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Yeah but I'd bet the one we see in the video is probably still working, while I'm on my third fridge in 20 years. I think that negates any energy efficiency gai
by passwordoops 3y ago
Yeah but I'd bet the one we see in the video is probably still working, while I'm on my third fridge in 20 years. I think that negates any energy efficiency gains
- photonerd 3y agoI’ve had 8 fridges in 22 years, up until my latest I’ve they were all from this supposedly better age. All failed, in some cases disastrously. The only one that’s survived longer than a few years for me? The new one. Going 6 years strong. Not everything on my new one is perfect—I managed to break the built in water jug—but I feel a lot of the replies here need to take into account survivorship bias.
- marricks 3y agoWhat do you do to your fridges??? I'm in my 30's and have never had to replace a fridge. Never had a "modern" fridge except as a kid. All looked like low budget fridges from the 80's or 90's.
- taeric 3y agoQuality of power supply to your house will almost certainly be one of the bigger factors in how long things last. Combined with standard stochastic behavior, I'd expect anecdotes of both kinds.
- jwells89 3y agoI suspect that a great many problems with electronics, lifespan related and otherwise, are rooted in power quality issues. The newer apartments and house I’ve lived in as an adult have been decent in that regard, probably because they’re closer to being up to spec electrically and have newer lines running to them thanks to being in urban areas, but one of my childhood homes out in the countryside which is now approaching a century in age had a “habit” of killing computers every so often.
- bombcar 3y agoA whole-home surge protector is something everyone should install, just out of general principles. And if you have appliances/computers die, you should get your electricity monitored to see if it's out of bounds. In fact, anytime an appliance dies you should do a post-mortem to try to identify if something about the house may have contributed to it (hard water, electrical spikes, etc).
- photonerd 3y agoI’ve had that kill HVAC for sure (capacitors get fried if you have power issues).
- smileysteve 3y agoRe: Power; Digital Inverters, variable compressor technology are recent in the last decade and should reduce compressor failure from invalid state; More insulation added over the last 3 decades should reduce compressor run time, further reducing failure. IMO, most "failures" are from failure to replace relays and door seals.
- taeric 3y agoExactly. By most evidence, new machines should be lasting longer, all told. That so many people feel that is not happening seems to be interesting, in itself. Could be correct, I don't know. And same in experience. At large, the doors that are getting opened and closed repeatedly by my kids are far far more likely to get broken than any others. Which leads to door seals that are not up to where they should be. And will not surprise me that we run those compressors harder than we would otherwise. Which will lead to those failing.
- Spooky23 3y agoA friend worked for GE Research a several years ago. They were focused on reliability engineering. Meaning have predictive reliability on a bell curve to avoid failure during the 3 year warranty period, and to have a rate of failure during the extended warranty period to preserve the margins. The impact of surprises… bad components, variances in operational conditions, etc can have a big impact. Also, the quality improvements that emissions controls had on cars didn’t happen for white goods. Cars were hit with emissions AND safety standards, which raised prices. For appliances instead they incentivize things like all electronic controls (more prone to failure with rough service or high heat), and undersizing components. Old appliances were all mechanical and easily fixed, the electronics tend to turnover quickly and are difficult or impossible to get from a 3rd party.
- bena 3y agoI've purchased two fridges in my life. I've had one fridge fail on me in my life. The compressor (I think) failed and no longer cooled the fridge. The difference in replacing the compressor or getting a new fridge was negligible. Other than that, I've only changed fridges when I moved. The house we bought didn't come with a fridge, so we had to buy one.
- photonerd 3y agoThey were old. They failed. That’s what happens. One the compressor died & would have cost about 5 times the value of the fridge to replace. One a coolant line cracked (guessing just age). One the seals on the doors failed. One actually started HEATING things… that was ODD. One just… stopped, no idea what was wrong but nothing obvious. Old stuff breaks.
- Retric 3y agoSo you needed to replace 7 fridges in 16 years? You’re either a crazy statistical outlier or doing something very very wrong. Something seriously wrong with your houses electrical supply is the obvious explanation but it’s far from the only possibility.
- photonerd 3y agoIt’s called “old fridges eventually fail”. Nothing statistically strange about that. Luckily most were either “came with the place” ones or cheap 2nd hand ones. The point being: old fridges also fail, in fact they’re more likely to as they get older!
