I believe it all started in the lightbulb industry... I watched a documentary where all of the makers of lightbulbs got together and planned to make lightbulbs that would only last a few hundred hours...so they can sell you more lightbulbs...they can actually make bulbs that last more than 10 years but they wouldn't make much money tho

I'm impressed by the French customers of that electronics shop, apparently having already taken things apart and found where each went wrong.

(At 30:00) "obsolescence, more or less subtly programmed, comes in many forms..." ------------------ Tell that to Louis Rossmann, a private repair shop operator and technician, who found Apple blocked him from obtaining certain inexpensive but critical parts. Apple's restrictions cost its loyal customers dearly, and in some cases, the customer was told he would have to buy a new machine. (Search for KZfaq, Louis Rossmann)

I replaced a cap in a 2 year-old Samsung TV a while back. Fortunately, there were several KZfaq vodeos that described the symptom perfectly and showed how to replace the cap. It took about $10 for the replacement cap and about 30 minutes. It helped that I am pretty handy with a soldering iron. 🙂

A farmer cannot repair his Deere tractor without the proprietory software and a car owner cannot diagnose his car without the vendor's gadget and a laptop. Gone are the days when a mechanic can drive his truck daily for more than 30 years with just rewiring and changing oils and other fluids, tires, batteries, oils seals, brake pads, rubber seals, piston rings, bearings, etc. Besides WW2 vehicles are EMF-proof.

Greed, to screw someone over, has created massive long term problems because people dont know we are all connected.

An important topic that doesn't get enough coverage

My first custom build desktop lasted from 2009 till 2022, bought about $500 in replacement components in that thirteen year long time-span. It still works and get's used by friends, who occasionally come over to my house for a LAN party. Yes, a processor released in 2008 paired with a graphics card released in 2014 can still play 3D games. The old rig was actually faster, than most family, friends and acquaintances their brand new computer, thanks to correct use and maintenance. I saved a lot of money on components I could reuse, when building my new desktop in 2022. I reused the graphics card I bought in 2016, and the power supply bought in 2018. People don't want to spend more than a third of their products total price-tag on repairs that are futile and short lasting. This changes when people can reuse replacement parts from their old device, onto their new device. It makes the costs for repairs more long lasting, as one can reuse the replacement parts and don't have to buy new once in the future. The problem is that people aren't educated, thus prefer to buy a laptop that only lasts 2 to 3 years. The fact that many people believe a myth, that computers become slower over time, doesn't aid with this problem.

I know light bulbs lasted for years before blowing out. When CFLs came on the market Incandescent bulbs was lasting 1-12 months. My Father had an Olympic brand TV _(when Color TVs first got popular in the USA)_ that lasted from 1964-1987 before it gave up the ghost. It was repaired at times when the vacuum tubes would blow out periodically and was easy to replace. When My Father couldn't get any more of replacement vac. tubes for the TV it was over.

Technology's downside is indeed Irritatingly sad but true. 😔 No matter how we take care of things, theres a built in timer to self destruct and updates ensure that it does... irregardless of brand or model.

Great investigation guys. Keep it up 👍

Still remembering the days when fixing a device was as easy as replacing a capacitor. Nowadays with delicate and paired smd elements that even break some unfixable micro fuses to ensure you don't meddle with "their" software for our "security" , its borderline impossible to fix stuff like that. But at least they're doing more greenwashing then ever 😁

33:14 "As a consumer advocate, I'm always amazed at what consumers will tolerate" he said more than a decade ago. I wonder what Harvey thinks of the corporate fanboys today, who not only tolerate far worse consumer pegging, but defend and support it. How did we even get to this point?

Every product should have a ten year warranty on it

When they made the batteries impossible to remove and replace, that answered the obsolescence question.

Planned obsolescence should be banned for the same reasons the coal powerplants are banned

I used to custom build PC's for myself and friends... After having to replace them every 3-5 years or so due to tech advancement, I decided to spend a bit more, maybe 10%, on the build fixing the primary issue which made me replace them. After this I had a functional PC which instead of having to replace, I only had to swap out 2 parts across 12 years. The video card... Cause I wanted to play games.. A SSD, cause they were super expensive and small when I built it. I feel companies have done similar over the years, but the opposite direction. They've identified the components which if they cheap out on, saves them a small bit of money, but then leads consumers to replace their devices sooner, so people have to buy more. It's such a wasteful process when the manufacturer could spent a small bit more and make the decice last a decade or more.

