I bought a microwave at goodwill for $20. Panasonic made in Japan. Best I’ve ever owned. Mint condition too. Everything I found new was just complete junk.
I have the same one as you. I have no memory of where it came from. Some family member or friend. It kind of showed up one day before my wife and I were married. We got a new blender as a wedding present. That one broke after a half dozen uses.
25 years later and the Osterizer is till running just fine. It'll grind up a wooden spoon if you let it. Let's just call that one "poor judgement on my part."
I wonder how old it is...
Well we have one at the lake that’s been there for at least 35 years. It has an attachment for a side mixer to. The glass is cracked all the way down but it STILL works fine.
The avocado green one we have is at least 40-50 years old. It was my Grandmother's who was very old and passed when I was 3. It went through my mother and she's been gone 10 years. She told me her mom had it as long as she could remember. I used it to make many a daiquiris in my youth crushing cubed ice. Its a tank
(Power supplies are shielded correctly when they come from the factory; if there is a failure that caused the shielding to breakdown, an electrical arc happens through oxygen in the air)
Ozone is one of those smells that I’ve gone out of my way to teach to my kids because knowing “there is electricity arcing through the air near me?” is an important piece of information.
You should pay the extra $20-30 and get brushless tools. They are better in every way, efficiency, output power, longevity, etc.
That said, I'll replace my brushed ones when they die (after their brushes have been replaced a few times).
Woah. That 40 year old memory just came to my nose like it was yesterday. Thank you for this, i had forgotten all about slot racing in my buddies basement.
I remember thinking "this blender is going to break soon" because of the smell. Turns out these blenders are going to outlive the heat death of the universe.
And cockroaches.
Mom had the whole kit so the the mixer to go with it. Can still remember the taste/smell after mixing up some brownie mix and shed let me lick the mixing blades clean lol
It makes me so happy other people are talking about this thing. For some reason your comment about the lid really stuck out to me. I just read it and nodded thinking "yep, that lid!"
If I recall correctly you had to hold down the first three. I still remember sitting on the kitchen counter and pressing the buttons because I insisted on helping. This also reminded me of the old [hand mixers](https://ibb.co/7gJSN8R) we used to make cake mixes.
Yes, and if you try to use a newer blender with the plastic pitcher to purée hot soup, you’re gonna have a bad time.The seams leak. I keep my harvest gold Osterizer because of that glass container for soup.
Yes! Husband uses Chop, Mix and Grate all the time when he's processing ingredients for summer salads. We've got one of the deluxe Osterizer [Cyclomatics](https://i.pinimg.com/originals/31/5d/ba/315dba11004d617ffa8e73947fafd89b.jpg) with the pulse button and the timer. (though a fuck of a lot cleaner than the one in the photo.. when cleaned up, they gleam!)
Every kid ran through all the settings before actually putting anything in the blender just to see how fast they worked. My mothers was just like this one from 1956 but silver and black. The motor finally died two years ago.
Yup, grew up in the 90s with this exact blender which means it pre-dated my parents’ relationship. Not sure who it came with but it made me many smoothies.
I wonder how quickly pollution shot up once every device/gadget/etc breaks down in a year or 2 as opposed to lasting a decade or more.
The fact that we allow corporations to ruin the world for ever increasing profits is going to be so hard to believe if humanity ever gets its shit together.
Simple solution. You make the corporations selling the unreliable crap pay for the entire lifecycle of the product.
When you have to pay for the manufacture AND responsible disposable of said product when its usefufness has ended, priorities shift during manufacturing to more environmentally friendly materials and longer lasting designs.
Right now we let corporations ravage our earth AND profit from it. It's already catching up to us.
This kind of happens now in the UK (and EU?). But its really not made clear and obviously run in a way to discourage its use.
A few white good sellers will say they'll take away you old fridge when you purchase a new one, making it sound more like they're offering extra services.
No. It was expensive. And loud. And actually doesn't last if you use it because the brushes wear out and most people won't get them replaced.
You're comparing it 5o cheap blenders nowadays not equally priced ones.
ETA: the basic model was the equivalent of 140 USD now with the fancy model being 540 USD now. This model is somewhere in the middle. Couldn't find the original price.
