re: Older appliances longer-lasting?

quote:

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I have a fridge from 2004 and its still going.

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The old shite that was in my 1936 house (mostly untouched) was awesome. It had a gas fridge that still worked. Water heater and furnace from early 90s still kicking. Another fridge from 80s is flawless. I've replaced more shite from the 2000s and newer than old shite.

My parents bought their house in 1977. It came with an avacado green fridge that was probably already a few years old. The damn thing would never die. By the mid-90’s my mother (no pics) wanted to upgrade the appliances, so my father gave the old fridge to my uncle to put out in his workshop. That fricker is still working to this day with just a bit of maintenance from my uncle.

Or LG

One of the last things HW Bush did as POTUS was send a Presidential memo to CEO's of Manufacturing asking them to build in obsolescence of 5 to 7 years to keep the economy moving. He could only ask it as there was no National Emergency and most followed the request. That was the end of durability in household appliances.

I still have my grandparents washer/dryer and fridge from 1980-ish going strong in the old family house. All 3 were moved from the old wood frame house and outbuilding for laundry into the brick house my parents had built for the grands to live out their days. For their entire lifetimes the grandparents owned a total of 2 sets of appliances.

The fridge is a Montgomery Wards, Westinghouse on the washer/dryer. So far only had to replace the lightbulb in the fridge. Not even had servicing done on any of the 3 since about 1995.

Almost forgot. 2006 is when I replaced the original AC for the house built in mid 1980's. Water heaters? On the 3rd, 2 since turn of the century. (could say 4th really, the original gas heater is in the storage building where we converted to all electric due to too much distillate from the gas well. Yep, Grandparents got free gas as long as they lived from the well across the highway. Used to help Grandad dig up and repair the black iron pipe from time to time, ran straight from well to the house.)

You done fricked up now bc you talked about it.

I have a Sears chest freezer my parents bought new for me in about 1983 that's been in six different houses now with nary a problem.

Hope I just didn't jinx it.

Planned obsolescence

About to replace my water heater.

It’s hard to get a thermocouple for a 1965 model.

ETA: Rheem to be replace by a Rheem.

We bought our current house in 2013. The hot water heater is dated 1989. The inspector told us not to switch it out unless it dies because the new ones are crap compared to that beast.
Put our friend's dad's garage fridge in our house after 2016 flood. This thread prompted me to go look. 2004 Kenmore.

I just retired a Kenmore upright freezer bought new in 1985 and am still using a SubZero bought new in 1984. The SubZero has had multiple repairs, but the Kenmore chugged along with no problem. In 2015, we replaced a Kenmore top and bottom fridge/freezer that has lived in the garage since 1986.

Still using a gas and an electric wall oven both circa 1985. We have replaced the heating element in the electric one twice since new.

Everyone I have talked to says the new stuff lasts them about 5 years, 10 max.