I have 2 46" NEC LCD monitors, the avg. usage is around 12 hours a day and I've had them for over 14 years, no issues at all...they did cost £1300 each not like the £299 Samsung models

Im your built to fail bypass guru, Ive bypassed built to fail systems for years on technology ranging from phones, game consoles, charging devices, and vehicles and I'm here to stick oit to corporate America, I know all the tricks! That phone telling you to plug in the original charger when that is the original, there's multiple ways to fix it, one is to plug in an aftermarket charger and unplug your original, this will presumably clear the code in the phone when you plug the original charger back in! If this doesn't work unplug your original chatrger and jump the plug in prongs together to discharge all electricity stored in the components, and finally if all else fails the malfunction is likely to to a weaked thermal protection device inside the charger, 1 min in a freezer wil return the thermocouple or diaphragm to its it original form, though at this point, it's just going to keep doing in more and more and closer together!

The Videocon fridge back at my home bought around 1995 still works. All it needs sometimes is a gas dosage which costs around $10-$20 once every two or three years.

Nice documentary. The Light Bulb Conspiracy is a similar documentary.

Corporate greed is endless...

I normally buy a $50-60 android phone and keep it about two years. I rarely have the issues friends of mine do who constantly buy the newest iPhone 18s, Galaxy Q70-1 MEGA ULTRA. The capability of a phone I buy is 95% of what the top of the line phones had 2-3 years ago....other than the enormous cache of looking cool you get dropping many hundreds of dollars....

hopefully more programs like this one are made. GREAT 👍

How is a refrigerator used 11% more??? They run 24 hrs each day...have they added 11% more hours in a day??? Adding more food shouldn't make the refrigerator work harder..😮🧐 it's still doing the same amount of cooling..no matter how much food you put in it...

Led bulbs can work forever however they push to much current so they run warm and die in a predictable pattern. Just as designed.

As an electronics technician I confirm that what is said in the documentary is true. Like somone said below, it started with the lightbulb industry, and now they're doing it with all kind of devices, those "new features" that companies come up almost every year are just a way to make you buy a device that basically do the same job than the prior one, ie USB change to USB-C, headphone jack conector to bluetooth, they're doing it with apps also, some of them won't work on older versions of your software, pushing you to buy a new device, Apple does this a lot, that's why I'll never buy an Iphone. Samsung as what I can see, is resisting the urge to follow the same path, but they won't last long until they decide to do it. To confirm other comments below, the most rigged industry right now is the LED bulbs one, LEDs can last a big number of years, the trick is this: they overwork them by supplying more voltage than their specifications to diminish their lifespan. Be aware of this scams, support your local repair shop, don't buy things you don't need, the planet will thank you.

I believe the first clue was not allowing us the replace old cellphone battery

I've had my Samsung LED Smart TV for about 7 years. Still working great.

Part of problem is the lack of demand for longer lasting products. When you're brainwashed into upgrading every 1 - 3 years what does it matter? There are a dozens ways to make a product obsolete but they usually only need to make it psychologically obsolete.

My husband and I had LG phones... mine lasted 8 years! He put both of them in an OtterBox, the toughest one they made. He put a glass screen protector on his, due to his previous Samsung totally shattering from 1 drop- it never even made it home! I didn't put the screen protector on, and I dropped it many times a day...My LG ThinQ 30 still works fine- i just ran out of memory due to having so many irreplaceable photos on it. I eventually decided to get a new phone and was sold a Nord 1+ 5G. I didn't get to do any research on it, and thankfully its a great phone with tons of memory. One of the reasons I didn't get another LG phone is that LG quit making phones...i guess its not profitable if they never break. My husband's LG phone, exactly the same as mine, did not do so well. He constantly kept it on the charger and it stopped holding a charge, then started malfunctioning in its 8th year. Our LG washer and dryer worked perfectly for 10 years +, and his gorgeous LG big screen OLED TVs are still going strong. We learned that the curved screen ones get too hot, and they fell by the wayside (the junk room) We learned from that, though. If TVs get hot, then you must keep a fan blowing behind them. A simple way to keep those expensive toys working beautifully for many years!!🎉😊

Finally a documentary where they use dubs I hate it when they f****** use subtitles this is so rare unfortunately 🤬😀

I got panasonic plasma TVs that are 12 years old, perfect image quality on both.

My Samsung television is 6 years old still going strong.

My iPhone was in perfect condition but the updates eventually could not be installed …

Rumour has it the documentary owner found this video on an old tape behind his sopha and decided its time to post it now 😆

my samsung smart tv is 11 years old now.. what have i done wrong then?

