Hot Water Pot

Peach Street Electric Kettle

I bought this hot pot right around a year ago for $20. We used the heck out of it for a year and then one day last week it just quit working. Not bad for $20. Still, I thought I would take a look and see if it could be fixed. It did quit working shortly after I got it, but there was a screw loose in the base, I tightened it up and it worked fine, until last week.

Anyway, I attempt to open it up, but it doesn't want to cooperate. I end up having to rip the handle off in order to expose the heating element. I don't see anything wrong, other than the rat trap that shuts it off won't stay set. That's okay, it has served us well, and it was only $20.

But I'm looking at the pile of parts and I realize there must be over a hundred individual pieces that go into this thing, which leads me to wonder how in the world could somebody make this thing and make a profit doing so? Individually they are $20 from Amazon which means the factory in China can't be getting more than $10. They must have some finely tuned assembly lines along with workers who are getting paid a quarter for every pot they assemble. Probably takes them two minutes, so they might be making $50 a day, which might be good wages in China, I dunno.

P. S. Chinese assembly line workers make about $3.85 an hour (CNY 28), so working 13 hour days they could make $50 a day, and if the company pays overtime then 11 hours would be enough.