We’re told we live in a throwaway society with disposable goods that appear to have been designed to head for landfill within a couple of years. But judging by the bumper postbag from Guardian Money readers following last week’s feature by Leah Milner on long-lasting appliances, you treasure your old cookers, fridges and mixers.
Manufacturer warranties typically guarantee goods for just one or two years, but your stories show that goods can last decades without breaking down. That said, your letters also highlight just how expensive domestic appliances were in the 1960s and 1970s – £1,300 for a microwave, anyone?
The brands that seem to have best stood the test of time include New World cookers, Electrolux fridges and freezers, Swan kettles and toasters, and Kenwood and Moulinex mixers. But that’s no guarantee of quality today – many of the makes have gone through multiple changes in ownership over the years. Here’s just a small selection of your stories.
David Soskice’s mother bought this New World “Radiation” oven in the mid-1950s and passed it on to him. It’s still used daily. “When it needed a bit of renovation a decade ago, second-hand cooker shops laughed at us,” said David. But they found help from an usual corner – a local expert in renovating steam engines, who managed to fix it.
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When Ann Pugh bought her home in Mitcham, Surrey, it came with the previous owners’ 1953 New World Rangette. “I love it dearly. An identical one appears in the kitchen at Nonnatus House in Call the Midwife!”
Many of you bemoan the disappearance of eye-level grills on cookers. Averill Laing from Ashtead, Surrey, said: “My Cannon Cordon Bleu Classique was bought in 1990 and has survived a house move, a fire and at least three kitchen makeovers, including the last in 2014. There is nothing on the market that replicates it – the eye-level grill, four burners and separate griddle, two side-by-side ovens over a roomy pan drawer – and it still looks modern.
“I brought up a family of five using it and do not now need the five or six burners seen on new cookers of the same size. Eye-level grills are as rare as hen’s teeth and never found on higher spec cookers.”
Caroline Mast from St Austell, Cornwall, said she cooks every day on the same Belling oven that we featured last week. “We bought it in an auction some time in the 1980s. We were antiques dealers and just fancied having an older look to our kitchen, never dreaming for one minute that we would still be using it in 2016! Everything still functions but we would dearly love to be able to replace the original grill pans as they are understandably a little shabby!”
Sue Thompson from Frome, Somerset, had a very different story of failing cookers: “Over the past 25 years I think I have had at least five new cookers, all of which gave up the ghost and the one I have now, a Smeg, is a mass of imperfections and I am not hopeful that it will last much longer. Until 1990 I had a 1937 blue and white New World gas cooker which never went wrong. Next time I will buy the cheapest cooker I can get as price seems to make no difference.”
Fridges
Hoover is best known for its vacuum cleaners, but one of the most striking stories sent to us was of the Hoover fridges installed by councils in their newbuild homes from the mid-1950s. Jeff Hutchinson’s mother-in-law, Doris, moved into her new council house in Bedlington, Northumberland, in 1956, and got her first fridge. “She’s still using it today,” Jeff told us.
Sheila Luker has a rather more modern Hoover fridge, bought nearly 43 years ago. “I am still using a Hoover refrigerator, model 6012B, bought in July 1973. It cost £32.50 plus £1 for delivery [£400 in today’s money]. It is still working well after running continuously for 42 years and eight months, but it does need defrosting fairly frequently! Despite this I am reluctant to consign it to recycling, although I realise a new fridge would probably be a lot more economical. It’s become a bit of a challenge to keep it for as long as possible.”
Many of you said the ability to fix old appliances has helped them last. Sarah Passingham said: “My parents got married in 1952 and received a GEC fridge as a wedding present. Sadly, my engineer father died in 2003, but the fridge is still going, as is my mother who is now 86.
“She still uses the fridge as a crucial part of her frequent entertaining, and it takes centre place in her kitchen as everything else is redecorated around it. It’s the opposite of the Tardis – very large on the outside and tiny inside. The sound of it cutting in and out, maintaining a constant temperature throughout the day, is a vital part of my childhood soundscape.”
Others reluctantly gave away old appliances still working perfectly well. Angie Smith said: “Just last week we gave our old 1950s Prestcold refrigerator to some friends as we are selling our house and have decided it’s time for a new one. The fridge still worked perfectly when our friends plugged it in after driving it back from London to the south-east coast.”
