There were lemons then just as now. Maybe more then. I don't have a rose colored rear view mirror. Consumer electronics of the 70s and 80 were generally horrid. Every era has it's trash, but America turned out some real stinkers in those days. Raymond Loewy did not say much nice about products of the early 20th century either.
Our family had a GE fridge for 45-50 years, I think it was a wedding gift to Mom & Dad. I remember helping my uncle replace the door gasket when I was around 9, that's all we ever had to do to it. Quiet as a church mouse.
It never failed completely; maybe the freezer wasn't as cold as it used to be, can't remember. I think Mom just wanted something a bit larger, with some modern features. She bought a shiny new Amana, which was noisy as hell and also outlived the warranty by exactly 2 months. Boy was she pissed.
Next up was a Whirlpool, which was fine. Not as quiet as the old GE, but close. We sold it with the house after she died, I guess it was 25 years old at that point, 10 years ago. I would guess that Whirlpool is just an empty name these days like all the rest.
It never failed completely; maybe the freezer wasn't as cold as it used to be, can't remember. I think Mom just wanted something a bit larger, with some modern features. She bought a shiny new Amana, which was noisy as hell and also outlived the warranty by exactly 2 months. Boy was she pissed.
Next up was a Whirlpool, which was fine. Not as quiet as the old GE, but close. We sold it with the house after she died, I guess it was 25 years old at that point, 10 years ago. I would guess that Whirlpool is just an empty name these days like all the rest.
Oh I think you're right about that period, Pano - definitely not our proudest moment. Hell, when I consider just one glaring example - the combination of wave soldering + single-sided PCs (i.e. no plated-through holes), with all those cracked solder joints - that "feature" alone paid a lot of bills back in the day!
Yep.
My 1984 Maytag washer & dryer are still running like a champ, and I've no intention of replaceng them anytime soon.
My 1985 GE fridge is also humming along nicely, as is my 1971 Kichenaid dishwasher.
Of course, if I was a younger, sheep-type that succumbed to the mentality of the masses who need to keep-up-with-the-Jones, I'd spend money on modern junk.
I'm surprised you aren't using an ice box... 😀 No moving parts and lasts forever!
My dad has a 1983 Kenmore stove and dryer, but the washer and refrigerator died 15 years ago. The dryer needs new rollers/guides now, too. My friend swears by his old Maytag dishwasher. He doesn't seem to care that you can hear it in the next province because it can wash the dishes quicker than a new machine.
The problem isn't "overseas crap" dude. There are many Chinese items I'd buy before I bought American white goods. The problem is people generally accepting higher levels of crap. A 15$ coffee maker from Wal-mart lasts 90 days but was only 15$. An iPhone is made in China - few would call it "cheap Chinese crap" though, right?
If you want a fridge that lasts buy, True.
https://www.truemfg.com/NA/CA
If you want a dishwasher that works well, buy Hobart.
https://www.hobartcorp.com/products/commercial-dishwashers
If you want cooking equipment that lasts, buy Garland.
https://www.garland-group.com/Products
If you want a good long lasting pizza oven, buy Blodgett.
https://www.blodgett.com/#
Basically, if you want something that isn't cheap crap, buy commercial.
Just my opinion of course 🙂
My dad has a 1983 Kenmore stove and dryer, but the washer and refrigerator died 15 years ago. The dryer needs new rollers/guides now, too. My friend swears by his old Maytag dishwasher. He doesn't seem to care that you can hear it in the next province because it can wash the dishes quicker than a new machine.
The problem isn't "overseas crap" dude. There are many Chinese items I'd buy before I bought American white goods. The problem is people generally accepting higher levels of crap. A 15$ coffee maker from Wal-mart lasts 90 days but was only 15$. An iPhone is made in China - few would call it "cheap Chinese crap" though, right?
If you want a fridge that lasts buy, True.
https://www.truemfg.com/NA/CA
If you want a dishwasher that works well, buy Hobart.
https://www.hobartcorp.com/products/commercial-dishwashers
If you want cooking equipment that lasts, buy Garland.
https://www.garland-group.com/Products
If you want a good long lasting pizza oven, buy Blodgett.
https://www.blodgett.com/#
Basically, if you want something that isn't cheap crap, buy commercial.