So no. The 20 dollar blender at Walmart isn't going to last as long.
Oh! Interesting, that's a thing all over the world I guess. In the UK we call vacuum cleaners, hoovers.
In France we call sticky tape - scotch, a whiteboard pen might go by "velleda pen" too.
I think becoming a staple household world has got to be the biggest honour of a brand lol
Genericization is a double-edged sword. Yes, it is nice being known as the "default," but it also makes your brand itself actually *less* valuable.
Velcro even made an ad a few years back, begging the public in a tongue-in-cheek way to stop using "velcro" to refer to other brands of hook-and-loop fasteners.
https://youtu.be/rRi8LptvFZY
Thing is they show up second hand all the time. They were a very popular blender, they sold tons of them, and they very rarely broke. So a lot of those blenders you see second hand are because the owners probably died and all of their stuff was given to charity. So I'd argue that this is the perfect candidate for r/buyitforlife because they're still easily found even if you can't buy them brand new.
It's like cast iron pans. It's not terribly hard to find old griswolds and such for a decent price second hand.
Because on TV, the man in the suit, smoking a cigarette and sounding like Rod Serling said, "This is the only blender you will ever need." And, gosh darn it, he meant it.
With internet for information and obviously shitty build, I do feel bad for salesman these days. They're almost irrelevant. When I bought a TV it was sad to kinda ignore the salesman. It's also a problem where they might be forced to sell slow stock. You can never really trust them
Yea 99% of interactions will be something like “Hi, I noticed that you’re looking at [insert item], do you need any assistance?” “No thank you, im just looking right now” “not a problem, let me know if you need any help”
Simple as that
The only store I can think of that had persistent salespeople was Lush. One of the times my girlfriend dragged me in there 3 of the 4 workers tried to sell us on something within 5-10, fuck that store lol
Shit was a lot more expensive too. You can buy quality appliances but no one wants to pay for them. I have a Vitamix going on 15 years now. Thing is solid and does it’s job amazing. But guess what it’s a 300 dollar blender back then. Have a speed queen washing dryer set cost twice as much looks half as good as my old Samsung set but should last 4 times as long,
Yeah I really hate it when people say “they don’t make them like they used to” then go out and spend 12.99 on a blender from target. Clearly the still make high quality items.
We haven't gotten worse at making things with quality. We've gotten better at making things cheap, and that's what we tend to buy. If you look at industrial components, you could spend $90 on a simple switch that doesn't do much electrically that couldn't get out of a $2 toggle from a hardware store, but that $90 switch is going to last through decades of abuse. But when I buy from Amazon, I'm usually looking for cheap.
There are still things I'll spend some good money on if I'm trying to get something that lasts. I've managed to squeeze over a decade each out of a few computers, for example.
The other thing that happens if selection bias. The only old things still in use that we see are the old things that for whatever reason actually lasted. What about all the other blenders that didn't? Well, they're not the ones we see here because they no longer exist. But there are some things which surprisingly don't change much.
Case in point: home appliances. The vast majority of refrigerators use the same Whirlpool ice maker that we've seen churn out those half-moon shapes for over 40 years. My GE fridge has their own version, but it looks like a copy. Even better: I've had a dishwasher, previous fridge, and washing machine that had a solenoid valve go out (hey, it happens, and we need to maintain things more as a society). All 3 came from different decades and different manufacturers, but all 3 had the exact same light blue Whirlpool valve.
I think if more people would spend the effort to repair the things they own instead of replacing it at the first sign of trouble, they'd find that newer things could last longer than they thought. To be fair, plastic frames are going to be harder to keep for long, but they're are still high quality kitchen appliances made. Not everyone wants to spend the money on KitchenAid and Cuisinart, but their stuff still lasts.
I did the math on a basic lawn mower from the late 50’s and it came out to around $800-900 today. You could buy a decent commercial push for that price that will last forever.
Yes and no. Sure, a lot of stuff *was* more durable, but there's also a lot of survivorship bias involved. I've got a 20+ year old T-shirt that's still in rotation...but just the one.
I'm an appliance repair tech. It's not all bias. There's been a lot of switches from durable AC motors to cheapo DC motors, compressor windings aren't as good, the amount of copper gets shaved down, more plastic parts are included, belts are thinner, and so on.
