Disposable Dishwashers and other Appliances

We live in a disposable society…

This should not come as a shock to those of us who drink bottled water, blow through Kleenex and turn up our noses at cloth diapers (full or empty).

In a time when that same bottled water has an expiration date, (seriously?) we have come to expect a short shelf life from the items we use and consume daily.
But I draw the line when it comes to appliances.

I’ve started to notice that dishwashers, dryers, washing machines and microwaves have developed shorter life spans. One friend commented that it used to be that your second set of appliances was the ones you died with. Not so much anymore. My parents have lived in their home for over 50 years, and they are only on their second washer and dryer. Even those were replaced relatively recently. This begs the question:

At the age of 75 and 80 respectively, will my mom and dad outlive their second set of appliances or will their appliances outlive them? Given the way these machines are now manufactured, my money’s on Mom and Dad.

When we moved into our current house, the dishwasher was working at less than peak performance. Dishes would sometimes come out dirtier than they went in. We called in our friends from George Washington Toma to solve the problem (we were frequent fliers with Toma back in the early days of homeownership). Our service technician advised us that it would be better to purchase a new dishwasher than to repair the old one because, “…dishwashers really only have a life span of about ten years.”

Ten years? Seriously? I’ve heard this phrase repeated often over my time as a homeowner (as ovens and dryers and other appliances have bit the dust) and I immediately defer to my in-laws who have had the same dishwasher, refrigerator and oven since they rebuilt their house in the early 1970’s. Apparently the 40-year old dishwasher is about as rare as the 40-year old virgin (apologies to Steve Carrell).

Granted, my in-law’s appliances are avocado-colored and honestly I have not since seen a stove that has only one large burner and three small ones. Yes, the dishwasher is so loud that it sounds as if the entire house is blasting off into outer space during the rinse cycle. But the point is they still work.

One friend in particular has had more than the usual share of appliance issues. Her refrigerator died and had to be replaced a few years ago. Then her microwave started turning itself on. Sometimes the numbers on the digital readout would convert to hieroglyphics. Not wanting to risk her family’s safety she replaced it. No sooner did that occur when her four-year old front-load washing machine died. The technician told her it would be $1600 to fix (it cost $900 new). Time for a new washer.

If we are a modern, technological society that can create miniature computers that hold tens of thousands of songs in the palm of our hands, why can’t we create a dishwasher that lasts longer than ten years? Were our forefathers from the 1970’s more advanced than we are today? Remember the “good old days” when the Maytag repairman moped through commercials with nothing to do?

You would think in today’s go-go-green society, appliances should last longer instead of cluttering up landfill every 10-15 years. What is the benefit of a new appliance every decade? The answer might surprise you (it surprised me). My current dishwasher, age twelve, had a problem and I brought our trusty friends from Toma in to fix it. “You sure you want to spend $125 to fix this, instead of buying a new one?” the repairman asked me? I assured him that I did. When I asked him why these newer models had a shorter life span than the trusty workhorses of the past he replied that materials used in older appliances are less likely to be able to be recycled. Newer models are able to recycle a much higher percentage of parts, so less goes into the landfill.

That makes sense. I understand the logic. But I still don’t feel like shelling out hard earned cash for a new appliance every decade or so.

So I propose a deal:

Give me a dishwasher that will last me another 40 years, and I promise that my family will bury it with me when I finally go.

That’s fair, isn’t it?