Guardian piece on people using vintage electricals

[Scimitar]

1985 Kirby Heritage here.

[electronicskip]

I have a York Clock radio in continuous use since about 1982 , its given zero trouble !

[woodchips]

What about a clock radio? Now just about 40 years old and has run for 40 x 8,500 hours so far, pretty good LED displays in those days!

[SiriusHardware]

Another +1 for the Numatic cleaners, I was looking at a new, boxed 'Henry' in a store somewhere and printed on the box was a statement to the effect that "We've made (so many) vacuum cleaners so far.. and most of them are still being used".

I have no idea how they came to that conclusion but based on my own experience I'm prepared, for once, to believe it.

[avocollector]

Back in 2009 I visited Oxford Uni and while there went through a museum show called the Oxford story. One room we went into had a 60's theme with a student dummy having 'an essay crisis' - there on the table was my Bush radio I use here in NZ!! Mind you the real surprise was in a museum Victorian street scene where the recreated music store had my 5 string 'New Windsor' zither banjo I used to play daily.

[G4XWDJim]

My Bush bedside clock radio alarm which I obtained from Green Shield Stamps in the mid 1970s has worked every day since then. Having no need to get up early any more the alarm is now redundant and the red LED display is dimmer than I’d like and may receive some attention if ever I might feel like it one day.

Jim

[martin.m]

I still have a Sony TC136 stereo cassette deck bought new in 1977. It was wonderful being able to record my own LPs and listen to them in the car. It still works fine and sits in the HI Fi cabinet above my Leak Delta 30 amp. This was bought new from Dixons in 1974.

[Richard_FM]

I've got a Trio amplifier & Pioneer that were my Dad's, which were working when I last checked.

[Radio Wrangler]

It must be a quiet news week (relatively). Not only is the dear old Grauniad at it, so is Aunty Beeb.

David

[mark_in_manc]

I'm 'only' 50, and the stuff in these pieces doesn't strike me as particularly venerable. I suspect this is a trend which goes along with policemen looking young, which I am going to have to get used to

Slightly OT, but I was recently involved in trying to get service help for a 12-yr-old boiler controller. In my mind this is a 'new system'. In the mind of the service agent this was a '12 year old computer' (for, indeed, a computer is just what it is). Putting computers inside things doesn't half make them age quickly...

[Max Power]

My mum still uses a 'no-name' clock radio with VFD. Bought from Rayford Electrics in Brighton in 1976. The display is still bright, and it still works perfectly. Made in Hong Kong, no less...
It came with a circuit diagram, which I still have somewhere.

Rayford Electrics were quite a big retailer locally, with several shops along the south-coast. Founded by a Mr. Raymond Ford, who was often seen being chauffeured around town in his Rolls...
He sold-out to Comet, and his shops were re-branded as such.

[Martin Bush]

I'm a better cook than repairman, but I find the electric frying pan frightening!

Puts me in mind of the highly dangerous cornballer as sold on Arrested Development.

[kirstyd]

A russell hobs K2 kettle still in use here .A wedding present back in 1977 still QUIETLY boiling water

[The Philpott]

I do hope that the electric frying pan's replacement flex was the expensive stuff with higher temperature rating. Too many people either don't read the code on the outer sheath..or don't understand it.

As previously documented frequency disruptions due to the all-inclusive nature of our national grid has been causing a few timekeeping anomalies with certain clocks...not a failure of the appliance as such, more of a slow forced obsolescence through supercession.
Dave

[KeithsTV]

My parents KB GR10/1 bought in 1952, restored in 2006 and still going strong.

On the to do list my grandparents Gecophone BC3250 dating from 1924, worked when I got it back in 1970 but needs some attention.

Keith

[G6Tanuki]

Just spotted this in The Spectator:

"The Mystery and Romance of the cassette tape"

https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/...-cassette-tape

[Techman]

Originally Posted by Paul Stenning

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've got both...sort of.

They must have made that model of clock radio over a long period of time because I've got the identical Dream Machine model, but under a different model number of ICF-C240L and pictured below. Mine was bought with petrol tokens from a local garage near where I used to live, and I moved from there in 1999 and the garage closed as a filling station quite a few years before I moved, so it's well back into the 90s and just possibly the late 80s, but I can't be sure about that. It's been in constant use as the bedside radio alarm ever since and I disconnected it a couple of days ago for a 'spruce-up' and a photo shoot and also because a power cut had just sent it flashing 12.00 am. It was lucky that I checked it over, as I found that the alkaline PP3 backup battery dated March 2009 was flat and had started to blow its end out - I actually remember fitting that battery and it seems like just several years ago, frightening!

I've also still got in use a Sharp Carousel 11 microwave oven that originally belonged to my niece and dates back to 'way back when'. I've got many other vintage items still in regular use such as a mid eighties washing machine etc. etc. and so on...I'll have to have a look around and make a list.

[Richard_FM]

I've got a similar Sony Dream Machine, but a slightly later model.

It was my Dad's from about 1996 until he bought a Pure digital radio, then was stored for a few years until he gave it to me.

[barrymagrec]

I also have a Sony Dream Machine, it was a free gift for letting a bank person interview me for a new mortgage I was never going to take (wasn`t even my bank) - it`s been in continuous use for at least 25 years but only as a clock, the radio part was crap from the off.

[hillwalker]

The 'Dream Machine' shown in the article brings back some memories.

My Grandmother had one identical (I'm not sure, but possibly won on a coupon or similar), in the late 80s/early 90s and had it in her front room.

When I went to my Grandmothers every weekend, a friend of mine who lived several doors down would often come up to my Grandmothers.
The thing is, he had a habit of messing about with the controls and one thing that has crossed my mind a few times is I remember my Grandmother claiming on at least one occasion she had 'heard voices/people talking', - my Grandmother lived in the back room of her house whilst the Dream Machine was in her front room.
What I have often suspected of happening is, my friend had messed with the controls which possibly resulted in the Radio Alarm operating at a certain time.

What's more, when my Grandmother had to go into a care home, prior to us selling her house a fair amount of years later, my friend came round when I had the Radio on and turned the Volume up full blast - and when I went to turn it back down, the control wouldn't turn back down!!, He had broken the mechanism on the inside!!!!, absolutely gutted!!!! we were young adults by that time, but when I mentioned this to my mother, she was of the view he should really replace it, although I decided not to make an issue over it.

Although the mechanism had broken, I kept the machine for more than ten years before finally taking it to the recycling depot.