Just my opinion of course 🙂
I worked in a TV repair shop in the late 60's while I was still in high school. I ran the service department of an Olson Electronics store in 1971 and 1972. This was in Miami Florida in a time when only upper middle class people had air conditioning. There was no Best Buy. No Walmart either. Most TV sets were sold at department stores like Jefferson's (Montgomery Wards), tire stores like Firestone or Goodyear, or auto parts stores like Western Auto. These stores offered financing, and even had their own repossession teams if you didn't make the payments. Ever get to fix a repo TV. That's how I got my 1 year old, 25 inch RCA XL-100 in 1974 for $50.
Ever see what happened to those GE TV's that used all that fancy new GE plastic in the HV cage when they were exposed to a year of so of South Florida heat and humidity. You could smell the ozone when you walked into some houses. Once the dust collected enough humidity to break down, the fireworks started, then came the carbon tracking, then came the meltdown. If the customer kept watching a few even caught fire. Sylvania made a nice reliable budget TV. They didn't break too often, but they had a nasty habit of shocking the crap out of the users due to the two wire cord, hot chassis, and death cap, all wrapped up in a vinyl clad steel cabinet. The cabinet was electrically isolated from the chassis, but dust and humidity un-isolated it. A three wire cord would fix that, but many of the old houses had 2 wire outlets and NO ground to be found anywhere. South Florida has a roach problem. It was so bad that we would take the back off of some TV's and chase most of them out before putting the TV in the van. Roaches in the HV box can kill a TV quickly. They seemed to like the GE sets. Those GE's of the late 60's might have worked in some locations, but not Miami. Let's not even mention Muntz........
We were a Philco factory authorized service shop and did all the warranty work for the southwest Miami area during the Ford ownership years. Ford and Firestone had a long standing relationship until tires started exploding. Most of the TV's we fixed were sold at a Firestone store. Philco sent out service bulletins on their new TV's within a few months of introduction that explained all the common failure modes and exactly how to fix them. That's what kept the repair shop in business while the owner went to night school to learn electronics! Picture squashed at the bottom and stretched at the top? Change the 6LU8 tube and its cathode bypass cap (the real problem). I had LOT's of perfectly good 6LU8's to play with back then. Ever see a deflection yoke catch fire resulting in the neck breaking off the CRT on a fairly new TV? "It started smoking then blew up!" Philco sent a rep out to see that one, and then paid for the repair. Some of the Philco TV's were reliable, but the early PC board versions had their share of problems too. Dust and humidity on brown phenolic PC boards.....not a good combination for any brand of electronics.
We had quite a few repeat customers. Some were obviously due to the living conditions, and some due to poorly designed or built TV's. Stereo sets from the dorm rooms at the University of Miami were also a source of amusement. People would find new and unusual ways to kill stuff then ask for a warranty repair. No, the warranty doesn't cover drowning a new Fisher stereo in beer....that one came from a frat house. I could go on forever, but some of those oldies but goodies weren't really so good.
Ha ha. Thanks for the trip down memory lane, George. I had forgotten about televisions sold in tire and auto stores. 😀
Since I was fixing TV about 60 miles north of you, I remember many of those same problems, especially the roaches.
I suppose this is what people tend to forget. So many goods came broken, right from the factory. (Remember the AMF Harley Davidsons of the 70s?) How many things needed to be fixed on a new car when you got it? In the very old Consumer Reports magazines, the number of things that needed to be fixed on a new car they were reviewing was a standard part of the review. They didn't make a big deal about it, as it was so common. That seems a little shocking today. But hey, it meant a good living for a lot of us. 🙂
Since I was fixing TV about 60 miles north of you, I remember many of those same problems, especially the roaches.
I suppose this is what people tend to forget. So many goods came broken, right from the factory. (Remember the AMF Harley Davidsons of the 70s?) How many things needed to be fixed on a new car when you got it? In the very old Consumer Reports magazines, the number of things that needed to be fixed on a new car they were reviewing was a standard part of the review. They didn't make a big deal about it, as it was so common. That seems a little shocking today. But hey, it meant a good living for a lot of us. 🙂
Absolutely!
If ever my old Maytags finally dies, and I can't get parts for them..it's Speed Queen then.
Read independant reviews, talk to people..... apparently they're the most reliable machine made these days.
