We have, and use on a daily basis, a Sharp Carosel model SKR6705 microwave that we bought in 1976. Still works perfectly. It’s only 750 watts, so takes a bit longer than most of the newer ones, but has a HUGE oven cavity. Had to replace the lightbulb about 15 years ago, but that’s the only repair it’s ever needed. Will keep it as long as that magnetron keeps putting out those little waves.
Since it’s not electronic, I won’t even mention my K&E Log Log Duplex Decitrig slide rule that dates from 1948. And by golly I still know how use it!
Our microwave. I have no idea how old it is (I’ll have to ask my parents when they bought it), but it’s the only microwave I’ve ever used while I’ve been in their house. The only time we had to buy another microwave was when my brother went off to college and wanted one for his dorm.
It doesn’t heat food as quickly as, say, the ones at my workplace do, but it works just fine.
My handheld mixer is a Dormey 7600, like this one, from the late 50s. It was in my grandma’s cabinets when she died in 1994 and oddly enough, is not in its original box, but in one for an early-60s Sunbeam Mixmaster bought at Korvettes. Five speeds, and works just fine.
Its early Space Age styling goes great with my Slattery stove, which is original from my apartment building’s construction in 1959.
Hey longPath! It is indeed! Have you tried powering it up to see if the tubes work? Isn’t the tuning motion amazing, with all the plates inside turning together?
I always figured that if I fell on hard times, I could sell it. Looking on ebay I see they go for $12, $200, $6000, in and around there.
Oldest working electronics: 1920’s era Atwater-Kent 55C AM radio. Just got it from the in-laws (he works on them for fun), but we haven’t used it much so far.
Oldest piece of electronics of mine: 1990 Technics Dual cassette deck w/ Dolby B, C and HX Pro. Quite the piece of machinery at the time.
Oldest piece still in common use: 1993 GE digital clock radio- bought it in college because it has 2 alarms I can set.
I have never actually tried to power it up. It appears to be complete. I have a power supply which should produce all the necessary A, B and C voltages.
They do seem to command wildly unpredictable prices on E-bay.
I’d be more motivated to bring it to life if I thought I would hear Fred Allen rather than Radio Disney. :rolleyes:
If it’s regular use you’re looking for, I guess for me it would be my SNES. I just didn’t seem to pick up many games for the NES worth replaying and prior to that, I don’t have any other functioning electronics.
In the house in general, I’m guessing Dad’s old SLR cameras. The Telefunken radio my Grandfather left me would be older for sure, but is rarely used.
My parents got married in 1946, and they received a electric coffee grinder as a wedding present. It was used literally every day for 60+ years. A couple of years ago, it finally it shot craps, I swear my Dad was heartbroken and he made a special call to me to tell me about it.
My bedroom TV (19") is one I inherited from Mom which makes it circa 1984 or so. Still a great picture although the on/off switch on the remote doesn’t work anymore.
About 10 yrs ago, I thought it was going to die, the picture got warped. It was around my birthday and my GF was happy about it as she was going to get me another one for a gift. After a couple days, it corrected itself, and hasn’t malfunctioned since. And it is on every night.
I have my mother electric can opener as well. It is probably close to 40 yrs old or so. It works but I seldom use it. I prefer the manual openers if I have to use a can opener.
I have one of these too from around the same year. I just recently bought a replacement belt.
I’m amazed you have Discwasher fluid from back then because the stuff tends to evaporate, even if you have the squirt nozzle cin the closed position. I’ve gone through many bottles of the stuff. If your Dsicwasher is that old it probably has black felt. Mine got so beat up I bought a newer one and it had brownish felt.
I didn’t know rotary phone service was even available anyone. How hard is it to get hooked up? And what do you do if the number you call requires you to use push buttons?
I have a Silvertone1472 that I play every once in a while. Everything’s stock, including the filter caps (yuk.) So long as I’m going in there, I’m planning to do a complete rewire.
Landline service will handle the earliest rotary phones if not earlier equipment.
I don’t think that the phone companies like change for change’s sake. It took years for my company to convince them to phase out the ancient NMOS chips that they were using for line switching (I think that they wanted something that ran hot to keep water out.) Also, a friend has a job with AT&T managing their subscriber line cards. I don’t know the details, but he said that his job still includes moving twisted pairs around in the room in a modern version of what the operators used to do.
Phone companies would LOVE to get rid of the rotary service. In my locale, TPC offered to give every customer with a rotary a free replacement touch tone so they could stop supporting them. But the PUC shot them down.
As to the thread: I have two old AM/SW radios my father built from kits in electronics school in WWII that I keep in good working order. (They stopped the sale of new radios during the war so that the parts could go to the war effort, but they still allowed kits. So making radios from kits was popular in that era.)
I have several old classic radio-electronic gear. E.g., a Heathkit VTVM which I use on stuff I don’t want to risk my DVM on. And a tube tester of course. Gotta have a tool to keep tools working.
