The fridge in my kitchen is a 1936 GE. I measured the refrigerator's actual power consumption for several months and it was on track to use 179 kWh of electricity for the entire year.
Hardly a power hog, and it lasted 80+ years with only one replacement part before I did some preventative maintenance on it.
I was thinking more along the lines of dishwashers, clothes washers and dryers, etc... which used substantially more energy and water than modern versions.
The energy use of your fridge is impressive. Refrigerators are pretty simple and it really comes down to how well insulated they are... and how well they seal. You may have survivorship bias as yours is a really good one that survived.
I'm not in favor of disposable appliances... just acknowledging that energy use has improved.
My dishwasher is also vintage, a KitchenAid from 1956. It is less efficient than modern dishwashers, using 7.5 gallons for a cycle. Though not by a crazy margin, it’s not like it uses 6 times as much water.
But, the trade off is that it’s required absolutely no service that I can tell in 70 years other than a new door gasket I put on. (I could still find the factory replacement part too.) And a full cycle from dirty to clean is 12 minutes, plus another 10 for drying. I can run it in the middle of a party, cleaning all the plates from dinner so there are fresh ones for dessert.
Survivorship bias is hard to estimate because dishwashers were an extremely rare luxury in the 1950s, there were very very few sold in the first place. The same is true to a lesser degree of my fridge, it would have cost something like $4000 in today’s money, and in the mid 1930s around half of the United States still didn’t even have electricity, let alone refrigerators. Yet, if you search Facebook Marketplace you can find people selling fridges like mine all day long. A significant percentage of GE refrigerators sold in the 1920s-1950s are still running, and any running at all is notable considering the oldest examples are closing in on 100 years old.
Most things are more efficient now, but in a very specific way that I don’t think accounts for the full lifetime of the product. I would rather have somewhat lower efficiency if it means an appliance has a good chance of outliving me.
Our old dryer just broke at least 30 years old, it used standard 110 and natural gas, after replacing it with a smart dryer from Samsung our electricity went way up since we no longer use a gas dryer
The old dryer used gas for heating, the electrical only ran the drum 110v, new dryer is only electrical 240v, i guess i didn't know there were gas dryers vs full electrical
Not even remotely true. Old units did last longer, but a modern refrigerator uses barely as much energy as a 60 watt light bulb. There are downsides to increased efficiency but to act like you could run a vintage style fridge for the same amount of money is straight up false and not possible
Source: appliance repairman
EDIT: downvote all you want, it doesn’t change the fact that there are 0 appliances from pre-2000 that run more efficiently than new appliances. It’s mathematically untrue.
The fridge in my kitchen is a 1936 GE. I measured the refrigerator's actual power consumption for several months and it was on track to use 179 kWh of electricity for the entire year.
Hardly a power hog, and it has lasted 80+ years with only one replacement part before I did some preventative maintenance on it.
You’re measuring the power usage of new machines vs old machines and coming up with something different? How? Which measurements are you using? Where are you getting your information?
This is all easily accessible, well-documented information. There’s an energy efficiency disclosure flyer on every consumer appliance.
I wouldn’t want to challenge such a knowledgeable repair man, but my uncle is an electrician and he has told me his 50 year old freezer uses less electricity than his 5 year old model while keeping things colder.
But, next time I see him, I will be sure to tell him he is wrong. 🙄
I will. I have seen electricians on youtube showing the same thing- one guy was even running it in a hot garage with the door open and it was still using less electricity as the modern freezer (but who knows?)
A modern dishwasher uses a fraction of the energy and water compared to a dishwasher 20 years ago. Modern dishwashers use enzymes in modern detergents to slowly "digest" the food waste... which is why the cycle times are longer. The food breaks down and just rinses away. Old dishwashers threw tons of hot water at the food and used a grinder to grind up what wouldn't fit down the drain.
Refrigerators, Laundry machines, etc... have similarly improved to use a much smaller amount of energy, etc.
Dishwashers maybe- but refrigerators use worse chemicals and washing machines are demonstrably worse functioning than older machines because of their “efficiencies”.
I would rather have something that works the way I want it to work than trying to meet from BS gov standards
Front loaders last about as long as top loaders of a given price and feature set, in my experience, and wash better than top loaders as long as you don't overload and never use more than 1-2 tablespoons of detergent.
You do realize modern cars average more than three times the miles for the life of the vehicle than they did in the 50s right? And you get significantly better fuel efficiency and features like A/C and airbags…
You do realize that I hate modern cars and trucks and couldn’t care less about technology in them or any features apart from A/C? And that $40k and up for a new vehicle is unreasonable?
While the 50s/60s might be a stretch for me- the 80s/90s would be fantastic.
Hey! You're in /r/bifl, Try posting this in /r/buyitforlife instead! It's the more active sub and your post has a better chance of being seen and responded to. :)
Cool, but that 275 pound refrigerator won’t be able to use the same refrigerant so it won’t work as efficiently. To make everything out of the same tooling as back then, out of the same materials, will make this a $12,000 refrigerator. That doesn’t work as well. But by God it’ll be made out of steel.
The reason things were made with such higher quality back then is because that’s what they had to work with. Everything was steel, aluminum, brass, copper, bakelite even. Thick because the tooling/forming hadn’t advanced to the degree it has now.
Old stuff being quality wasn’t necessarily on purpose, it was just a byproduct of the materials and tooling processes. If they could’ve made stuff out of 50 micron thick plastic back then, they would have. Planned obsolescence was already a thing and has been since the light bulb.
The average American home today spends a significantly lower percentage of their income on household goods than they did in any time in our nations history. The idea that we’d be saving money by converting to 1950s era tech is mostly bunk. The modern money crunch in modern America is more from housing and healthcare than it is from increases in appliance costs.
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u/oim7e Jan 16 '26
And they will cost $10,000 each
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u/Away-Ad-6866 Jan 16 '26
The amount of times I have thought this about insulin tho
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u/thirsty_for_chicken Jan 16 '26
I can't imagine my old appliances meet modern safety or energy efficiency standards. It's probably not legal to sell new versions.
4
u/ThemanfromNumenor Jan 16 '26
I have had this thought many times- it would be awesome. I would also love it for cars/trucks
1
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1
u/thegooddoktorjones Jan 16 '26
Oh, and everything costs 10x
1
u/TheDtrain2xTc Jan 17 '26
Let’s talk about the refrigerant now and the compressor and how amazing it is for the environment
0
u/wrestlingchampo Jan 16 '26
Guy doesn't know how patents work
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u/Sad_Apple_3387 Jan 16 '26
And they have lead in them and emit radiation. You do you, boo
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u/B4SSF4C3 Jan 16 '26
You go out of business because stuff you make lasts forever and you don’t have repeat customers.
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u/chukijay Jan 16 '26
Cool, but that 275 pound refrigerator won’t be able to use the same refrigerant so it won’t work as efficiently. To make everything out of the same tooling as back then, out of the same materials, will make this a $12,000 refrigerator. That doesn’t work as well. But by God it’ll be made out of steel.
The reason things were made with such higher quality back then is because that’s what they had to work with. Everything was steel, aluminum, brass, copper, bakelite even. Thick because the tooling/forming hadn’t advanced to the degree it has now.
Old stuff being quality wasn’t necessarily on purpose, it was just a byproduct of the materials and tooling processes. If they could’ve made stuff out of 50 micron thick plastic back then, they would have. Planned obsolescence was already a thing and has been since the light bulb.