I’ve only owned two ladies’ electric razors in my life. My parents bought me my first one when I hit puberty in the early 1970’s. After about 25 years, it started slowing down, so I asked them for a replacement as a gift. The original then perked up again, but it finally died after about 30 years, and I started using the second one. If it lasts as long as the first one, I doubt I’ll ever need to replace it.
When I was married we got a refrigerator from the ex’s grandparents. I got custody of it in the divorce and it ran without any maintenance (except a new fan that pumped cold to the freezer) until 2007. When I was putting it on the porch for the guys delivering the new one to take back, I noticed the manufacture date on the tag was 1965.
I don’t know if this counts but I bought a rotary-dial telephone about 10 years ago, it’s from the 1950’s, and it still works!
My wife doesn’t remember how old her harvest gold stand mixer is, but she had it when we got married 32 years ago.
We also have a freezer that’s somewhere between 25 and 30 years old that’s still working and is in fact loaded with food right now.
In the basement of my mother’s house is a large (gigantic) chest freezer. It was installed in the basement while the house was being built, and I don’t see how it could ever be removed, except by dismantling it.
It was installed there in May, 1954, and was still working this May, 58 years later. (Except that the dial on the outside indicating the temp inside stopped working sometime in the 1970s.) Brand name: International Harvester. I don’t know how a repairman could ever get parts for it; not only that model but the whole company is gone!
Also, on the wall in mothers bedroom is a black, dial Western Electric wall phone that was installed in 1954 when the house was built. Never been fixed, and still works fine. They built 'em to last back then!
Our Philips vacuum cleaner has been working for 16 years now. We used to buy a two years’ supply of bags, and more and more even the Philips people became amazed that it was still running. So much so this last time that we bought all the bags they had, a four years’ supply, because they thought they might stop making them.
I had a box fan I’d bought at Kmart in the late 70’s last for about 25 years. Now I’m lucky if any electric fan works for more than two years.
I don’t know if it counts as an appliance, but the boiler in my house is over 100. Converted to gas from coal ages ago, the thermostat is about 80 years old.
My parents were married in February 1957 and received one of theseas a wedding gift. Oster kitchen center with can opener, ice crusher, and meat grinder attachments. Working fine 55 years later. Cast iron and built to last, baby.
The microwave I bought in 2004 is still chugging along as if it was new.
Not mine, but Abuelita’s electric oven/stove combo was from the 1950s (1956 IIRC) and she was still using it when she moved to an old folks’ home in 1994.
My thermostat is from the 1970s when the house was converted from what was called an “economic stove” (wood cooking stove as the only heater in the house) and works just fine thank you very much.
Do non-electric things work? Grandma’s Singer is from the early 1930s; Mom has a cast iron iron from the 19th century (still works if you have coals to put inside).
My mother owns a working Frigidaire refrigerator that her parents bought when she was a little girl in the mid 40’s, so that baby is about 65 years old.
I have a 1950’s bakelite desktop AM alarm clock radio, that also belonged to my grandparents that also still runs. About 55 years old.
My parents have a oven that they were given as a wedding gift in 1958. They keep it out in the garage now and only use it when they’re cooking a big holiday meal but it still works.
Sitting on my desk at this moment is a Radio Shack phone I bought back in 1983. It still works just fine.
I inherited my parents’ microwave when I moved out. The cookbook that came with it assumes the woman will be doing all the cooking in the house. It’s hilariously sexist. I think it’s from the 70s. It looks kind of like this.
It’s in the garage, it was just taking up too much space on the counter, so we then inherited my grandmother’s microwave, which is from the 80s or 90s. It works fine, and as far as I know, the one in the garage still works too.
After a not-very-careful skimming of this thread, I’ve spotted two posts about a Goldstar microwave that’s been running for more than a decade. I had one of those that I bought somewhere around 1993/04. I threw it out last year, not because it wasn’t working but because I was just tired of looking at the damn thing. I found a newer microwave sitting around idle at my office, inquired after ownership and after determining nobody was claiming it, I re-homed this microwave and retired the Goldstar.
And now I’m sorry because obviously the Goldstar would still be working, but the newer microwave I re-home crapped out a couple months later and does not work. I’ve since decided that I don’t really need or use a microwave at all anymore and am resisting buying a new one.
Also, I bought a washer/dryer set in 1997 from a coworker. They were six months old at the time. Sears/Kenmore brand, IIRC. I was doing laundry a couple weeks ago and kept smelling this horrible “something’s on fire” smell. Upon further investigation, I realized I hadn’t vacuumed out the space under the lint-catcher basket thingy in, oh, ever. I whipped out my vac, sucked up all the lint, restarted the dryer and all is well again. No burning smell, clothes are getting dry, everything works perfectly. Aside from that, I haven’t done a bit of service or repair to either model.
How long do you think they will keep running? Which one will crap out first: The dryer when it is full of sopping wet towels, or the washer, right before it goes into spin mode?
What counts as an appliance? Does it have to be electric powered? Does it have to be fairly large (like a refrigerator as opposed to an electric pencil sharpener)? Does it have to have motor-driven moving parts? Does an electric stapler count? How about a non-electric stapler?
I still have, and still use, a Swingline Tot stapler that I’ve had since mid 1960’s or so.
I also still have (but haven’t used for years) a Royal Portable typewriter since 1963, and it was already used when I got it even then. I don’t know if anyone still makes ribbons for it (haven’t looked for years), and it would need a good cleaning and lube job. Other than that, it still works. Does a non-electric typewriter count as an appliance?
Alas! Our beloved vacuum cleaner has broken down after 17 years. We’ll get a new one this weekend and probably stick with the Philips brand.
So that means the title is a now tie between our washer and our dryer, both obtained 10 years ago this December, when we moved into our new place. But the dryer is making a funny noise, and someone is coming out to look at it, so the washer has the distinction of being trouble-free all these years.
My parents got this model sunbeam mixer as a wedding gift in 1943 or 44. It lasted till 2001. Well, we had to replace the beaters a couple of times.
A power company in Ohio recently found a woman still using a refrigerator from 1930.
What I really want to know is how many of those appliances dropped dead immediately after these posts…