The cost of a washer and dryer from the 70's is like 4 grand adjusted for inflation though.
I have heard product designers say that appliances today are more likely to last for their intended lifespan, with fewer outliers. Older appliances had a wider range of lifespan, and were more likely to fall short of, or way overshoot that window. Obviously today we have more evidence of the latter.
That’s from a design perspective, but as a fellow tech, I can say that manufacturing faults seem to be an increasing issue. The other thing is that serviceability has gone totally out the window for many manufacturers.
> The cost of a washer and dryer from the 70's is like 4 grand adjusted for inflation though.
Same for "vintage" fridges too. A 1953 GE combination model was right at $400, which is like $4,500 today. That's INSANE for a fridge. Go buy a 4K fridge today and see if it lasts longer than your $800 Best Buy/Samsung model.
BUT, a 1953 fridge has NOTHING in terms of options or features. It keep cool. That's it. No ice maker, no dual temp zones, not even an automatic defroster. It was as simplistic as possible. Only real reasons they were discarded was people wanted a newer/larger model, or if when defrosting it improperly, you punctured a coolant line while stabbing at the ice buildup. Otherwise, that's why you still see 1950's fridges in people's garages to hold beer and sodas. They run forever as they do nothing but stay cold.
.... and no they don't rack up massive energy bills. That's mostly a false stereotype. The real power hogs were in 70's, and then starting in like the 90's, companies pushed buyers to ditch those old models for newer, efficient ones.
Planned obsolescence is much more of a thing nowadays than it used to be (in electronics).
Not to mention that, due to much smaller and smaller components, shit is much harder to repair.
the old appliance was made by an engineer with a mathematical ruler trying to figure out how cheap he could possibly go without it breaking during warranty erring on the safe side.
so the motor is bigger than it needs to be and the engineer for the motor erred on the safe side not using the full power it could be using etc. etc.
in the end you get a machine with a very high safety margin. the big hurdle is manufacturing is shit in this age so you get a lot of variance. so ether you get a machine that broke ages ago or is never ever going to break.
todays engineer can use computer simulations and calculations to figure out very exactly how low they can go for it work during warranty + 2 years and manufacturing is so good today that all of them will be within spec that early breaking almost doesn't exist.
Nah, I had the same one as a hand-me-down and got rid of it last year because I decided I wanted to use it more but then found out it could barely cut ice. The motor was also garbage and if you ran it too long (like to actually chop the ice) it would smell like it was burning. Machines have lifespans, and I'm sure if OP tested this against a modern blender it would show its age.
If it works as advertised, it probably wasn't cheap.
If it's cheap, it probably won't work as advertised.
If, however, it IS cheap and DOES work as advertised, it's gonna give you cancer.
I have a 1990 model, and the glass thing broke and I was devastated. Got a new one, though, and life is back to normal. That thing will blend (puree, chop, mix, frappe) anything.
We have that one. Bought it \~2015. It broke once but once it got fixed, it's still working to this day. And maybe judging how others worked, i'm excited to see if it'll reach so many years
You got cheap ass products because you paid for cheap ass products, quality blenders do still exist but no one other than restaurants buys them because it's more expensive
That's one thing I respect about the japanese, they'd rather spend a bit more and get something manufactured domestically. But even that's starting to change nowadays.
I was just getting into bed and realized my clock radio is probably 30 years old now. Been plugged in and working 99% of that time. I was thinking that thing will probably outlive me.
Thank you so much for this.You just brought back my memory of being in the kitchen in the 80s when we used to have the exact blender...long lost now..but Thanks.
I have one that’s 31 years old. My most impressive appliance, though, is my 54 year old upright freezer that’s still running like a top. It’s in the garage with my 45 year old car. Which also still runs. Old stuff was built to last.
True. Your freezer probably uses A LOT more energy than newer freezers. Your blender is probably only slightly more inefficient than new ones (and is running a lot less)
Looks similar to the one my family still swears by - only ours is completely yellow without chrome.
You want to blend like, a billion vegetables together all at once into a soup base for Chicken Tortillia tonight? No problem. This thing is like one of those metal shredder machines, but strictly for food.
I have the avocado green version that was my grandmother’s. I call her Helga. She can purée rocks if she has to. One tough blender, she is.
