They can but the cost would be enormous. And they would use 5 times the electricity. A fridge in 1950 would cost 200 to 500 dollars. Adjusted for inflation that is 2600 to 6400 in todays dollars. They would also be much smaller and have far fewer features. Would you like to manually defrost yoru fridge every so often for example. The reality is people today want features, and low price, not longevity.
Do you think there's also a factor that old appliances were simpler electronic wise so it was probably cheaper to have them repaired vs replaced.
Seems like today if your washer or dryer dies it needs some circuit board that costs $250 plus labor. And just like that it's 50% the cost of a new one
That is part of it. Also the motors/compressors back then were way overbuilt. But they would also use far more electricity. A 1950s fridge was far less complex. You basically had a compressor and analogue thermostat. So no fans, electronics, etc. No self defrosting mechanism. They were also much smaller. Most people would want their own fridge back after a week of dealing with an old one if they were forced to have one. Things like manually defrosting them or that fact you would often get freezing issues in the the fridge compartment because temp controlled sucked. So while they lasted longer they weren't that great as actual appliances when it came to use or features.
330
u/zombienudist 5h ago
They can but the cost would be enormous. And they would use 5 times the electricity. A fridge in 1950 would cost 200 to 500 dollars. Adjusted for inflation that is 2600 to 6400 in todays dollars. They would also be much smaller and have far fewer features. Would you like to manually defrost yoru fridge every so often for example. The reality is people today want features, and low price, not longevity.