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“And I will eat your children”
Yeah, growing up we had a harvest gold Frigidaire from the 1970s. It didn’t leave us, we left it.
(Don’t miss the gallons of ice water in the freezer that had to be defrosted every few months.)
I guess one could make the claim that an automatic defrost system is a luxury, lol
Enshittification, also known as the overall tendency of profit to decline.
My refrigerator fridge machine that fridges and refrigerates is from the early 2000s. Still works like a charm.
It even has a square on it that says “OK”.
Zero kelvin? That sensor is broken…
I still have my $120 fridge from like 2010-2011ish back when Sears was a thing and it’s still going without any issues. Zero maintenance ever needed thus far.
No ice maker in it, and the freezer part is on top like in the pic. Apparently if the freezer is on the side instead of on top, those break down way more often.
I have a freezer on the top too. It did collect some ants for whatever reason (my house is a literal ant colony at this point) but it still works OK, just like the bottom part (where it says OK).
damn, can’t argue with that, OK it is
Don’t buy the overly fancy fridges: Buy a basic one from a decent company and it will probably last for years.
There’s two sides of the spectrum really. Buy cheap but durable or really fork out and buy commercial-grade. Both will require maintenance and yes one costs more to maintain and requires a contractor to install but if done correctly it’ll last 20+ years and be consistent. Same applies to other kitchen hardware.
Brands: Sub-Zero, Wolf, Viking, Coldline
These aren’t like the overpriced Samsung/LG whatever. They don’t have any special wifi/tech. Just rugged industrial motors, lines, and insulation designed to be operated at high use daily.
I bought a fridge only (no freezer) 20 years ago and it’s still chugging along. 🤜🌳 Made in Canada even.
No freezer? Do you have a separate reach in freezer? Can’t imagine life without a freezer
Yes we have a normal sized fridge that’s only a fridge, and a large chest freezer.
In Canada, your yard is the freezer.
Decent company = not Samsung or LG
Maytag and its subbrands can actually be fixed and parts are available long term
Survivorship bias
Contemporary appliances actually do fail more often, and earlier, than their predecessors. They have added a bunch of extraneous things to what was a very simple, stalwart, design. These additions have drastically increased the complexity of their designs and created many fold more points of failure than there used to be. It isn’t so much that the manufacturing is sloppier, or that the materials aren’t as good, though in some ways that is a contributor, just not the main one.
If you by a recently manufactured fridge like the following, you will get a fridge that will last decades if you do the minimum to keep it in good condition. However if you buy one that has an in door ice machine, lcd touch screen, complex lay out that requires the basic mechanical devices, to keep the fridge cool, to have a bunch of extra tubing, wiring, connections, etc. it is much more likely to fail because of all the extra points of failure you added.
Yeah, but can you survive a hydrogen bomb blast in a 1980s fridge? No, you need a 1950s fridge for that.
Thnx Indiana
We called the dog Indiana.
It’s the lead lining.
But why? Like what is failing so often in new fridges?
Shitty solder in wiring. Plastic for things that used to be aluminium, aluminium for things that used to be steel.
Just cost cutting by value engineers. I remember reading that the 3rd year of a cars model was probably the best, as they’d worked out the kinks in the design and hadn’t watered everything down much… I couldn’t back that up if you wanted a source, however
We bought our current car used years ago with a similar philosophy - it was the first year of a new change, and they hadn’t changed or recalled anything in the few following years. Combine that with a one car owner locally, and it obviously was a good buy at 17 years old running strong.
But I will say even the best car makes, models, and years have their lemons. You have to look hard at each car’s history and evidence to really win. We got pretty lucky.
Source: I work in/with electronics manufacturers
Tl; dr - a mix of value engineering and consumer preference. You wanna buy a $3k TV, or a $700 TV? How rock solid does your automatic sprinkler really need to be, compared to a satellite radio in the Sahel?
Per IPC industry standards, there’s three classes of electronic workmanship/quality control used:
- Class 1: It works, just about. Shoddy soldering is okay as long as connectivity is maintained. Passing a QA test may be as simple as “it runs when powered”. This is where most consumer grade stuff lives: calculators, watches, flashlights, etc.
- Class 2: Better built with generally more QA. Testing usually involves actually checking for function and different modes. Generally used only on commercial/civil government stuff like traffic lights, power controllers, heavy machinery - anywhere where reliability and longevity is worth paying more for.
- Class 3: Complete process control and 100% coverage function (and almost always) burn-in/stress test cycles. Top quality and cost, typically only used for military, aerospace, or medical - where stuff failing means people die.
Thanks, that’s really interesting
Compressors fail way too often nowadays. The higher priced old ones were built sturdier and if they didn’t fail in a year because of a defect they run almost indefinitely.
The idea that they never fail comes from survivorship bias.
All the control boards are always a popular thing to fail. They always cheap out on the components and out the board where it’s done get moisture damage.
“…I am also the size of a dorm fridge”
For real, we bought a fridge in November and it is already breaking
Back when my dad bought a new whirlpool fridge, it didn’t take long for the LEDs inside to start failing.
Moreso, the fridge will stop working in two years cause that is when their subscription cloud service to access your fridge will be updated with firmware that is no longer compatible.
Also the required app will no longer be supported
My fridge doesn’t have a TPM chip and won’t upgrade to FridgeOS 11.
I used to rent this tiny little house from an elderly couple a little over a decade ago. It was their first house when they got married in the late 40s and they’d been renting it out since they moved to a bigger house in the 50s. In all that time the refrigerator has been replaced ONCE in like 1968 and that fridge still worked perfectly when I moved out lol
I moved into a dated house that came with dated kitchen appliances 70/80s. I’ve updated the floors under, the water line and gas line to them. Mostly everything around them. I’ve still kept the appliances. Still work great.
I’ll keep my money and the fridge that still does what new fridge does, keeps shit cold. And the stove that does what a new stove dies, make shit hot.
