They just don't make 'em like they used too....

Parent Cafe
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<p>The area where my parents live consists of older homes. A number of them still have the original (1940 ?) Wedgewood stoves. My sister has one in her vintage home. They have become very prized items. About the only thing people need to do to them is re-chrome a part.</p>

<p>We have had to replace everyone of our American Standard bathroom faucets. They were less than 12 years old. They had internals with dielectric problems. Yes, they had a lifetime warranty but the company would only send replacement parts, not new units. On our 4th kitchen sink faucet in 12 years. The first one lasted about 9 years. The company sent replacement parts which had the same problem as the broken unit (HUH!). Then they sent a new unit which failed within 2 years. We gave up and bought a unit at Costco. The first one had a problem and needed to be uninstalled and replaced. </p>

<p>We had a Maytag front loader which turned out to be a world class lemon. I lost count of the number of motherboard replacements. H finally figured out how to solder the problem circuitry. This same unit also started leaving round grease marks on laundry. The size matched the drum holes perfectly. Maytag claimed there was no grease seal which could break so obviously I was making the whole thing up. A bit of googling proved it to be a common problem. H and buddy took the thing apart yet again and fixed the non-existing grease seal. Our new Whirlpool units have been problem free for 3 years (oh happy day).</p>

<p>I also rely heavily on CR. But even that didn’t work for the Samsung canister vacuum. There was a problem with the plastic thingy which held the bag in place. Every other bag would blow off the housing and make a mess both in the vac and of course outside. No service for that brand in our area!</p>

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<p>My parents’ toaster lasted 60+ years</p>

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<p>Our pots and pans are Farberware and Revereware from early 1980s. They are still in excellent condition and much better than the stuff currently on the market (we searched). </p>

<p>Our house is still pretty sound–it was built in 1940s or 50s. It has a lot of built in drawers and a wall unit that are tough to get these days, as well as lots of kitchen built in cabinets and closets built into every room. It is made of redwood, and fortunately, bugs aren’t very fond of redwood. </p>

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<p>I have a large Sony Trinitron tube TV that’s roughly 25 years old. It still works great, almost indistinguishably from when it was new. I’m finally getting a new TV, and I cannot find anyone who will take the old one for free. Salvation Army won’t take it, etc. I’m having to research responsible ways to get rid of it. Amazing.</p>

<p>I hope our giant new flat screen is still working this well in 25 years. It’s a Sony, too.</p>

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<p>I gave my old tv to a school who was happy to accept. It had a tube and 32" screen. Was glad to find good home. </p>

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<p>I have a stock pot…Revere ware…that isn’t any longer made. It was a gift from my father to my mother when I was two…it is 60 years old. It is probably the ONLY thing my kids will fight about when I die!</p>

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<p>Don’t forget that the old stuff that has survived that you see is the old stuff that survived. You have no idea what proportion of the original factory run of <<blank>> is still around and working well. We had one of those old Electrolux canisters growing up, and I well remember the day it exploded.</blank></p>

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<p>My grandmothers house was built in the 1940’s. My Uncle owns it now. The original stove, fridge and Kirby vacuum still work. My dad owns a cabin that has a stove from the 1940’s and a pink fridge from the 1950’s.
My brother has one of those old wringer washers in his basement. Although he doesn’t use it.:)</p>

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<p>I have a working treadle sewing machine. It can sew through anything. It has great attachments too…a ruffled,ma pleater. My electric one works fine, but this oldie works better.</p>

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<p>My DH works great afer 50+ yrs. Not gonna trade him in for a newer model as they are less reliable.
Oh wait… ;)) </p>

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<p>My grandfather’s Singer could sew through anything. The plastic versions of sewing machines made today are pitiful.</p>

<p>Sure, there was plenty of junk produced back in the good old days, but there seems to be much more of it made today - most stuff apparently breaks because cheap plastic was used to replace sturdy materials to cut down on the costs of goods. Manufacturers have figured out the golden middle - how to make stuff that lasts past the extended warranty but not much longer, so they could sell you more crap. </p>

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<p>Oh, yes, jym. The newer models could come with their own issues. :wink: </p>

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<p>I have heard all the arguments, how stuff was just as bad back then, but I don’t buy it, because this is from personal experience and from those of a lot of people. Were there defective units back then? Yep, there were, there were stoves and refrigerators and washes and dryers that died…but the difference is a good appliance back then would last decades, a good one today will last you maybe 5. I had a sears Kenmore dryer that my wife’s family purchased in the 1970’s second hand, that lasted until about 10 years ago. I could have fixed it, but we figured it was time, I didn’t have the time to futz with it. Since then, we have had two dryers, the one we had would have cost more to fix than replace. </p>

