Out of Warranty

I recently saw a meme on Facebook supposedly from an old, out-of-style refrigerator. 

The refrigerator was telling the people to whom it belonged that it would still be going strong long after the people had passed on.

That reminded me of the old refrigerator my parents used to have. It was their only refrigerator for many years. It didn't hold a lot, and it had a very small freezer section that had to be defrosted manually. When my parents got a bigger, more modern, self-defrosting refrigerator, the old one was moved to the basement, where it was used to keep soft drinks and beer cold.

This made me think about how durable appliances used to be, and how poorly made they are today. A few months ago I had to have work done on the freezer section of my 14-year-old refrigerator, which stopped freezing. I was grateful to find a repair man who came to the house the same day, quickly identified the problem, and returned the next day with the replacement part. 

I replaced a 16-year-old clothes dryer that stopped working. I figured that even if I could get parts for it, the cost of parts and labor to repair the unit would be close to the cost of a new one.

Things are not as well made as they used to be, in the era when appliances were repaired rather than being taken to the dump. Let's face it: we live in a disposable society.

A couple of years after I moved into my current house, the well pump died. It cost $2,500 to have it replaced. When I asked what the warranty was on the new one, I was told it was only 1 year. (Each house in my part of town has its own well and septic system). Luckily it still works some 12 years later.

I figure I am a lot like that old refrigerator: small, showing my age, but still working. I may not be as efficient or as good-looking as I used to be, and the warranty has likely expired, but I still have all of my original parts and I'm still working!