I got my 21" RCA tv in 1988. There have been a few fried remotes from drinks over the years, but it still has good picture and sound and I’ll miss it when I replace it with a digital one later this year.
I got my Quasar microwave the same year and it’s still going strong.
My parents still have my great-grandmother’s coffee grinder that she began housekeeping with in 1900. We used it to grind coffee a year ago last Thanksgiving.
My grandfather still had his mother’s Singer sewing machine she got in the early part of the 20th century and used it until he passed in 1983. It had an electric motor added after the second world war, but otherwise was original equipment.
Norfolk Naval Shipyard has in the blacksmiths shop a trip hammer that was purchased in 1852…still in active use.
My roomie is a blacksmith who has an anvil from 1840, and a couple of hammers from about the same time.
[and I doubt that you can kill a south bend lathe unless you nuke it from orbit. THouch a shop I worked in had an early 30s Hardanger lathe that was phenomenal. Worked better than the newer ones in some of the other locations shops…]
Dang, I forgot one! I have a Waring coffee grinder that my mom gave me almost thirty years ago–still works perfectly, grinds our beans every morning. I don’t know what I’d do if the darned thing ever gave up the ghost.
I bought a comfy maternity shirt with little cows on it when I was pregnant with my first child. I liked the cows as I was planning to nurse.
I still wear that shirt. It’s 12 years old! It has suffered a little fading, but it has become softer and more comfortable over the years, and is still a favorite.
Bought a house in 1979 that had a kitchen light fixture with a circular florescent tube inside. I lived in the house for 19 years without having to replace the bulb. Turned on and off at least once every day. Even allowing for vacations, that’s well over 6,000 on-off cycles.
I sold the house to someone who works at the same company in 1998. They sold it to someone else who works at the same company. I’m going to check tomorrow to see if either of them has had to replace that bulb…
At work we have a two door True cooler. It must be at least 15-20 years old and has NEVER been serviced in anyway. The drip pan has never overflowed, the light has only been changed once or twice that I can remember, the compressor hasn’t failed, It has three fans (two evap and one cond) that have never been replaced and as much as I hate to admit it, the cond coils get cleaned less then once a year and, well, I’ve never even seen the condenser coils. The thing just keeps on truckin’.
ETA, I should also mention that door seals are 100% intact as well.
In my mothers’ basement, there is a massive* chest freezer, that was installed as the house was being built, in 1952. It still works, and she has it full of frozen food. Brand name on it is “International Harvester”. They’re not in that business any more – a pity, I’d certainly buy a freezer like this if I could. (But if they build them that good, no wonder they’re not in the business any more!)
Meanwhile, the upright freezer we got for her 3 Christmases ago, so she doesn’t have to go down the basement steps so often, has needed repairs twice so far.
*Seriously, this thing is massive. It’s about 12 feet long, by about 4 feet wide. The walls are close to 6" thick, so the inside is a foot narrower than that. But if it ever breaks down, I don’t see how we would get it out of the house, unless we cut it into pieces.
I also have the same experience.we are using a n old 14 inch TV.But now we buy a new TV of more facilities it damages in the previous week.The old one looks no problem.
It’s the only way to be sure.
Speaking of coffee grinders, mine broke in 192, my friends gave me their old Waring electric grinder they bought in 1885, I still use it every morning. Aaaahhhh, fresh coffee.
I have my uncle’s old ER-10 Shopsmith. The current Shopsmith people disavow it but is says Shopsmith big as life. Bought just after WWII, he built his house and garage with it, did all the interior woodwork (lots), and made furniture with it until I inherited it 15 years ago. I still use as a table saw, drill press, disc sander, moulder, and lathe. I can’t sell or give it away (there are NO safeties or shields over the moving parts). Afraid I’d be sued.
My personal favorite is an ESS 500C Professional stereo amplifier I got as a demo in 1969. It’s survived a lightning hit nearby (the triac and some of the turn-on delay circuitry gave up their lives) but it still tests out over 250 watts RMS both channels driven at 8 ohms and 500+ load bank cooking watts at 4 ohms each channel with distortion in the noise floor. No fancy switching power supplies, just 70 lb of brute force.
Just to be accurate, that Pelonis/Del-rain doesn’t actually have a thermostat persey, it has temperature settings, that in reality are gradations, or temperature settings dependent upon electrical output ( and the heat applied to the ceramics) divided by BTU’s and an area of a room. Very simple comfiguration. Probably has a lot to do with its longevity. Beats the hell out of a kerosene heater.
Yes, they were very likely drinking coffee in 192. And here is an ancient coffee grinder, called a metate and mano. Very likely your coffee in that time would also have flavors of cacao and chile due to the residual grind, if not their outright addition.
24-year-old Onkyo stereo tuner. We dust it every few months. Still works like a charm. Brand-new DVD stuff plugs into it and everything.Never given me a moment’s trouble.
