Less energy efficient
Worse airflow, Uneven cooling -> food spoils quicker
May contain CFC's
Fuck old fridges
this post was submitted on 25 Jul 2026
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what?
Wrong room, Mr Vance
I know someone with a 50s fridge, the inside is a giant lazy susan, very cool and unique. But yeah we did some back-of-envelope math, and it uses about 20x as much energy as my modern fridge.
The worse energy efficiency is annoying, but the added cost of electricity is absolutely nothing compared to the cost of buying a new fridge every 5 years.
The uneven airflow/cooling is manageable, since it's usually fairly minor.
As for the CFCs, that only matters if it leaks, and the fridge wouldn't have lasted 50 years if it leaked.
As for the CFCs, that only matters if it leaks, and the fridge wouldn't have lasted 50 years if it leaked.
"It hasn't leaked yet so it won't leak" is a hell of a take.
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Survivorship bias
Far from it. As a technician there are way more service calls on newer appliances and much shorter life cycles for them. Certain fairly universal parts are clearly being made at a lower standard now as well. For instance, a very common repair is gas oven ignitors. Many different manufacturers use the exact same style of hot surface ignitors. The ones i see these days burn out in ½ the time or less than they ever used to, even though the design of them hasn't changed one iota.
There is a clear and obvious lack of quality in today's appliances. An old Maytag washer could last 25 years with minimal repairs/maintenance. A newer Maytag doing the same work over the same duration would be lucky to get ½ that mileage before it got shit-canned, though it's likely it would happen even sooner than that. The comparison in design is night and day. The old one was simple, field-tested design made for reliability and relative ease of service...the other is a hodgepodge of electronics and sensors connected by Angel-Hair spaghetti-thin wiring that will have something break in less than 10 years with regular use, and likely less than 5 with heavy use. Sure, a few of the old Maytag's didn't go the distance and a few of the newer ones managed to squeak out more mileage than expected...but anyone with real experience with those 2 machines would take the old one over the new one every single time. It's almost unfair to compare an old Maytag washer to a new one because the most important metric is reliability and there's simply no comparison there.
Do people genuinely think modern tech is that durable/reliable?
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I do have a modern fridge that keeps going and going. Old fridges do have an issue, too: they are much less energy efficient and have a massive impact on your electricity bill.
I have a modern fridge which is about 15 years old now. Simple digital control, multi zone temperature control, no radiator on the back, stainless steel. It was very expensive at the time but it keeps going and hasn't required any maintenance other than occasionally cleaning the inside.
The fridge I had before this one was a cheap Beko and lasted less than two years.
If there's no radiator on the back then where does the heat go?
A lot of modern fridges channel the heat out the front of the bottom. I think it's so you can fit it into tighter spaces.
In my case heat dissipates through the sides
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Tell your friends to stop buying from Samsung
Jokes on you, I bought my fridge from LG.
Unrelated, but does anyone know how to stop my A/C from beeping out morse code adverts for McAfee?
My girlfriend has a Samsung fridge, going strong for around 12 years now. It's absolutely fine.
All brands are going to have duds and winners, that's just the way it is.
I know a few people with Samsungs that have had the fridge replaced twice under warranty due to several issues. I don't think Samsung is a good fridge company.
Samsung appliances are fucking trash. When we bought our house it came with a Samsung washer and dryer. I was constantly repairing the stupid dryer, and the washer coin trap would drain directly into the pedestal anytime I tried to clean it. we sold them a month ago and bought a new set from a different manufacturer.
Why would a washer in a house have a coin trap?
It isn't for coin operation, it is for catching small stuff that falls out during the wash like coins from pockets.
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You're being overly charitable. I think Samsung knows exactly what they're doing and has deliberate planned obsolescence down to a science. If anything, your anecdotes are the outliers because for most people, they fail just barely outside warranty, by design.
Source: I owned a Samsung washer where the main bracket supporting the drum was very clearly also the sacrificial anode.
