About five years ago, for seven dollars, I bought an old citrus juicer at a thrift shop. It was one of those vintage small appliances which seem built to survive gas explosions and hammer attacks. When I turned on the motor with a metal toggle switch, a drive shaft spun a heavy ceramic knob that gouged out the hearts of lemon and orange halves, leaving not a scrap of pulp uncrushed. The thing worked beautifully, almost like new, so I looked up its serial number on the internet to see when the unit was manufactured, guessing it might be almost 40 years old.
Wrong. It dated to the 1940s. It was 70, the stubborn monster, still giving satisfaction with every use.
I had one too. It was a “BEAR” to move! But as far as I know, it is still running! We finally left it in the basement for the new owners! Never ever had a problem!
Parents bought it late 40’s or early 50’s.
Defective material is being slipped in by China as even trying to buy an exact same product is bait and switched to something totally different or quantity failure occurs. Different manufacturers with schematics using less quality as parts fracture, burn out or unavailable.
There is still an IH one in our family too. Weighs about the same as the Queen Mary.
It’s from the early 60’s or the late 50s.
I have one of those juicers on my counter. Mine is likewise all metal with a chrome base ,metal toggle switch, an obscure white (porcelain?) juice collection bowl with a heavy ceramic knob. It also has ‘Sunkist’ within a big orange circle as a logo on the base.
I bought it in a 2nd hand store about 30 years ago for $5 and I figure it is more or less 50 odd years older than that.
Its very heavy, still runs like a charm and will never need replacing in my lifetime. I did upgrade the cord on it with a grounded plug back when I first got it.
I get great satisfaction out of finds like this when things were made to last.
Oh, did I mention that I also have an old chrome toaster made in the fifties or sixties by General Electric when they had their factory in upstate New York?
Works great and has close wound element wires on the old mica boards that toast evenly every time.
That’s enough bragging for tonight!
Cheers
When I first moved to Calgary from Regina the city that rhymes with “fun” we bought a house with a “Dofasco” freezer in the bsmt. I’m guessing all the major steel stamping plants built these as International Harvester, or G.M. and G.E., as any normal house would have had a freezer for a family of 7 mostly normal people like us.
My mixer is a Braun KM32
https://www.ebay.ca/b/Braun-Countertop-Mixer/133701/bn_2707767
with ALL the other attachments. Paid $50. on Kijiji … I’m assuming it’ll be passed on at some point as it shows no signs of slowing down. I have extra bowls, extra blender and blades, coffee grinder, meat grinder, juicer, shredder and a sewn bag to put on it that says “Braun” all over, like they did in the 70’s
I don’t know why anyone would buy a non Zwilling carrot peeler. They’re a step up and generally about $5, possibly in the $1. drawer at any thrift stores. I used to be “I’m NOT going to a thrift store for anything”
Having twins and then another 1.5 years later will change your attitude. All the kids believe in the “never pay retail” we’ve never stopped saying.
My toaster is a Sunbeam T-20B, same as my parents were given when they married in 1955, and 1 daughter has the similar T-40 … all chrome all the time. I figure they’ve got about 50 more years left in them.
The eBay prices for these are amazing… more so if you find them in thrifts at under $20 now.
The first actual job I had was repairing these gems for Sunbeam service in Regina… $3.50 / hour. lol…
The new mixers from KitchenAid with all the same attachments would be well over $500. though I could buy the copper one then too for +$800… There seems to be a lot of these in kijiji now, perhaps they belong to those with 6.1% mortgages who are fighting to stay put. Not trying to make fun of those folks, my sister (and a couple of million other Canadians) lived through having an +18% mortgage in the early 80’s and I do think economic times are going to be worse for 2023 with the raised carbon tax, probable higher interest rates.
I’ve got a 1946 Ford 2N.
When the new Case skid-steer has an electronics mind fart and is bricked, I go dump gas in the 2N and plow my yard out after the blizzard. While waiting for the dealer tech to come out and fix the new skid-steer. Yes, gotta put my snowsuit on, but the old tractor works. When things get weird, that old bugger will still work, and if it stops, I can probably fix it myself with what I have laying around the shop. I’m an old bugger, too.
