Dull Men's Club

Except this thing was actually useful and did some good for all those years lol!

we had one from the early 90s or 80s also panasonic, it last 30+years, then we bought a newish one few years ago, and it died in 2 years. it was the famous overheating one, that looks likes it catching onfire it was 100$, and then it suddenly stopped working lol. the current one we spent a little more and it was working fine.

My mom still uses the Panasonic microwave that she bought in the '80s.

Meanwhile, I've been through four microwaves since 2000.

It seems to be the membrane switch (keypad). Still a perfectly good microwave if I can end up finding the right parts. I'm going to try and fix the membrane and see what happens from there, maybe I'll get lucky and be able to salvage it.

Gas furnaces from 1987 when new could convert 75-80% of the chemical energy in gas into heat within your house. They lose some efficiency over time, but not that much - I would expect it's still getting 70-75% of the chemical energy converted into heat within your house.

The maximum efficiency available today is around 96% on the same metric. If you need 100 units of heat today, you are burning 133-143 units of gas. With the best possible furnace efficiency today, you would only need to burn 104 units of gas, which is 22-28% less - certainly not "about half".

There are multiple special requirements for the best possible efficiency, and they are more expensive, both to purchase and to install. You might be able to save money on bills, depending on gas rates in your area, and the total cost to purchase and install a high efficiency furnace. I can't really answer that without a lot more information.

As for parts availability, there should be a model number and a manufacturer indicated on it somewhere. These days, most things service professionals have access to are also listed on the internet for sale. That one is easier to convincingly check.

Is the heat exchanger still intact? No cracks? If it's cracked get rid of it before the carbon monoxide gets you. We went with a heat pump and will not return to a gas furnace.

Newer ones can be a lot more efficient, but the high efficiency ones aren't just drop-in replacements either because they require additional piping to the outdoors which can be a big issue depending on where in your house the furnace is located.

Ask another HVAC company about your options and benefits... See if they say similar things... Most likely given that it's almost 40 years old vs The efficiency improvements are probably across the board on new models... And see if the numbers match

You're an enlightened individual?

What died? Dm me if you want to try fixing it. Super simple circuit usually, timer switch+element, thermostat if it's fancy. Guarantee we can keep it around sub-$20

It seems to be the keypad, or more importantly the membrane switch behind the keys that makes it work.

You probably could hack in a different one but that would be a pretty messy job, and wouldn't fit well.