How long do refrigerators last?

[tvguy]

My Montgomery Ward (made by Frigidaire) side by side, is running all the time. Everything on the web suggests cleaning the coils, so I will attempt this later today. The refrigerator is right at 39 degrees, and the freezer at
-5, so it's keeping stuff cold, just not shutting off.

I realize, with my refrigerator being 27 1/2 years old, I am on borrowed time.
I looked at some charts on the internet saying the average life should be 8 to 14 years, seems like it should be longer than that.

How long to you expect your refrigerator to last? I guess it's better to replace a refrigerator that running rather than losing the food in their when it dies, which could be years from now.

 

[marcyinPA]

Ours will be 12 in April. It's on it's last leg. It's keeping everything cold, but it runs constantly. I feel like it should have lasted longer than that, but we've replaced many appliances in our home at around 10 -12 years of age. I don't like it, but everything is being made very "disposable" these days.

 

[TaraPA]

I just had this conversation with the appliance repair person this week. We built this house almost 5 years ago & we put 2 dishwashers in the kitchen. They BOTH broke the same week! When I called for service they asked how old they were, and I said 5 years. "Oh" they said, "then we'll have to see if you want to repair them or just replace them." Replace them?? They said yes the average life span of newer appliances is 7 years. So I shouldn't have complained about that Avacado Green White Westinghouse monster fridge in my 1st condo that lasted 25 years...

 

[It'sWDW4me]

My GE turned 16 (wow, I didn't think it was that old) in July. I'm waiting for the day that I come home to melted ice cream in my freezer. I half expected to return from our 10 day trip to WDW in August to a rotten food stink - and was pleasantly surprised that it's still going. No, they don't make them like they did 27 1/2 years ago!

 

[The Mystery Machine]

Currently the fridge we have is 5yo. Who knows how long it will last but no way is it going to last 27yrs.

We are on our fourth house and have had 3 fridges but one of them we left with a house when we sold it.

We have a fridge in the basement that we are not using at the moment.

We did kill the dishwasher here after 2 1/2 yrs (we bought a model home). It was cheap. Now we have a very nice dishwasher.

 

[bigbabyblues]

Our first one lasted about 11 years. Our current one is about 2 years old and I don't like it, so it will probably last forever.

 

[tvguy]

Our first one lasted about 11 years. Our current one is about 2 years old and I don't like it, so it will probably last forever.

Funny how that works.

 

[scrapquitler]

My Montgomery Ward (made by Frigidaire) side by side, is running all the time. Everything on the web suggests cleaning the coils, so I will attempt this later today. The refrigerator is right at 39 degrees, and the freezer at
-5, so it's keeping stuff cold, just not shutting off.

I realize, with my refrigerator being 27 1/2 years old, I am on borrowed time.
I looked at some charts on the internet saying the average life should be 8 to 14 years, seems like it should be longer than that.

How long to you expect your refrigerator to last? I guess it's better to replace a refrigerator that running rather than losing the food in their when it dies, which could be years from now.

It's past time to replace that fridge. You're going to be surprised when you get a new one how much less electricity it uses.

 

[Micca]

Appliances are the quintessential "they don't make 'em like they used to" items. When my mother had to move to assistant living a few years ago she had to sell the freezer that was 35+ years old and still working. The realtor bought it. DW and I had a washer/dryer combo that came with the house when we bought it in 1985. They still worked when we moved out in 2006(though I think they were going to fail soon). We now live in a place that is about a dozen years old and I can tell that we will be replacing some of our appliances within the next couple of years (already had to replace the air conditioning).

 

[bballmom56]

How long do they last?

I don't know, but mine is 18 yo and still runs fine.

My boss has very high end appliances and has nothing but trouble with all of them - washer, dryer, oven, dishwasher, stove, fridge, furnace, etc. It seems like not a week goes by that she doesn't have a service call in for one of them. And I know she spent a fortune on each of them. I keep telling her that my base model Kenmores have never needed service (hope I'm not jinxing myself). The dishwasher and oven are also 18, and the stove is the original, so must be 30+ yo.

 

[PrincessInOz]

My fridge (also made by Frigidaire way back when...) is currently over 24 years old. Looks like I can reasonably expect another 3 years life out of it.

We have been thinking of replacing the fridge for a more energy efficient fridge. But no plans to do anything about it until it breaks down; or if we find a pot of money somewhere...

