And tell me how proud of it you are.
Me. 62 years. As long as it keeps on ticking, I’m proud.
I’ve got a Miele washing machine that’s the best part of 40 years old. It’s required some maintenance over the years. However, it was designed with maintenance in mind, so all the repairs have been fairly painless.
My 5 year old dishwasher, on the other hand, has cost me more time, money and stress than the (very overworked) washing machine.
Miele shit just continues to exist inexplicably. Literally unbreakable (permanently). And according to what I’ve read, at least, their modern stuff has not dropped in quality
I honestly can’t think of any brands that have anything close to that longevity
It’s the little things that count.
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The drain pump is just 3 bolts to take off (pump came back to life after I tipped it. The new one is still sat in the cupboard a decade later).
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The electronics are mounted on their own door. They swing out, and are VERY easy to service.
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The wiring diagram was in a plastic wallet inside the machine.
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The shocks are easy to access and come off with an M10 spanner and are easy access.
Those are just the ones that have noticed explicitly, the whole machine was built with that mentality.
IMHO, if a dishwasher isn’t under warranty, and it’s a mechanical or electrical issue, you might just want to replace it. The cost of technician and parts can add up, and a new machine with a good reviews is only around $500 usd.
It’s a bit crappy that manufacturers have managed to essentially force us into a subscription for our home appliances, by making self repair uneconomical and expensive, almost guaranteeing a replacement every 4-5 years.
The repair contract on my washing machine is about to run out, and that thing has been serviced many times at this point. Once for a blown mainboard, burnt out motor, and other miscellaneous issues that some of the techs haven’t been able to identify, having to return again with more bits.
At least I have a spare mainboard now and the last tech fitted a brand new motor, which is way quieter than the horrifically loud original one
It’s fixed now. It was a 10p sensor embedded in a £65 piece of plastic. The error message had me barking up the wrong tree. It’s fixed now, at least.
I dislike being wasteful. When my last TV died, while I replaced it, I then fixed it, and gave it to a friend. £10 backlight, and an hour or so of effort.
My original NES and game cartridges. Still work great, although retired as collectibles in favor of emulators now.
I got lucky with mine. I started having issues with mine around 2000. I lived in Washington, only like an hour from Nintendo of America. At the time, Nintendo still serviced all their old consoles up to and including their current consoles. (This would change in 2006, with the Wii, when they started releasing old games digitally, it was game-over for their long-term servicing of old consoles.) So I took mine in, and if I recall correctly, it was about $50 to get all my games professionally cleaned and for the console to be cleaned, fixed, and sent home with new power supply and controllers.
It’s been a champ ever since.
I wish I had known about that. The cleaning accessories I’ve found over the years have kept it going without issues, but I definitely would have sent mine in for a preventative professional cleaning and refurbishing if they found anything wrong with it.
I remember being a bit surprised when I found out about it, but it also seems to be that a lot of people didn’t know about this service, despite it being something Nintendo seemed to pride themselves in for a long time. Maybe they just didn’t publicize it widely enough?
Neat.
I have a hand-me-down NES from a relative that sadly passed away, console works a treat but at some point within the past decade the cartridge batteries went flat. Finally have the gamebit driver to replace them but the gear is all packed away at the back of my storage cupboard…
A pocketwatch manufactured in 1889. I keep it running as a memento mori: the watch may outlive the watchmaker. Build things well – they may be all people remember you by, one day.
I also have a slide rule at my desk at most times, to remind me of false-precision.
I guess the oldest though, is a Wu Zhu coin from the Three Kingdoms period (currency is a technology, too?). I keep it to remember that all empires arise from chaos, and must return to it; that all assets eventually have no value. That the things that endure, are stranger currencies still.
You’re the badass stoich character from fantasy stories!
“I keep the relics of my ancestors to remind me we all die”
A pocketwatch manufactured in 1889. I keep it running as a memento mori:
And to think I almost typed in my Lumia 1020… 🤣 🤣 Hats off mate!
A 1940s era Sterling Siren Model “F” factory siren. This siren spent decades outside of a Long Island, NY firehouse, acting as a street clearing siren to allow fire engines to exit the station unimpeded during an emergency. It was decommissioned a few years ago and popped up on eBay, and I was able to get ahold of it for cheap as the seller didn’t know its worth. Model F sirens are very hard to find, as they haven’t been made since the 1960s, and the need for street clearing and fire sirens have lessened with the advent of pagers. I believe there are less than a dozen left in service across North America.
Mine is in very good running shape, despite its age. I lubricated the bearings recently (brass sleeve bearings) and let the motor break in. It isn’t quite as loud as my Federal Sign & Signal Model “L” (built in the 1960s) but still packs a punch. I usually set them off with the city sirens every Monday. It does need cosmetic restoration, as the paint is badly weathered and the projector has some dents in it, but it won’t be hard to fix up.
https://youtu.be/KvsGiL15g1k?si=ZgheNIH-fqOHJXnJ
My Model L is on the left, and my Model F is on the right.
It’s relatively common in small towns. Some towns with volunteer fire departments will have a siren they use both to call all available volunteer firefighters and to announce the need to shelter for a tornado. They used to sound it at noon every day and my wife (then girlfriend) used it as an alarm clock when she worked 2nd shift anytime she slept in too late
About 5 years ago they stopped sounding it at noon, and honestly I’m not sure when the last time i heard the sirens was since tornadic storms are becomes much less common here and the firefighters have become increasingly reliant on their radios instead. I kinda miss it. There’s a quaintness to just listening for the noon whistle to tell time
Which country are you in? Not a thing I’ve heard of happening here in the UK
