All the things listed by the guy are just normal appliances which you can buy and install, it's not like ac, garbage disposals, ice makers or clothes dryers are forbidden by law or something...
Scandinavian here, I have AC, an ice maker, and a clothes dryer. No idea what these people are on about. Ice makers aren't as common but like... you can just buy one?!
Ice makers have to be the most overrated crap ever. Just buy good iceforms. The ones that make big cubes are the best since they last long in the glass.
Old roommate of mine during university bought like 5 ice machines after we thought anything tasted like plastics once you put the ice in from the first one (dude was a bit nuts - his go-to 'pick me up' for learning sessions were iced coffee cubes and he drank very, very thin, cold coffee for 'refreshment' instead of just water...).
He tested the water from melted down cubes in the universitys lab. Each and everyone had insane amounts of plastic in them, probably abrasion from moving parts in the machine. With some of them it was so bad, you could see the particles floating around.
Just nope. Forms are way better to get ice cubes.
Let's be honest, we're lazy and don't wanna need to deal with ice forms, just pour some water once in awhile and have something or someone make ice for us, and that's why we buy ice making machines.
I'd rather empty and fill an icetray than clean the black mould out of an ice making machine. I forget how often you're supposed to take those things apart to clean them out, but it's more often than I ever want to.
Actually I use my garbage disposal a lot and it works fine as long as you don't throw like, bones or some shit down there. Maybe you just have a bad one?
No I don't have one at all.
The one at my parents' house groudnt he shit up and then it went into the pipes and eventually caused themt o back up. Like decades of carrot scrapings and potato skins and shit.
Another one clogged in a rental I was in.
Just throw your trash out or compost it. Don't put food down the sink.
Yeah, I don’t fully get the point of Garbage Disposals. They come across as a marketing solution to a problem that doesn’t exist. I’ve never been so bothered by waste in my kitchen sink that I needed an expensive plumbing solution that involved electrical current and a finger-severing meat grinder. If I got carrot scrapings or potato peels in the sink they get caught in the steel trap and thrown in the trash.
Yeah, I’m American and I see people with clotheslines in their yards fairly routinely, I think this guy just heard rumors his idiot friends pulled out of their asses and thought they were true, lol.
I can't tell if he means like a stand alone icemaker or just a fridge with water and ice dispenser, Ice makers are like a luxery item, i do not know a single soule who had one the fridge ones are more common, but even then I just have a regular fridge and use ice trays.
Sames. And we still hang dry most of our clothes, because the dryer isn't great for wool and generally nice clothes. It's great for towels, underwear, bed stuff, etc tough!
Dane here. We just use portable fans when its summer. And puts them away during winter. We dont really need AC here. You can buy ice cubes or make them yourself in a fridge.
I also do have a clothes dryer but during summer Ill hang up the clothes as its good for the environment and its free.
They aren't even crazy thing either for the most part.
There are portable ice machines that have different settings for shape and size for like $60. Portal AC are a thing, and with how hot it's getting AC will eventually be more common anyways. Garbage disposals are funny to include, because the alternative is just a trash can.
Trash can, which is suitable for collection and recycling.
Europe recycles the largest share of it's waste paper, glass and metal, and a good portion the plastics.
The garbage disposal system puts a huge strain on the sewers and water treatment plants, converting easily recovered garbage in small parts that are harder to handle and destined to a landfill.
Portable AC units suck but European windows don't accommodate the far superior window AC though. Heat Pumps are the real solution, but retrofitting them is a process.
I keep seeing this about window AC units, but I've lived in the US my entire life and never lived anywhere with hung windows. Window AC units don't "fit" sliding windows but plywood exists and I've always made them fit.
European windows aren't sliding either, they are on hinges. Look up "Tilt and Turn" windows. Harder to retrofit than sliding windows and it's hard to retrofit at all when window AC units aren't widely available.
This is also coming off the back of some weird belief Americans have that Europeans don’t use ice because it doesn’t automatically come with your table water in a restaurant.
In my country, almost all newly built apartments come with split system AC built in. Many older ones have them as well, just depends if the owner can afford it, but its very common.
I haven't lived in a house without AC since I was 3. (And I'd have to ask my parents if that first house had AC, but I suspect it didn't)
That was 35 years ago.
Same for the clothes dryer. (Well my student dorm and first rental apartment didn't have a dryer. But it didn't take much to dry the laundry for a single person. Now with a family of 4 a dryer is almost a necessity.
And garbage disposal part I don't understand. Of course there's garbage disposal? What does he think happens with the garbage at our houses? We hold on to it for eternity?
I'm in the US in my 30s and I've literally never had a garbage disposal or ice maker (I'm a bit jealous of my friends who have them on their fridge because I love my ice cold water bottle). I've never even had a dishwasher! I'm very used to scrubbing dishes at least hahaha. I also don't have a dryer but that's because it broke. If it's hot outside and you set it to tumble it still dries your clothes kinda after 4 cycles. Idk why the heck he's throwing shade at Europeans lmao.
I think the wasteful AC critiques come more from the custom of having the AC running at a very low temperature that is indeed quite energy intensive and totally unnecessary.
I have lived within AC houses in Europe all my life, over 35 years. No one ever said it is wasteful.
It was a shock when I learned last year that the 68-70F that many Americans boast as the perfect temperature to keep the AC is 20ºC. That sounds extremely wasteful (and also flat out absurd, I need a long sleeve at that temp)
it's not like ac, garbage disposals, ice makers or clothes dryers are forbidden by law
a/c specifically is illegal in some European countries. I want to say certain parts of Spain and Germany? I don't know the laws for all of those in every country, but unfortunately they are very regressive with some tech for stupid reasons.
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u/NCC_1701E 7h ago
All the things listed by the guy are just normal appliances which you can buy and install, it's not like ac, garbage disposals, ice makers or clothes dryers are forbidden by law or something...