How old is your microwave oven?

[pokerfan]

List the age of the oldest if you have more than one. Mine is 29 years old. I hope it never dies because I've heard modern ones are crap and wear out quickly.

[raccoon]

1. Bought it in 1985 or thereabouts. I hadn't heard what you've said, but it may be right.

Here I've been wondering when this one will die. It's huge and I live in a one bedroom apartment.

[hobbit709]

2. Over 20

I've had to fix it 3 times. Cost me a total of $20 for parts.

[mikeytherat]

3. My parents' Sharp Carousel lasted from 1976-2008 - it still worked when they replaced it.

Bet the new one doesn't last nearly as long. And speaking of "doesn't last as long as it used to," don't get me started on toaster ovens and vacuum cleaners!

mikey_the_rat

[KittyWampus]

4. maybe 15?

[MilesColtrane]

5. I have a 21 or 22 year old Sharp Carousel II.

Heck, it may be older than that. I really can't remember exactly when I inherited it.

My mom just got rid of a microwave that was about 27 years old.

It still worked fine, but she needed something smaller.

[HopeHoops]

6. This one's only about 9 years old. The previous one exploded.

I'm not kidding. The little plate on the side which I presume is where the microwaves enter melted in a series of loud pops with flashing white light. I took that as a good reason to NEVER set a microwave to come on while you aren't home and watching it.

[supernova]

7. I bought mine about 1998, I think

It's a Sharp Carousel for over the stove.

I will have to replace it though because the display doesn't work. :P All the buttons work just fine, and the timer stops a the appointed time, but the display is gone. Odd.

[hunter]

8. The old microwaves were designed by engineers who made aircraft radar and such.

It's a very bad thing if a ship, airplane, or control tower goes blind in the fog.

Now microwave ovens are pretty much like all the other disposable consumer electronics.

Our current microwave is 12 years old. Before that we had one of the first digital microwaves but it committed suicide by turning itself on when it was empty and no one was there. Fortunately it didn't burn the house down.

Before that we had an old school microwave with a mechanical timer that had maybe thirty pounds of iron and copper in it. It was a hefty beast. We gave that one away. It may still be working somewhere.

[supernova]

9. Our first MW was an Amana Radar Range

:rofl:

I think Momma bought it in 78 or 79. It came with a big hardcover cookbook too, which I think I still have somewhere. :crazy:

And yes, that thing weighed a tone! I couldn't lift it; I had to get someone else to take it away.

[pokerfan]

12. That's a good point

A bit of history from Wikipedia:

The heating effect of microwaves was discovered accidentally in 1945. Percy Spencer, an American self-taught engineer from Howland, Maine, was building magnetrons for radar sets with the American company Raytheon. He was working on an active radar set when he noticed that a peanut chocolate bar he had in his pocket started to melt. The radar had melted his chocolate bar with microwaves. The first food to be deliberately cooked with Spencer's microwave was popcorn, and the second was an egg, which exploded in the face of one of the experimenters.

ETA:

On October 8, 1945 Raytheon filed a U.S. patent for Spencer's microwave cooking process and an oven that heated food using microwave energy was placed in a Boston restaurant for testing. In 1947, the company built the Radarange, the first microwave oven in the world.<3> It was almost 1.8 metres (5.9 ft) tall, weighed 340 kilograms (750 lb) and cost about US$5000 each. It consumed 3 kilowatts, about three times as much as today's microwave ovens, and was water-cooled.

I want a water cooled oven!

[JCMach1]

10. Nice one we got when we first married in 1992, Magnavox I think

My favorite appliances though in our house in the U.S. are our ca. 1949 hot water heater and a stainless steel American toaster over from the late 1960's early 1970's.

You can't kill the toaster oven.

[old mark]

11. I think ours is around 8 to 10. I remember we replaced the old one

that still worked because this one is bigger. We gave the old one away. I see the damn thing many times a day, and have no idea what brand it is but it is big and black.

mark

[Beetwasher]

13. None Of Your Fucking Business

How rude.

