I was reading the microwave settings thread when I noted this post
That surprised me that people would still use a 30-year old microwave. Then I remembered my fridge that came with my apartment is even older than that. In contrast, the oldest piece of electronics I use is a radio bought in 1994–and I’ve probably only kept it because I got it from my late grandfather. So what is your oldest appliance or piece of electronics you regularly use?
A Heathkit VOM I built in 1967
My Cochran commander scuba diving computer wins as the only electronic item still in use from before a hurricane ravaged my home in 2004. I still use the Nokia cell phone I got in late 2004 after that storm.
I have and use my great-grandmother’s K5A Kitchenaid stand mixer, probably from 1941 or 42. Still works great. I did have my husband replace the cord on it a couple of years ago, because the original cord casing was dried out and splitting.
I still use a mixmaster that I bought in 1986.
I don’t know whether battery operated toys count, but we’ve got a Santa toy that gets brought out every Christmas that dates from the 1940s.
I use a 1950s Sunbeam self-lowering toaster, but I got it at a yard sale about ten years ago.
I suppose the oldest electrical item I use that I bought new is my GoldStar microwave. I think I got it in '98.
I still use a Radio Shack (Realistic) LED clock radio I bought in 1977. I’ve used it daily since that date. Its wonderful mono radio is great! (not really)
I have purchased some vintage electronics from eBay (a Tamura analog/digital clock radio with rolling digits, for example), but that’s a recent purchase, so I don’t count it.
I also have some 1940’s to 1950’s electromechanical calculators (from Monroe and Facit) but they’re big, noisy beasts; I can’t say I really use them, they’re more for show.
I have a piece of equipment for pulling well piping that is about 30 years old. It had it’s first repair this year when I changed out a contactor. Otherwise everything is original.
My drill press is very old probably the 1960’s. Doesn’t get used that often but works well enough.
For many of my customers their oldest appliance is one they never see. Submersible pumps can have amazing lifetimes. I Pulled out a pump from 1961 last month. It was still working to original spec, just not large enough to supply a modern home.
A 1975 (I think) Technics quadraphonic stereo receiver. My brother has it right now, he says it still works like a champ.
I have a radio (boom-box style) that was a gift in 1990. I use it every day, to listen to news in the morning while I shower.
Early 50’s Kitchenaid mixer - from ebay.
Looked for months for a mint original.
Trivia: The original “Kitchenaid” was a trademark the Hobart company used for their decided-against-going-there-after-all residential line.
Bakers know Hobart as the people who own the mixer business. This thing will outlast me and a couple more generations.
If you can get your hands on an early model microwave, they can be quite good. They tend to be much higher powered.
Back in 2012, our very own Sparky812 was still using a Windows 3.1 computer.
1940, geared, ½" drill.
1963 Sony TC-500 Portable ( ha, sucker is 50#'s ) reel to reel tape deck.
Have some very old tools that still work good but they are not appliances nor use electricity, just elbow grease.
The telephone sitting right next to me was bought at Radio Shack in 1983. I have it hooked up to an answering machine that’s about twenty years old.
Not an appliance but I was visiting my parents over Easter and we were talking about an old knife my father was using to cut up some vegetables. He got it back when he was working in a store in his twenties. It was old enough back then (this was back in the fifties) that the owner of the store had decided to replace it with a new knife and gave the old knife to my father rather than throw it out. It’s a carbon steel knife but the blade’s been sharpened so many times over the decades of use that by now it’s only about a third of its original size.
I have a White-Westinghouse hot air popcorn maker that has to be circa 1984, if not older. Damn thing still pops. My ex-wife still has the Prelude 3000 vibrator I bought her for Valentines day ~ 1981. I’m guessing it still works … too.
I have an Osterizer Classic VIII blender from the 1960’s that was a wedding gift to my parents that still works great today.
My main stereo consists of a Sansui amp (model AU-517) that I bought in 1977 and a Pioneer turntable that I bought in 1978. (the CD player and tape deck are of a much later vintage.) The speakers (Dynaco A-25s) are relatively modern, being purchased in 1980.
In the low-tech domain, I have a floor lamp that I snagged from my grandmother’s apartment when she croaked in the seventies; it is probably from the 1940s but I don’t know for sure.
I still have, and regularly use, a Swingline Tot stapler since who-knows-when – mid-1960’s or earlier. Back when Tot staplers were actually, you know, small (smaller than now) and they used Tot-size staples. I recently bought a life-time supply of those little staples because I don’t think they will be making them much longer. (Yeah, I recently bought a rather substantial stash of incandescent light bulbs too, while I still could.)
I still have a Royal Portable typewriter that I got, used, in 1963. But I haven’t used that for years. Those were the days when typewriters, even portables, were made of actual metal, not cheapo plastic. It got me all the way through junior high school, high school, and a few years of college.
My step-father bought a JVC sound system in 1979-80: amp, turntable, tuner, casette deck. About 1990-ish (so over twenty years ago, when it was just over a decade old), he took it in for a minor repair, and the technician took one look, and his eyes glazed over, and he said, “Wow! These old things are beautiful! Nothing now sounds as good.”
He’s still got a couple of the original components, running alongside a couple of newer ones (CD player, etc).