Everyone that I know that purchased the Speed Queens has been thrilled with them.
They're the only one who still uses a full metal gear transmission (as upposed to those plastic gear junkers).
Those plastic gear machines seem to get 6 years old and start crapping out.
Think..... SQ machines have been used for decades in commercial laundromats because of their reliability.
In constant use day after day - they naturally had to be reliable, and were built for rough use/abuse, and the domestic models are built the same way.
So the occasional domestic "laundry day" is no sweat for these machines.
Common sense.
And for increased reliability, the SQ machines with old-school "rotary dial" controls are the way to go too.
I'm not fond of electronic controls in those machines, even if they're well-designed.
My poor father! He replaced the picture tube in out late 60's era GE color TV. Turned it on - same thing. Turned out it was some diode (with a really looong body) that cost ~$3. It was near this HV cage with Xray warnings on it and a real interesting tube diode inside - the glass of which had turned a funny brown color near the base. I assume that sucker's top-hat plate was getting blasted so hard with electrons, Xrays would shoot out of the bottom of it.
I asked my father about it. He said just dont sit so close to the thing.
I asked my father about it. He said just dont sit so close to the thing.
Yeah, don't sit close to that TV junior! Ah, the good old days.
Remember when microwave ovens had a simple dial? I miss those. Our GE miscrowave has about 45 buttons, most of which are useless.
Hard to kill. They had a reputation for the best transmissions in the industry, didn't they?
Remember when microwave ovens had a simple dial? I miss those. Our GE miscrowave has about 45 buttons, most of which are useless.
My 1971 Kitchenaid dishwasher was built by Hobart.... so there, testimony as to its durability.
Sears Kenmore was a good brand - back then.
But researching various appliance brands over the years, I've seen the increasing troubles due to outsourcing and cutbacks, and in fact, most of it is due to "overseas crap."
However, you can certainly feel free to keep your head buried in the sand, that's of course your privledge.
Maybe you remember back around 1994, when Zenith 25" table model TVs started failing in droves.
The picture tubes made in those sets were "outsourced" from a Mexico factory, and they shorted out causing a chain reaction killing the main chassis.
Tens of thousands died during warranty, causing Zenith financial troubles, eventually resulting in bankruptcy.
Our shop constantly kept busy, getting CRT/chassis replacements for quite a while.
I can't even remember how many I had to "rebuild" in those days.
Eventually, Zenith went broke, and LG/LuckyGoldstar offered to buy into the company to save Zenith's name.
In a 1965 Consumer Reports magazine, they did a survey/testing on stereo consoles.
I still have a copy of that issue.
About two dozen brands, with several that came in with problems right off the bat.
Chassis that broke loose from transit..
Hum caused by poor design or faulty assembly..
Lousy radio reception and needing proper alignment..
One of these maybe 😉 we're short of 'nowt we've got.
I've worked on a fair few valve TV's even though they were pretty much obsolete when I started out. PL509/PY500A line stages with around 8kV on the valve top caps. You could draw a nice arc from them to a suitable screwdriver. B&W (not the speaker manufacturer LOL) sets with a DY802 rectifier and a single overwind of EHT cable round the line output transformer for the heater. Can't say I miss those days.
I'm lucky with the microwave I have.
Bought in 2003 at Sam's Club for $47, a Sharp Carousel with touchpad controls.
Been going strong for decades now, used every day.
We just purchased a Speed Queen washer model TC5003WN after the tub bearings on our LG front loader gave out. I can't speak to the long term reliability but we have found the cleaning power less than impressive. So much so that after 4 months of ownership we are seriously thinking of replacing it. I regret not digging in and replacing the bearings (its a chore) on the LG but laziness and the shiny new thing got us. Speed Queens do seem to have a cult following because of their reputation for reliability, not sure if other/older models clean better.
I got a Panasonic Inverter about 10 years ago. Still works like new and after using inverter, I wouldn't own a microwave unless it was inverter now. My air conditioner is also inverter. More to go wrong, but so much better performance.
Speed Queen is great - but get a real one...
Speed Queen is great - but get a real one...
Recalling my time when I was in my early twenties in the 1960s, managing a branch of a TV and electrical appliance store chain, we rented a lot of TVs.
The most popular was the Ultra 1775.
