No problem. The push to replace older appliances makes me cringe too.
Trading in a perfectly good appliance doesn't make much sense. Sure, you might get $50 off a new one, and save $25 more a year on your electric bill. But that doesn't really offset the cost of buying a new appliance, especially with the economy as it is. And the environmental impact of making the new appliance and scrapping the old one isn't factored in either. Plus that new fridge probably isn't built as well as your old one, and will need replacing/service more often than its replacement.
Essentially, these trade-in programs do more harm than good. Kind of like that "cash for clunkers" thing, but that's getting into politics....
Retro is taking off like never before. There's a big push to preserve mid-century American houses and goods. People will pay more for a well preserved 1950s rancher house than one with a hasty remodel.
I go to estate sales frequently, and see all kinds of old stuff sitting in basements still earning my keep. At two separate sales, I saw two identical 1950 Bendix dryers that still worked fine after more than half a century. Both were priced high, and both sold.
At one house, there was an ancient 1950s-era fridge in the basement that hadn't been touched in decades. I opened it up to find shelves of ice-cold pop that expired in 1992.
Retro stuff is everywhere, and it's being saved.
-Tim
Quote:
Originally Posted by DavGoodlin
Tim, Thanks for the reality check. I was originally reacting to the Power Utilities "power hog" contest and thier shameful "recycle the oldest appliance" contest.
Normally a reasonable and mellow guy into pre-1970s anything, I became obsessed and enraged at this mis-characterization of vintage USA-built engineering marvels, so I raved to whoever would listen that old stuff was NOT inefficient and should be saved, and deserved a place somewhere in a home or business if not the kitchen.
I used to deliver appliances and TVs in the mid-80s while in college. I saw very few items of interest that we hauled back to the shop. The most memorable and gawd-awful heavy item was a 1950s Westinghouse Front-loading washer, I was a bit teary-eyed as it slipped off the hand truck and tumbled off the tailgate. Oddly enough, most returning stuff was 15-20 years old, even then! Even more ironic, new stuff made in those years was durable enough but also the most inefficient IIRC, even sporting the Gummint-mandated "Energy Guide" yellow tags.
I live near an "appliance boutique" that started as a Allis Chalmers tractor dealer in the 1930s. They sold RCA, GE and Zenith TVs but stopped around 2000.
The "junkyard area" behind the barn there is VERY BUSY but has had only a few "treasures" over the last 15 years I have been doing drive-by inspections.
I rescued one of them, a 1947 Westinghouse and its in my second kitchen for seasonal and event use.
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