30-year old JVC VHS top-loader. That thing still kicks ass for videotape (should I need to do that) and is built like a bank vault.
I see a lot of people commenting that they stick with older items they have because they work better than the newer ones, and they don’t make 'em like they used to. That reminds me of this show I was watching on TV a few days ago, Gadget Girlz (I think it was spelled with a ‘z’) which could have been as easily named Crappy Crap, as all of the gadgets were lame-ass technology from ages ago, dressed up as newfangled chick-friendly gizmos. One of them was some robot that was supposed to monitor your child from --get this-- anywhere in the world, so long as you’re hooked up to a computer with internet. You mean a webcam?
The best was a handheld cctv device used to zoom in on small text. Right after I finished thinking, “How is that any different from a magnifying glass?” the hostess asked, “Is that the same technology used in a magnifying glass?” “The very same,” was the woman’s response. Fucking ay.
Both my TV and my drum machine date from the '80’s, exact age unknown.
Electric: if it isn’t the wiring in this apartment, then the oldest is my Singer Featherweight sewing machine, whose serial number dates it to 1941. I have all the original parts, including the key to the carrying case, and it’s in pretty good condition. I’ve had one or two people offer to buy it off me, but I like using it for the small amount of sewing I do (mostly Halloween costumes!)
Electronic: I think the Sega Genesis is the oldest. I thought we had an original NES, but I only see the SNES right now, so perhaps not. I know my brother has one, though.
This thread has turned out much more interesting than I ever thought.
One thing i’ve realized… GE made some damn good clock radio’s in the 80’s!
The old Timex Sinclair ZX81 hasn’t been turned on for a few years. I can’t find anything to hook it up to. The only output is to the two little screws for the antenna leads on the back of old TVs and I unthinkingly got rid of my last TV that had those.
As far as I know it still works. I tried to get it out and show it to my kid. That’s when I discovered I have nothing to use as a monitor.
I got that either in 80 or 81.
I have a TI-81 I got around 1991 or 1992, bought secondhand from another student. Works perfectly, but I seldom use the advanced graphing functions or anything like that, for the same reasons you give. I also have a GameBoy from the same era (with a Tetris cartridge!)
The oldest electronic gizmo that I can DATE with certainty is our Quasar TV from 1982. It’s survived longer than a lot of other things because it was in repairs for the first and only time when our house was ransacked about 20 years ago. We also have a few decrepit phones, clock radios…
Oh! And my video games, of course. NES, colecovision, a radio shack handheld tetris game that is about the same age as the original game boy, but 10 times as loud and annoying.
Mom still has her mixer from 1967. And I think the blender is from the same time. Blender still gets used daily. The mixer is 2x a week on a bad week. Only thing we had to replace was the beaters from when I got a wooden spoon jammed in there. And the rubber gasket on the blender at the bottom of the pitcher.
My coffee pot is an electric Farberware perculator. I’ve had it since 1978 but it was at my mother’s house before I got it; she rarely used that particular one. Don’t know how long she had it before then.
We have an model 640 Hickok oscillograph from the late 1950s or early 1960s. KellyM used it last September.
You should be able to find a balun transformer with pigtails on one end and a female F-connector on the other. That’ll let you connect to most of the sets out there.
I have a little, cheapo folding alarm clock I got for subscribing to Time magazine about 13 years ago that is still working fine. I use it reliably to awaken me at the set time and I have yet to have to change the battery.
Got an old Magnavox TV that came with the house, 24 hears ago. Via a semi-mystical process of jiggery-pokery to get actual tv signals (too arcane to describe here)…the thing works fine! We think it’s possessed or something. Also - a no name plug-in radio from the thrift store, no less, 10 years and counting. We can never get anything new around here, our electrical servants love us and refuse to die.
Still have our 16-1/2-year-old VCR, which we occasionally still use, although less and less. Now mainly to pop in the video my father’s old television station gave me when they marked his death with a short on-air announcement.
And our vacuum cleaner is almost 15 years old. Does that count? It’s at least electric.
I’ve got one electronic item I’ve used every day for forty some years. Took about 20 years to get it working just so, but misuse since has seen its efficiency diminish drastically. I think it’s good for another few decades, although eventually the main processor will likely fail despite the continued functionality of the external framework.
You can’t get a replacement. Well, maybe in a sci-fi movie you can.
Me too! My parents got married in 1957 and got one – has a can opener, meat grinder, ice crusher. It will work after the apocalypse. Cast iron.
ETA: After reading up in the thread, I can match mnemosyne with the Featherweight, also my mother’s 1941. We had it calibrated a couple of years ago and it works perfectly.
Where the <bleep> did you get the replacement beaters? We’ve got a mixer with only 1 beater because I can’t find a replacement!
Look up your appliance online, they should have a list of spare parts you can buy. Over the years I bought a new blade thingy and a mini-jar for my old Oster blender.
And thrift stores often have odds and ends for appliances, on the shelf with cutlery.