- Broken_Hippo 3y agoThat's sometimes what happens when you buy used stuff, especially appliances. You might get something that lasts for a few years. It might last 8 months. It might have roaches, too.
- Spooky23 3y agoThe biggest issue is the fridge is buried behind cabinets in a 30 1/8” opening. They overheat.
- jy14898 3y ago7 fridges over 16 years is crazy, do you live in a hot climate?
- bombcar 3y agoSurvivorship bias and "when do I toss it" - I have a freezer/fridge thing from Best Buy (something like this but it was about $300 on clearance: https://www.bestbuy.com/site/insignia-13-8-cu-ft-garage-ready-convertible-upright-freezer-white/6336451.p?skuId=6336451 https://www.bestbuy.com/site/insignia-13-8-cu-ft-garage-read... ) that literally is one box that you can dial in a temperature on. It had wifi for some unknown reason that never worked, but still pitifully broadcasts a wifi hotspot. It's been running for five years now, and it can only die by ceasing to freeze; there's nothing else to break. The fridge in the kitchen, however, has various features, some of which would cause me to throw it away even if it was still functioning as a fridge/freezer - for example, if the ice maker died, I might just replace the whole thing, instead of spending $300 to replace the ice maker, especially if it's a metric pain in the ass to do so. I try to take a look at repair prices and parts now before buying, because a $500 appliance where the likely breaking parts cost $500 is unlikely to be something that lasts long-term.
- low_common 3y agoMy parents have lived in their house for 28 years and had to replace the fridge like two or three times. 8 fridges sounds like your house might be part of the problem.
- photonerd 3y agoDid they buy them new?
- rsynnott 3y ago... Huh. Was this from a range of manufacturers? That seems like an astonishingly high failure rate. Anything funny about your electricity supply? EDIT: Ah, misunderstood. > all from this supposedly better age is in reference to _old_ fridges; I'd read it as being a complaint about _new_ fridges. All these failures were old fridges.
- AlecSchueler 3y agoWhy doesn't everyone have old fridges then? You only buy new when the old one breaks down right? But if the old ones were so sturdy why were they all replaced? I expect there's some survivorship bias at play here.
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- CivBase 3y agoBecause it's more convenient to buy a new fridge than to seek out an old one in good condition on the used market? And because they don't manufacture old fridges so the remaining good ones fetch a much higher price? And because there's no way for a consumer to reasonably determine the longevity of a new product before purchase? I don't necessarily think that's why people aren't buying this fridge but those are reasons why new products can still be successful even when they're worse than the old ones.
- AlecSchueler 3y agoWhy do you make your statements into questions?
- CivBase 3y agoTo emphasize they are hypotheticals which I am offering with an unsure, questioning tone.
- mholm 3y ago> You only buy new when the old one breaks down right? In my experience it's half and half. Sometimes people have a nice old reliable fridge that just looks ugly and dated to their tastes, so they upgrade. Same with older energy inefficient fridges.
- rascul 3y agoI used to deliver and install appliances. My experience is approximately the same as yours. About half the time the old fridge broke, the other half is for upgrades or something when the old fridge still works. Or because the easily replaceable and still working fan makes some noises sometimes. That fridge is now in my kitchen.
- drakythe 3y agoRemember when looking at old technology that still works Survivorship Bias is a thing to be aware of. Yes, that elderly family member with the 1950’s fridge makes us jealous. But how many of their friends who bought that same fridge had to upgrade because theirs crapped out? https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Survivorship_bias https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Survivorship_bias
- bsder 3y agoPart of "Survivorship Bias" is also "repairability". My father used to replace the control thermostat in our refrigerator about every 5 years and the compressor somewhere between every 10-15 years.
- ImHereToVote 3y agoYeah but did all that environment saving that your father did make him feel as virtuous as someone who buys a green certified product?
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- KennyBlanken 3y agoMaybe you should look at why your fridges keep dying instead of assuming it's the norm. I've got a fridge that uses 1Kwhr/day whihc places it near the bottom of the current energy start guidelines and it's about 15 years old.
- delfinom 3y agoI have a old basic GE fridge with a mfg date of 2008. It's still going strong and I hate myself for fixing it because it's fucking miserable having to bend down to the fridge as a tall person LOL. (I really want a bottom freezer fridge, single or french door) In the last month I have dropped probably 5 glass items and shattered them because I'll hit my hand on something trying to put things in or out of the fridge.