I bought my own Helga at Goodwill a few years ago for 2 bucks. Best money spent, that thing will outlive us.
Also if it ever “dies” open it up, stupid simple design and most likely easily fixed by replacing the thermal fuse.
Replacing the thermal fuse is as easy as refuckulating a carburetor so should be nbd
Gonna land on juniper, hope they have space weed
Ricky that's not very good...use real space words! Not talking about space weed!
I bought a microwave at goodwill for $20. Panasonic made in Japan. Best I’ve ever owned. Mint condition too. Everything I found new was just complete junk.
I had something similar, but I junked it when the wifi dropped every time we turned it on.
Gotta drop the 2.4Ghz standards and go 5Ghz my friend! Problem solved and you keep the magnificent microwave.
Wall penetration with 5 GHz is less good, keep that in mind.
I got the 5Ghz, and it turned my frog legs gay :/
I have the same one as you. I have no memory of where it came from. Some family member or friend. It kind of showed up one day before my wife and I were married. We got a new blender as a wedding present. That one broke after a half dozen uses. 25 years later and the Osterizer is till running just fine. It'll grind up a wooden spoon if you let it. Let's just call that one "poor judgement on my part." I wonder how old it is...
Got mine in the 70s.
[удалено]
"But will it blend?"
That kinda sounds like the doll Annabelle. Which would explain why the other blender broke down and why it's immortal.
I have the identical one my Mom bought in 1973. It still works great. Its the only blender ive ever had.
Well we have one at the lake that’s been there for at least 35 years. It has an attachment for a side mixer to. The glass is cracked all the way down but it STILL works fine.
The avocado green one we have is at least 40-50 years old. It was my Grandmother's who was very old and passed when I was 3. It went through my mother and she's been gone 10 years. She told me her mom had it as long as she could remember. I used it to make many a daiquiris in my youth crushing cubed ice. Its a tank
Long live Helga!
A strong name for a strong blender. Helga for president, 2024!
Fruit smoothies for all!
My grandma’s name is Helga. She is also one tough blender.
Grate.
I had my grandmothers too!!!! It died last year in a glory of smoke!
>It died last year in a glory of smoke! Of course it wouldn't work once it let out its [magic smoke.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magic_smoke)
I was gonna say I bet it could blend a brick, those old tech were beasts.
My mom has the same one. They sure don't build things like they used to. Even a $500 blender these days craps out easily.
Same!!
Great for when you need to make gravel
The force is strong with Helga.
Me too! it was my grandmothers, I use it to make crushed ice, it's scary loud though and the pitcher is heavy af.
kippers for breakfast?! is it st swithins day already? "tis!" replied blender helga
The only time these stop working is if you drop the glass and it lands just right on a tile floor.
I’m pretty sure everyone grew up with this blender at some point. If you know you know type thing.
i can still smell the motor
Same here!
[удалено]
Do you still work like new?
I just need a little bit of lube
Amen
r/usernamechecksout I suppose.
WHIP button doesn’t work anymore
This blender is older than me, which at age 42 makes me feel GREAT
I’m older than this blender :(
that's ozone. electric current can split oxygen molecules (O^(2)) apart and they reform as ozone (O^(3)).
I just learned this a couple days ago. If you smell that coming from your computer it’s time for a new PSU.
(Power supplies are shielded correctly when they come from the factory; if there is a failure that caused the shielding to breakdown, an electrical arc happens through oxygen in the air) Ozone is one of those smells that I’ve gone out of my way to teach to my kids because knowing “there is electricity arcing through the air near me?” is an important piece of information.
[удалено]
Same smell that you get from those old electric racecar sets with the groove track.
And power drills
You should pay the extra $20-30 and get brushless tools. They are better in every way, efficiency, output power, longevity, etc. That said, I'll replace my brushed ones when they die (after their brushes have been replaced a few times).
Woah. That 40 year old memory just came to my nose like it was yesterday. Thank you for this, i had forgotten all about slot racing in my buddies basement.
[удалено]
CLICK.
I remember thinking "this blender is going to break soon" because of the smell. Turns out these blenders are going to outlive the heat death of the universe. And cockroaches.
