My 40 year old microwave just died. Magic Chef, manufactured in October, 1977 in Anniston, GA. Ran like a champ up to its last moment. A faint wiff of overheated electronics, at the end of one run, and upon the next, the magnetron (or klystron, someone told me such an old unit might have?) wouldn't power up. Control panel still works just fine.
My previous furnace, a Lennox, was circa 35 years old when it was replaced. The blower motor was failing and I took the advice of the technician to put the money to repair instead towards a new unit. A Rheem, which came with at least two significant (and noisy) defects that took repeated, ineffective visits (with additional expenses) and over a year to finally partially mitigate. What a piece of shit, that "highly regarded" Rheem unit. And the subsequent support for it, under warranty. And, I understand it's expected lifetime is on the order of 15 years.
New stuff may be more efficient, but a lot of it is crap for endurance and sometimes even simple convenience. And, I am increasingly comparing the supposed savings (energy, water, etc.) against cost -- both in money and in time and effort -- of maintaining and replacing these... "chintzy" newer models.
Sure, slap a sheet of stainless steel on the exterior. Style it up. Inside, it's still kind of a piece of crap.
My parents replaced their many years old Kenmore washer with a top of the line top-loader made by LG. (For various reasons, a front-loader didn't work for them.) The clothes consistently come out of the LG wrinkled as well as covered with lint. If you air dry (which makes clothes last longer and not shrink and all sorts of good things), it's a real problem.
The suggested work-around passed on by the seller? Run all loads with the "Bulky Items" setting on. What does this do? Fills the drum to the top with water. There go the supposed water savings and some of the energy savings (from the mass of heated water consumed, as well as the additional power to move the extra water around). At least the unit has this setting -- thank goodness! Otherwise, it would be pretty unusable.
Someday, someone's going to take the time and effort to research and write up a book full of comparisons between our current household machinery and older generations. And, I suspect, some of the results aren't going to be pretty.
My previous furnace, a Lennox, was circa 35 years old when it was replaced. The blower motor was failing and I took the advice of the technician to put the money to repair instead towards a new unit. A Rheem, which came with at least two significant (and noisy) defects that took repeated, ineffective visits (with additional expenses) and over a year to finally partially mitigate. What a piece of shit, that "highly regarded" Rheem unit. And the subsequent support for it, under warranty. And, I understand it's expected lifetime is on the order of 15 years.
New stuff may be more efficient, but a lot of it is crap for endurance and sometimes even simple convenience. And, I am increasingly comparing the supposed savings (energy, water, etc.) against cost -- both in money and in time and effort -- of maintaining and replacing these... "chintzy" newer models.
Sure, slap a sheet of stainless steel on the exterior. Style it up. Inside, it's still kind of a piece of crap.
My parents replaced their many years old Kenmore washer with a top of the line top-loader made by LG. (For various reasons, a front-loader didn't work for them.) The clothes consistently come out of the LG wrinkled as well as covered with lint. If you air dry (which makes clothes last longer and not shrink and all sorts of good things), it's a real problem.
The suggested work-around passed on by the seller? Run all loads with the "Bulky Items" setting on. What does this do? Fills the drum to the top with water. There go the supposed water savings and some of the energy savings (from the mass of heated water consumed, as well as the additional power to move the extra water around). At least the unit has this setting -- thank goodness! Otherwise, it would be pretty unusable.
Someday, someone's going to take the time and effort to research and write up a book full of comparisons between our current household machinery and older generations. And, I suspect, some of the results aren't going to be pretty.