My beer fridge in the basement is circa 1970 or something. I’m sure I pay out more in electricity in a year than it would cost to replace the darn thing…
My oldest technological piece of equipment (besides the phone, which never dies) is my HP LaserJet 4L, bought about 7 years ago. The thing just doesn’t want to die! I really want a color printer (wish I could afford a color laser), but I can’t just throw away a perfect good workhorse of a printer…
You have a beer fridge? Can I live with you?
I’m the proud owner of an HP Laserjet III which must be 7 or 8 years old, maybe more. It’s my daily workhorse printer for regular correspondence. It never goes wrong, and seems more or less immortal! I think when the bomb goes down, there’ll be nothing except cockroaches and old HP flatbed printers. Of course the thing weighs half a ton and offers the fine, richly-textured resolution of a blunt twig (compared to modern printers), but I love it.
I recently got an HP colour printer for all my *serious and important graphics projects * (okay, faffing around with PhotoShop), but this has shown serious signs of wear and tear after less than 9 months. May I lead the SD choir in a glorious ensemble recitation of… “They just don’t make 'em like they used to…” .
Back to the OP… it has to be my faithful Westone series 1A electric guitar with active pre-amp. Purchased 1981, and still functioning perfectly. Nobody seems to rate Westone very highly, but they make some good kit.
I’ve got a two door, commercial variety 1927 GE “monitor top” refrigerator that is still plugging away. It’s for sale if any one is interested.
Still use a wood cookstove out in the canning shed, they are tough to kill.
Kinsey & Zenster - I also have the same toaster, but with the frayed cloth plug, it’s for display only.
I have a Mixmaster from 1956 that a neighbor gave to me a long time ago. It’s chrome and black, and I can still beat a cake mix in it.
Got a reel-to-reel from 1968, still works like a champ.
I’ve got a 1928 Singer sewing machine. The light assembly is no longer stock (it’s instead a cheezy plastic thing), but I’m hoping to find an original replacement. The electric motor needs a rebuild, and the rubber drive belt and cloth-covered electrical cord need replacement. Twenty-five years ago I used it to assemble a heavy-duty mountaineering tent (a more modern machine was unable to handle up to eight layers of material). I used it up until two years ago but plan to get it back in running–and authentic–shape.
Orca, If you will e-mail me, I will get you an address for someone who could help you out.
I have a waffle iron from the 50’s or 60’s. The outlet cord isn’t just plastic it is covered in some sort of cloth/nylon covering.
My grandparents have a refridgerator from the late 60’s.
I have a pocket watch made in 1907 that still keeps pretty good time.
I have a microwave purchased in 82 by my parents that still works like a charm. Huge sucker, they really don’t build them like that any more.
Marc
My Rainbow vacum cleaner. It’s a rebuilt one from 1967. Does it still count even is it was rebuilt?
We have a GE refrigerator that has been running since 1961, almost 40 years of good service. Every few months I have to defrost the freezer with an icepick and a hairdryer, what fun!
My mother has a Sunbeam mixer that’s also 40 years old and still working fine. Our garage door opener is 22 years old and until 2 years ago our Johnson furnace was 30 years old and we only replaced it because it was a massive 200,000 BTU unit and the gas bills were killing us in the winter.
I have:[ul][li]A VCR I bought new in 1990 (the remote sensor no longer works, but it still plays and records video tapes).[/li][li]A microwave oven I bought used at a garage sale in 1992 – and it was aeons out-of-date even back then.[/li][li]An electric griddle I bought from a different garage sale in 1992.[/li][li]A useless blender-without-the-jar from a garage sale in 1992.[/li][li]An electric egg beater from a garage sale in 1992.[/li][li]A genuine Harmann-Kardon stereo receiver from a garage sale in 1992.[/li][li]An electric iron from a garage sale in, you guessed it, 1992.[/li][li]A sewing machine from a garage sale in 1992, whose back-and-forth grab-and-move-the-fabric thingy doesn’t work.[/li][li]A square waffle iron from a garage sale in 1992, which I just replaced last year because it was an electric hazard (and because it was, like, totally grody, y’know?).[/li]Several racks of 5-and-a-quarter inch floppy disks.[/ul]
I have a blender that is older than I am (31 yo).
Michi
biggirl, I live in Cincinnati. Having several cold cases of beer is a codified requirement for living here.
Bring some snacks and come on over!
I’ve got a windup brass alarm clock that belonged to my great grandfather.
I’m guessing it was made 1900.
Still works, and I like it because if it rings after you’ve forgotten it, while you’re in the shower or gone out, it winds down in 20 seconds, so your neighbors don’t try to break your wall down.
My father gave me the sausage grinder he got from his mother back in the 50s. I just used it today for my batch of New Year’s sausage. It whines like a banshee, and it’s slower than frozen molasses, but it’s incredibly reliable.
We have an extra fridge, too, but ours is technically a “Beer/Soda/Juice Box Fridge.”
A Sharp microwave (huge, clunky, ugly yellow 800-watt thing) that my dad bought my mom when they got engaged. We still use it every day. They’ve been married for 25 years now…
If cars count, I just bought a '71 Nova (307 V8, Powerglide auto) that looks and runs like it’s brand new.
I have a toaster that I bought in college. That would be about 13 years old. I want a new one with slots big enough for bagels, but I just can’t see buying a new one when this one works.
My beer fridge dates back to the mid 60s, but my oldest surviving usable appliance is my Sunbeam Mixmaster, which dates back around 1952. It has outlasted 2 brand new ones, with only a good cleaning of the motor about a year ago. Sure beats this built-in obsolecence thing.
My paents bought a house with a stove that they believe has been there as long as the house (approx. mid-1940s). We were watching the original “Hitchcock Presents…” television show from 1955 when we saw the same exact model stove in an episode.
Unfortunately, something inside cracked this year and the repairman wasn’t able to locate a replacement part. My parents are relying on a camp stove until they can replace it.
I wish they still made those kind of stoves. It had a fold-down top that provided extra counter space when needed, two side by side ovens, a broiler, and between the warmers was a griddle with a drain that moved oils and grease into a tiny, removable, easily cleaned drawer.