<p>Refrigerators: Our sub zero that was put in when we renovated the house 18 years ago is on its last legs, and prob is not worth fixing. I looked at refrigerators and quite frankly they are crap, the compressors use plastic parts, the shelves are flimsy, and from everything I hear, the odds it will get past its warranty period without failing is small, and don’t count on it being around more than 5 years, for units that cost 1500-2000 dollars. Unless you splurge on the top end, that are a lot more than that (miele, subzero), count on it.</p>

<p>Washers, same thing. Instead of belt or metal gear drives, they have plastic drive trains that after a couple of years go pop, and will cost you more than you paid to fix it. Many of them have all these electronic controls that when they go, well, needless to say are a fortune. The one exception to this is Speed Queen, their home appliances are built like a brick out house, all metal gear assembly, stainless steel tub, relatively simple drive control, and not flimsy (as I found when I tried to deadlift it)…if my dryer goes, I am getting one of theirs. </p>

<p>Stoves- Better than most appliances, but still pretty flimsy, door hinges go, igniters, rust through on gas jets, but they at least can be repaired easily. </p>

<p>Vacuums- All plastic, generally die in a couple of years, depending. Had pretty good luck with Sears canister vacs, but others not so much. </p>

<p>Cars- The one exception, I hear people tell me how great the old cars were, and it is a load of BS. Yeah, they were relatively easy to repair, you could use a screwdriver and a wrench to repair them, but cars today even counting in how expensive they are, are made better then they ever were. The defect rate on new cars is a small fraction of what is was 40 years ago, and they simply last. You can get 250,000 out of a typical engine and transmission with a modicum of care (compared to in the old days, when a car got to 30,000 miles, you started seeing major problems). Cars in the northeast used to rust out in a couple of years, you don’t see that any more. Cold weather? You try starting one of those cars, you had to do all kinds of tricks to hope they would start, get into the cheapest econobox today, it’ll start up in any kind of weather. You used to have to change sparkplugs ever 5-10k miles, now it is 100k. Back then mechanics used to have to take the heads off the engine to ‘de-carbonize them’ at 10k intervals…yeah, some cars last 100k miles, but it took a lot to do it, today 100k miles is almost nothing (my minivan has 190k on it, only have done routine maintenance on it). I am not just talking as a consumer, I have been working on cars since I was 10 years old so it isn’t just idle chit chat. </p>

<p>In terms of heating units, I again would give you an argument, old furnaces and boilers were inefficient and crude, the high efficiency units of today are head and shoulders better IMO. Yes, they have electronic controls, but I have a trane high efficiency furnace and it is a honey, only thing it ever gets is yearly maintenance, which basically is the guy nodding wisely and saying “yep, she’s good”. </p>

<p>Doesn’t mean everything was great back then, planned obsolescence is not a new idea, but a lot of things were more durable back them, especially with appliances and the like, maybe it was accidental, the kind of materials they had available, but you were orders of magnitude more likely to get many years out of one of those appliances then what they turn out today. </p>

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<p>We did the responsible thing with the old fridge and the old washer and got a new energy saving one. @@ I was so excited to have a water and ice dispenser on the door!!! Lasted…practically no time, maybe a year. Whirlpool.
We wanted a glass cooktop so traded out the old Jenn Air for a new one. @@ We’ve had to have the touchpad replaced twice already and now the “enter” pad doesn’t work. The old Jenn Air…never once had a repair in 28 years.
Not impressed with new appliances these days.</p>

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<p>My house was built in 1927 and we bought the house in 1980. Still had 1950’s washer dryer, refrigerator and stove all of which we replaced when we did major renovation back in 1985. So… still have all the appliances I bought then with the exception of washer/dryer which we replaced with front loader Maytag as we had originally replaced that in 1980. First time I had used what was in the house, sparks came out. I think it was from the 1930’s or 40’s. Had one service call for theMagtag dryer but I’ve never really loved either. The dishwasher is Kitchen Aid and works perfectly fine, the slide-in microwave is GE and works perfectly fine although the door handle did come off several years ago. GE wanted a minimum of $125 to come to the house and replace it, but DH discovered that Krazy Glue did the trick. The 1985 refrigerator works fine but I use as a back-up when needed for holidays and it lives in my laundry room. The Caloric slide-in stove works fine now but has had several service calls and will need to be replaced next time around. The newer GE refrigerator works okay but we have had at least one service call. My Sears Kenmore vacuum actually works quite well, have never had a problem with it. We have several old TV’s in the basement. But my very favorite is my hand mixer that I keep in the original box it came in from the 1960’s. My mom never used much and I took it from her. It works perfectly fine and the D’s love when I use it, sometimes prefer that to my Kitchen Aid. Have my Farberware pots and pans from the 1970’s but have been through many Farberware percolators and Krups drip coffee makers. Even had to replace my beloved Braun coffee grinder, the white one with the orange button. Have some Dansk cookware leftover but unfortunately has not worn well as the enamel bottom is all flaking off and scratched. Crate and Barrel now has the Dansk and I will likely replace soon.</p>