Microwave ovens. Am I just unlucky?

[dmccarty]

My parents FINALLY bought a very large Kenmore microwave in the mid 80's. Everyone else had one but my parents waited and waited and waited.

The thing was big and took up lots of counter space so when I moved out the house my mom told me to take it with me. :laughing::laughing::laughing: They bought a newer but much smaller microwave while I lugged off the old behemoth to school. I kept that thing and it moved from place to place over the years and it never had a problem. Except it was HUGE. Somewhere around it's 20-25th birthday, I gave it to a charity and bought a small counter top microwave. Sorry to see it go but it was HUGE.

Funny thing is, I walked into an employee break room and there sat the exact same Kenmore model and it is still be used! It has to be 35ish years old! :thumbsup:

But I don't think they make them that way anymore.

We moved into our house 14 years ago and put in a wall mounted microwave. It lasted 12ish years and died. I put in a new unit which was a PITA since there is not a standard configuration for wall mounting, but worse, where the power cable goes into the wall cabinet. The wall mount was not too bad to do but I spent more time filling in the hole for the old microwave ovens power cord and drilling a new one. PITA.

Had to buy a new fridge and dishwasher before the microwave died. The only original appliance is the range. All were Maytag too. The Maytag repair man sure is busy these days which is why we don't own Maytag anymore.

Later,
Dan

 

[goeduck]

I don't know if you're trying to be ironic or not, but that's actually the direction I see things heading. The concept of ownership is being eroded (please, nobody turn this into a John deere thread) and I've got $5 (2060AD dollars, or about 2 cents) that says in 40 years, youngsters will be confused when they learn about how people used to own their own appliances and there was no monthly bill for the couch.

Oh I agree with you 100%. Manufacturers want us in the replacement every X year mode. Ideally they would have us lease them AND sell a warranty plan if they could.

 

[bunyip]

You can't buy a lot of software anymore.

 

[Alien]

I thought my fridge would go well before my microwave but it keeps battling on. It has to be 19 years old now and I have been looking around "just in case".
I would have been interested in one with an icemaker but there are some forums where it seems icemakers have their problems as well (very short lives) so I ruled them out. I just don't want problems, I want something that just works. I will keep buying bags of ice.....

 

[Bird]

Our "over the range" Kenmore is supposedly 19 years old, is used every day, and still works just fine, but I won't be surprised if it dies any day now.:laughing: Of course we've only lived here about 13 years, but Sears told me it was a 1999 model when I asked and gave them the model number right after we bought this house. However, in 2005, we had a GE microwave that died after 18 months.

 

[oosik]

Just goes along with a theory of mine. The old stuff had few electronic gadgets to go wrong and lasted longer. Besides when the old stuff was built - the idea of "engineered obsolescence" had yet to be thought of.

 

[Bird]

How many of you remember the first microwave oven you ever saw? I don't remember when they were invented, or first became available, but I do remember when I had a moonlighting job at night at the Marriott Hotel in Dallas in 1968 and their restaurant was open all night, but with a limited menu. The day chef made and baked a large pan of biscuits each day before he went home and the night cook could just put a couple of those old hard biscuits in their "Radar Range" and they'd come out just as hot, soft, and fresh as if they had just been baked.

My wife and I bought our first microwave oven right after we bought a new house in 1972.

 

[bunyip]

Back in the early 80's they were the latest 'must have' gadget and it became fashionable to have microwave dinner parties, went to one where the host did microwave roast beef, I still remember that for all the wrong reasons, what a waste of a good lump of beef.
My other pet hate was ordering in a restaurant and hearing the bell 'ting' just before your meal was presented to you, invariably it was not a good experience.
As for how early, we were using industrial microwaves for vacating air from vacuum tubes when I started in the electronics industry in 1964, we used to put our lunch in there too to heat it up but there was no power control, turntable etc and gthe results were very hit and miss.

 

[ultrarunner]

1980 Mom said she wanted a Microwave so I went out and installed an over the range model GE Spacemaker... no complaints and gets used daily.

Neighbor has 1960 Amana Radar Range... said it cost a months pay back then... now Microwaves cost about a days pay... +/-

http://i.pinimg.com/736x/64/ba/e1/64bae16c877b2dcc0d514ca385d5e886.jpg

 

[teejk]

A service guy I know says that the chief cause of failures is heating anything that doesn't create water vapor.