doubt the older fridges, washers, dryers, and dishwashers were built better and lasted longer. BUT they were horribly energy and water wasters. Which translates to lots more $$ to run. We had an old fridge in our garage for years. It hit 30 years old last year. It was working fine but was using an incredible amount of electricity. The fridge we replaced it with cost about $400 but is saving us at least $250 year in energy costs. Do I think the new one will last 30 years? No but I could buy one every 2 years and still be ahead. I do expect the new one to last 10 years which means it will have paid for itself many times over.

And although I love vintage cars they just can't match the newer cars for reliability.

Some vintage stuff makes sense but some doesn't. At least from a practical and financial sense.
 
Greg,
Nice to hear there a fellow Double Edge safety razor fan here. Two of my oldest razors are my 1933 Barbasol Floating Head and my 1961 Gillette Fatboy. Gotta love a DE shave.
While I agree with you regarding the efficiency of the new appliances several, like most newer dishwashers and front loading washing machines do a ****-poor job. Sure they save water but 2-3 hour wash times is beyond ridiculous and stuff just doesn't get clean. I was going to update my 9 year old appliances but after reading about the newer appliances I am going to keep mine till they die.
Don't even get me starting on this newer water shaving shower heads...my Wife use to get on my case when I'd bring my Siroflex shower head with us when we travel. Now it's "when are you changing the hotel shower head?!"

Jeff
 
DE shaving is great. And you can't beat the price of replacement blades. I have a 1960 Fatboy I like as well as a tech from the 50s. Those old gillettes were built to last.

I've had a different experience with newer dishwashers and washers. I've bought both in the last few years and they work fine. Our washer is a HE top loader not a front loader. Both (dishwaser and washer) do have longer wash cycles but they work fine. At least so far.
 
Greg M said:
It's funny my wife and I were at Lowe's a few days ago and saw two guys loading a similar POS grill (like I used to buy) in the back of their truck. I said to my wife "they'll be sorry in a year or two". She said maybe that's all they can afford?

But it's false economy. If buying new pay more up front but buy a weber or broil king and you won't have to replace it. Or better yet buy an old weber for next to nothing and refurbished it for about the price of one of those POS grills.
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Since it's 4am here, I decided to nitpick. It's not really a false economy for many people. Rather, it's a cash flow versus value thing that most of us have to grapple with, though at varying price points. For example, look at cars. Presume that Mercedes and BMW are still both very high quality, much better than Ford, Chrysler or even Honda. Thing is, most people don't have the money to spend on a Merc or a Beamer even though they know those are better, but, they need a car so they buy the Ford or Chrysler. As with many things in life, it comes down to what you can afford.


Now, if you have the money and could buy whatever you want, then yeah, false economy.
 
To a point Pat you're right. But the "geniuses?" now running Weber have reduced their product to nearly this. Recently looked over the new Chinese Weber products and compared to this https://www.samsclub.com/sams/6-burner-gas-grill/prod20650624.ip?xid=plp1872-outd:product:1:4 and I have to say for $499 I'd buy the Sam's product hands down over the Weber now. It's overall made as well or better than the Chinese Genesis line, designed as well, has better (IMO) grates due to being spaced properly, and does not cost over $1000 like the comparable Weber product. Not 100% sure how the materials will hold up over time BUT at $499 vs $1000+ over a 10 year period I'm still ahead IMO.
Bottom line yeah buy the old Weber stuff (though they're purposely making it hard to keep them going due to lack of parts).
 
DaveW said:
Since it's 4am here, I decided to nitpick. It's not really a false economy for many people. Rather, it's a cash flow versus value thing that most of us have to grapple with, though at varying price points. For example, look at cars. Presume that Mercedes and BMW are still both very high quality, much better than Ford, Chrysler or even Honda. Thing is, most people don't have the money to spend on a Merc or a Beamer even though they know those are better, but, they need a car so they buy the Ford or Chrysler. As with many things in life, it comes down to what you can afford.


