Domestic Appliance Research

[HCCB]

Hi,

My name is Henry, I am a Product Design student in my final year of University. I am considering doing a small domestic appliance for my final year design project and I have a few questions that I would like to ask consumers.

If you have two minutes I would really appreciate you helping me out by simply answering the following questions;

1) If you were to replace a product (let’s say a vacuum cleaner) what would be your reason for doing so? (please select multiple if applicable)
– It’s broken
– You are fed up with its poor performance or functionality
– It’s just getting old and tired
– Your needs have changed and it doesn’t fulfil them anymore
– Other (if other please state reason)

2) What would you be more inclined to do? (again please assume we are talking about a vacuum cleaner)
– Buy a value product, if it breaks in the first year it doesn’t really matter because it was cheap anyway.
– Spend more money on a product that you know will last longer.

3) If you were buying a range of appliances, does it effect how much you spend on each. Would you spend more or less on a single appliance if you bought it on its own?

4) Would you be more interested in buying a single multifunctional product or multiple single function products if both options performed exactly the same tasks? (please state reason).

Once again I really appreciate your participation.

Thank you for your time,

Henry

[electrofix]

Re: Domestic Appliance Research

where as i can see where your questions are leading you may be aiming it at the wrong people. people in this trade tend to fix things, at least i do. we also know what is rubbish so what to avoid. so its quite a different situation from joe public who have different point of veiw dependant on their income and social class. If i go to a well off client I would see Miele and Bosch appliances (and others) but to a council house tennant we are more likely to see Bush and Hotpoint (Indesit) or the like
you are most likely to get answers from traders on here and if i want an appliance I look around for a faulty one of a good make and fix it

hope it helps

Dave

[Martin]

Re: Domestic Appliance Research

I thought it rather coincidental in giving a vacuum cleaner as an example when his name is Henry. 😉

[HCCB]

Re: Domestic Appliance Research

Hi Dave,

Thanks for your reply, I appreciate you putting me right, in truth I should have had more of a dig around the forum and realised that it was mainly for trade use so I apologise for that.

Martin, I was on placement last year designing vacuum cleaners at one of the big appliance companies based in the UK, I’m pretty sure the only reason I was taken on was my name! I got spammed with multiple ‘Henry the hoover’ pranks throughout the year.

Cheers for your replies anyway guys, I will attempt to search elsewhere for some consumer insights.

Henry

[HCCB]

Re: Domestic Appliance Research

Dave,

Just one other quick question if I may;

You say you buy appliances that are broken and you fix them, are these products that the public are getting rid of because in there eyes they are broken but in reality it may just be one or two components need replacing?

Do you think the general consumer just didn’t have the know how so decided to replace the ‘broken’ product?

The problem I’m design around is the UK produces approximately 2 million tonnes of waste electrical and electronic equipment each year, how do we reduce that? So it’s interesting to understand why the general public replace or dispose of their products.

If you have any insights that you think would be beneficial from your work I would be really appreciated if you are happy to share. I presume that you are probably the last man between the product living and the product being replaced so I understand that it may just be a case of there is no reviving the appliance so they have to get rid from your point of view.

Once again thank you for your time,

Henry

[Martin]

Re: Domestic Appliance Research

HCCB wrote:The problem I’m design around is the UK produces approximately 2 million tonnes of waste electrical and electronic equipment each year, how do we reduce that?

The answer to your first question is in the answer to your second…..

HCCB wrote:So it’s interesting to understand why the general public replace or dispose of their products.

The cost of each electrical/electronic product is getting cheaper to buy year on year. Couple that with the amount of disposable income households enjoy that cost against income is fractional compared to what it was in years gone by. Not many years ago the cost of a washing machine a major outlay in comparison to the monthly wage packet. A large flat screen TV cost £1,000’s.

In that same timescale the manufacturers were forced to cut production costs to meet demand. The product quality suffered, it’s reliability shortened significantly. Repair costs of those products meanwhile doubled almost overnight with many component parts more costly to replace than buying an entirely new appliance.

Today’s manufacturing techniques allow for their ultimate ease of disposal and recycling. Recycling agencies have refined technology for separation of component parts and their array reusable raw materials. (The proverbial Coke can turned into A380 super jumbo).

So I believe that waste mountain in the future will in effect get bigger, get higher, yet the vast majority transformed into more gadgets and gizmos to satisfy the ever demanding populous.

[lee8]

Re: Domestic Appliance Research

1. It’s broken.
2. Spend more for quality (researched incase it’s poor quality with a good quality badge)
3. No price wouldn’t guide me too much.
4. It would depend on which was the better product.

Hopefully you’ll get more response from Jo public and not Mr smart arse.

[electrofix]

Re: Domestic Appliance Research

the public seem to have a lower expectation of appliance life these days so scrap things without checking
as a case in point recently bought a faulty AEG condensor dryer on ebay for £8.50. owner said it went wrong so they just bought another one
fault bad solder joint on circuit board so cost to fix £0
if they had not ebayed it it would be in a scrap yard, so how many go to their end with silly faults

Dave

[Author]

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