In 2023 and we have to harm our sight watching at only 480p!?

The Samsung TV capacitor issues reminds me of the problems of pc motherboards had bad in the day. Now a days, most pc motherboard use much higher end capacitors and last for 5 to 10 years sometimes even more.

And here i thought everything made after the adage of the internet and then cellphones was because workers were either on them instead of working making quality products or had their mind on hurrying thru work to get home and be online into the night.

She Short circuited that guys components during the interview!!! Lol he blew a fuse!!

Bought a clothes dryer in 1981 in Australia. With 2 plastic door latches over time, it is still working just fine. Simpson Minimax Auto 10.

It's not just Smart TV, my mom smartphone and my brother laptop also get broken. We bought those electronics from trusted distributor and brand new. But, just use for few weeks to months (not even a year) already have so much problem. That's why I would never purchase Korean products. They arw not super cheap than Chinese products imo. But after get bad experience is enough for us to stay away from the brand. Idk about the ads, it's just not always deliver what it is promise.

people should make it a habit to never come back to those who disrespected them.

The last comment was why not place the life expectancy of the item on the outside of the package it's sold in? What a fantastic idea! No one is doing this right now. Imagine seeing a bright yellow sticker on a package with a number revealing the life expectancy of that product? Oh... That would mean some reputable company would have to jump first to become a Superstar overnight selling out all their stock. Being transparent cements loyal and trustworthy customers... For life.

Scotland Sharing 🥃📡🥃

THE REASON YOU CAN NOT REMOVE THE BATTERY IS SO THEY CAN TRACK YOU

I have an old freezer i8n my basement, was left there when I bought my house over a decade ago... Very high quality, keeps things very cold. I'll be sad when it does finally break, as i know the next one i buy will probably have a 5 year life. Hoping I can get it repaired that happens instead.

the built in battery also ensured that your phone is never truly off as well.

I give it 10 years and we all regret it it’s all about money 😡😡😡 thanks for this video 🔥❤️

*_4:37_**_ WRONG!!!_* The first Plasma flat screen TV was invented in 1964 by a team at University of Illinois, USA. Out there in the UK Y'all lagged behind Us in the USA. Flat screen TVs were mass produced during the late 1990s when they first became popular. I know factually, Me & My late-Husband bought a 42 inch Plasma Screen TV in 1996 when I was pregnant with My Daughter.

I still use my Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge to this day , tho , i have installed LineageOs (Android 13). Best phone i ever had.

Fight for the RIGHT TO REPAIR.

This is 100% a real thing though I've always had good luck with my devices. I am using a 7 year old phone I bought new in 2016. My gaming computer has a processor from 2012 which is still working fine for the games I play (FX8350). I just take care of my stuff & it seems to last me fine. I actually am still using my first laptop I bought in 2010! I installed Linux on it & it's plugged into my 2011 plasma tv 24/7, I use it as a media machine for when I torrent movies & shows. I also put my old SATA SSD inside & it's much faster. It's not hard to find uses for old stuff. Also I don't do this out of necessity, I have the money to buy fancy new devices, I just don't need to because my current devices are working perfectly fine. I plan on buying the Google Pixel 8a when it's released cause I want a smaller phone for GrapheneOS (privacy & security). I just buy a new device when I have the need for one.

My dad bought a used fridge in 1970 for $10 that was built in 1948. To this day it's still working great in the basement. I don't even know the last time it needed a charge.

Those television are not worth repairing cheaper to buy a new one.

To place Electrolytic capasitors away from heat sink is Basic ABC in good elektro design. Take the led light bulbs used in house,every one of them has equal to a phone charger in the socket a switch mode power supply witch create a lot of E component garbage all those components used in making those use more energy and materials than the old wolfram based light bulbs. They was among the first mass products that had planned failure, they made them to last only 2000 hours max. There was no problem to make bulbs that lasted many times longer. This they did in the 50s or 60s.

Plasma was just coming out when I bought my TV. I opted for the Sony DLP because the lamp is designed to be replaceable. I've had the TV for 15 years and it works like new. I've replaced the lamp once a couple years ago, it cost about $30. So I bought a couple spare lamps figuring someone will wise up and stop making them eventually.

A lot has to do with the voltage we sit on 240 volts and I have seen it as high as 260 I have had tv's plenty of led lights fail all are meant to really run on 220v bet all the 110v Samsungs don't fail as much. We just had a recall on LG tv's with the cap's all failing

Average failure time: ~3.5 yrs Extended warranty lengths: 2 & 3 years Coincidence? You decide..

