I had a Roper refrigerator that I bought in ‘78. I did one service call for it in about ‘94 and it was still running when I sold my KC house in 2013 and left it — 35 years of service.
I bought a house with a top of the line LG refrigerator. The compressor had been warrantied for 7 years. At 7 years and 2 months, it died dead.
Bought another house with an LG. 7 years old, it died as well.
Bought a cheap Frigidaire — I expect it to go in little time as well but it is US made.
Similar story with an old GE fridge. It came with our house that we bought in 1983 and it might have been 15 years old at the time because it appeared there was a mid-60s kitchen remodel of the 1952 house. We redid the kitchen around 2012 and the old fridge was still running fine. So it ran for over 44 years with zero repairs. That was really astonishing.
In fact, it was that old fridge that triggered our kitchen remodel. It was a non-standard size and short, maybe forehead high and a bit narrower than modern fridges. The carpenters made site-built cabinets in those days, so a new fridge would not fit the old opening. I started thinking about replacing a couple of cabinets to get the new fridge to fit, but that led to ripping out the cabinet next to the stove (a GE 1960s “avocado” color electric range with a couple of failed burners that were getting very hard to replace) so that led to a new stove. Of course, the old over-stove microwave no longer fit, so I planned to rip out all the cabinets on one side of the kitchen. Next thing I knew, we were down to studs.
Mom passed away around then and the inheritance from Mom & Dad paid for most of our now-total kitchen remodel. It’s a nice memorial to Mom & Dad in a way.
[[ The compressor had been warrantied for 7 years. At 7 years and 2 months, it died dead.]]
My dad told of workign for a fella who worked in the repair industry who stated way back when that companies were moving towards ‘planned obsolescence’, and factored in breakdowns because items lasted so long and ran so well back in the day that folks just wouldn’t buy new very often- My dad figured he was exaggerating, but the more time went bye, them ore it seemed to be true-
Toasters are real hit or miss these days- we’ve been through so many of them- microwaves too-
machines dying soon after warranty runs out is becoming pretty common these days- but then with other things they just keep going and going- never know- like our catalytic heater (looks like a small safe)- they are not rated vey high for longevity, but we’ve been using ours for many years now- over 15-
Dehumidifiers- ugggh- they are quite expensive now and don’t last long in our experience- would like to find an old one from before the ‘energy efficient’ models came out
I had a Roper too. It was an excellent refrigerator. I had it for over 25 year and the only thing that ever went wrong was the door seal and that was my fault. I replaced it myself. I too sold it with a house. I wished I kept it.