Comment by bonsai_spool
17 hours ago
> How long do they last? Looks like pretty solid piece of equipment, but are they damaged easily or simply clap out after few years?
They last forever. Why would they break? This is like asking how long floor speakers last.
Speakers sometimes die while sitting unused in their original shipping carton in a dry, climate-controlled room.
The adhesives can age. Foam surrounds can disintegrate. (Ask a Bose 901 owner about foam rot.)
They also can also die from use, and abuse. And finger-poking. And environmental conditions like moisture and UV light.
I know enough enough about old speakers to know that lasting forever isn't one of their usual traits.
Are stethoscopes really as bad as that?
My first stephoscope lasted about 10 years until the tubing became brittle and started cracking. It's the oil on your skin that does it apparently. It went through a couple diaphragms and I lost an ear piece but used a replacement one.
As other commenters pointed out, rubber/plastics fail.
Littmann sells repair kits.
Fair enough. My medical classmates regularly used stethoscopes that were purchased by their parents for the parents' own studies but I understand there may be differences in build quality.
Stereotypical image of the doctor is that they carry them over their neck 24/7, so that alone would destroy them pretty quickly.