ROFL!! I'm watching this via laptop via HDMI cord on a SAMSAUNG tv. Have had right at 3 years....

All the electronics evolved in subject matter. hp Laptop G62 you can't changes easily internal battery you have to completely unscrew the whole laptop difficult 🙄. Every day i have to set the time and date. This is completely un honestly with customers.

Short answer: Yes!

Fridges are used 8 percent longer? Was they able to turn them off for a while during the day then, as there is still only 24 days in a day how can this be possible ???.

16 cents euro is alot cheaper than 4 euros. i think it makes more sence to stick with rg cheap capaciters and just make them easily swapable.. kind of like batteries.. which in a sence they are.

Our "insatiable desire" for buying things is at the root of the problem. The minute you stop buying their crap, industry will change course. I own one of the models of Samsung phones that has a removable battery. I also own a Maytag washing machine that was purchased in 90s, and still working.

It is like a never ending cat and mouse 'game', it is out of control. What we are looking at is the symptoms of the real problem we don't want to look into the face or want to 'discover': Economy and taxes, dependency of money (constantly circulation) and plastering of errors or mistakes by (rising) taxes or implement rules (and costs) to make it very difficult to compete. With this dependency construction/system and rising costs it is impossible to achieve a honest situation, to serve solutions to help humanity that are fully developed and last a lifetime or even longer. Why? Because when there is an almost perfect product, the manufacturer sells only one device to an individual or whole family and after this it stops. That is not very economical when there are taxes that rises and come back every time, every month, need to rent, pay the workers, need to BUY food etc. This invides to be not perfect otherwise it is not a continous source of money. This is the real case of the problem, it cannot be perfect because of the need to sell continously, you need money every month. That is why there is competition instead of collaboration, it is all about the money and to keep the money to survive. Money makes the world go round, right? Stupid 'invention', stupid quote. It is an unreliable human created source to rely on, to build on, a real mistake. It is like a friend said me when I want to launch a new product: "Don't make it perfect". I asked: "Why?" "Because there is nothing to improve". That's it! I can talk for hours about this "need to upgrade, buy new" subject but it is all based on continuity, to keep the money flow into your direction so you can get the longest benefit possible to serve yourself and to pay your daily or monthly bills. If you can get more money than you need, there is a bigger chance to survive. How to do this? Save costs or ask more and save costs. You can blame companies/manuacturers but that is not real cause of this problem. The problem is a structual problem and starts at the beginning of the chain of dependency. Ask the question: "Why do they do this?" and break it down to the real cause of the problem. Don't fight against symptoms, it is just a result of, and fighting against it never lead to a solution. It makes it more complicated and blames the symptoms instead of the source. Long read, hopefully somebody reads it anyway. Thank you for your time.

It all started with light bulb... There is an agreement between the manufacturers to test the products and limit the lifespan of the products. The video from Veritasium channel explained how it all began

I will never buy an apple products.

Only 480p? Wtf??

I hate shopping. always hated it. I struggle even to understand how so many people can enjoy this exhausting, time, attention, effort consuming process… I could never enjoy it. I want my stuff to last as long as possible, because the longer I have it, the more I love it. it becomes an integral part of me… I choose my stuff very carefully for exsctly this potential: I enjoy using the same stuff for years and decades. I hate this planned obsolescence thing and I would hate it even if I were rich and could afford replacing everything I have weekly. because money is only a fraction of the problem. the main issue is that I fall in love with my stuff, otherwise I see no reason to buy it in the first place. and how would anyone feel if they had to replace their loved ones every year, each time going through the stages of grief, then recovering, then starting to date again, dating, getting used to each other, and when you finally ok and just became fully partners to each other, suddenly you lose your partner and have to start all over again… to force people like myself into this vicious cycle is pure sadism.

Can't talk on behalf of others but our Samsung products, some over 10 year, is still going strong. Our main fridge which is a Daewoo and now 13 years old shows no sign of age. Is it because we purchased before they went money crazy? Maybe. But all our products have been South Korean or Japanese and we always find ourselves in a situation where we question if we should upgrade an appliance just because it's old when it's running flawlessly. Again, just my experiences, I'll let you be the judge.

