This is not a conversation about guns. This is a conversation about items that have withstood abuse that are near unbreakable.
Some items I have heard referenced as AK47 of:
Gerber MP600: It’s a multi tool
Old Thinkpad Laptops
Mag lights
Toyota Hilux
The Hitachi Magic Wand
I knew this was gonna be here. I just knew it. Felt it in my bones. Someone’s got their doomsday bunker stocked 😂
A woman’s best friend 100%. Couldn’t live without mine.
But they don’t make them anymore :(
Even though they’re made by a different company now they’re still pretty good ;)
Any specific brand recommendations? Asking for a friend of course.
I was mistaken. Vibratex, which made the original Hitachi Magic Wand, is still making them today. They just dropped the “Hitachi” from the name.
Sony MDR-V6. I’ve had them for 15+ years, only had to change ear pads to velour ones after the first 5 years of use, after that 10+ years, no issues.
I think every Swedish household i’ve ever been in has owned the same Moccamaster coffee brewer for over 15 years. My parents have had the same one for over 20 years probably, swear those are indestructible.
The wrt54g. They don’t make wifi routers like they used to.
Careful now, they are too old to be secure. I’d switch to TL-WDR4300.
That’s what I’m running, though I had issues with it randomly requiring a reset. Installing OpenWrt fixed that problem.
Yup, WDR4300 on OpenWRT is the way to go.
Had that running on my main router until a newer one came along. Now it’s still going strong, but as a wifi repeater.
I bought one specifically for DD-WRT firmware way back when. I now rock a gigabit mesh system but that wrt lasted almost a decade before tech moved on enough for me to switch.
I ran Tomato on mine. Liked it better than DD-WRT.
Gotta be the KitchenAid mixers no? Especially the older ones. I have a friend that has one from his grandma that’s over 50 years old. If anything breaks, it’s usually a gear or something simple to fix, and the parts are easy to buy and generally cheap.
The mixers are not exactly cheap though… and their other stuff is now mostly made from plastic (like the food processors for example)
I’ve managed to get a hold of 3 of the old ones through garage or estate sales, but yeah the ones that are brand new have plastic parts in them which drives me crazy. But you can at least 3d print what you’re missing
The 1997 Toyota Camry.
And the 1992 chev cavalier. Indestructible.
You must live somwhere they don’t salt the roads.
I did when I owned the cavalier. Now I am back in my homeland and my cars fall apart in a few years.
I would say that most Ryobi One+ tools fall into this category. Cheap and I’ve never had one fail where I wasn’t using it far beyond it’s design parameters. Others are more comfortable to use for extended periods, but they are also usually more expensive. That said, there are apparently a few stinkers in their mix, a dust buster style vacuum comes to mind, but I’ve not run into many.
The tools sure, the batteries, trash.
For the price point and compatibility, it’s hard to beat them—especially if you’re okay with buying secondhand. I’ve pushed most of my One+ tools to their limits (not to mention a fair share of the even worse built Hart tools) and am always surprised how much they can do.
And before someone comments that they’re not as powerful as other TTI brands or DeWalts—yeah. I know. Most people also aren’t going to need the power that comes with those, either.
That being said, the vacuums are Ryobi’s weak spot. A lot of Ryobi users recommend buying other name-brand cordless vacs, and sticking an adapter on them. Their 40v lawnmowers and snowblowers used to also have a variety of issues, but it seems like the last few models have fixed those.
Hart
My wife bought a Hart brand shop vac and it nearly caught on fire the first time we used it. We swapped it for a DeWalt branded one (which are not actually made by DeWalt) and haven’t had any issues.
Wow—I’ve gotta say, that comes as a surprise. Not doubting that it happened though. Anecdotally, we’ve run all of our Hart shop vacuums through some insane situations. It took one getting completely drenched with water to break it—they’re not easy to disassemble and repair, sadly.
The B&D/DeWalt/Porter Cable vacuums all seem pretty good. I hope it lasts you a long time!
Yeah, Ryobi had a bad reputation for a long time, because they’re old (dark blue) tools were hot garbage. But when they were bought out by TTI (and they changed the color to the bright green) all the tools started getting made on the same production line as Milwaukee (also owned by TTI). The QA is a little looser on the Ryobi stuff, but it’s all sourced from the same place as the (much more expensive) Milwaukee tools that many people swear by. If I remember correctly, TTI also owns Ridgid.
