Members Brittanylips Posted May 7, 2006 Members Share Posted May 7, 2006 [true but CHE-tongue-EK] Lately, I've been buying these dish cleaning brushes with hollow handles that you fill up with soap. Seems like a great idea. You remove the head-brush, fill it up with soap, put the head-brush back on, and scrub away. You buy the set, trusting that when the brush wears out, you can easilly replace it without throwing out the whole contraption. The combo is around $10 or so, a little more than the usual scrubber, but with endless and inexpensive replacement heads, it's potentially immortal. The purchase requires both faith and committment. It's like committing to a format. The design is proprietary, and so you have to commit to a particular handle, and have faith that you will always be able to buy compatible brushes. DVD-R... Beta-VHS... 1/4"... Minidisc.... Oxo handle/brush. Here's where the racket comes in. As soon as I buy one, its replacement heads dissapear from the store, stripping the handle of any future use. At the time I bought my first combo, the display was full of replacement heads, encouraging my committment, reinforcing my faith. However, after the head wore out, I returned to the store and couldn't find a single replacement head to save my stick. It's as if they never existed. Nonetheless, I accepted this and moved on. I bought the new model which, like its predecessor, was surrounded by a robust supply of replacement heads. This time I bought tons of extra brushes to future-proof my investment. But this time the handle broke and sadly, all attempts to replace it were in vain. It's as if the handles of this particular model never existed. So now I have a mountain of its extra brushes doomed never to mate with a compatible handle nor scrub a single dish. With the orphaned brushes mocking me in my kitchen (they're useless, but how can I throw them out?) I bought an entirely new handle/brush design, one that frankly seemed even better than the last. But this time I wasn't going to be tricked into buying an extravagant supply of extra brushes at the outset. After a couple of weeks and a couple of soap refills its brush wears out and requires replacement. All this is perfectly normal until I return to the store and discover that once again, the model I bought into has dissappeared, brushes included, and been replaced by a new and more attractive (albeit incompatible) one. I buy it. That was yesterday. Today, as i wait for my Masterlink to finish rendering a test CD, it just struck me that the rapid evolution of the brush-handle scrubber is a racket, requiring constant total replacement rather than incremental upgrades, as suggested by the design. Or maybe, as I wait for my Masterlink to spit out a less-compressed version of the song I just mastered, I'm feeling a little overcompressed myself. [/true but CHE-tongue-EK] -peace, love, and brittanylips Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Mr. Botch Posted May 7, 2006 Members Share Posted May 7, 2006 You've bought 4 of them (so far). Their feindish plan appears to be working. Seriously, thanks for the head's-up. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members offramp Posted May 7, 2006 Members Share Posted May 7, 2006 Two thoughts: 1) You shoulda bought a upply of replacement head when you bought the brush. 2) Duct tape. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members blue2blue Posted May 7, 2006 Members Share Posted May 7, 2006 I've been burned by similar stuff in the housewares game before... if it didn't keep happening, you'd almost be inclined to think it was simply lack of critical momentum. But the next time you go to the store there is a slightly different variant on the same product -- but with non-interchangeable parts. I pretty much stopped buying things with replaceable parts since I figured there was an excellent chance that I'd never find them. (I did go with a Hoover vacuum... but only after I saw how many generic replacement bags there were out there. I figure if you have a choice of generic replacement parts -- you're in good shape for at least a while.) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members spokenward Posted May 8, 2006 Members Share Posted May 8, 2006 excerpted Originally posted by Brittanylips As soon as I buy one, its replacement heads dissapear from the store, stripping the handle of any future use. On my desk I have an empty package of Presto 09964.Yes, the Presto PowerCup concentrators known to all. Well, at least known to my mother who needs them for her Presto microwave popcorn popper. These, too, have long disappeared from stores. That's not what Target or Kmart or xxxMart do anymore. So before you toss the damn thing try link to a store named after a big river. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members zeronyne Posted May 8, 2006 Members Share Posted May 8, 2006 I am on my third Epson C64 printer. When they go on clearance, they are cheaper than buying the 4 replacement toner cartridges. