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Old 5th Mar 2021, 3:42 pm   #1
paulsherwin
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Default Guardian piece on people using vintage electricals

There's a lifestyle piece in today's Graun where readers describe the old electrical appliances that they still use. The article has the usual slightly bemused tone used by all mainstream young journalists when they write about this sort of thing, and most people here won't consider the items particularly old at all.

https://www.theguardian.com/lifeands...just-wont-quit

I actually own and use the same model of Candy washing machine described halfway down. It has indeed been a very reliable appliance, but has now developed cosmetic rust patches and is due for retirement soon.
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Old 5th Mar 2021, 3:52 pm   #2
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Default Re: Guardian piece on people using vintage electricals

Nice to see some oldish stuff still being cherished, but I know what you mean about us considering the items not so old.

My "newish" Technics cassette deck gave up the ghost recently. "Mmm, that didn't last very well", I thought to myself as I resurrected a 1970s machine to replace it. But when I did the maths, I realised I'd had the technics almost exactly 30 years, which by any standard, isn't bad!
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Old 5th Mar 2021, 5:46 pm   #3
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Default Re: Guardian piece on people using vintage electricals

There's no picture of the Candy washing machine!

Which model is yours?

My Mother bought her first ever automatic washing machine in 1978. It was a Candy 800, from our local Electricity Board Showroom. On easy-payment terms, where the quarterly repayments were added onto the electricity bill. Remember those days?

She only chose it because of the colourful buttons on the front panel!

It was such a let-down for her. It never worked right from day one.

I had great fun with the lovely big box it came in, though! It made a great 'den' in the garden all that Summer of 1978.

I had no idea my poor Mother was chasing this manic machine around the kitchen, trying to make it stand still while it was doing a spin cycle!

Apparently the weight inside the machine wasn't the right one - and had to be replaced by a big slab of volcanic lava from Italy, which took three months to arrive.

I kid you not! All of this actually happened.

I bet she wished she'd kept going with her Hoover Twosome! Or bought a reliable Hotpoint machine, like her sister did!
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Old 5th Mar 2021, 7:08 pm   #4
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Default Re: Guardian piece on people using vintage electricals

I find it amusing when I go to a museum and see a bit of kit I had a hand in. And even more amusing stuff I use day to day.
 
Old 5th Mar 2021, 7:29 pm   #5
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Default Re: Guardian piece on people using vintage electricals

Quote:
Originally Posted by Lancs Lad View Post
There's no picture of the Candy washing machine!
It's in the photo at the top.
Quote:
Which model is yours?
Can't remember, it's 25 years since I bought it. Candy had merged with Indesit by then. It was only a cheap machine which I bought on price, so it owes me nothing yet soldiers on to this day.
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Old 6th Mar 2021, 10:39 pm   #6
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Default Re: Guardian piece on people using vintage electricals

"Cosmetic rust patches" do sound familiar to me!

Shortly after marriage my wife and myself bought a brand new Constructa CV 740 washing machine. That was in 1986. To keep a long story short, I did some minor repairs from time to time, a noisy bearing, worn shock absorbers, and ten years ago we realized the machine was still doing its job but started to look stained and develop rust holes at the base plate.

Just for curiosity how long it would live I decided to make it look nice again.welding and respraying was no, problem. And my wife had no objection to a blue metallic finish washing machine.

What can I say? The Constructa is 35 years old now and still in service. Must have been solid quality then.

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Old 7th Mar 2021, 11:15 am   #7
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Default Re: Guardian piece on people using vintage electricals

We have a Ferguson model 3196 radio bought from "Woolies" 39 years ago and is still waking us up every morning. Ted
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Old 7th Mar 2021, 11:34 am   #8
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Default Re: Guardian piece on people using vintage electricals

A lot of those appliances in the article are ones that are not used for hours and hours though. mixers - food processors etc . I have an electric mixer that I bought over 30 years ago I haven't worn the motor brushes out yet !

My Mum had a Servis spin drier that she bought in the 1960s right up until around 2014 when it finally gave up, she closed the lid and there was a big blue flash from underneath! She kept it in the garage and used it to give some washing a final spin after she had washed them in her automatic machine. I showed her how to get the automatic to do a second spin so I was saved having to repair the old Servis.
As I put it out for the scrap man I remembered only being as tall as it was and having to stand on tip-toes to close the lid!
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Old 7th Mar 2021, 11:51 am   #9
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Default Re: Guardian piece on people using vintage electricals

I don't have anything bought new and still in use that's as old as the items in the article. I have a Sony ICF-793L Dream Machine clock radio from around 2005 and a Sharp R259 microwave from around 2008 that are still in daily use and working fine, but I don't regard either of those as being old.

I also have a Dell Inspiron 640m laptop from 2007 in occasional use (running Windows 7 and used for a couple of things that don't work properly on Windows 10) although it's had several upgrades and replacement parts over the years.

Like many of us here I have lots of older items that I have purchased due to our interest in vintage tech, but they don't really count.
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Old 7th Mar 2021, 1:58 pm   #10
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Default Re: Guardian piece on people using vintage electricals

I still keep my old Compaq Presario 240 alive - offline, of course - and WinME. It’s the only thing that drives my SCSI neg and slide scanner. I think computer technology becomes obsolescent far too quickly and isn’t necessarily bettered until years later.

