Maybe, if it's old enough, it WILL be durable.
"They don't make 'em like that any more!"
I read a book about engineering failures. It's true that we DON'T manufacture things sturdily any more. Part of that is cheapness, greed, and consumerism, but part is the fault of the engineers.
Now we have computers and software fast enough to do stress analysis (finite element analysis or FEA) on everything from bridges and skyscrapers down to toothbrushes and watering wands. When they use well-characterized raw materials like plastic and fiberglass, they can calculate the bare minimum amount of material that is strong enough to last through the warranty period. Making it any stronger (managers believe) would lose them money because you won't buy a new one until the old one breaks.
So now they make barely strong enough, and are proud of the 0.5% they save on raw material costs, even if it breaks 12 times sooner than it would have otherwise.
In the past, they couldn't calculate that point, so they used rules of thumb and "give it a little extra" because they still had some sense of quality and thought that consumers would learn they were cheap jerks if it fell apart too soon. To be sure it would last 6 months, they built it "well" ... and it lasted 6 years.
In the case of the watering wand, though, I think it's more likely to be poor quality control rather than precision-engineered short lifetime. Especially if Dramm is now outsourcing their manufacturing, they probably pick their manufacturer on "lowest price" and his willingness to "promise quality". After a few hundred thousand fall apart, and only a few hundred people ask for replacements, maybe they stay with the cheapest manufacturer because they still make money.
Too bad they lost their good name.
