They don’t build them like they used to.
This is one of the greatest truisms I know.
It’s kind of a strange thing, but my mom recalls with fondness the refrigerator in the little cozy Vancouver home she grew up in. It was a solid, white steel job with rounded corners and chrome parts on the front and inside. Over the years, the handle got wiggly but, overall, the thing was in tip-top working order for decades, up until the day the house was sold.
I hope the folks who wound up buying the old home appreciated the inheritance.
Last night, after a very long night at work covering the federal election, I arrived home to some disappointing news. Our two-year old stove had given it up. It isn’t an extravagant thing, though it does operate by buttons instead of the simple dials.
I learned from a repair person that it’s going to cost at least $300 to fix. That’s about 60 per cent of the original cost.
After year one with the stove, my wife received a call from the retailer, asking if we wished to buy an extended warranty. Expecting the stove would last longer than it has, she declined, and was told, “Madam, you’ll regret not getting the extended warranty.”
No kidding!
A co-worker says she recently went through the same thing, and was informed by an old-time repair person that this is how it is with these appliances with computer control boards, that you’re better off going with the older-style dial set up.
So now my wife and I have the dilemma: repair or replace? As though we can afford either.
Increasingly, the product range in our disposable culture seems to stretch to items once deemed indestructible. For example, I used to photograph with an old Canon A-1, a solid metal rangefinder that could take a beating and continue to produce fine pictures. By contrast, today’s digital SLRs are finicky, plastic things with delicate parts and a very limited lifespan.
A couple years back, I purchased a pair of hiking shoes made by a reputable company – the kind you pay a premium to own. In less than a year, after a few hikes and a good bit of walking around town, the soles had worn flat.
There are things you kind of expect to wear out, and there are things that should last. But it seems the disposable mindset rules the wheels of production. After all, it’s far more profitable to sell a product that has to be repaired and/or replaced in a couple year’s time. Especially when the same or more is being charged for less.
Admittedly, I kind of dig vintage appliances, and would love to have a fridge like my grandpa’s instead of the two-year-old one we currently own, which shares the same brand name as our stove. We’re keeping our fingers crossed on that one, and with luck, we might find a nice old electric stove in good shape that will continue to cook for decades to come.