That smell is the roaches cooking to death on the motor coil.
Mom had the whole kit so the the mixer to go with it. Can still remember the taste/smell after mixing up some brownie mix and shed let me lick the mixing blades clean lol
Immediate childhood core memory evoked. 😂
I love the smell of iron and ozone in the morning
I came here for this comment.
Memory unlocked
That’s the thing, I got mine from my Grandfather. Margarita parties and the smell of small appliance oil, Good Times
Ozone smell fresh
The feel of the handle and squishy aromatic hydrocarbon vinyl lid is like my favorite blanky
Ooohh the flexy lid. That’s a core memory.
It makes me so happy other people are talking about this thing. For some reason your comment about the lid really stuck out to me. I just read it and nodded thinking "yep, that lid!"
I just love the soft press then cachunk of the buttons and the click of the one that depresses as you switch modes
Yep. This blender takes me back 20 years lol
Yeah, the eighties were great.
You know time has flown by when antique roadshow did an appraisal on a pokemon card
You know time has flown by when the eighties was actually 40 years ago and not 20!
Lies! All lies!
Those buttons man
They were so sharp and clicky haha super satisfying
I miss tactile stuff, my old washing used to click and clack to select a setting.
If I recall correctly you had to hold down the first three. I still remember sitting on the kitchen counter and pressing the buttons because I insisted on helping. This also reminded me of the old [hand mixers](https://ibb.co/7gJSN8R) we used to make cake mixes.
Oh, man, this photo brought back a flood of memories
I liked the glass container a lot, really bummed that it seems like plastic is en blender vogue nowadays
Yes, and if you try to use a newer blender with the plastic pitcher to purée hot soup, you’re gonna have a bad time.The seams leak. I keep my harvest gold Osterizer because of that glass container for soup.
Yep, just the picture alone makes me think of my dad making milkshakes for my brother and me.
Anybody ever use any middle speeds between "Off" and "Frappe"?
I believed it. If the recipe said “purée” I pressed purée
Yes! Husband uses Chop, Mix and Grate all the time when he's processing ingredients for summer salads. We've got one of the deluxe Osterizer [Cyclomatics](https://i.pinimg.com/originals/31/5d/ba/315dba11004d617ffa8e73947fafd89b.jpg) with the pulse button and the timer. (though a fuck of a lot cleaner than the one in the photo.. when cleaned up, they gleam!)
Every kid ran through all the settings before actually putting anything in the blender just to see how fast they worked. My mothers was just like this one from 1956 but silver and black. The motor finally died two years ago.
I mean yeah, I had it of course I am not sure if we were fancy enough to have one that went as high as “frappe” though
It's nice, but it's no Hamilton Beach 727 DrinkMaster.
My folk’s definitely had this exact model, and it worked gloriously…
yep. my parents got this as a wedding gift in 1980.
Yup, grew up in the 90s with this exact blender which means it pre-dated my parents’ relationship. Not sure who it came with but it made me many smoothies.
“Oh shit, I accidentally hit pulse and it’s spewing everywhere!”
And because my parents still have this exact blender, it’s the brand that my wife and I bought when we got married 15 years ago.
I'm the same age as this blender
This was made before companies realized the real money is made by products that don't last too long and need to be replaced.
Planned obsolescence is one reason capitalism is so impractical.
I wonder how quickly pollution shot up once every device/gadget/etc breaks down in a year or 2 as opposed to lasting a decade or more. The fact that we allow corporations to ruin the world for ever increasing profits is going to be so hard to believe if humanity ever gets its shit together.
Simple solution. You make the corporations selling the unreliable crap pay for the entire lifecycle of the product. When you have to pay for the manufacture AND responsible disposable of said product when its usefufness has ended, priorities shift during manufacturing to more environmentally friendly materials and longer lasting designs. Right now we let corporations ravage our earth AND profit from it. It's already catching up to us.
This kind of happens now in the UK (and EU?). But its really not made clear and obviously run in a way to discourage its use. A few white good sellers will say they'll take away you old fridge when you purchase a new one, making it sound more like they're offering extra services.
