Curious as to how long that washing machine is going to last? How about your gas dryer?
It’s important to know how long our appliances will last in order to make intelligent decisions like “Should I spend $300 on a repair or is it time to buy a new one?”
Here, courtesy of Mr. Appliance (MrAppliance.com) is the latest on how long you can expect your major appliances to hang around, given normal wear and tear and service.
Trash compactor ............................................................... average 11 years
Dryers, electric ................................................................ average 14 years
Dryers, gas ....................................................................... average 13 years
Dishwashers .................................................................... average 12 years
Garbage disposals ............................................................ average 13 years
Freezers ............................................................................. average 16 years
Microwaves ...................................................................... average 8 years
Ranges, electric ................................................................. average 16 years
Ranges, gas ....................................................................... average 19 years
Range hoods ..................................................................... average 14 years
Refrigerators, compact ..................................................... average 8 years
Refrigerators, standard ..................................................... average 14 years
Washing machines ............................................................ average 12 years
Now it is important to remember your elementary math to remember the formula for making an average – it is the number in the middle – so some last longer, some last shorter.
If you are one of the lucky ones to still be using the freezer 20 years after you purchased it congrats! Just know that somewhere out there is a person, or a group or people whose freezers pooped out after 11-12 years or sooner.
Another thing to note is that while your 25 year old standard refrigerator may be keeping your food cold and your ice cream frozen it may be doing it at a higher cost than a new, more efficient fridge. So old reliable may actually be costing you more money in the long run.
One other thing to remember, when an appliance gives up the ghost isn’t necessarily time to just move it to the garage or basement so it can become the beer fridge or the side of beef freezer.
Your household refrigerator (or freezer for that matter) will not work well in your garage, especially come winter. Your refrigerator is designed to work in temps between 60 and 100 degrees. It is often cooler than that in your garage in the winter.
When it gets cooler than 60 in your garage your fridge will stop working correctly. The freezer works off the fridge so it to will start to malfunction. This will cause a lack of cooling in your appliance.
A lack of cooling in your refrigerator and freezer leads to a phenomena called “Thawing”. As you may have heard “Thawing” is bad for frozen foods.
So keep your eyes open with your appliances as they get up there in age. Don’t throw good money after bad on a repair bill just because your washing machine has washed 3 generations of clothing and you can’t bear to part with it.
And when you buy new, make sure to compare and contrast such things as warranties, expected energy usage, and customer reviews of the product.