Factory wages in the ’40s were about 75 cents per hour. Auto workers made over 90 cents per hour and suppliers paid less than that. Smaller manufacturers might have even lower wages.
Hard to say what that juicer sold for back when, but I’d imagine that it cost more than a couple of day’s wages for an hourly worker.
Those units were (are still?) repairable, although they were built to last. Back then, parts would have been pennies for the small components and maybe a dollar or so for some cast, machined, and painted part. Fix it yourself or pay a repair shop a couple of dollars and it was good as new for far less than a new unit.
I’d guess that a new juicer would only cost a few hours wages now, and it’s not worth repairing because it would cost more in labor to repair it than buy a new unit.
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And TVs… anyone remember going to Western Auto or some such store with a burned-out vacuum tube and going through the replacements to find a match? And it turned out to also involve two other vacuum tubes that weren’t obviously smoked? So, you made another trip and brought a bunch of tubes to the store and plugged them into a tester until you found the offending tube or tubes. Then you hunted for the replacement. Fun times.
Modern washers and driers last maybe 5 years and they are loaded with electronic doodads and can’t be fixed for the price of a new one when anything goes wrong. If someone built 40 or 50 year old Maytag washers and Drier models they would likely sell like hot cakes.
Speed Queen comes close.
Or you could buy an industrial washer or dyer from Huebsch, those things are built like tanks.
Those things are in a lot of coin laundromat and institutions like prisons.
We have the Huebsch machines in our condo, so far so good.
Bought an Inglis washer in 1970, Had it for thirty years no repairs. Left it in a house when we moved, it was still in good condition, have no idea how long the people who bought the house used it.
Could be that when you outsource the making of everything you buy to COMMUNISTS, quality suffers. Just a thought.
Also the author drives a Prius, so there’s that.
Tell you what. Make a table out of solid wood with proper mortise and tenon joints etc. the way William Morris did, and see how much it costs in time and materials. (Hint, it won’t be cheap.) Then see how much you can get for it in the open market. (Hint, not much. You’re gonna starve.)
As well, that juicer which was built like a tank? If made now it would probably retail for $600.00, it would be made in Germany or Italy, and it would -not- be for sale at Target.
You can still get nice stuff. It’s just that it is fantastically expensive and they don’t sell it at the local Big Box store. Stop buying Chinesium crap at Walmart or don’t act all shocked when it breaks.
What I hate is when you think you are paying more for “quality”, and you are actually only paying more for a name that used to indicate quality.
These days you almost need to take the thing apart to see what they did in there. All consumer-grade appliances are virtually identical, Whirlpool is the same as Amana is the same as Viking. All plastic under the hood. If you check out the suuuuper high-end very often they’re also the same.
So, you get a commercial grade appliance. Commercial dishwashers will still clean the damn dishes unlike what you get at Home Depot. Commercial ranges are still built like tanks and will last three generations. Commercial espresso makers are all brass and steel inside, no plastic except where that adds to function and longevity.
Downside, it’s ugly, heavy, spendy, and doesn’t communicate with your iPhone. I view that as a plus myself, but I’m old. ~:D
You also have to ask yourself if you’re furnishing a multi-generation house, or are your living arrangements in flux? Do you want to lug a 6 burner commercial stove around between houses and modify the kitchen every time you move? You’re going to be better off with the cheapie crappy one that dies every five years.
I buy my air tools at Princess Auto. They are crappy, but I do not use them every day so they are more than good enough, and they are CHEAP. The stuff I do use every day, those I spend money on. One does not buy wood chisels at Princess Auto unless you’re opening paint cans with them.
“What I hate is when you think you are paying more for “quality”, and you are actually only paying more for a name that used to indicate quality.”
Absolutely. My Panasonic microwaves last about 3 years (the warranty is for 2), then I go buy another one at the Open Box store.