[barb162]

14. a little over 20 yrs old n/t

[GreenPartyVoter]

15. A couple of years. We're on our 3rd one in six or so years. The

one we started out with when we were first married 16 years ago lasted almost a decade I think.

[Silver Swan]

16. About twenty years

The display is no longer readable unless it is dark in the kitchen, but it still cooks okay.

Spouse thinks we should get a new one, but I can't find one the same size as the old one, and I also fear a new one would go kaput in a couple of years.

[Rhiannon12866]

17. Know that this one predates 1990...

And it works just fine... :-)

[applegrove]

18. I didn't used to have one because I didn't like microwave dinners and I typically

didn't have any room for one. At my parents' house I did used to take a slice of bread, add a little tomato sauce, old cheddar cheese and garlic salt and nuke away. So last year I finally got one for myself. Within a month I was sick of microwave dinners. Haven't used it since. Don't eat at home anymore because I cook for my parents. There I use the microwave to just heat leftovers up. What a waste of money my microwave was.

[texanwitch]

19. About a week old.

Had to buy a new one, a lot better then the old one.

[HipChick]

20. my microwave has outlasted all of my relationships

I will cry when I have to replace it...the men, not so much so..

[SeattleGirl]

21. Just bought a new one a year ago. The previous one was

over 20 years old. It was starting to lose cooking power, so I got a new one.

[mnhtnbb]

22. I just had to replace a 2 year old Panasonic which died.

I hope the Sharp I bought to replace it lasts longer! The Sharp that we had in the house that burned down
I'd had for at least 12 years--and since I can't remember when I bought it--might even been more
than 15 years.

[trackfan]

23. 11 years old. n/t

[riderinthestorm]

24. Can we talk manual can openers? What is up with this shit?

I have one for 20+ years and it is so worn out it won't "cut" the metal anymore. Fine. So I go out and buy the MOST expensive can opener. It "breaks" within two weeks and won't "spin" along the rim. Grr. So I buy the cheapest can opener, and within two weeks THAT sucker won't "spin" along the rim.

WTF??

This is a story akin to microwaves imho. We live in an era of cheap disposable goods. Sometimes you just get lucky and get something of quality that lasts forever, and sometimes you just get shit.

Good luck with your micro. Mine's 6 months old, majorly cheap, and a replacement for one that lasted about 10 years before that.

[pokerfan]

25. That reminds me

The $%^&ing cheese slicer!



My parents' lasted for two decades (the sixties and the seventies). The current ones are crap and fail within one year. Sooner if you use it more often. I know my microwave won't last forever. I know that whatever I replace it with will be crap. I hate this fucking disposable society. I would gladly pay double for quality if only there were some guarantee that it really was quality and not just expensive looking crap.

</rant>

[Paper Roses]

27. Had a cheese cutter like yours, Broke on second or third use.

Picked up an old one of a similar design(no screws on ends) and it has worked beautifully. I have decided that If I can find "whatever" at a thrift, yard sale, Craigslist etc, I'll get the old, used one before picking up any of the junk at the store.

I'm about ready to throw away my Braun coffeemaker. This is my 4th one. It is cheap enough that I would buy a new one if the small hinge at the bottom of the basket broke. Kept breaking off so I e-mailed the company. Their reply was that the model is discontinued but that I may buy a new basket assembly for my pot. Nuts. Just I'm sure that will break just as the other assemblies broke. I am not careless, it is just a very weak point in the design.

My Microwave is a Sharp Carousel about 15 years old. Still works great for simple things. I don't use it to cook meals. It is a coffee warmer, food defroster, reheater extraordinaire. If that breaks, I'll look for a replacement at a yard sale.

Keep relevant measurements of things I need in my wallet.

[bridgit]

26. Um......2 maybe 3 years old tops, bought it when we moved in here, hubby's old one...

started sparking and acting weird so...bought a new one