Here's a lovely british fridge from the 50's: https://c7.alamy.com/comp/R2K1Y1/original-1950s-vintage-old-print-advertisement-from-english-magazine-advertising-frigidaire-refrigerator-circa-1954-R2K1Y1.jpg

the larger, budget model (250 liters, so about 2/3rd of a current single-door basic fridge) is 152 guineas. For those of you not usally paying in pre-decimal british currency, that's 152 pounds and 152 shillings or 159,60 decimal pounds. Inflation from 1955 makes that about 2000 pounds/dollar/euros today.

No auto-defrost, no actually closing door, and a barely-adequate temperature controller. It did come in sherwood green though, with a kickass counter top!

It's like any other luxury.

Back in 1960, minimum wage was $1.00/hour. You could get a meal at a diner for under $1.00 or go to a really swanky place and spend $4.00 or $5.00.

Today, minimum wage is $7.50, a diner meal is $20.00, and a luxury meal is $100.00

You can go out a find a really well build product that will last, but it will cost ten times as much as the one you can afford.

People have mentioned energy use and safety, but adjusting for inflation they were also way more expensive, a washing machine in the 50s was over $1000 in today's dollars. If you're willing to spend that much, you can find great reliable appliances with long lives.

and uses four times the electricity and substances that have been banned since the 80s

You can buy appliances which will last that long, but they cost a lot of money. The reality isn't that people forgot how to make things durable, it's that consumer demand is so conditioned by price, most people "prefer" to spend less on appliances they will replace more often.

The average appliance these days is actually significantly cheaper when adjusted for inflation compared to the 60s and 70s.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Survivorship_bias

I have an old Radio from the 50s - big wooden piece of furniture with a turntable and everything. The plug on that thing is absolutely terrifying, super flimsy and so small you have to almost touch the prongs to plug it in.

The only thing I know close to this is Maytag has a "commercial" washer and dryer line. It's no frills, made in America, and has a 10 year warranty. That's the line I chose.

Edit: It's their Centennial line it's made with their "commercial technology."

Not every old design was better but some were.

My wife absolutely refuses to give up her early 1970's GE range. It's impossible to get parts for it so eventually it's going to have to be replaced. One of the actually nice features it has is is that all the push button controls are on the range hood. Don't have to worry about them getting greasy while cooking or little kids turning the burners on.

I do think they are onto something. I just want a dishwasher that washes dishes, a dryer that just dries, a refrigerator that refrigerates. I don't need another camera and tablet or more "smart" crap in my home, it's just one more thing to break or need updating. I just need things that work reliablely when I need them to work.

Also, less plastic in the manufacturing material would be great. Just me thinking out loud but it also seems like it would be easier to control the life span by using plastic because you can play with the chemistry to start breaking down at a certain amount of usage and temperature and age.

A lot of appliances could still be viable, but the best refrigerants are all banned. The modern ones supposedly are better for greenhouse effect, but they actively corrode parts of their closed systems, leading to consistent early part failures.

There is an open source hardware movement underway already, I'm hoping they get to large appliances soon.

Was gonna say, I do like th modern efficiencies. I'm waiting for a start up to make a heat pump oven

This is basically the context of “Dune”

Where energy efficiency isn't a concern (maybe a blender or a toaster) this sounds nice, but otherwise...well...lots of wasted energy.

(Of course, it all has to be balanced against the cost of manufacturing/disposing.)