- don't get fridges with in-door ice cube makers or in-door water dispensers or other complex features
- if you have in-door water or ice, clean those systems every few weeks. they get disgusting and unsanitary very quickly
- don't get samsung appliances, especially not with complex features
- chinese appliances can be very hit and miss
- (america) don't get kenmore appliances
- sometimes a higher price / better brand really is better overall
- top mount or bottom mount freezer are most reliable
- check local consumer reports ratings (not always compatible with technician's uncerstanding of fridges but usually a great starting point - if you have the means then ask a local independent technician for their appliances of choice)
- keep a bit of space inside the fridge near the walls
- keep space behind and next to the fridge for the compressor to function properly (see manual)
- proper compressor/condenser maintenance like cleaning of the coils can add more years to the life of a fridge and make them perform better
- if you don't have it, get a surge protector
- if you need an independent freezer, get a chest style freezer
video from an american technician comparing fridges and giving tips: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5n76TXuDcok his channel is great in general for americans who want to buy appliances
Enshittification is a turd that touches everything on the way down to the shareholder value lands.
Buuuut this is the kind of thing that survivorship bias was made for. Were things made to last 60 years ago? Not so sure about that, material quality and engineering have come a long way, though so has systematic greed.
For all the stories there are of old appliances weathering the storm of age, you don't hear about the ones that don't. Likewise, we now have more styles, makes, and manufacturers, which makes more room for cheap flashy stuff to hear about when it breaks unexpectedly after a couple years.
I've had both fridges that lasted 20 years, and ones that lasted 2, sometimes its probably just the luck of who they had running the assembly line that day
Also, expensice appliances still last. It's just that back in the day expensive was the only option.
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Tell your friends to actually do a bit of research on expensive purchases. I've helped three relatives replace their fridges with relatively cheap models and five years in they're still running
Well don't tell us which brands or anything.
I mean it changes. Right now I'd look at GE still but I haven't had to look in a few years. No fridges with ice makers because those are just added complexity that is more likely to fail. Definitely not Samsung.
I bought a Hisense fridge and Hisense washer dryer a little under 5 years ago and they've been working flawlessly ever since.
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My theory is you should only buy basic, barebones appliances. They don't try to do anything fancy and just default to what's been proven to work. Just get a fridge that does cold and nothing else.
but then people will think you are poor.
Hate to break it to you... Almost everyone is poor now.
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That's what i tell my customers. The best advice is to keep it simple. Even then there's still loads of awful choices out there
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I have a decades old fridge that literally freezes my veggie drawer every two weeks. I‘m so close to throwing it out.
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It's a sad fact of society that there are no great rock ballads about refrigerators.
Parents had a fridge from the 70s that lived until 2006. Gone through 6 fridges since
What the fuck is going on
It's planned obsolesence. They make more money by marketing high tech/luxury stuff and having it break on purpose in a defined amount of time.
I got some Carhartt "worker" jeans, advertized as nice jeans for manual laborers.
I work from home in my home office. The crotch tore in less than 6 months of hard... sitting.
Expensive shit they want you to buy over and over again because they think you're an idiot. I learned to sew, learned to darn my nice wool socks that tore predictably in 6 months, repair and maintain my motorcycle, repair my plumbing, because fuck all this enshittification.
My new MO is to buy your shit once, and either i will say your brand is great or keep wearing my torn/repaired carhartt jeans and keep reminding people never to buy them unless they want to learn how to sew. Fuck these greedy pieces of shit.
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our parents but a new LG one recently, and there has been complaints in the reviews that it keeps defrosting or its not cold enough or it dies down the line.
Buy the right machines. Buy for repairability.
My gran had a pantry instead of a fridge. Checkmate technocrats.
Mmmm, day-old liquid ice cream... 🤤
Mine's ~25 years old. It's second hand, so I'm not sure how old. It has worked perfectly from day one. I hate to talk about it, don't want to jinx it.
If it dies, I'll try to repair it. If I can't repair it, I'll look to buy an older used one somewhere.
Really though, I don't like when this sort of thing is publicized, because people who might decide to get rid of an old, perfectly usable fridge to buy a new one will learn that they shouldn't so there won't be as many used ones to choose from, and they'll be more expensive.
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