 

[mrsheppo]

My refrigerator just went out recently. I had it for 12 years and it was a Kenmore. On the other hand, I had a freezer that my parents bought from JC Penney's back in 1975. They used it for 15 years before passing it on to me. I had it for 19 years and just passed it on to my DD last year. It is still going strong with it's third generation of owners and never had a service call.

 

[tvguy]

Just back from Sears. Okay, why don't refrigerators have a built in egg shelf anymore?
60 floor models, Kenmore, Samsung, Frigidaire, LG, GE, Maytag, none had a place for eggs.
Also amazing price range, looking at a 27 Cubic Foot side by side, price range runs from $780 (Frigidaire) to $2,999 (LG) .

Really like the Kenmore (made by LG) for $863.

 

[mrodgers]

When I moved into my house in 2000, I started replacing all the appliances. I wasn't replacing them because they were broken, the all worked like new, but they were original to the house, 1968. My fridge didn't have a handle, it had a foot pedal to depress to open. It was still very cold inside, but the problem was we couldn't even fit a gallon of milk in it. I'd say the usable space was about 1/3 of the overall size of the fridge. My washing machine also worked flawlessly. My wife grew up with well problems, thus when we saw that the washing machine was working on draining Lake Erie with the 2nd load for the day, she wanted it replaced with a front loader.

Since replacing our 32 year old fridge and washing machine around 2000-2001, we are on our 2nd fridge and 2nd washing machine replacements. We are also on our 2nd dishwasher (first one was a new installation the week we moved in since there was none.) The cloths dryer wasn't original to the house, but we also replaced it twice now.

We also replaced the stove when we installed the 2nd dishwasher, but the old stove wasn't original to the house being built. That's $5550 worth of appliances spent in 10 years after replacing perfectly working 32 year old appliances.

 

[dis-happy]

I just replaced my 25 year old refrigerator when it finally bit the dust recently. Actually, the new stainless steel counter depth replacement we bought looks pretty nice!

Anyway, wanted to add: before having to replace it, I noticed that our old fridge was running most of the time. This is where it gets scary: the night before we were to leave town for 2 weeks, I just happened to notice that the side of the refrigerator was very, very HOT! (I had been checking to see if the heat was from the oven being left on). I think the compressor was about to burn up from overheating and catching it when I did saved us from a house fire with no one home. So please be careful.

 

[hambirg]

Our first one lasted about 11 years. Our current one is about 2 years old and I don't like it, so it will probably last forever.

That is so true! My parents' house was built in 1961 and up until 2yrs ago my mom still had the original turquoise oven. She's been saying as long as I can remember (and I'm 45 now) that she'll replace it when it goes out. I'm surprised she didn't just take a sledgehammer to it.

 

[Bella the Ball 360]

My aunt has a Kenmore(when the name meant something not just the lowest bidder for Sears) chest type freezer that she got well over 50 years ago. When I went down her cellar where she keeps it a few weeks ago I was Shocked it still works and works well! Obviously, when they made appliances years ago they were made to last now they are PLANNED to go in a short time "planned obselesence(sp?" I might add my GE drier was 27+ years old when I finally had to send it to the "appliance bridge."

They also make the cost of repair so high you realize that it is not worth it to fix it .

 

[bicker]

It used to be that people made purchases based on how long things last more than how much they had to pay for it up-front. Consumer behaviors have been turned on their head: The vast majority of consumers, despite loud protestations to the contrary, make their purchasing decisions primarily on price, and relegate longevity considerations to self-delusions like, "it better last longer than the warranty indicates, or I'll demand satisfaction." That leads, inevitably, to myriad cases where consumers bemoan how they were ripped-off by a purchase, when in reality, the performance of what they purchased clearly reflects how little we pay for longevity.

 

[marcyinPA]

Just back from Sears. Okay, why don't refrigerators have a built in egg shelf anymore?
60 floor models, Kenmore, Samsung, Frigidaire, LG, GE, Maytag, none had a place for eggs.
Also amazing price range, looking at a 27 Cubic Foot side by side, price range runs from $780 (Frigidaire) to $2,999 (LG) .

Really like the Kenmore (made by LG) for $863.

We bought our fridge in 1999 and it doesn't have an egg shelf either. I think the school of thought is that your eggs will stay fresher in their original packaging, and not on the door of your fridge.

 

[bicker]

That is correct.