My Grandma's Fridge Lasted Thirty Years
And if yours won't last, can't be repaired and its parts can't be recycled, maybe it shouldn't have been manufactured!
Dear Human of Planet Earth,
If you’re about my age or older, you’ve witnessed a transformation in manufacturing.
And it doesn’t surprise you to hear my grandmother’s fridge lasted her thirty years. As a ‘consumer’ - scratch that - as a citizen who buys things when you need to, you know manufacturers once made things to last, and to be repaired till they could be repaired no more.
Nowadays, the repairman tells you the replacement part would cost more than a new appliance.
My local hardware was impressed the kettle they sold me lasted all of seven years. The second one I bought from them lasted less than seven years! And many kettles give up their steamy ghost long before that! 85% don’t last five!
When I descaled kettle no.2, it sought revenge by springing a leak.
I turned to Buy Me Once.
I first heard of Buy Me Once from Tara Button’s ‘A Life Less Throwaway.’
The trouble was, I couldn’t afford a kettle for £360.00, even if it promised to last me a lifetime.
Affordability is partly a matter of fact and partly a matter of psychology.
If a kettle is really going to last me 30 years then surely, £9/year is worth it?
And if I can pay for the kettle and still have food, transport and a roof over my head, can I truly say I can’t afford it?
Well, yes. Because as every salesperson knows, the pain of the price has to be emotionally eclipsed by the perceived value of the kettle.
And £360 was just too painful. Imagine having to re-arrange your monthly budget just to buy a kettle, when you can get one for £20 on Argos. (Ask Boris!)
Luckily, kettle #2’s leak re-sealed spontaneously, leaving me to re-assess if I’d failed to follow the de-scaling instructions correctly.
And the matter of replacing the kettle was delayed for another year, to the moment when it just stopped boiling any water.
I crept onto Buy Me Once again, and was delighted to find they had a kettle available for just over half the price of the one I couldn’t afford last year.
The price reduction pressed the right psychological buttons: perhaps this was a temporary offer and therefore a bargain!
Now, this kettle didn’t promise to last me the rest of my life, but its element was replaceable. My husband was his usual sceptical self. “What if the company that does the parts is out of business when you need the element replaced?”
Well, if we were all pessimists the earth wouldn’t bother turning.
I bought the kettle, because its element could be replaced, and out of a sense of trusting Buy Me Once had done their research. After all, they say that’s what their website is there for, right?
(Translation: I didn’t do any research)
Was it a good decision?
Well, it was well-intentioned. And so far so good.
Within a month though, the kettle was full of scale. I wasn’t surprised. The UK is famous for its hard water, and I class de-scaling kettles as an activity to be done only occasionally.
But perhaps, reading what Which.co.uk has to say,
Hard water can wreak havoc on your kettle, damaging the element and shortening its lifespan.
I need to reconsider my reluctance to de-scale regularly!
After all, I bought my discounted DuaLit kettle on the basis its element can be replaced! But,
Dualit makes a big deal of its “patented replaceable element”, which is really an assembly of the element, power switch, thermostat and power-indicating LEDs. The design means that, should any of these parts fail, the assembly can be replaced (it costs $89). The element is press-fitted into the kettle base with a double-lip silicone seal. This makes the Dualit Classic kettle almost entirely repairable (only the fill-level indicators are not). However, the replaceable element adds significant complexity and cost, not least because the design has to minimise the risk of leaks around the extra seal added to the base. - Source
I know, for £89 I could buy three kettles and have change left over!
But I believe emphatically that where we can afford to, we need to support the push towards a more circular economy. And manufacturing goods that can be repaired, and are made from materials that can be dismantled and recycled is a key aspect of a circular economy.
Of course, the ‘where we can afford to’ aspect of this is personalised by you. Only you know what you can afford and what you can access and manage.
As a tenant, I don’t get to choose the companies our landlord uses when they need to replace appliances. I don’t get to install solar panels and reduce my energy costs while contributing to the national grid.
But at least I can buy a repairable kettle and descale it regularly.
To read more about kettles and particularly about the Dualit repairable one, click here.
If unlike me, you can afford a Which subscription, why not share the communal wisdom of Which with the rest of us by leaving a note in the comments about which kettles are the best value for money and the best for the environment? There’s something described as an Eco-kettle but alas, non-subscribers don’t get to find out what!
Some things to consider:
Hard water filters reduce limescale damage to the element but need to be replaced often themselves.
A kettle that isn’t designed to allow you to boil enough water for just one cup, forces you to waste energy and money every time you need water for just one cup.
Make a family habit of offering others a hot drink when you want one, so your kettle doesn’t boil more times a day than it needs to.
Set aside time for your hot drink, so that it doesn’t get cold when you forget it, while you’re working hard at your computer or watching movies with your cat. It hurts to see people throw cold tea down the sink. Think of the carbon emitted in the supply chain to get that hot drink made!
A generational guarantee sounds hopeful and ambitious. Perhaps it’s an offer ranking up there with my grandmother’s 30-year-old fridge?
Exploring White Goods that are Built to Last
I don’t buy white goods but perhaps you do from time to time?
I checked in with some friends about companies that make appliances with longevity in mind.
AGA and Rangemaster were two brands that came up. Their websites do include info on accessing spare parts but of interest, their marketing and appeal doesn’t include any emphasis on repairability or replacement parts, suggesting they don’t believe this to be a customer priority.
Miele emerged as the decisive winner, from my admittedly limited enquiries. They offer products that can last a generation. Consider that in the ten years of being tenants at two homes in the UK, we’ve had six appliances replaced so far. A generational guarantee sounds hopeful and ambitious. Perhaps it’s an offer ranking up there with my grandmother’s 30-year-old fridge?
Like my new DuaLit kettle, some of Miele’s products might be affordable to the average family with a push, split payments or credit cards, and the promise of much greater longevity. But at the higher end of their range, a Miele washer or hob could cost you twice your monthly mortgage.
But here’s the good news! Wealthy folks sometimes migrate. They re-do their kitchens. They sell their appliances! Check out the marketplace for second-hand Miele appliances. If they’ve got life in them, it would be a crime not to find them a new home!
Good news:
Finally, how do the carbon emissions for your hot drinks add up? Check out the fuzzy graph below:
You might be surprised to find it’s the milk and not the kettle! