I have a Sorensen Q-Nobatron power supply that I bought surplus in 1976. I use it almost every day.
A few years ago, I started to have problems with it not turning on. I replaced the power switch, and decided to investigate how the old one failed. The failed switch was designed with a finite number of cycles in mind (maybe 10,000?) After 40+ years it was just used up.
I figure this power supply will outlast me.
My go-to DVM is a Fluke that’s at least 30 years old. I never thought about how old it is until I took it out to a job site, and the young guy who I met there said “Wow, that’s really old-school!”
It still works fine, and does what i need 90% of the time (I have other, newer DMMs that have more functions, but the Fluke is easier and faster to use).
I was at the Smithsonian Museum of American Art a few weeks ago, and I noticed that one of the Pop-Art pieces had my radial arm saw in it! That piece was from 1966. I bought my saw used when I moved to Arizona in 1983, so I guess it was old even then. The saw works great.
I use my grandmother’s Sunbeam stand mixer from the 40s or early 50s.
My son was using our Technics turntable from the early 80s until recently until he save up enough to buy a new one. He decided he’s really into vinyl even though he’s only 15. He is also coveting the big old receiver from the 70s that grandpa is still using in his office.
We still own and use a vibrator my father bought back in the 50s. It the size of a football with rubber pod feet and one setting: Earthquake. Just the thing for working the kinks out of a sore back.
We have an electric rotisserie that was a wedding gift, 50 years ago. We use it 2 or 3 times every summer. We have an original Cuisinart from about 1980. The motor is fine, but the bowl is slowly disintegrating and there seems to be no way of finding a replacement. We use it several times a week, maybe as often as once a day. My wife’s computer is 15 years old. It was originally Win 98, upgraded to XP. I would like to replace it, but Win 8 is not in the cards. Even Win 7 would be difficult for her. She uses it for a couple of hours a day, at least. I still have a dial tone that came with the house in 1972. Only Bell Canada could estimate how old it was then. It is one of the less-used phones in the house, but it still works, especially when the power fails. We have some lamps my father-in-law built, probably in the '40s. Our microwave is about 20 years old. We have a toaster oven that would go back to 1990.
I have the first model rice cooker that Toshiba ever made… in fact the first model rice cooker that anyone made. My dad bought it in 1957 and we still use it today.
Amazed at how long mixers last. I can burn out a hand mixer in one use!
But I too have an old mixer. Not 50s-old like some of you, but impressive for being an Oster brand. It’s my mom’s from the 80s. It converts into a blender and a food processor too!
Considering how many batches of oatmeal scotchies and royal icing I’ve made with that thing, it is just unbelieveably steadfast!
In the previous thread on this subject, I identified it as a Panasonic radio/cassette player I bought here in Bangkok in 1994. The tape-player part doesn’t work anymore, but the radio does … barely.
I have a couple. I have a small pocket radio with AM and FM stereo that uses headphones from about 1982. Similar to an early Walkman radio, but not made by Sony. It still sounds good. I also have a Sharp scientific calculator I bought for about $8 in 1989. The display is still readable and, believe it or not, it’s still on its original battery.
Ca 1969 Sony receiver and TC-377 tape deck (replaced the belts in '07, but no longer use). Receiver is still going. Replaced the speakers 2 or 3 times, and the turntable at least twice.
Have a new, in-the-box dial desk phone with line cord and both sides of the wall plug (the 4-prong model). It has picked up some discoloration somehow, but it is 1970.
I’m never going to win something like this. Having moved from the States (110V electrical system) to Europe (220-250V) around '89 or so, and later ('97) back to the States, most of my electrical devices have turned over at least twice.
With that said, I’ve got a Sony boom box from 1983 that remains in perfect condition; it sits in my home office and mostly is used to listen to “Wait Wait, Don’t Tell Me” on Saturday mornings. Next oldest is a Sharp microwave oven from '98 or so. Works fine, although some of the elements of the numeric display no longer light up when it’s running.
I just took a Dell desktop running Win XP out of service last month; I’d been using it continuously since early 2002.
The refrigerator that came with my house I believe is from the 1970s, based on the fake wood grain handle, etc. It seems to work fine!
Around 1987, when I was a teenager starting to do Chinese cooking, I got a coffee grinder to grind spices. It’s still my spice grinder today.
I have several things from 2000, when I got married, including a coffee maker, a rice cooker, and my amp and turntable. Oh, and the speakers I got for Christmas in 1987.
I bought a Hotpoint refrigerator new in about ‘83 or ‘84, and still use it daily. It has given me zero problems. Also, bought a new Kenmore washer and dryer new in about ’84 as well, and zero problems with the washer, and only recently did the dryer start making a squealing noise, but still tumbles.
Oh yes, razncain, you reminded me: my dryer is probably from the 70s or early 80s as well. The washer conked out pretty soon after I got the house, however.
The amp/tuner for my stereo is vintage ~1979 or 1980. I think I got my current turntable just a couple years later. My cassette deck (yes, still have one of those) is probably mid-to-late 1980s. They still all work fine.
