My mom still uses her cuisinart pots she got when she was married 42 years ago. My set is still going strong as well, even if they’re only like 12 years old.

I'm really excited to get mine in from Amazon. Couldn't find one locally, but I held their "Professional" aluminum non-stick at Walmart and was impressed. It was easily the thickest aluminum pan at the store with a wonderful long handle. I'm very confident I will love the stainless pan.

Sweet. I'm working with hand me down Teflon pans that should've been thrown away 4 years ago. I've been socking money away to buy a set but didn't know which one to go with.

I'll probably get the Kirkland set now to get rid of my Teflon and then I'll go from there.

Thanks!

Cantonese style carbon steel wok.

Really hard to say without knowing what else you have and what kind of stuff you cook. Most cookware that isn't teflon coated or some kind of new coating promoted in made-for-TV ads is at least BIF a long time. Here are some ideas:

• All-Clad stainless steel pans and skillets
  • Made In is a slightly cheaper option
  • Stainless in general is pretty tough. You can get a lot of mileage out of cheap stuff found at Costco or wal-mart even.
• Le Creuset enameled cast iron (usually just the pots and baking dishes)
  • Cuisinart is a cheaper option that should still last years, but it will chip away eventually
• De Buyer carbon steel pans and skillets
  • Made-In is a slightly cheaper option
  • I'm slowly replacing some of my pans and skillets with De Buyer carbon versions
• Also, if you're young and just starting out with stocking your kitchen gear, do NOT worry about sets of cookware. No one cares if your pots and pans match. The ONLY reason to care about it is if you're very limited on storage space. Some of the sets nest better and have shared lids, so they can be more space efficient. Otherwise, just order single pieces to fit your needs.

Le Creuset 7.25 enamaled cast iron. You can pretty much do anything you want with it, and it will outlast you. Its why its considered a generational pot.

Unfortunately there are 2 cases that often happen when someone posts an item here

• Post something old that has survived
  • Can't find it anymore
  • Not built the same anymore
  • Possible survivorship bias
  • How old is too old?
• Post something that is new
  • People claim it hasn't been around long enough to be properly tested
  • People claim the company hasn't been proven
  • It is against the sub rules

It's tough to decide whether an item really does fit in this sub which is why someone made another subreddit a while ago I believe.

But there isn't necessarily anything wrong with posting old possibly bifl items, but yeah sometimes people do post too much, and sometimes they don't check to see if others have survived.

For example I wouldn't have learned about how good old washer/dryers were compared to new ones if it weren't for people posting about their grandma's kenmore that's been around for longer than I've been alive. That seems like a fair bifl post. You can still get used washer/dryers from the old days. Often people just throw them out. With a couple part replacements you can probably get it running and lasting longer (for cheaper) than if you bought a new machine.

Something that might be a bad post is "look at grandmas fridge from 1940 that's still running". Not only is it gonna be impossible to find that fridge, but it's also an inferior product compared to many fridges today due to efficiency (which is why you can't find extras on the market). But the subreddit doesn't say anything about that being against the rules. It was a product that was "durable, practical, proven and made-to-last".

I got a sweet LC set off eBay, it had a mix and match of lids with pots but now I’ve got great pots for life and wish list to hunt down

The absolute best example is r/antiwork. Literally not even anti work anymore.

For me the metric this sub should be striving to promote is engineering and materials.

Palladium are pretty durable

Yes, survivorship of the total population of the production run matters when determining the likelihood that any particular item chosen at random survives. So if 50K out of 100k of an item produced 50 years ago are still around and functional, that would tell you something about the products longevity. However, if you just have examples of items that have last 50 years, but aren’t considering or don’t know, how many were initially produced you can’t determine what the probability of survivorship is.

Nothing anyone can explain here with do a better job than this image.

You can still get a lot of quality stuff, it is just harder to find and more expensive.

And you need to make sure your info is still up to date.

Buying "brand" no longer works, the stuff you want is not really advertised so you need to look for it.

Buying "commercial grade" often is a really good solution.
It does not look fancy or "trendy" but that stuff is made to be abused.
It is gonna last forever in a residential home. Pretty much anything that goes into a kitchen for example.
You get really kickass pans that cost half of your fancy cast iron that are way more sturdy.
Or just a regular wisk, collander, container, you name it.
Get a few polycarbonate combro and you gonna not look at tupperware ever again.
Same for ovens, planchas, burners... whatever. Solid stainless steel is not gonna break.

Also, replacement lids are still gonna be around in 20 years easy, that stuff is standardized.

Dont buy an overpriced dyson, buy the ugly vaccum housekeeping kicks around with steel toes and uses to clean 30 rooms each day.

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It's a combination. Plus, look at what I found in my grandma's closet.

Walkley Clogs do a few options, they are a little but over €150 (but in that ballpark), they do several style of paraboots, from reconditioned ex-army, resoled new army, and new high leg style. The rubber soling option (it's a walking boot sole glued and nailed to the wood) which I have) lasts around 1800km between replacements (depending on your gait and the surfaces you're walking over). The wooden soles are basically indestructable, the leather uppers will last for as long as you look after them, being clogs there's no bending in the sole so you won't get pinch holes in the uppers as you would with rubber soled shoes and boots.

They do exports, but I don't know at what cost, it could push it well over budget.

Some jackass the other day posted about how they replaced all of their glassware with yeti mugs. I haven't gotten any good tips from this place in a while.

I knew a guy that had a pacemaker in his cheats, that is definitely BIFL. Even if you allow for survivor bias.

I mean, how rigorously can we test if something is buy-it-for-life without personal anecdote? Survivor’s bias is always going to be a factor because we just don’t have every other sample to compare it to. So what if someone shows off a thing that‘s been working longer than projected, if it’s buy-it-for-life for them, I’d say it still counts. I’ve got a diesel f250 from 30 years ago still going strong but many others are in the junkyard because they weren’t taken care of, but my Ford is still buy-it-for-life because the engine has been running for longer than I’ve been alive without issue and aside from a little rust, the rest of the truck is in good shape. I’m sure there’s more in the scrapyard than on the road because these were fleet vehicles and work trucks, but that doesn’t mean they weren’t lifetime quality when cared for right.

A cast iron potjie is a fun way to cook. It's a very witch looking cast iron cauldron, but it makes some amazing food. Give them a look if you want to try something new

My Tramontina tri-ply clad are 7 years old this month. I use them almost every day, only requiring the occasional deep scrub to clean stains from the bottoms.

To anybody afraid of cooking on stainless steel because “food sticks to it”, have patience: heat up the pan more before you put oil in it, and wait until the oil is shimmering before putting food in it. Skipping these steps only makes your life harder.

I can guarantee you a pure titanium comb is not gonna break.

The product bias is definitely present here. I had posted my two pairs of RSQ (Tilly’s brand) jeans I’ve had for 7 years now that have withstood almost weekly washes and near daily wear.

I got downvoted because it’s “a cheap brand” and “not real jeans that’ll last a lifetime”

A lot of new people joined the sub. A lot of people that wanted all the upsides of buying BIFL but none of the downsides (cost and doing research). I think I might just make an actually BIFL sub where you can only post stuff that can be bought currently and is made in the Western world(which includes Australia and New Zealand)/Japan/South Korea/Taiwan.

Absolutely top notch brands like Chicago comb company, Ashland leather, Smith's all natural, Hanks belts, Ernest Wright, Henry Hoover, Seki, Suwada, Karve shaving co., RGM, TiSurvival etc.

And where anything less is not allowed.