Do you have a one-in-a-million household item that just seems to have super-powers? An oft-used lightbulb that hasn’t burnt out in 20 years, perhaps? Maybe an ancient appliance that hums along like the day you got it, never needing maintenance?
Me, I have a Wahl beard trimmer that I bought about 3 years ago. In that time, I’ve used the plug-in charger literally twice and oiled it once (though I don’t even think it needed the oil). I use it quite often, so I don’t understand why I never need to charge it, I’m just happy I don’t… my old ConAir couldn’t get throught a 10-minute trim without needing an all-night charge.
I also have a Mitsubishi TV with picture quality about as sharp as the day my family bought it 23 years ago. It’s a heavy, faux-wood-cabinet relic, and I love it. Serves a function and as a conversation piece.
My parents used to have a laundry machine that was older than I was. They got it used before I was born, and that sucker kept working until I was 21. I remember wishing that it would break down - I don’t know why, but something about its persistence annoyed me. We did end up getting a new one but only because the newer ones had more functions than our old one had. The day we got rid of it I felt like the damn thing was glaring at me reproachfully. I almost apologized to it out loud.
I have a blanket that is old as dirt. It is ever so warm and comfortable and it has no signs of wear or tear. For the amount that I use it, and the number of times it has been washed, it should be a pile of shreds by now. I am told that my mother bought my siblings and I each one blanket before I was old enough to remember such details. The one I have now could have been my brother’s or sister’s, but it is mine now.
The pattern is a two toned brown image of a lion, and I remember the other blankets had different animals in the same brown/tan color. I have seen newer ones in the store from time to time, and the are so soft and tempting. I don’t think I will ever need a new one. This blanket may out live me… Maybe I will be buried with it…
Running four PCs in the house we go through a lot of components. I just buy replacment parts and install them myself.
In my wife’s system is a CD-Rom drive that has got to be the oldest item in any of the PCs. It’s about ten years old now, which may not seem super at first glance, but when you look at the other parts I’ve had to buy over those ten years it’s in a league of it’s own.
My parents bought a JVC VHS machine way back in 1986, when you practically needed a second mortgage to afford that sort of stuff. It ran for 16 years without skipping a beat or chewing a tape (including being shipped across the Tasman, left in storage for two months, and getting fumigated by AQIS!) before finally failing (the circuit board burnt out) in early 2003.
My brother has a National (Panasonic) brand TV that my parents purchased in about 1988 that is still going strong. Like the VHS player, it cost some unfathomable sum of money in its day, but aside from needing the tuner replaced in 2001, it’s working as well now as it was back when it was purchased.
My mother’s refrigerator, bought in 1977 (Harvest gold!) is still going strong. The only thing that’s ever happened to it was a broken handle.
She also had a 19’’ television bought in the mid 70s that worked up through 2003 when it finally died.
Meant to add, in the store where I used to work, the manager brought in a refrigerator for the employees that her mother had bought in the 1950s. It’s still working as far as I know. Refrigerators seem to live forever don’t they?
I’m almost 35, my Hoover canister vacuum cleaner is about 10 years older than me. It outperformed a shop vac when we were cleaning up after some renovations.
BTW - does anyone have a suggestion for UNcrimping a metal tube? I tripped on one of my cats one day and stepped on part of the vacuum cleaner (the telescoping metal tube). It’s still wide enough that the vacuum cleaner works, but I’d love tobend it back into shape somehow.
You could try taking a wooden dowel that’s just small enough to fit into the tube, and shaping one end into a narrow cone, then carefully hammering it into the crimped tube.
I got a red plastic comb in the early 80’s with a handle that you were to stickin your back pocket, a style of some sorts. I still have and use that comb.
I have a fridge that was purchased new by my grandparents in 1952. It still functions perfectly. I’ve repainted it once, but other than that, no servicing needed.
Twenty years ago when I was about nine years old, I got one of those cheap-looking pink cube alarm clock radios. And I put stickers all over it. I have fond memories of listening to college basketball games on the radio while my parents thought I was sleeping.
I still have it and it works great. It’s got sentimental value now, and no way would I trade it in for a newer model.
The Boy has a stereo system he bought with his bar mitzvah money 17 years ago. It’s still alive and kicking, unlike all of its contemporaries that long ago went to the Great Radio Shack in the Sky.
At the time, it was a pretty fancified piece of equipment, considering it played both CDs and tapes. Oooooh.
Now it’s a conversation piece because it still plays tapes. In fact, we recently popped open one of the tape slots for the heck of it and discovered a forgotten ten-year-old mix tape. Mmmm… bad techno.
Not as impressive as BMalion’s ever-lasting bulb, but…
I got this touch lamp from one of my mom’s aunts for my high school graduation in 1997. It’s got a broken piece but it works just fine. It’s got a plastic clock in the middle that doesn’t work anymore - just because I haven’t changed the battery ever.
I took the lamp to college and then brought it home. Every night, for 10 years now, I’ve used the lamp, as it sits next to my bed. Turn on the lamp (it’s got 3 brightness settings), turn off the room lights, get into bed, turn off the lamp.
I figure I’ve turned that lamp on and off over 3650 times now. I have not once changed the lightbulb!!!
I have tried something similar, the problem was holding the tube. As I started tapping the tube was getting damaged by the vice that was holding onto it tightly enough so it wouldn’t move and I tapped.
Maybe if I filled the unbent part with a dowel too it would work.
I have a Norelco electric razor (like in the old ad where santa sleds down the hill on it) that is more than 25 years old. My dad used it, then when he went back to a blade he gave it to me. For about half of the time I’ve had it I’ve just used it to trim a beard, but when grey creeped in I switched to a goatee and use it to shave daily.
I’ve never replaced the blades, yet it still works! It is heavier than the new models.
