After the death of their mother, my wife and her sisters helped their father with the task of moving out of the family house and preparing that house for sale. In the basement was a refrigerator that was more than 50 years old that worked like it had when it was new. The rubber door seal had been replaced, and repairs had been made when needed, but the machine ran faithfully for more than half a century.

After having owned a series of second-hand appliances in the early years of our marriage, Susan and I purchased a new refrigerator and a new stove when we moved into our home in Rapid City, South Dakota. 25 years later, the man who bought our house wanted to buy all of the appliances, so we sold them with the house. The refrigerator and stove were working well after 25 years of continual service.

When we purchased our current home, one of the selling points was that the house contained an updated kitchen with new stainless steel appliances. Since we had sold our appliances with our former home, it seemed like a good deal to move into a house with an updated kitchen. We thought that the appliances would serve us for decades as had been our experience.

This fall we will have owned this house for four years. We are not thinking of selling it, but if we did, we could list it as a home with updated appliances. The microwave oven and oven hood over the stove was the first of the “new” appliances to fail. It looked brand new when we hauled it away after installing a replacement. The broiler on the stove was the next appliance failure. I checked out the repair by watching YouTube and decided that it would be best to have an professional make the repair. Before the technician was dispatched, the company quoted us a price range in excess of half of the cost of a new appliance. Since it was a gas stove and we prefer electric, we decided to make the change and purchased a new stove. I asked the salesperson about the life expectancy of the new stove. He wouldn’t give me an estimate, but said that no modern appliances are designed to last 25 years as was the case with the ones we had purchased in Rapid City. We decided to purchase an extended warranty so that we were covered for the first five years of the new stove.

The refrigerator was the next to go. Once again, I turned to YouTube. This time I ordered parts online and made the repair according to the instructions. I had previously been successful replacing the door seals. The new parts, however, did not solve the problem with the ice maker and water dispensing function of the refrigerator. We turned off the water and decided we could live without those functions. We made ice cubes in trays in the freezer and got our water out of the tap. When the refrigerator failed to maintain temperature we called the appliance repair people who essentially said that the machine was “too old” to repair. They were uncertain whether or not they could get the parts and if they could they would not guarantee reliability after they were installed. The cost of a technician coming to assess the appliance and order the parts was high enough for us to decide it was time for a new refrigerator. Once again we went for the extended warranty.

I joked with the salesperson that for a kitchen with all updated appliances all we had left was the dishwasher that we purchased with the home. It should come as no surprise that it has now failed. I did the YouTube repair search once again, ordered parts, and made the replacements. It appears that the machine still needs another new part.

The good news is that two people don’t generate that many dishes. Even when we have our son and his family over to dinner, washing the dishes doesn’t take more than about 15 minutes. We have every intention of purchasing a new dishwasher, but we aren’t feeling any pressure. Shopping for appliances doesn’t seem fun to us any more. We know it will cost more than we anticipate and we know we’ll go for an extended warranty once again. However, with all of the other things going on in our lives, we’ll likely put off replacing the dish washer for a while.

So we’ll once again have all updated kitchen appliances. And for a short time, we’ll have warranties on all of them.

I’m pretty sure that manufacturers are capable of producing appliances that would last for 25 or even 50 years. However, they are in the business of selling new appliances and making ones that fail sooner rather than later means they can sell more appliances. As a consumer, however, I don’t find any pleasure in purchasing a kitchen appliance. We had a kitchen with updated appliances. Then we spent a lot of money for new appliances. We sill have a kitchen with updated appliances. There is nothing new and exciting in exchange for the money we have spent. Usually, I get a bit of pleasure out of a new purchase. Appliances don’t seem to give me any of that pleasure. I know that the new appliances don’t add value to our house were we to sell it. If, however, I thought I could purchase appliances that would last for the rest of the time I own the house, I might be happier about the expense.

I noticed the last time I used it that our Kitchen Aid mixer was squealing as if a bearing is going out. The mixer is over 50 years old. We got it when my mother moved from her home. I’m fairly sure that parts are still available for the machine. A new motor might cost $100 and a new gear box might be half that amount. The machine is simple to disassemble and replace parts. It has no computer in need of programming. The thing about the mixer is that the company still makes the same basic machine. We could get a new one for about $400. On the other hand, I’m pretty sure that by spending $150 on the machine we have will make it last for another 25 years. That’s about how long it has been since I replaced the gear box last time.

For now, my plan is to put up with the noisy mixer until it fails completely. It gives me something to think about when I’m washing dishes.