Outdoors and Fitness
Trekking Poles Fail at the Lock, Halfway Down a Descent
Pole failures are almost always the lock slipping under load, which happens precisely when you are leaning on them hardest.
weak points
23 articles
Handmade and Gifts
Plated Jewelry Wears Through. The Only Question Is How Fast.
Three terms describe gold over another metal, and they differ by an order of magnitude in how much gold there actually is. Only one requires sterling silver underneath, and US minimums for the rest differ more than tenfold.
Travel and Luggage
Suitcases Usually Fail in the Same Order: Wheels, Handle, Zipper
Luggage marketing is about shells. Luggage failure is about wheels, handles and zippers — in that order, reliably, and usually well before the shell shows a scratch.
Office and Study
The Part of an Office Chair That Fails Is a $20 Cylinder
A sinking office chair gets thrown away constantly. The failed part is a standard-taper gas cylinder, it costs about as much as lunch, and swapping it takes twenty minutes.
Garden and Outdoor Living
Hoses Kink Because of How They Are Built, Not How You Coil Them
A hose that kinks constantly is not being coiled badly. It has too few layers in its wall to hold a round cross-section when bent, and no amount of technique fixes that.
Garden and Outdoor Living
A String Trimmer Is a Line Feed Mechanism With a Motor Attached
Nobody abandons a string trimmer because it lacks power. They abandon it because the line will not feed, the head has welded itself shut, and reloading takes twenty minutes.
Pets
Indestructible Is a Marketing Word. Ask What Happens When It Fails.
Every chew toy eventually fails. The question that decides whether that is a nuisance or a vet bill is what shape the pieces are when it does.
Tech and Audio
RAID Is Not a Backup, and Drives Bought Together Often Fail Together
RAID protects against one specific failure: a drive dying. It offers nothing against the far more common ones — deletion, corruption, ransomware — and rebuilding it is when the second drive tends to go.
Home and Kitchen
The Sharpest Knife in the Shop Is the One You Will Chip
Knife steel is a single trade-off expressed in one number. Harder holds its edge longer and chips more readily — and the right answer depends on a question about you, not the knife.
Home and Kitchen
A Blender’s Drive Coupling Is Built to Fail Before the Motor
Wattage is what blenders are sold on, and it says little about what fails. The part that ends many of them is a small coupling that costs far less than the blender — if the manufacturer will sell it to you.
Home and Kitchen
Robot Vacuums Are Not Beaten by Dirt. They Are Beaten by Hair.
Every robot vacuum spec sheet leads with suction in pascals. In a house with long hair or a shedding dog, the number that matters is the shape of the brush.