As a very cheap way of restoring a device to an optimal state, maintenance costs are almost like a way to repurchase something without expenses such as fabrication, assembly, transport, etc. The correct molecules are each already in the correct locations, making it much cheaper than modifying other molecules - just restore or replace the most entropic parts.
Described in another HN thread:
If you do have a particular attachment to the taste of coffee, consider a Keurig ($120-$250) with a reusable filter. Each cup of coffee uses ~1/3 oz of ground coffee, so a 12oz bag ($6-21) gives ~33 cups.
With expensive coffee, and an expensive machine, at 10 cups per day, after 100 days (1000 cups), that's $886.36, or $8.86 per day. If you find a cheap machine and good, inexpensive coffee, you're looking at $301.82 or $3.02 per day.
Add in $13/300 paper filters for easy and compostable cleaning, and you're looking at $3.45 - $9.29 per day, depending on your coffee price. And 32oz of vinegar for the descaling ($4) for another 1000 cups, increases to $3.47 - $9.30 per day.[0]
In this way, the $4 of vinegar (and associated labor) is almost like the $120-250 for a new machine, from a certain point of view.
Comments
As a very cheap way of restoring a device to an optimal state, maintenance costs are almost like a way to repurchase something without expenses such as fabrication, assembly, transport, etc. The correct molecules are each already in the correct locations, making it much cheaper than modifying other molecules - just restore or replace the most entropic parts.
Described in another HN thread:
Add in $13/300 paper filters for easy and compostable cleaning, and you're looking at $3.45 - $9.29 per day, depending on your coffee price. And 32oz of vinegar for the descaling ($4) for another 1000 cups, increases to $3.47 - $9.30 per day.[0]
In this way, the $4 of vinegar (and associated labor) is almost like the $120-250 for a new machine, from a certain point of view.
[0]https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17362292