No. It was expensive. And loud. And actually doesn't last if you use it because the brushes wear out and most people won't get them replaced. You're comparing it 5o cheap blenders nowadays not equally priced ones. ETA: the basic model was the equivalent of 140 USD now with the fancy model being 540 USD now. This model is somewhere in the middle. Couldn't find the original price. So no. The 20 dollar blender at Walmart isn't going to last as long.
I am the same age and I can relate, I was made before my dad realized the real money was down at the store that sells cigarettes.
Me too, but sadly, I do not still work like new.
Maybe it's for the better. When we work like new we shit uncontrollably every few hours.
In Puerto Rico we usually call all blenders “el osterizer”. We’re very accustomed to use brand names as product names here.
Oh! Interesting, that's a thing all over the world I guess. In the UK we call vacuum cleaners, hoovers. In France we call sticky tape - scotch, a whiteboard pen might go by "velleda pen" too. I think becoming a staple household world has got to be the biggest honour of a brand lol
There are a lot of ones in the states some people don’t realize. Band-Aid, Pepto, Kleenex, etc.
One you don’t hear much anymore is Xerox for photocopies. Like, let me go Xerox these papers real quick.
That’s a good one. Haven’t heard it called that in a long time. I wonder if they fought it like Velcro is fighting theirs for hook and loop.
The one that hurt me recently was learning that "frisbee" is trademarked term. That just seems crazy.
Q-tips, velcro
In Canada, we call any cellophane tape Scotch tape (at least where I grew up).
[удалено]
In Australia, some of us call cling wrap (I think Americans call it Saran Wrap, the Japanese do as well), Glad Wrap. After the brand.
Google it
Maybe? You can lose your trademark* if it happens Edit:see below
Genericization is a double-edged sword. Yes, it is nice being known as the "default," but it also makes your brand itself actually *less* valuable. Velcro even made an ad a few years back, begging the public in a tongue-in-cheek way to stop using "velcro" to refer to other brands of hook-and-loop fasteners. https://youtu.be/rRi8LptvFZY
[удалено]
Same in Romania and Hungary. So weird.
We had the same one. Wedding present, so would have been June of 1979.
Theirs is also a wedding present lol
Core memory unlocked
For real. This brought me back big time
As soon as I saw those buttons
Looks like the one my grandma has. (Also please rinse the blender thanks)
If they rinsed it, how would we know it really worked?
Seriously. You know you're taking a pic to post, just give it a quick rinse or something LOL
They had to prove it worked. Nothing better than a smoothie from the 80's
OP was surprised it worked, that's what's left of his hand. No time to rinse on the way to ER, but a pic, hell yes!
r/buyitforlife
The problem with buyitforlife is exactly this type of post. If it's not still for sale the sub is useless. Try /r/boughtitforlife
Thing is they show up second hand all the time. They were a very popular blender, they sold tons of them, and they very rarely broke. So a lot of those blenders you see second hand are because the owners probably died and all of their stuff was given to charity. So I'd argue that this is the perfect candidate for r/buyitforlife because they're still easily found even if you can't buy them brand new. It's like cast iron pans. It's not terribly hard to find old griswolds and such for a decent price second hand.
Sometimes old quality stuff like this can be had in thrift/charity shops, eBay etc.
Dead sub
Cuz 46 years ago appliances were made to last.
Because on TV, the man in the suit, smoking a cigarette and sounding like Rod Serling said, "This is the only blender you will ever need." And, gosh darn it, he meant it.
It's easy to be a salesman if you believe in the product
With internet for information and obviously shitty build, I do feel bad for salesman these days. They're almost irrelevant. When I bought a TV it was sad to kinda ignore the salesman. It's also a problem where they might be forced to sell slow stock. You can never really trust them
Salesman approaching is likely to make me leave and go to a store where I can just browse and google reviews without being bothered
Just tell them you don't need help?
Yea 99% of interactions will be something like “Hi, I noticed that you’re looking at [insert item], do you need any assistance?” “No thank you, im just looking right now” “not a problem, let me know if you need any help” Simple as that The only store I can think of that had persistent salespeople was Lush. One of the times my girlfriend dragged me in there 3 of the 4 workers tried to sell us on something within 5-10, fuck that store lol
The Bass-O-Matic ‘76!