Every time they fail, it is an electronic component on one of the two circuit boards that make all the fancy features *that no one ever uses* possible. I hear it is the same with new refrigerators, washers and driers, dishwashers, etc.
The microwave was a real eye opener for me. Like you, I assumed I was buying quality by choosing a ‘brand name’. Wrong. The particular model I have now has a door latch that sticks…you have to literally stab the button to get it to open properly. I went on the internet to find a user group (there are blogs and websites for almost everything you can think of out there, from cars to cameras), and found that *everyone* who owned this same unit was having the same problem. Turns out that the door latch is mounted on a single flimsy piece of sheet metal that flexes back when you push the release button. Enterprising users have fixed this by screwing or gluing everything from bottle caps to popsicle sticks behind the latch to stiffen it up. I haven’t bothered yet. Apparently if you stab the button hard enough for long enough, it bends enough that the door will fails to open at all. We’ll see.
The really interesting thing, though, is Panasonic’s reaction to this. Their official response, paraphrased, is “we haven’t heard of any problems”. And why not?..they know you will be buying another one soon enough anyway.
I’ve heard other stories about expensive Sony televisions and Samsung refrigerators. You might as well buy the no-name stuff now, because there is no more quality in a brand name (I figured as much years ago when they all cut their warranties to (one year).
I can’t match the IH freezer from the 50’s, but, we do have an Eaton’s Viking one from 1974 that’s still going in our basement. I’m guessing that it was actually built by Inglis in Ontario. On the other hand we bought a new toaster for the RV four or five years ago that didn’t last for two seasons. I decided to see if I could find out why so I took it apart. A small and unreplaceable plastic part in the mechanism that lowers the bread had broken. Cheap Chinese garbage although maybe I shouldn’t be too hard on them. Canadian Tire or whomever had them built probably had fixed the manufacturing costs at $3.00 a unit.
The simplest thing in our kitchen is arguably the plastic bread tie and it worked great, it only needs to last one loaf of bread.
Nope, not any more.
ELTTTS Law.
We have a Hotpoint fridge in the boathouse (fancy name for a shed beside the water) at the cottage that’s been keeping beer and bait cold since the early 60s. We’ve replaced the fridge in the cottage twice in 10 years.
I have two IH fridges in an old house on my farm. Both 1950s. Only use them in summer now, but neither has ever skipped a beat. Not the most efficient I’m sure, but they will be running a lot longer than I will be.
If you take the compressor apart from the old units vs the new quite an eye opener.
I do it to get the copper out when i have time on my hands.
What a difference, the old stuff is way overbuilt for the job , the only reason it falls into my hands even though it still works is the customer wants it gone for the new shiny.
Thanks for posting this. I loved it.
We live in a society where the value of money is constantly undermined. Hence the enormity of government debt and household/personal debt.
Its foolish & naïve to have value expectations from mid-twentieth century, dontcha know.
“All my documents and pictures are stored in the ‘cloud’.”
Of course they are you ignorant asshole.
I liked the story about the 2n tractor. I’ve got an early 8n at an airfield used to move airplanes around, mow grass, and plow snow. Works perfectly with very minimal maintenance. NO COMPUTER CHIP.
This story and the accompanying comments really warm my heart. My 1970 Braun coffee grinder (purchased at Canadian Tire in Hamilton) continues to give good service after over 50 years (and its identical orange twin is part of the “design” collection at le Musée des beaux-arts de Montréal).
I gave my daughter a new Oster blender, which lasted barely a year and which, she told me, did not perform at all like the one I had, which has been whirring along since 1958.
And, finally, I made what I thought were perfect waffles on an electric waffle iron (with a cloth-covered cord) that dates from the late 1930s.
The major worry I have about all of these appliances is being unable to use them when the power grid collapses.
L – Now, if we could only find the values of yesteryear at Value Village, too. Some say they
are as old as the hills and show no sign of wearing out.
Most go to the metal scrappers to come back as crappy toasters from Chyna.