Other than that I still use my Pentax MX film camera I bought new in 1981. As well as my collection of film cameras, one of which was made in 1938.
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Old 7th Mar 2021, 3:10 pm   #11
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Default Re: Guardian piece on people using vintage electricals

It's not unusual for me to go to a technical / science museum (or a department of that sort) and find myself looking at a carefully preserved specimen of something that I'm still using and may even have with me in my pocket. My (original) Nokia 3310 was a good example - I was only forced to stop using that a few years ago when the NiMH batteries it needed became completely unobtainable. (There was a Li-Ion battery available in a similar outline but my version of the phone pre-dated Li-Ion and didn't know how to charge them).

Much like everyone else here, I'm very prone to "I have one of those!" syndrome when visiting museums. Not "I had" but "I have".

If I'd known I would have sent them a photo of my 1970s 'Ingersoll' badged Clock/Radio, still in continuous use since the days it used to wake me up to go to my first job (which is also where I bought it from).
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Old 7th Mar 2021, 5:09 pm   #12
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I have given stuff to museums, at least more people can enjoy them SHMBO calls it offloading! And I get a bit of a kick seeing them in the museum too. Solves the problem of what to do with it when I move off this mortal coil too.
 
Old 7th Mar 2021, 5:23 pm   #13
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Default Re: Guardian piece on people using vintage electricals

Several years ago, I remember visiting the science museum in London where I found on display a "stereoscan" electron microscope which I had used during my university days. Another visitor was also examining the exhibit carefully. It was my pleasure to explain to this visitor what all the unlabled knobs did on the unit.

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Old 7th Mar 2021, 7:30 pm   #14
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Default Re: Guardian piece on people using vintage electricals

A 1987 Henry Vacuum Cleaner here, was relegated to car vacuum uses but has recently gone back into full service for all downstairs vacuuming needs.
The TV aerials are also pretty old (one being a Telefield that looks like it's from the start of BBC2!), the cooker (a belling format 600) is from the mid to late 80's, the hammer drill is a Black and Decker Quattro and if I am ironing then I will use the vintage Morphy Richards CA75 iron that still works fine (though I clearly replaced the cable at some point as it's brown/blue). Lastly the bulb in the porch is a 150W philips that I have knever known to be replaced in my lifetime.

I also personally have a couple of laptops from the year 2000, primarily as one has a built in FDD so I can read/write the 1.6mb formatted floppies for my GEM S2 keyboard.
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Old 7th Mar 2021, 10:25 pm   #15
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Default Re: Guardian piece on people using vintage electricals

The Grauniad feature looks quite sanitised- i think the battery charger i was using the other day would have been quietly excluded (asbestos inside and vent holes in the casing big enough to accommodate a knitting needle, transformer primary operated by a metal toggle switch, etc)

When it's a slow news day there has to be some reserve twaddle to draw upon and fill in the gaps.

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Old 8th Mar 2021, 12:45 am   #16
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Default Re: Guardian piece on people using vintage electricals

My Hornby Dublo A3 power controller from 1954 was still being used in the shed to run the train set of corresponding vintage until it was packed away a few years ago to await the next generation. It was recently pressed into use when the battery charger of my wife's electric bike died. I connected its 12V auxilliary output in series with my 30V Farnell bench PSU to get enough voltage to charge the bike's 36V battery while awaiting a replacement charger.

I do have a 1950's genuine Hoover cylinder vac in the garage that gets occasional use for vaccing up plaster, cement fragments etc. as it has a strong fabric bag, but absence of need for that type of d.i.y means it has had little recent use.

Of course there is also the circa 1950 Pifco christmas tree lights that come out every December! Having bought a dozen spare bulbs last year it should soldier on for a good few years longer. Oh, and the mains electric alarm clock of the same era on my bedside table that runs 24/7.

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Old 8th Mar 2021, 10:05 am   #17
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Default Re: Guardian piece on people using vintage electricals

The Museum of Film, radio etc in Bradford is always a bit unsettling for me, as I go around saying 'cor, I've fixed a few of those!' and 'I could find a knob for that Sony in my collection..'
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Old 12th Mar 2021, 1:22 pm   #18
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Default Re: Guardian piece on people using vintage electricals

The Henry vacuum cleaner (numatic) are still going strong and still the best cylinder cleaner on the market in my humble opinion! Look at the number of builders and workmen who throw them into the back of their vans. Nice and simple and robust
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Old 13th Mar 2021, 12:22 pm   #19
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The Henry vacuum cleaner (numatic) are still going strong and still the best cylinder cleaner on the market in my humble opinion! Look at the number of builders and workmen who throw them into the back of their vans. Nice and simple and robust
I bought a Henry vacuum cleaner about 6 months ago and found it quite excellent!
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Old 13th Mar 2021, 2:35 pm   #20
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Default Re: Guardian piece on people using vintage electricals

Still got my Pioneer amp and cassette deck from 1981 plus an iron from 1977. All good and wife asked for a new as the cord was sparking, no, I fitted a new lead!
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