APPLIANCE RELIANCE

 

Refrigerators & freezers like their owners grow old and die in similar ways. First come the popping cracking noises followed by moaning and growing in misery and eventually incontinence. When you find a puddle by your fridge you can blot it up with a Depend's diaper, but its life is near the end.

Maybe it's because I'm alone but I get attached to my appliances. A friend reminded me they can't love you back. But I don't need them to! I'm not that emotionally needy.

My oldest appliances feel like family. Others are like employees whom I've worked with; some are better at their job than others.

I still miss my first microwave oven. Never once did I need to move food around during mid cycle to ensure it cooked thoroughly. Ditto for my previous toaster oven! It was larger & simpler to operate. My current one required reading a manual to operate.

Back in the day before DVRs I went thru a slew of VCRs. One, a cheap off brand, (I swear to God) could miraculously record programs even during a power outage! Sadly, it broke after only two years and the brand was discontinued.

In the old days appliances were made to last! The space heater I brought to Vero Beach had to be at least 50 when it died. I was age 55 at the time and I remember it being used to heat our home when I was an infant. My parents brought it down from Michigan in 1952.

My current refrigerator is the best one I've ever owned! It's a gorgeous gigantic silver & black one. I purchased the spring of 2004 before the back-to-back hurricanes hit in the fall. This was two years before I lost a staggering amount of money in what my (then) financial advisor assured me was a safe investment. It’s still running fine as of this writing.

However, I’ve had 3 garage freezers since 2005! The last one (I just replaced) was purchased in 2017. I remember well the day it arrived; I’d had cataract surgery that morning and it was delivered that afternoon. The thing didn’t even last 10 years!

I was recently told by a salesman in the appliance dept that newer models are deliberately designed by the manufacturers to last only between 5 to 7 years forcing customers to replace them sooner.

This sucks, they should be ashamed!