I have been guilty of sending alot to the metal dealers for a pittance and it does bring a tear to the eye, but I can’t save them all.
No time for the BS on kijji or Facecrap and I have sent some to the Sally Ann/Value Village.
But I still hang on to my 1941 built 12 hp Lister CS twin diesel generator, top notch WW2 metal that can’t be killed.
Really, really getting tired of comments that contain no swear words going to moderation. Fourth or 5th one in last 2 days. Please fix this, Kate.
Just try buying a can opener that will open cans. Good luck.
Many years ago we had an ancient Swing-A-Way can opener mounted on the kitchen wall. It worked, every time, flawlessly, but it wasn’t cool and wasn’t electric. So we bought an electric and took down the antique and put it away somewhere, and I think it got taken to a thrift shop when we moved.
Well, the electrics don’t work now either. They’re junk. The manuals are as bad or worse. Amazon had a Swing-A-Way, supposed to be the real thing, but it was made in China. It’s ratings weren’t too good (“it skips and I have to go around the can several times to get the lid cut out”) but I ordered it anyway. Mounted it. Sure enough, it skipped. The cutting wheel didn’t penetrate quite far enough to cleanly cut the lid out. It was a bit dull, too. Didn’t seem very hard when I touched it with a file.
But I am blessed with machinery and some know-how. I got a bit of 7/8″ tool steel drill rod and machined a new cutter wheel, about 1/8″ larger than the defective one. I heat-treated it, to make it hard and strong. Put in on the can opener, and away it went. No skips. No more hassles. Going on four years now.
So why couldn’t the factory do that? Aren’t they listening?
“So why couldn’t the factory do that? Aren’t they listening?”
Because they know you’re going to buy the crappy one that doesn’t work, and they saved a buck on the cheap mild-steel cutter. They’re listening to the market. The market says cheapest wins, nobody cares if it functions well. Also, they’re Communists. Don’t forget that part. Screwing you over is a win for them.
You win for making the new cutter yourself, and short-circuiting their bullroar. It is always nice to have tools, right? ~:D
Others in search of a can opener that works, go to restaurant supply and get a proper commercial can opener, the kind that screws onto the counter top. It will be strong and heavy, it will open the can, and it will last forever. You can even buy parts if you wear it out after a million cans.
Expect to pay more than the Chinesium version.
The problem there is that people send the crap back to Amazon for a refund, and almost all of that stuff ends up in the landfills. It isn’t worth Amazon’s time to sort it all and send it back to the manufacturer. You’d think that Amazon would find a more competent can-opener maker.
But, then, most younger folks now put up with junk. They think this is normal. They toss it and go buy exactly the same thing again.
Thanks for posting this awesome article. The poor quality and short lifespan of so many products today is not only filling up our landfills but is also wasting the finite natural resources that went into making the product. Combine this with continued world population growth and you realize that the end of the dead-end road we’re on is approaching at a rapid pace. Our current population and some future growth would be somewhat more sustainable if the products we were buying had the lifespan that they had decades ago. Planned obsolescence, greed, capitalism and the faulty dream of continued unlimited economic growth are all to blame. As much as I don’t like Greta Thunberg I do agree with her that unlimited and unrestrained economic growth is not sustainable in a world with finite size and resources.
The Skil saw I bought in 1970 crapped out a couple years ago. Thank goodness I still have the one from my father-in-law from the same era. I’ve probably gone through ten Canadian Tire Chinese made drills.
For drill bits you need to go to a tool supply jobber and buy American, German, Swiss , Japanese or Korean.
Expect to pay a LOT for one drill bit, buy a good bench mounted grinder with a Norton wheel and learn how to regrind the tip of that drill bit yourself.
Said drill will last you a life time if used for home use.
Or go to local garage sales and hunt for old tools being sold by widows of the previous owner, one can get fantastic deals on old tools if you know what to look for.
Alternatively look for auctions of old machine shops, some tool lots can be bought cheap.