Ya know, I keep pounding on this subject because it pisses me off the absolute shit we are forced to buy anymore.
At this point it would be worth the money to start looking for any of these old appliances that are still around and not rusted out. There is aguy on Youtube who specializes in restoring these old refrigerators.
Compare what it would cost ONCE to having to keep buying the fucking garbage they keep coming out with every two or three years.
years ago when I helping a machine shop close down there was this old fridge there. 1950 or 60’s dome or round top. needed a door gasket and maybe some paint. but it still worked ! kept food and beer ice cold. the damn thing weigh a ton.
had a cast iron compressor in it even. was mine if I wanted it.
looking back, I should have grabbed it.
looked like it went thru hell though.
I used to know a guy who kept old washers and dryers alive.. had a repair shop and he even went so far as to find old machines to restore.
he retired about 20 some odd years ago. wish I had gotten a set from him when I could have now.
2020 hindsight, Dave. My only “old” appliance is a chest freezer my wifely unit and I got shortly after we were married back in ’75 or so. The top has been through hell, but it still keeps chugging along and keeps things frozen even when the power has been out for more than three days. (It’s been tested !).
My “newest” car is my wifely unit’s ’03 Jeep Grand Cherokee.
If you want truly energy-efficient appliances, we would have ones that last twenty or more years. Imagine the energy saved not having to buy a new one, move it to where needed, and dispose of the old one.
You have touched on one of the dirty secrets of the recycling industry: It takes just as much or more energy to recycle something, as it did to initially make that something. The only thing really being saved is landfill volume, and that is a minor element in this equation.
This of course premised on the idea that the objective is to save energy and resources, and since it effectively does not achieve this goal, recycling must have some other point to it.
I wonder what that could be?
The recycling triangle was designed at the University of Toronto in 1982, I read somewhere. Hmm.
MONEY. every scrap dealer I knew or met was doing better than most. had a buddy who made a living out of it.
he did really well dealing with scrap metal. like 75,000 a year or more. a lot of it was cash deals too. one time he got a couple of 55 gallon barrels of silver plate for pennies.
I had a few of the trays refinished or re plated at 175 a pop.
made great gifts ! everyone who got one loved it.
so, yeah. there is money to made in scrap if you know what you looking at.
Not only the fridge, but the salesgirl is nice too!
Yeah, but she’s probably long dead.
I was going to put a blurb in about my twenty + year old Maytag fridge, but I better not. It’ll probably croak just for spite.
It keeps you alive to serve this appliance. Pay the power bill well, and live.
I grew up in a poor white family and that first 50s fridge is what we had until it died about 72. Then we had the other.