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Refrigerators might be a bad example because we got rid of highly effective refrigerants on purpose to patch a hole in the ozone layer. Or perhaps more accurat
by dragontamer 3y ago
Refrigerators might be a bad example because we got rid of highly effective refrigerants on purpose to patch a hole in the ozone layer.
Or perhaps more accurately, to stop poking a giant hole in the ozone layer.
- pfdietz 3y agoToday's refrigerators are much more efficient.
- indymike 3y agoOld lock handle fridges are surprisingly efficient. I have a 1949 Hotpoint and a 2022 LG. They both draw about the same amount of power when running, the difference is the Hotpoint runs less because it has four inches of insulation and a lock handle that seals much better than the drawer on the LG freezer. The only complaint with the Hotpoint is that it stays around 32.5°F which is too cold for veggies, but fantastic for beer.
- rsynnott 3y agoI don't think freon fridges were inherently mechanically any more reliable than fridges using modern refrigerants. If anything slightly less so all else being equal, I'd have thought.
- dublin 3y agoALL older appliances were way more reliable than any you can buy today. I'm just old enough that all our appliances are from the 1980s, plus a huge chest freezer from the 60s or 70s bought secondhand on Craigslist for $45. They are simple, reliable, faster, and work better than their modern counterparts. Our refrigerator, bought in 1989, has never had any problem at all. They can be easily fixed, and parts are still available - unlike my Mom's 5-8 year-old Samsung and LG appliances, which will have to be thrown away and replaced soon, because parts are NOT available. As for efficiency - they're not really much less efficient than new ones, especially when you figure that each of them has outlasted a half-dozen or more modern appliances. When the washing machine tub cracked a couple of years ago, I asked the local parts shop if it was worth getting our old Kenmore(Whirlpool) machine fixed, and when he found out it was from 1987, the manager said, "Don't ever get rid of it! You can't buy anything made that well today at any price!" So I spent $80 on a new tub (plus $75 for labor, since installing it is a pain). That's one of only two major repairs it's ever needed (I swapped out the synchronous clock driven cycle controller myself 15 years ago) - it still runs just like it did when new. It's certainly possible that all my appliances could outlive me...
- dragontamer 3y agoI had an old chest freezer from the 80s. You had to manually defrost it for it to keep working. Modern ones have automatic defrosters and other such features. Yes, the old one "kept working", but at worse-and-worse reliability as the frost built up, until you manually removed everything from the freezer and ran a proper defrost cycle (aka: turn it off, wait for everything to melt, sponge out the water). I think I'll stick with my "less reliable" heater-inside-a-freezer with an escape hole to automatically siphon + pump the water out. More moving parts means less reliability, but these features are absolutely worth the loss in reliability.
- bigbillheck 3y ago> ALL older appliances were way more reliable than any you can buy today. Sure, if you only consider all the older appliances that have survived this long.
- 3y ago
- troupe 3y agoMy refrigerator does just fine keeping things cold. The plastics shelves just decompose. My guess is that if they get a warranty claim based on a broken shelf they can just send one out easily. They make the things that will be hard to fix (compressor, etc.) so they last long enough to get through the warranty period.
- yellowapple 3y agoNone of the features in that ad missing from modern refrigerators have much to do with the refrigerants, though.