How long should things last?

[ponytug]

The only thing about these old, still running refers and freezers is the amount off energy they use. Ive had customers complain to me about high utility bills and want to see if theres a problem with the wiring. I would place recording devices on the major appliances. Some of these old freezers could suck down a huge percentage of the customers power use. A hot tub might only add $10 to the monthly bill while an old freezer is sucking 50-75 bucks a month to operate. A brand new efficient unit might only use $10.

The ranch kitchen came with a 35 year old refrigerator that sweated like the proverbial pig and ran constantly. We replaced that with a new and dropped our power bill to about 60% of what we started with. Then we replaced the old Kenmore top loader with an LG front loader and dropped it to 40% of the original (the spin cycle got clothes much drier), after a number of years we dropped the electric dryer in favor of a condensing version and dropped it to less than 20% of what we started with.

At our electricity rates the ROI on higher efficiency appliances is pretty darn quick. The price of efficiency is often complexity, and these days the ultra low cost provider gets the business, and that doesn't translate well to long lifetimes. Wasn't someone here posting about appliance control boards that were several hundred dollars a piece retail, but he claimed he could by them for $7/board in quantities of a thousand?

All the best,

Peter