Things that last

[Leothebear]

I have a Braun electric toothbrush. Inexpensive (under £20 IIRC) that's been going for 20 years.
Previously I'd bought a Philips for a lot more. It petered out after 18 months.

My last two cars both Fords have given me many years of trouble free motoring.

My present desktop is about 10 years old now.

Some things last.

[gryffron]

Toyotas. Indestructible, as proved by Top Gear. My last four cars have all been Toyotas. I like them so much I bought some shares. The shares have done pretty well too.

The thing I have owned for longest, a Hornby model train. Bought for my 3rd birthday and still working perfectly after 52 years. Though I don't think the modern ones are nearly so reliable.

Gryff

[staffordian]

I have a Philips electric shaver which is at least thirty years old, possibly nearer forty.

Still works perfectly, and funnily enough, after reading the "which razor" thread on here, I degreased and sharpened the cutting heads for the first time earlier this week, which has transformed it's cutting ability from good to excellent.

So not all Philips products are rubbish

Sods law says it will fail now I've written this...

[Watis]

I am still using:

- A Krups food slicer bought in the 1970's

- A Saisho microwave bought in 1986

- A Dell laptop, ten years old but happily running the latest iteration of Windows 10

- A Toyota Yaris, eleven years old and runs like a dream.

Watis

[swill453]

Pure DAB radio, kept in the kitchen, splashed with fat, water, who knows what else, been working perfectly for about 15 years.

Scott.

[Leothebear]

Oh yeah - a Kenwood Chef circa 1976.

Leo

[redsturgeon]

Le Creuset casserole, used regularly since 1980, gets better with age.

My 1990 Specialized Rockhopper mountain bike, indestructible.

My Omega Seamaster automatic watch.

Two Ralph Lauren polo shirts circa 2000.

John

[Leothebear]

Le Creuset casserole, used regularly since 1980, gets better with age.

My 1990 Specialized Rockhopper mountain bike, indestructible.

My Omega Seamaster automatic watch.

Two Ralph Lauren polo shirts circa 2000.

John

I call your 2 RL shirts and raise you one hand knitted jumper my mum made for me to go skiing in 1966.

[redsturgeon]

Le Creuset casserole, used regularly since 1980, gets better with age.

My 1990 Specialized Rockhopper mountain bike, indestructible.

My Omega Seamaster automatic watch.

Two Ralph Lauren polo shirts circa 2000.

John

I call your 2 RL shirts and raise you one hand knitted jumper my mum made for me to go skiing in 1966.

Impressive!

John

[PinkDalek]

Oak coffer circa 1650 (later carving by those pesky Victorians).

Longcase clock circa 1820.

Both in good working condition.

[bungeejumper]

My 1978 Takamine classic guitar, one of the last ones to be hand-built. Worth a few grand now. The second greatest love of my life, it's been everywhere with me. So Sting can just sod off.

My nearly-Constable landscape, which hangs in the hallway. It's only half a fake - it was painted in JC's style by one of his closest friends in the Suffolk circle, and it's better than anything the Tate has by the same artist. Bought it 35 years ago, with minor damage, for two hundred quid. I'm open to offers. I can wait.

Technology? Pshah, a mere glittering bauble. Agree about the Toyotas, though.

BJ

[Itsallaguess]

I still regularly use my first calculator - a Sharp scientific.

Bought for starting senior school in the early 80's, so it'll be nearly 40 years old and still going strong.

If I check the bottom of my t-shirt drawer, I've no doubt there will be t-shirts in there that are older than that.

My wife might mention it from time to time....

Cheers,

Itsallaguess

[kiloran]

Me.
Still working flawlessly after 71 years

They don't make them now like they used to.

--kiloran

[didds]

I think overall the longevity of "stuff" is indeed getting better - way better - than they were historically.

Two examples touched on by LTB

- PCs. It no longer surprises me that 10 year old desktops still run fine - the only surprise i may have is that whoever owns one may not have ever upgraded/been passed a hand me down from a relative/friend etc ... but I do come across people still running XP on systems a decade or older. They don't run anything more than a web browser and presumably only visit sites without extreme requirements of the browser, dont do internet finance etc, read emails - and thats about it so never install any new apps etc. I ususally explain my generalised concern about hard drives dieing but its the only moving part,that doesnt seem to have any issues as yet, and the PSU hasnt died or the mobo fried.

laptops maybe half that life span overall though i do come across people with laptops maybe 7 years old.