These developed a common fault in that the picture would start to roll, "and no matter how far and hard you turned the horizontal hold control at the back, you couldn't stop it."
My engineer who was of a similar age to me and was often called out for this fault. The quick fix was to change the PCL82 valve.
Two incidents of these many calls he recounted to me on his return to the shop.
One snotty customer complained to him and gave him a lot of grief about having to wait a whole day for the repair
.
So he just took the back off changed the valve and made as if he was going to leave without checking it. When the customer complained, he just turned it on again and the set was fine and walked out the door
On another occasion, a little old lady had a set with the same fault, when he fixed it he noticed there was a partial frame collapse with a gap top and bottom of the screen.
"I'll fix that for you love," She hadn't complained as she thought that the programmes were now like "wide screen" at the pictures.
We got a lot of sets in as part of "part exchange deals" "£20 off your old set when you part exchange it for this model," or whatever. These the company had no use for as most were rubbish and didn't work. My engineer was quite capable and managed to get many going. If the picture was a bit dim, he'd drop the voltage (No H&S comments please, I don't want to know). We sold these for a few pounds one at a time, to the barber across the road. He'd display them in his shop and sell them to his customers for a few pounds more. "A nice little earner" for us.
Once a month, my engineer and our driver would take a dozen or so old unrepairable sets down to the local tip. They'd drive the van (a Ford Thames) onto the weighbridge then back it up to the pile of rubbish and heave the sets out of the back of the van, whilst the tip workmen looked on.
They'd then drive back onto the weighbridge for the charge to be assessed and go into the office to pay. He said on one trip, one of the sets they'd heaved out of the vsn the previous month was up and running in the weighbridge office!
All sorts of items came in on these part exchange deals. On one occasion we took in an upright piano in full working condition . We kept it in the service room. I could play it a bit. On another occasion a Bush VHF 64 radio. One of these. I kept it for about ten years.
I moved out of that business in 1965 and ended up running first a couple of medium sized departmental stores and then big superstores.
Both my wife and I kept in touch with him and his wife, but sadly, they both died two years ago.
The most popular was the Ultra 1775.
These developed a common fault in that the picture would start to roll, "and no matter how far and hard you turned the horizontal hold control at the back, you couldn't stop it."
My engineer who was of a similar age to me and was often called out for this fault. The quick fix was to change the PCL82 valve.
Two incidents of these many calls he recounted to me on his return to the shop.
One snotty customer complained to him and gave him a lot of grief about having to wait a whole day for the repair
.
So he just took the back off changed the valve and made as if he was going to leave without checking it. When the customer complained, he just turned it on again and the set was fine and walked out the door
On another occasion, a little old lady had a set with the same fault, when he fixed it he noticed there was a partial frame collapse with a gap top and bottom of the screen.
"I'll fix that for you love," She hadn't complained as she thought that the programmes were now like "wide screen" at the pictures.
We got a lot of sets in as part of "part exchange deals" "£20 off your old set when you part exchange it for this model," or whatever. These the company had no use for as most were rubbish and didn't work. My engineer was quite capable and managed to get many going. If the picture was a bit dim, he'd drop the voltage (No H&S comments please, I don't want to know). We sold these for a few pounds one at a time, to the barber across the road. He'd display them in his shop and sell them to his customers for a few pounds more. "A nice little earner" for us.
Once a month, my engineer and our driver would take a dozen or so old unrepairable sets down to the local tip. They'd drive the van (a Ford Thames) onto the weighbridge then back it up to the pile of rubbish and heave the sets out of the back of the van, whilst the tip workmen looked on.
They'd then drive back onto the weighbridge for the charge to be assessed and go into the office to pay. He said on one trip, one of the sets they'd heaved out of the vsn the previous month was up and running in the weighbridge office!
All sorts of items came in on these part exchange deals. On one occasion we took in an upright piano in full working condition . We kept it in the service room. I could play it a bit. On another occasion a Bush VHF 64 radio. One of these. I kept it for about ten years.
I moved out of that business in 1965 and ended up running first a couple of medium sized departmental stores and then big superstores.
Both my wife and I kept in touch with him and his wife, but sadly, they both died two years ago.
I dislike those "front load" machines of any brand.
They just don't churn the load with enough effectiveness to get clothes clean like a top-loader does.