why do old refrigerators last forever

 

Why can old refrigerators last forever, while new ones break down quickly?

An article by Dave Smith at the Montreal Gazette offers a look at the reasons behind this.

Some points he offers are that new refrigerators have more technology in them to keep food fresh longer and they are filled with many more parts that have a lot of potential for breaking down. In addition, because it is not cost-effective to repair older models, people buy newer ones as they wear out and become unusable. This cycle also means that fewer parts remain available for repairing older models.

"Old fridges aren't built to last simply because they don't have to."

For more, please see the complete article.

  

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This is an interesting comparison between old and new refrigerators for numerous reasons. A question arises about "building to last". If some technology is built to last, it is not an accident, rather than the result of market forces. An example is the computer industry. There are differences between computers. Apple and IBM computers offer technological advances like ports for future upgrades and built-in technology for long-term reliability that make them excellent choices for businesses, especially when a replacement cycle of four to five years may be at stake. On the contrary, if a computer has neither of those attributes, those technological advances could be seen as short-sighted with regard to market forces. It could even be said that they are built poorly because they do not have market consideration in mind after production, except their profit motive. That is not to say that the computer industry will stop producing computers, only that they have to have a market or else they will not be made. That is exactly what I am saying here.

The article mentions "consumers" and "recyclers". A concept needs to be made explicit before anything else happens in this article. People living on limited incomes may buy a refrigerator as their financial situation allows them to. If the refrigerator does get worn out due to its age, it is more difficult for these people to afford a new one. The problem then is that in absence of the means to replace their refrigerator with a new one, they are stuck with an old one and thus end up disposing of it.

 

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To quote again from the article, "If you're buying a fridge at the thrift store or another yard sale, you're probably looking for any reason to pass on it. Why put more money into something that will only last a year or two? One answer: Old fridges aren't built to last simply because they don't have to."

With this in mind, I have an answer. People who have old refrigerators and do not want to dispose of them use them as their food storage area. They may repair them and use them for another 10 years, but that is only if repairs were needed. When no repairs were needed, the older refrigerators are one way of storing food and we see that.

This is a good reason why people choose older refrigerators as their storage area for food. That is a bigger reason than the "don't want to buy new" or even the "don't have money to buy new". This brings me back to my original point of "building to last".

There are times when old technology breaks down. Sometimes the fix for this is not within the technology but rather in something within human nature that causes it.