Now, if you have the money and could buy whatever you want, then yeah, false economy.
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I agree with you to a point. I didn't mean it would be false economy for every single person. Obviously someone making minimum wage would have trouble affording a weber.

But in Pat's photo look at the truck that grill is being loaded into. That's nicer than my truck and I earn a nice living. Same thing with the one I saw being loaded last weekend. Point being that most likely isn't someone making minimum wage.

But I'll go further. Back when I was raising my kids and before we paid off our house I had much less disposable income than I do now. At the time I thought I couldn't afford a weber/nice grill. Consequently I went through umpteen disposable grills. I would always put the cheap grill on a credit card and pay it off in a few months. And then repeat that a few years later. If I had purchased a weber back then I would have paid more initially and paid more in interest charges. But I would more than likely still be using that grill today. And would have saved a bundle of money over the years.
 
I try to weigh efficiency and safety. I like older vehicles, almost anything older. I still have my 1999 genesis 1000 now updated to a 2000 I will never part with that but when it comes to day in day out transportation I want decent economy and safety features, my daily driver is a 2002 Toyota 4 runner. it get s 21 mpg not great but good. It also has dual airbags and rides on a land cruiser truck chassis with 200K on it. Runs like new never had the engine or trans apart doesn't leak a drop of anything and uses no oil, looks good and everything works, typical Toyota quality. I'll keep that sucker until the wheels fall off it.

On the other side of the coin we had to get a new fridge so we bought a French door bottom freezer. What a hunk of crap that thing is, it makes more noses then a garbage disposal trying to eat a peach pit. When it dumps a load of ice it will wake us up at night it's so loud. When I complained about it the service tech said that's just the way they are today, full of noisy electronics and other gizmos to make it energy efficient.

Give me the older stuff anytime.
 
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Wow the 4-Runner gives you 21?! I'd kill for 21 on my Infiniti QX4. Usually all I see with it is 12-14. I used to own a Chevy Suburban 4WD with Vortec 5.7 V8 that returned better overall economy than my QX4! (same as a Pathfinder BTW). Great truck but OH BOY is it thirsty. Heck my Suburban gave better MPG even towing my boat. It's funny I used to haul my boat to north central MN all the time. That truck didn't care if it was loaded, towing, empty whatever. Gave the same MPG.
Love my QX though. Good truck. though VERY difficult to work on it, very expensive to fix/maintain and feed so I may look for another Toyota Highlander. That would make my 3rd in the house LOL
 
LMichaels said:
Wow the 4-Runner gives you 21?! I'd kill for 21 on my Infiniti QX4. Usually all I see with it is 12-14. I used to own a Chevy Suburban 4WD with Vortec 5.7 V8 that returned better overall economy than my QX4! (same as a Pathfinder BTW). Great truck but OH BOY is it thirsty. Heck my Suburban gave better MPG even towing my boat. It's funny I used to haul my boat to north central MN all the time. That truck didn't care if it was loaded, towing, empty whatever. Gave the same MPG.
Love my QX though. Good truck. though VERY difficult to work on it, very expensive to fix/maintain and feed so I may look for another Toyota Highlander. That would make my 3rd in the house LOL
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21 and that's in town. The Toyota is our go to home depot truck, haul the dog truck, etc. Fondly referred to as the "tank" with the Land Cruiser chassis it rides like a empty dump truck. If we go on any long trips of any length we take Barbs Hyundai Sport it gets 28 -30 on the highway and 26 in town. The 4 runner is retired and just stays close to home now.
The 4 runner has had all the required factory maintenance done on it since new, not cheap but that's why it has 200K and still runs perfect and a heck of a lot less than a new $45K 4 runner.
Same as buying a quality grill, like Dwain said "pay once cry once".
 
