For me, I think the prime comparison is the KitchenAid stand mixer. You can get a new one that's functionally identical to the classic models that have lasted forever... and it'll run you at least $350 even during a major sale.
Our few year old kitchen aid has been a nightmare of broken plastic internal parts. I will weep when my mother passes, but I will be taking her mixer and ditching mine.
Plastic gears have lower friction and don't require greasing. They aren't really bad on their own. The problem is you can't find replacement parts when they break.
You'll need digital calipers as well. You can cheap out for $20, or get Mitutoyo's for $200.
A scanner's also nice in scanning a geometry thats flat, but not required.
Just with a 3d printer and a meager ket, you can replace most current commercial crap in a few hours, and have the replacement as a file you can call on any time.
That's how I'm handling this "throw away culture" shit. I'm replicating what I need and throwing away the actual broken bits.
Reduce, Reuse, REPAIR, Recycle. (Hint: the manufacturers want you to forget the 4th, hidden R.)
Because they are all custom sizes. And they don't break often. It's like 10 years after purchase where there aren't too many other owners looking for parts and the original company doesn't support it anymore.
The irony of course is that they deliberately make some parts out of plastic so they break before the rest of the machine does when you're misstreating it.
I’ve had the same experience, with paper shredders - particularly the Fellowes brand, in the UK - which all have a nylon (possibly some other plastic) cog, somewhere to overheat, then break.
There's a single nylon gear. The rest are made of metal. They've been using a sacrificial worm gear since the 1960s.
KitchenAid switched to all-metal gears on their high-end models fairly recently. In the past, all models had a nylon gear, but the new high-end mixers use electronics to protect the motor.
TL;DR: The Pro Line is what you want. These have higher-wattage motors and are made with all-stainless steel. This is important if you mix heavy things like doughs or meats frequently, as these materials tend to stress and shear plastic more easily.
My mom has a Kitchen Aid kettle. That shitty thing breaks all the time forcing my dad to replace some parts of the circuit. (And it's not the users' fault, it's a damn kettle, there's not much you can do wrong except maybe starting it empty which they don't do)
KitchenAid sells 4 or 5 different versions of their stand mixers with retail prices ranging from $350 - $1000+. There is a reason for the price difference.
