In the early 1950’s, Susan’s father was briefly in the home appliance business in a small town in North Dakota. At that time, which was fairly early in their marriage. He and his wife purchased a refrigerator for their home. The subsequently made a move from North Dakota to Libby in Northwestern Montana and later from Libby to Billings. In Billings they lived for a while in one home and then moved to another home that they kept until after Susan’s mother died. With each move the refrigerator went with them. When we emptied that home in preparation for its sale at the end of her father’s life, that refrigerator was still going strong, keeping its temperatures cool and its freezer cold. I don’t know how long it kept going, but it worked faithfully for more than 50 years.

In 1995, we sold our home appliances except our washing machine and dryer with our home in Boise, Idaho. We purchased a house in Rapid City, South Dakota that didn’t have appliances and proceeded to shop for a new refrigerator and stove. When we sold that house 25 years later, the stove and refrigerator were still working well. I suspect that they are still going strong, but don’t know for sure.

A little less than 2 years ago we purchased the house where we now live. It came with a full set of appliances, including a washing machine and dryer. All of the appliances were touted in the advertisement for the home as “upgraded.” They all looked modern with stainless steel finishes. They weren’t, however, brand new. We later learned that the kitchen appliances might not all have been the same age, but the stove and refrigerator were probably around 15 years old. Last spring we replaced the stove. We did so in part because we wanted to make the change from a gas range to an electric one. The broiler in the stove was not working at the time we replaced it, but the part was fairly inexpensive and readily available.

Yesterday we went shopping for a new refrigerator. The one we purchased with this house is displaying an error code. There are two possible causes of the code that it is displaying. One of those possible causes can be remedied with a part that costs nearly $500 just for the part. The repair estimate is more than $700 if that is the cause. The other possible cause is something for which parts are no longer available. In shopping for repairs, I did discover where the refrigerator had been purchased and was informed by the dealership service department that the refrigerator had outlived its expected life by a couple of years. They did not recommend spending hundreds of dollars on repairs and suggested that repairing the current fault would not significantly extend the life of the machine, which was likely to have additional problems in the near future.

Since we are now going to purchase a new refrigerator, I have been doing as much research as I can. I discovered, for example, that the brand with the highest customer satisfaction is not on the list of brands with the lowest repair records as evaluated by appliance service professionals. Most popular brands of refrigerators have a rated life of 12 to 14 years. A couple of brands are rated to last a bit longer, up to 19 years. The only refrigerators with longer life expectancy are significantly more expensive, costing more than $10,000. We are not in the market for such a refrigerator.

The result is a lot of appliances that end up in landfills. And more and more are ending up that way each year because they simply do not last as long as appliances built years ago. While some of the components in old appliances can be recycled, there are lots of plastics in modern appliances that are not being recycled at this time. On the other hand, that refrigerator that Susan’s parents bought that lasted 50 years, used an ozone-depleting chemical that slowly leaked over the life of the machine and had to be recharged with more of that chemical at least once during its lifespan. It wasn’t what we would call “environmentally friendly.”

When we bought the refrigerator that lasted more than 25 years, it was of the first generation of household refrigerators that was not charged with dichlorodiflouromethane (Freon). It was, however, produced before the existence of Energy Star ratings. Over the span of its life it consumed a lot more electricity than modern appliances.

In our shopping we are trying to strike a balance of cost over the lifespan of the appliance, which does include the energy consumed, maintenance, and eventual replacement. While we have been able to do some research and shopping, we ended the day yesterday a bit overwhelmed with all of the options. Since our refrigerator is unlikely to fail catastrophically in the short run, we’re taking our time to make a decision about its replacement. However, the risk goes up with each passing day and it takes a while for the dealership to arrange delivery, so we won’t delay the decision very long. We have a freezer in our garage and a couple of ice chests available in case it fails completely. And because the machine is not controlling humidity properly, we are trying to eat up as much of the food stored in it to reduce the amount of food that needs to be cooled.

The technology exists to produce appliances that last, but the combination of price and the continuing demand for new features, lowers the incentive for that production. I don’t think we need a refrigerator that is connected to the Internet and communicates with our phones. I’m not sure that we need an ice maker and a cold water dispenser, though we’re probably going to end up with those features because that is the way refrigerators come these days.

I’m hoping that the dishwasher is good for a few more years. Trying to make a responsible decision is exhausting.