It’s basically the Lexus/Toyota thing, where they’re both owned and manufactured by the same parent company, but the Lexus brand is much more expensive just because it’s marketed as luxury. You can get a Toyota for half the price of a Lexus, and find the same quality as a Lexus. And for the insanely cheap price and wide range of available tools, it’s hard to go wrong with Ryobi. The Ryobi may not stand up to the same level of abuse as other (more expensive) brands. But the average person isn’t a construction worker using and abusing their tools for 9 hours a day. The average person just needs to occasionally drill a hole in the wall, or cut the occasional piece of lumber. And for that, the Ryobi is the way to go. Hell, even if you’re a hobbyist in the garage, Ryobi will likely be fine for what you need.
Just avoid their larger power tools, like the vacuums and lawn mowers. From what I know, those have a range of issues that haven’t been worked out yet.
panasonic microwave from 1996. I hope i don’t jinx it by posting about it here. Gigabyte Ultra Durable mainboards. IBM Model M keyboard PROXXON tools
Those old Panasonic microwaves are so good. My parents just had to replace the one they’ve had since the 80s.
A discontinued product from AKG called the K-330. The sound, even though nothing to get excited about, was decent, but the durability of these, in my opinion is legendary. When I was a teenager, I was not careful with them at all, and would often forget them in my sweatpants pockets before throwing them into the washing machine, and that happened hundreds of times and it’s not an exaggeration. The cable was mostly tangle free, while everyone else had to untangle their earbuds (something that most modern earbud cables can’t seem to do as well). These went through abuse more than any other device I’ve ever owned, and they kept working no matter what. Audio quality wise, they are overpriced in my opinion (I think the MSRP was $100, but because not many bought them, I got them on sale as a teen), but the durability is Nokia level in my opinion.
AKG Q701 headphones also. I’ve been using the same pair for well over a decade.
Glad to hear it. How’s the sound of these? I’ve never heard any Quincy Jones signature headphones from AKG.
I’m a bit of an audiophile and the Q701s are the best I’ve listened to. They far out pace anything else under $200 in terms of soundstage and clarity. The bass is a bit low, but this is to be expected from open backs.
That’s awesome. My brother has the AKG K7XX, I’m guessing they sound similar, because I remember being impressed with these. I assume the QJ are just a different tune, and more padding on the headband.
I recently ordered the Sennheiser HD 58X, but I was looking at the AKG options too.
The K7 series is similar but not identical. The sound profile changed slightly when manufacturing was moved from Austria to China.
I love my AKG Q702. I think there are almost identical to the Q701 but with a detachable cable so it can be easily replaced.
I’ve been using them almost everyday since 2020 and barely show any wear.
The only thing that wore out a bit is the elastic on the side but I don’t really notice a difference.
I think you must mean the K702? Those are pretty much clones of the Q701.
Yes, the k702.
Maybe the Nvidia GeForce 10xx cards? Super cheap compared to the 9xx cards, and still going strong!
Can confirm. I have a 1080ti and a 1070ti on my PCs. They can run just about any game comfortably at 1440p, which is my preferred resolution.
Akai 4000ds Reel to Reel tape player. So many are still working, built like a tank. They’re super cheap on the used market.
Old Thinkpad Laptops
This.
The Logitech x3d Xtreme or whatever the hell it’s called. it’s a $34 flight stick, best one you can get for cheap, and after having and abusing it for years it only had any issues after a rottweiler puppy chewed the cable. Would recommend.
My 99 honda civic had nearly 250,000 miles on it the day that it was stolen. When it was found, the thieves had gutted the dashboard of electronics and had removed wheels and other parts. When it was discovered by the police, they towed it to the city in-pound lot and failed to contact me for a couple days because the license plate had been painted over for some reason.
Unfortunately the lot and towing fees ended up being more than what I paid for the car. I wasnt very well off at the time, so I surrendered it to the city. I assumed it would be scrapped for parts.
6 months later it was served to me in ad for Facebook Marketplace. Some guy had fixed it up and had been driving it regularly for months with no issue.
I still wish that I had bought it from him. I fuckin loved that car. I used it to deliver pizzas for 2 years, so i wasnt even that easy on it. I never had a major engine or transmission issue with it and the minor issues that I had were easy for me to fix myself. I bet it’s still running out there somewhere.
Should have gone to court over it. It was stolen, not your fault at all.
I had a 97 same generation, and after 2 years of use it blew a head
There’s magic in those old 90s Hondas, I’ve seen it. I had a stripped valve cover bolt and couldn’t figure out how I could fix it short of a head replacement. The answer? Plug it with a rubber and metal washer sandwich and a bolt, and tighten the ones next to it a lil more. Never leaked. Thing was a champ
The original Japanese Boss HM-2 (1983-1988). Nasty, indestructible, cheap (at the time) and still in use today. There are death metal band out there still using a forty year old pedal.
Just about any Boss pedal
True but I’ve had an HM-2 since '85, so I can attest to the durability of that one.