My family and I have just lived through a story that is as boring as it is hopeless. Nothing serious, I assure you, a flat case, as they say, that I decided to tell when I understood, over the conversations with relatives and friends, to what extent it testified to a widespread phenomenon.
Two months ago, our dishwasher gave up the ghost. We hadn’t spent a fortune, but the sum paid seemed sufficient to us to hope that the device would last, not to mention that we had found very favorable opinions on the internet. And yet the machine gave up after only eight years of use. Very quickly, the technician called at great expense told us the bad news: the engine was broken. A dishwasher motor is not much, a small square machine with a side of six centimeters located under the tank, but whose role is critical: it takes care of pumping and expelling water. But the problem with this engine is that it is made of… plastic. “Before, they made them out of metal, but the companies are cutting costs. With the pressure, the heat and the cold, it’s fatal, the engines end up sinking. »
As bad news never comes alone, the technician told us that this little engine cost the trifle of $800, labor not included, that is to say more than the purchase price of the washer. -dishes !
Not to mention that you had to order it in Europe, and therefore wait several more months before proceeding. The gloomy expression of the technician reminded us of that of a country doctor who had come to announce to the family of a seriously ill patient that there was nothing more to be done. In a world where parts are scarce and repairs ever more expensive, technicians are essentially bearers of bad news.
So we decided to buy a new dishwasher. After browsing through the classifieds and finding nothing convincing, we opted for a new device, in order to buy the proverbial “peace of mind”.
We took it badly: after a single wash, the device stopped. Couldn’t get it back to work. We consulted the merchant, who returned the ball to the manufacturer, who himself accused the deliverers, subcontractors first of all anxious to defend themselves. We were told to wait. For lack of news, we called back, and from call to call, we ended up being served… in English, the French of the first responders being incomprehensible. A new technician was sent and made his diagnosis: defective tank. The new device should be replaced… by a new new device! As I write these lines, after another round of calls and a visit to the store in order to “get things moving”, we are still waiting for the new dishwasher, replacing the new one, itself called in addition to the previous one. Welcome to Absurdistan.
At home, we grew suspicious, fearing other devices would defect. We analyze the slightest noise coming from the fridge, which has been replaced twice in the past 15 years, watch the stove, a used model that came to replace a new one whose electronic card had blown, and watch out of the corner of our eye for the heat pump purchased last year. last, whose breath seems to have weakened. As well to say it, between us and our appliances, the bond of trust is broken.
In the old world, that of our parents, we could still count on objects to last. American specialists estimate that the life expectancy of the majority of devices has been divided by three for 40 years1.
In France, it was found that the lifespan of clothes washers, to cite this single example, had decreased by 30% in just eight years.2. In the mid-2010s, in Germany, it was observed that the number of household appliances replaced before reaching five years of service had doubled compared to the previous decade3. This is the problem that Minister Simon Jolin-Barrette’s bill on planned obsolescence tabled on Thursday aims to tackle.4. But can we reverse the trend?
My parents’ dishwasher turned 30 last year; My neighbor’s freezer is over 40 years old. They’re not the prettiest or most energy-efficient devices, but they do the job they were designed to do. These old machines bear silent witness to our daily lives, they have “seen” children growing up, couples forming, friendships blossoming. They carry part of our history.
Yet life today boils down to an accelerated procession of objects that are increasingly foreign to us. In the frenzy of consumption, objects follow objects, new products replacing old ones, by virtue of a planned obsolescence with an ever closer deadline. The hunt for the “right” device, the fight to enforce warranties, the quest for repairs are thinly disguised forms of work. The freedom to consume has turned into servitude: the more objects we own, and the more sophisticated the objects we own, the busier we are to monitor, repair and replace them. I sometimes have the impression that all these devices form a strange herd in our charge, growling, beeping and ringing, claiming, as farm animals once did, our attention and our care.
If archaeologists of the future one day excavate our scraps, perhaps they will discover, in the midst of all these objects that have barely lived, our new dishwasher, stillborn, at the end of a cycle. They will then wonder how a civilization that claimed to be “advanced” could tolerate such a shameless waste of resources.
2. The study was produced by the Halte à l’obsolescence programme, an association founded in 2015. All the studies are available on the association’s website.
4. On this subject, I invite you to read Marie-Eve Fournier’s excellent column in The Press from 1er June 2023.