So the most basic IT provision still does its job. 15 years ago (say) anything over 5 years was a surprise/about to imminenetly die.

- cars. truly a huge improvement. When I were a late teen if you bought a ten year old car it was starting to fall apart, looked like it too, and you didn't expect it to last more than a very few years. Today a ten year old car looks as good as new and has probably got a decade of life left in it yet at least. Our kids' cars are 12, 16 and 17 years old and i'd not doubt their ability to get them anywhere they needed to get to.

As it is my wife's vehicle is 8 years old and we've only got it "that young" cos it was left to her by her dad when he died, and my van (T5) is ten years old and looks and drives like brand new.

didds

[Gersemi]

I think overall the longevity of "stuff" is indeed getting better - way better - than they were historically.

Two examples touched on by LTB

- PCs. It no longer surprises me that 10 year old desktops still run fine - the only surprise i may have is that whoever owns one may not have ever upgraded/been passed a hand me down from a relative/friend etc ... but I do come across people still running XP on systems a decade or older. They don't run anything more than a web browser and presumably only visit sites without extreme requirements of the browser, dont do internet finance etc, read emails - and thats about it so never install any new apps etc. I ususally explain my generalised concern about hard drives dieing but its the only moving part,that doesnt seem to have any issues as yet, and the PSU hasnt died or the mobo fried.

didds

I am still using a PC that is, um, about 30 years old. I don't use it for the internet, but just for my accounts. I use Microsoft Money which won't work on newer versions of windows. I am uncomfortably aware that it will one day fail taking all my records with it. I do have printouts of year end figures and some other data elsewhere, but the detail will be lost. I keep hunting for a replacement programme but haven't found anything that does the job I want.

[PinkDalek]

I am still using a PC that is, um, about 30 years old. I don't use it for the internet, but just for my accounts. ...

Snap for historical financial records. We had the two but one no longer functions. Floppy disk back-up has given up the ghost on our last one.

IBM PC by any chance?

[Gersemi]

I am still using a PC that is, um, about 30 years old. I don't use it for the internet, but just for my accounts. ...

Snap for historical financial records. We had the two but one no longer functions. Floppy disk back-up has given up the ghost on our last one.

IBM PC by any chance?

Not an IBM, the make is "Polar", they were a small company I think.

[bungeejumper]

I am uncomfortably aware that it will one day fail taking all my records with it. I do have printouts of year end figures and some other data elsewhere, but the detail will be lost. I keep hunting for a replacement programme but haven't found anything that does the job I want.

I feel your pain. I used to swear by Lotus 1-2-3, which had a pretty good macro language, and I was somewhat gutted when my clients required me to move to Excel, which was quite noddy by comparison. (And which had some maths bugs, one of which I tripped over.) Ditto for the Access database, which was also buggy in its early versions.

Not my province, but can you save files out to CSV or something like that? If not, I'd imagine there surely must be a conversion routine out there somewhere?

Dead floppy drives remind me that there used to be ways of networking these old DOS monsters. There was something called Brooklyn Bridge which connected to your printer cable. We used to use it a lot.

Okay, I'll stop trying to sound like I know what I'm talking about now.

BJ

[scotia]

Me.
Still working flawlessly after 71 years

They don't make them now like they used to.

--kiloran

I've got you beat by half a decade.
Both father and grandfather made it to 95, and since all three of us bear the same name , I feel its my duty to keep the record intact.

[AleisterCrowley]

Cheapo Haden (Pifco?) electric kettle my sister got me when I moved from N8 to W5 in 1995- probably cost <<£10, as it was from a bargain shop
Worked until shortly after I moved here (West Berks) in late 2018- I think the staggeringly hard water killed it...

I don't want to tempt fate but my mum's Panasonic microwave is still going, and that predates my move down south by many years so >> 27 years old

I'm still going at 55 but I have definitely reached the end-of-life phase on the 'bathtub reliability curve'