> devices with 1950’s technology.

I think it’s worth pointing out that this a good sign that compared with modern equivalents they suffered from being some combination of expensive, large, noisy, inefficient, limited functionality, prone to failure, etc etc.

Consumer white goods have always been designed to hit a price point with just enough quality and durability that customer complaints and warranty costs stay at acceptable levels. As production techniques, technologies and material science improved over the decades those price points have come way down.

In the fifties a counter top microwave would have cost you $500, which is about $5,500 nowadays. At that price it would have to have been a buy it for life purchase. Now you can buy a microwave for $50(!), one-hundredth of the original price, and it still lasts about as long.

I suspect that there aren’t many people who develop the same “feeling” for their washing machine as they do for their leather wallet or their Opinel knife, and so there’s less emphasis on long life in white goods, though as you point out, a few manufacturers do still push that aspect.

If I had a strong feeling for that aspect, I’d generally look at German brands who still do a lot of their manufacture in house.

Edit: just had a look. My dishwasher is Siemens, the cooker is AEG, the washing machine is LG, and the fridge is some budget brand, which all gives a clue as to their relative priority in this household!

Planned Obsolecence

The fridge one is what gets me. Is it possible to buy a high quality fridge these days? Or is it better to find a vintage pre “cheap fridge era” - I forget what year this is when essentially all of them went to a design that’s meant to wear out. But then I think you have to suck it up and defrost the freezer.

A proper install and maintenance is huge for longevity of furnaces, the duct work it connects to plays a large roll, undersized duct, not changing filters, lack of maintenance, etc all chip away at the lifespan of the furnace. A furnace can even be too big for your house. You get what you pay for with HVAC, good contractors will sell better equipment and stand behind it in the long run, the local contractor is the make or break for buying quality.

So I'm an engineer, and I've worked on consumer devices, and I'm going to tell you the secret here:

Take any of those "long-lasting" appliances from the 50s. What did it cost? How much is that in today's money? Here's one reference to look at. Plug them into a cpi calculator and see for yourself.

That $21 toaster from 1951 is the equivalent of $230 today. How about that $329 fridge? That's over $3k today.

Does the modern equivalent you are using for comparison cost the same with the same features? No? Well then it's no different than comparing chinese-made junk from the dollar store to premium stuff at a high-end store. Of course the cheap junk is going to look worse.

This is the basic problem: most people want their stuff cheap. They want lots of features. Well, when you cut price and add features, corners have to be cut somewhere, and it's going to come out of materials and build quality.

You can absolutely find good quality stuff that will last decades. You have to completely recalibrate what you think is reasonable to pay for an appliance though: Miele dishwashers have been known to easily go 20+ years. Their most basic, no-frills model *starts* at $1.3k. Some of their higher-end models go over $4k. Want a toaster that lasts decades? Well you're looking at $200+, but you can absolutely still find them once you know what you're looking for.

Here, I'll even use a clear example. Let's take a look at washing machines. Here's some Samsung piece of shit that will fall apart within a few years but has every whiz-bang feature you can imagine that you will use exactly once and never touch again. Here's a commercial washing machine that has nothing more than two simple dials and a button that costs more, but will last you until you die. But consumers almost exclusively want the shiny box with all the features, because people tend to shop by looking for the most features per $, not for longevity. So that's why most stuff you buy at the store is junk.

As soon as you start expanding your budget for an appliance but not looking for gimmicky features, suddenly you can find lots of stuff that lasts a long time.

I think you need to buy proffesional grade appliances. That is what I'm trying. Do you want a tool? Buy Bosch blue not green. Instead of a Breville coffee machine buy a Rancilio. Instead of a Candy dishwasher buy a Winterhalter. Instead of a Bosch blender buy Vitamix. It's 3 to 10× more expensive? Quality cost. Don't have a budget to buy everything top grade, like most of the people, buy twice then.

If what you say is true, you have found a hole in the market and should exploit it by opening your own refrigerator factory. But you aren't going to do that are you?

You are making assumptions based on zero evidence. Gather the data....then make conclusions, don't be a boomer and make a conclusion sans data. Focus on one topic. Gather data. Summarize what the data shows.

I'm willing to bet a data->conclusion model will differ from your current conclusion->no data model.