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Comment by JohnJamesRambo | Hacker News Reader

I still have my parents’ riding Craftsman mower from over 20 years ago and it runs like a top, so maybe at some point they made good mowers. It has an engine with a spin on oil filter like a car and I attribute the engine longevity to that. My Mom has been through like three riding Craftsman mowers since then and each one seems more cheap and crappy than the last. The latest one is like a playskool mower with the dumbing down of the controls and big colorful plastic levers.

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Lowes recently started carrying The black and Decker version of Craftsman and they're pretty adamant about advertising the warranty is back. Then again, who knows if that's accurate.

I try to pickup old craftsman tools (and matco / Snapon) when I go to garage sales. The older stuff was great.

Lots of brands are doing this.

We had Corelle dishes as a kid and when I dropped a plate and it exploded on hitting the floor, we all stood there just staring at it because nobody in 8 years had broken a single dish from that set. Mine landed perfectly flat upside down, and buckled. The new ones are so thin you can practically see through them.

I had a friend who went to yard sales looking for vintage Corningware dishes because the old ones were more shatter resistant.

IIRC she claimed the old ones were stovetop safe as well, which was a surprise to me because I never knew anyone growing up who used them that way. I think Emile Henry may be the only ceramic cookware you can do that with today, and those are chonky. Light, but chonky.

Corning Pyrex used to be made of borosilicate glass (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Borosilicate_glass) and was similar to the type of glass used for lab equipment. The Chinese manufacturer who bought the Pyrex brand switched to cheaper and more prevalent soda-lime glass, which is arguably more drop resistant.

There are manufacturers selling borosilicate glass cookware; just look for "borosilicate" when searching. There are at least a couple of brands that sell this on Amazon. Though thickness and overall durability is a different matter and perhaps even the modern borosilicate items still pale in comparison to older products.

Yeah I got into this conversation with her after a hot 'pyrex' dish exploded and damaged the linoleum in my apartment. She suggested I go yard sale hunting for old Pyrex.

I was talking about the white casserole dishes also made by Corning. Wikipedia says it's called pyroceram. Also says it was an accidental discovery while trying to invent something else.

I still get Corelle branded dishes, like you see at Walmart these days. I haven't broken one yet; they're remarkably durable compared to your usual ceramic pieces. That they're thin and light and a little translucent like china is just icing on the cake.

I like them a lot. Can't say how they compare to the Corelle of old but they're definitely solid.

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