Ask Lemmy

Bought a belt and wallet from hanksbelts.com and they have aged very well! They come with a 100 year warranty so I'm sure if anything does happen I'll be covered, though I doubt they ever get destroyed in my lifetime.

Zojirushi steel drinking bottles. Holding up very well. Being able to completely disassemble and clean the components of the lid seals saves me from my worst habits.

Everything I own, except the burial plot. I bought that for death.

Plex Lifetime Pass back in 2015. Worth every penny.

Before the haters start, Jellyfin wasn't around back then and yes, I've tried Jellyfin but it's not as featured rich as Plex for what I use it for. So, no, I'm not switching.

Not something I bought a long time ago but I want to share the idea, I have now got myself One Single Ballpen. I was moving and saw that I'd got way too many ballpens that were not even used and that I would not use at all that were just offered or I don't even know how I got them. So I bought myself a metal ballpen with some recharges, and well in one year i've not even finished the first recharge, and i've basically only written with this pen and signed with this pen

Easy. Leatherman Wave. Spent 80 bucks on it at least 10 years ago. I've used it to build furniture, repair glasses and electronics, breakdown boxes, open bottles, light duty wood processing/work on campsites and fix crappy cars. It all still works like new. You can have 1 tool in your car, and it can do about 90% of what a box full of tools can do.

A Baratza Virtuoso coffee grinder.

It's solidly built, works great, all parts are replaceable and if you need parts or advice all you need to do is mail Baratza.

I've owned it for 15 years now and it still works just as well as the day I bought it.

Edit: I also bought an expensive 1zpresso hand mill (a K ultra?) from someone who had buyer's remorse. Sometimes I don't want to make tons of noise grinding coffee in the middle of the night and it's nice to have a quiet way to grind for a cup. It's built as solidly as the electric grinder so I'm pretty sure I'll have it for life as well. Both were great BIFL purchases.

More frugal than buy-for-life but: good shoes. Twice the price but they last way longer. It's cheaper in the end.

My bike, a steel frame Genesis Croix de fer.

It's going well, I moved to another country where biking is not really possible so now my sister has been using it regularly and keeps it in good condition until I come back.

I used it for a few days last time I visited my family and it still has good as new.

Also a carbon steel pan and a second hand cast iron pot. No one was interested with the pan but my mom started using the pot after I left and now she's using it several times a week along with another one that belongs to my grand mother.

I also got a second hand "Baby Bjorn" bouncer, I don't know the original owner since it's been bought and sold several times already and I'm planning and selling it once my kid will be to old for it.

For me this is the ultimate test for "buy it for life" items. If it can move from people to people and everyone is extremely happy to use it since it's higher quality than non bifl items.

A $30 Under Armour water bottle, I bought the thing back in 2014 and I'm still using it even now. The push button latch for the lid doesn't really work anymore, but it still has a lid lock so not really an issue. The thing has stood up to almost a decade of abuse and still works great.

Red Wings work boots. The quality has admittedly gone down a lot in the past decade but it's still leaps and bounds better than any other off-the-shelf work boot. Saving up for a pair made by a PNW bootmaker, but my 4 year old 877s keep going

Stax SR-007A headphones (Sorry Stax mafia, I meant Ear Speakers 😰).

I used to buy headphones and IEMs like crazy and I was never satisfied. There was always something nagging me, I could never find a pair of headphones that sounded "perfect" with all types of music so I'd have a selection of headphones that I'd use for specific genres. Now I only have this one pair and a second pair I kept for guests to use on my guest gaming rig.

Thankfully good audio gear doesn't really lose much value so I didn't end up losing all that much money over the years of buying headphones but it's nice to not have to think about it anymore and just enjoy the music. Headphone addicts will understand lol.

Le Creuset pot - I got one for Christmas 2018 from my parents shortly after going to university and despite being used around 3 times a week since then with plenty of stews burnt onto the bottom it still looks like new

Sage (Breville) Barista Express. Been around for 8 years. Solenoid valve has been needed to be changed twice but it’s a job I’m confident in doing now and the parts are quite cheap (£25).

I bought it broke and fixed it up. Still makes a quality cup better than anyone else’s at home machine. Mainly because other’s often opt for less complicated but more expensive Nespresso pods (which make weak cereal-heavy flavoured outputs - check the James Hoffman video on that); or cheaper Delonghi’s, which I used to own before upgrading.

However I find Delonghi machines have a particular taste which I think comes from the Easy Serving Espresso system they implement in their machines, which puts a rubber gasket in the basket which a) is used to compensate for the weaker pressure of those machines by creating pressure in the basket rather than from the resistence from the coffee (thus affecting taste from the method of extraction), and b) affects the taste from the rubber itself (as well as its collecting of old coffee grounds).

So for anyone looking for a good quality espresso machine, I’d recommend picking up one of these second hand.

My Stanley thermos is as good as the day I bought it

My N64 Got it in 99 and it still works

Lodge cast iron pans Wolverine boots Steelcase office chair (caveat, had go buy new arm pads after 8 years) Boos block cutting board has been holding up damn near daily chopping

Leather wallet with limited space. Forces me to not carry too much. Also a quality built wallet that had lasted very well for the last 5 years... Admittedly I have been bad at maintaining the leather though.

Some of my BIFL:

I seem to lose Swiss Army Knives before they wear out or break. On my 3rd or 4th one now and trying to hang on to it.

I still have my Atari 2600 from when I was a kid. And many more cartridges than I had before. The CRT I played it on still works too.

Various tools like vice grips, hammers, corded drills, table saw, and circular saw.

Bare and enameled cast iron pots and pans.

Several tents. The oldest one is a Coleman Oasis canvas tent I used growing up. HUGE tent - 12' at the peak and about 12'x12'.

I don't plan to keep it for life, but I have a wallet from the Buffalo Billfold Company. Bison and very durable. I think mine is the hipster.