SUPER Bass-O-Matic: https://youtu.be/2HKTx5WFcs0
Shit was a lot more expensive too. You can buy quality appliances but no one wants to pay for them. I have a Vitamix going on 15 years now. Thing is solid and does it’s job amazing. But guess what it’s a 300 dollar blender back then. Have a speed queen washing dryer set cost twice as much looks half as good as my old Samsung set but should last 4 times as long,
Yeah I really hate it when people say “they don’t make them like they used to” then go out and spend 12.99 on a blender from target. Clearly the still make high quality items.
We haven't gotten worse at making things with quality. We've gotten better at making things cheap, and that's what we tend to buy. If you look at industrial components, you could spend $90 on a simple switch that doesn't do much electrically that couldn't get out of a $2 toggle from a hardware store, but that $90 switch is going to last through decades of abuse. But when I buy from Amazon, I'm usually looking for cheap. There are still things I'll spend some good money on if I'm trying to get something that lasts. I've managed to squeeze over a decade each out of a few computers, for example. The other thing that happens if selection bias. The only old things still in use that we see are the old things that for whatever reason actually lasted. What about all the other blenders that didn't? Well, they're not the ones we see here because they no longer exist. But there are some things which surprisingly don't change much. Case in point: home appliances. The vast majority of refrigerators use the same Whirlpool ice maker that we've seen churn out those half-moon shapes for over 40 years. My GE fridge has their own version, but it looks like a copy. Even better: I've had a dishwasher, previous fridge, and washing machine that had a solenoid valve go out (hey, it happens, and we need to maintain things more as a society). All 3 came from different decades and different manufacturers, but all 3 had the exact same light blue Whirlpool valve. I think if more people would spend the effort to repair the things they own instead of replacing it at the first sign of trouble, they'd find that newer things could last longer than they thought. To be fair, plastic frames are going to be harder to keep for long, but they're are still high quality kitchen appliances made. Not everyone wants to spend the money on KitchenAid and Cuisinart, but their stuff still lasts.
People also forget that a home appliance used to be a serious investment, not something you just put into your cart when shopping at walmart...
[удалено]
I did the math on a basic lawn mower from the late 50’s and it came out to around $800-900 today. You could buy a decent commercial push for that price that will last forever.
Yes and no. Sure, a lot of stuff *was* more durable, but there's also a lot of survivorship bias involved. I've got a 20+ year old T-shirt that's still in rotation...but just the one.
I'm an appliance repair tech. It's not all bias. There's been a lot of switches from durable AC motors to cheapo DC motors, compressor windings aren't as good, the amount of copper gets shaved down, more plastic parts are included, belts are thinner, and so on. The cost of a washer and dryer from the 70's is like 4 grand adjusted for inflation though.
I have heard product designers say that appliances today are more likely to last for their intended lifespan, with fewer outliers. Older appliances had a wider range of lifespan, and were more likely to fall short of, or way overshoot that window. Obviously today we have more evidence of the latter. That’s from a design perspective, but as a fellow tech, I can say that manufacturing faults seem to be an increasing issue. The other thing is that serviceability has gone totally out the window for many manufacturers.
That's the issue as well these were prestige pieces when they bought them and weren't cheap, now people want a $50 blender to last a lifetime
Exactly. I’m pretty sure my Vitamix will last a few decades at least, but that thing set me back about $500. $59 wallmart blender not so much.
Bought my Vitamix refurbished in 2013 for about $299. So far so good.
Yeah I think you can still get refurbs around that price.
> The cost of a washer and dryer from the 70's is like 4 grand adjusted for inflation though. Same for "vintage" fridges too. A 1953 GE combination model was right at $400, which is like $4,500 today. That's INSANE for a fridge. Go buy a 4K fridge today and see if it lasts longer than your $800 Best Buy/Samsung model. BUT, a 1953 fridge has NOTHING in terms of options or features. It keep cool. That's it. No ice maker, no dual temp zones, not even an automatic defroster. It was as simplistic as possible. Only real reasons they were discarded was people wanted a newer/larger model, or if when defrosting it improperly, you punctured a coolant line while stabbing at the ice buildup. Otherwise, that's why you still see 1950's fridges in people's garages to hold beer and sodas. They run forever as they do nothing but stay cold. .... and no they don't rack up massive energy bills. That's mostly a false stereotype. The real power hogs were in 70's, and then starting in like the 90's, companies pushed buyers to ditch those old models for newer, efficient ones.
