Electrical gadgets that still work many years later

[presta]

I think my oldest appliances are my mums old Cresta sewing machine, an old Jackson convector heater up in the loft, and the bathroom wall heaters which are all about 60 years old.
My car battery charger and Halfords inspection lamp are from about 1965 when my father bought his first car.
I've still got my first calculator, a Sinclair Cambridge which dates from 1975.
One Black & Decker drill is from the 1970s, the other the early 80s, and the jigsaw is a similar age.
I bought my Pioneer Hifi in 1984.
The bedside clock radio pre-dates 1988, as does my Morphy Richards iron.

Of all those, there's only the calculator & HiFi that were bought by me.

Other stuff that had a long innings but that I don't have now were a Belling cooker, Coop fridge, and Hoover Junior119 which was from the 1950s.

My youngest is an 11 day old washer dryer.

 

[MichaelW2]

I have a Casio calculator from 1983.

 

[dicko]

Our first Christmas dinner together, as man and wife 1973, was carved with this new fangled electric carving knife. On Monday I will carve the New Year’s Day roast dinner for our family with the same carving knife.
Happy New Year everyone

!

 

[Accy cyclist]

I have a bad record with electrical items. I have more now not working items in my flat than working ones. I bought a lamp from a charity shop today for a fiver, to replace the one I knackered when it fell off a chair arm. I have an electric heater, a standard lamp, a twin tub washer, and a TV that don't work, though the TV does still work, but the 'antenna' is fecked!

 

[Accy cyclist]

Our first Christmas dinner together, as man and wife 1973, was carved with this new fangled electric carving knife. On Monday I will carve the New Year’s Day roast dinner for our family with the same carving knife.
Happy New Year everyone

View attachment 717428 !

I worked in my local pub in the early 1980's working behind the bar and in the kitchen. I served pints and made bar snacks and stuff. One day a customer asked for a roast beef sandwich. I started to slice the beef with the electric knife then BOOM!!!! I'd only put the joint of beef on top of the knife's electrical cable and cut through the thing!!

 

[Accy cyclist]

I think some of those old electrical items could be a bit iffy! I hear of folk buying old radios, record players, hair dryers and stuff. I'd be very wary of electric shock danger. A few years after my dad died I decided to empty his shed. I plugged one of his electric drills in the socket in his shed and it blew up! The damp must've got to the drill or the socket.

 

[Drago]

My friends mum had an antique vibrator that still worked. Apparently it had been in the family for generations.

 

[Alex321]

My wife was today using the Kenwood Chef we were given as a wedding present, in January 1981.

There haven't been many weeks since then when it has had no use.

 

[Dave7]

I have a bad record with electrical items. I have more now not working items in my flat than working ones. I bought a lamp from a charity shop today for a fiver, to replace the one I knackered when it fell off a chair arm. I have an electric heater, a standard lamp, a twin tub washer, and a TV that don't work, though the TV does still work, but the 'antenna' is fecked!

I was going to invite you stay with me over Christmas but with that record I must give it a miss as I may not have any house left afterwards.

 

[Gillstay]

Dug up a solar powered Texas calculator in a compost heap around 1985. Took it up to the green house, scrubbed it in a bucket of water and put it out to dry in the winter sun. Still working.

 

[further]

Thorens TD150 mk1 1965

 

[winjim]

Want to feel old? Today I got some old 3½" floppy discs out of the drawer and our new starter didn't know what they were. It's not like she knew but had never used them because obviously they're obsolete, she literally didn't have a clue what they were or what they were for. I explained by telling her they were the physical manifestation of the save icon on the computer and pulled open the case to show her the disc inside, and she said 'oh, it's like a memory stick'.

How we all chuckled at the naive youngster, so fresh and green with her whole life ahead of her, while we old carmudgeons wallow in our self imposed nostalgia.

 

[mustang1]

My friends mum had an antique vibrator that still worked. Apparently it had been in the family for generations.

Does that take D cell batteries or.is it a wind up?

 

[mustang1]

iPhone 14.

 

[ColinJ]

Want to feel old? Today I got some old 3½" floppy discs out of the drawer and our new starter didn't know what they were. It's not like she knew but had never used them because obviously they're obsolete, she literally didn't have a clue what they were or what they were for. I explained by telling her they were the physical manifestation of the save icon on the computer and pulled open the case to show her the disc inside, and she said 'oh, it's like a memory stick'.

How we all chuckled at the naive youngster, so fresh and green with her whole life ahead of her, while we old carmudgeons wallow in our self imposed nostalgia.

Want to feel REALLY old?

Remember being excited to buy a UK101 computer kit for hundreds of pounds (several weeks wages). It had a 1 MHz processor ('M', not 'G'!), 8 kB of RAM ('k', not 'G' or even 'M' !), audio cassette storage, and no graphics capability at all!