Home appliance life expectancy

[Old Techo]

I was surprised by a news article stating the expected lives of home appliances.

In case it was not impartial I searched and found a Choice report that I expect to have better credibility, but again some of the stats remained surprising.

www.choice.com.au/shopping/consumer-rights-and-advice/your-rights/articles/how-long-should-your-appliances-last

Choice quote life expectancy as 3 categories. Budget/entry level, Mid-range and High-end.

Choice, fridges: 6, 9 and 13 years. Our F&P 2 fridges are 22 years old and chest freezer 18, never had a fault.

Choice, clothes washing machines, 5, 8 and 11 years. Our F&P washer is 26 years old. I replaced the single main bearing.

Choice, dish washers, 5, 8 and 11 years. Ours is 19 years old. Never touched it.

Choice, air-cons, 6, 8 and 12 years. I installed our two split-unit air-cons 25 years ago, never touched them since.

Choice, vac cleaners, 4, 6 and 10 years. I installed our under-floor central vac system before our house slab was poured 50 years ago.

Choice, heaters, portable, 4, 6 and 9 years. Choice only mention electric. I bought a portable gas heater 28 years ago and I installed a gas wall furnace 37 years ago. Only replaced the fan in latter.

Choice, printers, including multi-function, 2, 4 and 5 years. Our Brother Multi-function laser is 19 years old. Replaced toner only.

Choice, electric stoves, 10, 13 and 15 years. Our first stove worked perfectly for 31 years before I replaced the whole kitchen and the new stove now 19 years old. Never touched it.

Choice, electric ovens, 10, 15 and 20 years. I installed our Whirlpool double-wall-oven 50 years ago. Replaced some plug-in elements, element contacts and 1 switch. Still works perfectly.

Perhaps after these comparisons I wonder about the validity of even the Choice report. Most of our stuff I would not call high-end purchases.

Also a little worrying is the Choice claimed very short life of some budget items.

[spaceland]

From time to time, Choice does surveys with their subscribers. Those results come from the subscribers. I think you should be putting your queries to them, not here, to discover the validity of the results.

[jr]

If you are a bit of a handyman those numbers can be doubled in many cases.
My longest lasting item is our Simpson cloth dryer, about 50 years now. Once I replaced the drum felt bearings with Teflon only needed to replace the two belts maybe five times over 50 years and the belts are still available.
Our Miele coffee machine lasted 22 years but I managed to obtain the full service manual so was able to do some repairs that would be very difficult to diagnose other wise.
Yes very frustrating at times when you know there is only a small cheap bit at fault but need to buy the hole item.

JR

[stoney]

When buying things like TVs I buy cheap with the longest warranty. Technology is moving so fast I can upgrade more often. Why buy an expensive TV that will last a long time.

[bazza44]

We still have an --unsmart TV-- great picture, works well, why change before it stuffs up.

Barry

[stoney]

Feb 26, 2024 7:22:38 GMT 10 bazza44 said:

We still have an --unsmart TV-- great picture, works well, why change before it stuffs up.

Barry

I can stream movies. I no longer need to record movies to watch later as I can watch previous content free.

No more DVD’s or recorder. No more set top box.

[loub]

Yes I swaped my 12v van tv for a smart version. Much better because as Stoney stated you can stream of the net,has blue tooth so with these cheap TV's the sound isn't flash but using the blue tooth speaker it's much better. IMHO