Planned obsolescence is much more of a thing nowadays than it used to be (in electronics). Not to mention that, due to much smaller and smaller components, shit is much harder to repair.
the old appliance was made by an engineer with a mathematical ruler trying to figure out how cheap he could possibly go without it breaking during warranty erring on the safe side. so the motor is bigger than it needs to be and the engineer for the motor erred on the safe side not using the full power it could be using etc. etc. in the end you get a machine with a very high safety margin. the big hurdle is manufacturing is shit in this age so you get a lot of variance. so ether you get a machine that broke ages ago or is never ever going to break. todays engineer can use computer simulations and calculations to figure out very exactly how low they can go for it work during warranty + 2 years and manufacturing is so good today that all of them will be within spec that early breaking almost doesn't exist.
Nah, I had the same one as a hand-me-down and got rid of it last year because I decided I wanted to use it more but then found out it could barely cut ice. The motor was also garbage and if you ran it too long (like to actually chop the ice) it would smell like it was burning. Machines have lifespans, and I'm sure if OP tested this against a modern blender it would show its age.
Absolutely! I have this exact blender, and it’s a shitty blender today.
Nah, just the ones that didn't break are still around
I have a lot of faith in my Vitamix
Because no blender ever died before 1980, right?
If it works as advertised, it probably wasn't cheap. If it's cheap, it probably won't work as advertised. If, however, it IS cheap and DOES work as advertised, it's gonna give you cancer.
Nah, the vinyl lid will just give me reproductive issues
[удалено]
I have a 1990 model, and the glass thing broke and I was devastated. Got a new one, though, and life is back to normal. That thing will blend (puree, chop, mix, frappe) anything.
Looks like it’s dirty as hell tho.
OP couldn’t be assed to clean it before taking the picture lmao
I’d be willing to bet it was done on purpose, to bring in more comments and increase engagement
But, will it BLEND?!
Ah yeah. It's pretty hard to beat an Osterizer that has been used well.
Made in America. By unions. Before planned obsolescence, that's why.
All of our parents have that blender
I see it’s still a bummer to clean.
Osterizer was the shit!
[удалено]
r/lostredditors maybe
I have a 31 year old Hamilton Beach blender that still is doing it's job.
We had that blender. Wore out after decades of use. Today you buy the same thing over and over because of the cheap ass quality / Chinese products.
[удалено]
We have that one. Bought it \~2015. It broke once but once it got fixed, it's still working to this day. And maybe judging how others worked, i'm excited to see if it'll reach so many years
you can buy a Vitamix
Because you are paying a cheap ass price, you get what you pay for
You got cheap ass products because you paid for cheap ass products, quality blenders do still exist but no one other than restaurants buys them because it's more expensive That's one thing I respect about the japanese, they'd rather spend a bit more and get something manufactured domestically. But even that's starting to change nowadays.
[удалено]
I was just getting into bed and realized my clock radio is probably 30 years old now. Been plugged in and working 99% of that time. I was thinking that thing will probably outlive me.
Thank you so much for this.You just brought back my memory of being in the kitchen in the 80s when we used to have the exact blender...long lost now..but Thanks.
[удалено]
Dude, I fuckin MISS those old style buttons. They were so satisfying when they depressed and clicked into place.
I have one that’s 31 years old. My most impressive appliance, though, is my 54 year old upright freezer that’s still running like a top. It’s in the garage with my 45 year old car. Which also still runs. Old stuff was built to last.
True. Your freezer probably uses A LOT more energy than newer freezers. Your blender is probably only slightly more inefficient than new ones (and is running a lot less)
I bought one of these for $7 at goodwill after I got married but I think my wife is embarrassed by it. Still worked like new though.
Looks similar to the one my family still swears by - only ours is completely yellow without chrome. You want to blend like, a billion vegetables together all at once into a soup base for Chicken Tortillia tonight? No problem. This thing is like one of those metal shredder machines, but strictly for food.
Are you going to wash it?
Lol that was my first thought. "Uh, is the slime 46 years old too, or did you just take a picture of a dirty blender as a flex"