Reminds me of my "El-CheapO" Brinkman smoker, which I somehow managed to live with for > 5 years
 
Rich Dahl said:
I try to weigh efficiency and safety. I like older vehicles, almost anything older. I still have my 1999 genesis 1000 now updated to a 2000 I will never part with that but when it comes to day in day out transportation I want decent economy and safety features, my daily driver is a 2002 Toyota 4 runner. it get s 21 mpg not great but good. It also has dual airbags and rides on a land cruiser truck chassis with 200K on it. Runs like new never had the engine or trans apart doesn't leak a drop of anything and uses no oil, looks good and everything works, typical Toyota quality. I'll keep that sucker until the wheels fall off it.

On the other side of the coin we had to get a new fridge so we bought a French door bottom freezer. What a hunk of crap that thing is, it makes more noses then a garbage disposal trying to eat a peach pit. When it dumps a load of ice it will wake us up at night it's so loud. When I complained about it the service tech said that's just the way they are today, full of noisy electronics and other gizmos to make it energy efficient.

Give me the older stuff anytime.
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I believe in Toyota quality too. My wife's vehicle is a Toyota prius. What a great vehicle. 50 miles to the gallon but still reasonably roomy, comfortable and practical. We've had it 5 years and zero problems and I don't expect any anytime soon.

Can I ask what brand your fridge is? We bought a whirlpool French door bottom freezer fridge a couple of years ago and ours is just fine. We've replaced about all of our appliances n the past couple of years and they all are performing well so far.
 
Oh yeah my QX4 is very similar to your 4-Runner. Very durable and capable truck type chassis. Mostly rides well but at times it does let you know it is a truck at heart. Like yours it has been VERY well maintained but it is still a huge gas hog. It has a 3.3 V6 and frankly with a curb weight of 5500lbs I think the engine is just too small to haul that weight efficiently. The newer versions with the 3.5 get better efficiency but I honestly don't think I need a truck based SUV. Maybe I need to look for a 4-Runner LOL.
 
Greg M said:
I believe in Toyota quality too. My wife's vehicle is a Toyota prius. What a great vehicle. 50 miles to the gallon but still reasonably roomy, comfortable and practical. We've had it 5 years and zero problems and I don't expect any anytime soon.

Can I ask what brand your fridge is? We bought a whirlpool French door bottom freezer fridge a couple of years ago and ours is just fine. We've replaced about all of our appliances n the past couple of years and they all are performing well so far.
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Greg, it's a Kenmore we got from Sears.
 
LMichaels said:
Oh yeah my QX4 is very similar to your 4-Runner. Very durable and capable truck type chassis. Mostly rides well but at times it does let you know it is a truck at heart. Like yours it has been VERY well maintained but it is still a huge gas hog. It has a 3.3 V6 and frankly with a curb weight of 5500lbs I think the engine is just too small to haul that weight efficiently. The newer versions with the 3.5 get better efficiency but I honestly don't think I need a truck based SUV. Maybe I need to look for a 4-Runner LOL.
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The 4runner is two wheel drive so it only weighs 3700 lbs it has a 3.4 V6. Part of the reason I get 21 mpg is I really baby it now that it's a senior citizen.
Barb's Santa Fe Sport has a 2.4 direct injection 4 banger which gets much better mileage and would blow the doors off the 4runner. Basically one is a station wagon on a truck chassis and the other is a Suv on a car chassis.
 
Oh I did not realize it was a 2WD model. My QX is 4WD. True 4WD. Locker rear end, transfer case with 4 low range and locking center diff. Around here I would not want anything less. Well AWD (as in my Highlander's) is fine. I may actually sell the QX next week as 12MPG is getting a little "old" now (even as much as I love the truck). I have to think if your 4-Runner was the same driveline as I have it would be a 12MPG wonder also LOL. I think the combination of high weight (like I said 5500 lbs) and small engine is not good. I.E. when I drove my Suburban down the road at 65-70 it was only spinning at about 1500 RPM. The QX is spinning along at close to 3K RPM. I don't believe that is how to get efficiency. Funny how we turned a grill forum into a truck forum HA!
 
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