Two separate readers told almost identical tales about the earliest, and incredibly expensive, Toshiba microwaves.
Dr Brian Brough from Macclesfield said: “We have a Toshiba ER558 microwave oven purchased new in 1978 for £239 including VAT at 8% – £1,329 in today’s money, ye gods! – we have the receipt. No turntable, massively heavy, still used daily and still going strong. It was one of the first domestic models.”
Tony Lees said: “I have a Toshiba microwave oven, model ER556 ET, bought in John Lewis in Oxford Street in the late 70s. It has no programmes other than ‘cook’ and no turntable. It cost £250, an absolute fortune at the time, but it still works perfectly. I reckon I have had my money back many times over.”
Electrolux freezers appear to be your long-lasting favourites. Maggie Vine in Dorset said: “I have an Electrolux chest freezer which I bought secondhand for £50 in 1981, so it has to be at least 35 years old. It has even survived a flood in my garage where it is located about 14 years ago.” Colin and Sue Morris add: “Our Electrolux fridge/freezer is still going strong after 45 years. By comparison, our Candy fridge/freezer – part of a fitted kitchen – malfunctioned after six years.”
We had a large number of letters about Kenwood and Moulinex products. John McNaughton said: “My wife and I are one of many, I guess, who still have a Kenwood Chef from 1971. My wife inherited it from her mother in the 1980s and it’s used almost every day for baking. It’s built like a Chieftain tank!”
Joyce Virgo added: “I have had my Kenwood Chefette for half a century and it is still working perfectly. A few years after I got it I broke the bowl and ordered a replacement which I was sent free of charge. Great appliance, wonderful service. Thank you Kenwood.” Marina Donald in Edinburgh has the Kenwood Chefette bought as an engagement present by her mother nearly 50 years ago.
Early Moulinex models are also still going strong. Sheila Bogstad from Wells, Somerset, said she bought her Moulinex food blender in 1973 and it’s still in perfect working order today.
And despite communist East Germany’s almost endearing reputation for clunky and old fashioned (even in the 1970s) consumer goods, John Green from Ealing in London told us of the electric mixer his East German wife brought with her. “We use it all the time – at least once a week and it is now over 40 years old and still going strong. Can’t imagine any western product lasting that long today,” he said.
Washing machines
We heard few examples of really long-lasting washers. Marina Donald said her Zanussi was 28 years old when she got rid of it. “It possibly lasted so long because I only ever did cold washes.”
Carol Freeman in Sunderland bought an Ariston washing machine for £615 in 1992. “It seemed a terrible waste of money since my old Indesit, bought in 1974, was working perfectly after 18 years – but didn’t fit into my new fitted kitchen. However, as the old adverts used to say, ‘on and on with Ariston’, and my machine worked beautifully from 1992 until late 2015.”
She bought a new Hoover VTS D2 washing machine for £329 – “half the price I’d paid for my beautiful Ariston 23 years before.” Since then it has broken down twice. “I would rather pay more for something that would last,” she said.
But Charlotte Williams from London said: “This might not be a record but I bought my Indesit 823 washing machine in 1989 and it’s still going strong. It’s been used at least twice a week for all those years.”
Toasters
Toasters have become so cheap – now just £4.50 in Tesco – that they’re not built to last. But Will Roberts found a 1960s Morphy Richards toaster that had been chucked out in the late 1980s that is still going strong today. “I’ve had it for 25 years after finding it in a skip, but it dates from the 60s and it still makes great toast.”
Kettles
A Swedish reader, Kicki Gustafsson from Östersund, contacted us about her treasured British kettle bought in July 1983. “Before I returned home to Sweden after my au pair year in London I went to John Lewis and bought an electric kettle from Swan. We didn’t have kettles like that in Sweden. I use that kettle almost every day still.”
Unfortunately we don’t have space for the many other tales of 1956 Creda air heaters, Singer sewing machines from the early 1900s, Prestige saucepans that last forever, Belling bed warmers from the 1960s, and 1969 Thermos flasks still used on picnics today.
And thank you to the readers in the US, Australia, Ireland and the Netherlands who told us their stories. There is evidently a great yearning for better-built appliances the world over.
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