I have appliance care with Domestic & General. Recently, a problem arose with an American style fridge freezer. Unrepairable. Cost to replace @ £500. Monthly fee @ £7.00. Replaced without problem. Also, all my TV's are Samsung and they come with a 6 year warranty!!!!❤

I had my Samsung note 8 for 5 years and I recently upgraded to a iPhone 14 plus which will last for many years to come

Greed is good for them... A 15 year old pc or laptop will still work until you try to go online with it... WE get error messages planted their by the engineers on purpose... You get that same message a dozen times...by then, you are on your way to the store or on to Amazons website.

Is anybody working on an updated version of this program to show that Apple has not changed and neither has Samsung or anybody else, they’ve gotten worse

My 1000+ € LG TV is broken. If repair costs 300-400€ Im willing to pay repairs. But there are no TV repair shop in my town.

That is why EPSON printers disapear from the market. They put a programmed chip with the number sheets that can print...once the number is reached the printer stops. The chip is locked and that is time for new printer.

Our 17 year old Sharp TV still goes strong. So Sad that they closed down back in 2014, now its it's the same low quality crap like the rest.

I bought a Humax free satellite receiver in early 2011 and it's still functioning perfectly, as good as the day I bought it. So wether they make them to last for only so long, well, I have my doubts. However, if it were to break down tomorrow, it would still have been worth it. God bless the Humax corporation !!

I apologize about some typos but when I went to edit, it simply wouldn't let me post my corrections.

I am so fed up with this planned obsolescence with all the absurd prices. Absurdly higher than inflation. Plus now you have ridiculous amounts of subscriptions,fees these days, can’t keep up.

I checked two Apple ][ power supplies which are more than 40 years old. 95% of the caps were still intact. We checked the voltage levels of one of the ps and they were still perfect. I only replaced the X filter caps because if they fail there will be a rather violent explosion. So a good design will last forever.

My galaxy s3 neo still works fine Only has a short flicker on the screen sometimes Survived being drowned while turned on tho.

Did you know that you don’t need to open iPods but there is a way of restoring any APPLE iPods? I found it on a website from day one.

Technicians can replace their own capacitors.

I FIGHT OBSELESSENCE! I live in VietNam and there are ethnic villages, usually small & remote. In Ho Chi Ming City/Saigon old cellphones are on sale for a few dollars. A couple of these vendors let me test the phones so l can pick "winners" that function. I then take these, add a power "wart" and hand them out. At at suitable high spot l install a REMOTE ROUTER and set up a WiFi network. This links all the homes together. One of our cell suppliers have arranged for access to the network, and l add a module that records network use so the User can be billed. For those who don't wotk with Remote Routers, they simply act as a normal router but use radio links. 😊

Unfortunately that is a business practice for all manufacturers, so consumer will have to buy a new one , , ,

this is not exactly true,it was down to one lab technition stealing a doctored elecrolyte mix years ago,mainly it was a bad swathe of smd caps,afected most electronic things in the 80's+ 90's,google capacitor plague.

Main problem with all electronics has been counterfit components and capacitors

When flat tv first came out i bought Samsung all of them broke in less then a year i only buy LG now never had one break on me.

If you like to watch your TV, and I mean really watch it, you want the *Carnivàle*. It features two pronged wall plug, pre-molded hand grip wells, durable outer casing to prevent fall-apart.

I think we should go back to smoke signals.

No other company does planned obsolescence more than Apple!

Only solution is to regulate the manufacturing of component to set minimum lifespan allowed . Manufacturing of components with stupid low lifespan only exist for planned obsolescence . The cost for better components is negligible.

Sometimes, corpo-rats like Microsoft do stuff like Xbox 360. Cheap components misplaced in wrong spots.

Nope, I don't think "It's normal!" - I've never owned a phone where I could not remove the battery without tools! I hopped from manufacturer to manufacturer to keep this feature, just like SD-Card-Slot and headphone-jack! I also keep my phones till they break (why spend so much money on phones? Hell, I have mine more or less only to call help when the car breaks down and maybe to send messages)...the only tech I truly switch every 2-3 years is the graphics card in my desktop computer (the other parts last 5-10 years...my old rig lasted from 2011 till 2021, when I built my new PC)

In my opinion living in the United States, people put up with or turn a blind eye to these issues far more than in other countries. Due to politics and the legal system in the USA , consumers are silenced and have very limited. Options . Government and large corporations are completely in bed with one and other .

My Samsung galaxy phone is 20 years old with the same battery , so I still don't understand this garbage people are posting.

If you ever open an apple iPhone they are every will made. Cant say the same for the battery’s.