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderators Lee Knight Posted May 8, 2006 Moderators Share Posted May 8, 2006 I hate proprietary... My dish brush has a handle. When it's funky I put it in the dishwasher. When it needs soap I squirt a dab on. As soon as I started seeing proprietary cleaning products like the toilet scrubber and that Swiffer thingy I made a cross sign with my index fingers. No way... It's the same thing with digital camera memory cards, though that's finally settled pretty much. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Lee Flier Posted May 8, 2006 Members Share Posted May 8, 2006 Hmm, I used to use those dish things and they always had the refills available. Maybe you can just contact the company directly and see if you can mail order a bunch. I had the same problem for awhile though, with sponge mops. I'd buy one and then the store would stop carrying the refill sponges. Or worse, they'd carry some that didn't fit my mop. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderators Lee Knight Posted May 8, 2006 Moderators Share Posted May 8, 2006 It's like this... What if an auto manufacturer decided they wanted to use proprietary thread sizes on their tire valve stems? You lose a cap one day at the compressor at your neighborhood station so you go to Pep Boys and by one, or a pack of 4 or whatever. You go out to the lot to your car and rip open the package and screw on the valve stem cap and grrrrrrrr... ... so you head off to the Car Dealer's parts department... grrrrrrrr. "Allrightee sir, a pack of 4 valve stem covers... $15.99 please." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members philbo Posted May 8, 2006 Members Share Posted May 8, 2006 A lot of the problem is test marketing - - they put something in the stores, then see how it sells. If it doesn't take off, it vanishes. And they can't really tell you it's being test marketed - - then you wouldn't buy it, knowing there's virtually no chance it'll still be around in 2 weeks. The only way out is to quit buying their crap. It's all landfill fodder anyway... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Brittanylips Posted May 9, 2006 Author Members Share Posted May 9, 2006 Originally posted by philbo A lot of the problem is test marketing - - they put something in the stores, then see how it sells. If it doesn't take off, it vanishes. And they can't really tell you it's being test marketed - - then you wouldn't buy it, knowing there's virtually no chance it'll still be around in 2 weeks.The only way out is to quit buying their crap. It's all landfill fodder anyway... That's a great point! I wouldn't be surprised if that's what's happening. This particular store is a famously busy store, the type of store you'd target for test marketing. -plb Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Brittanylips Posted May 9, 2006 Author Members Share Posted May 9, 2006 Originally posted by Lee Flier Hmm, I used to use those dish things and they always had the refills available. Maybe you can just contact the company directly and see if you can mail order a bunch. I guess... but then there's the issue of diminishing returns. If I spend even half an hour hunting down replacement heads to keep the thing going, I might as well have just bought the new model. Which is pretty much what I do. The upside, of course, is that the constant need to upgrade entire scrubbers rather than just a single component keeps life interesting and exciting while at the same time reminding me of the fundamental existential meaninglessness of all human existence (in a good way). -plb Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderators Lee Knight Posted May 9, 2006 Moderators Share Posted May 9, 2006 Originally posted by Brittanylips The upside, of course, is that the constant need to upgrade entire scrubbers rather than just a single component keeps life interesting and exciting while at the same time reminding me of the fundamental existential meaninglessness of all human existence (in a good way). I knew there had to be an upside! While you're being enlightened you can also ponder the growing total at the super market. ???? "Hmmm, I didn't get that much stuff. I even got the generic toilet paper. What's up?" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members philbo Posted May 9, 2006 Members Share Posted May 9, 2006 Originally posted by Lee Knight I knew there had to be an upside! While you're being enlightened you can also ponder the growing total at the super market. ???? "Hmmm, I didn't get that much stuff. I even got the generic toilet paper. What's up?" It's called 'John Wayne Toilet Paper' - - it's rough, it's tough, and it won't take any crap off anybody. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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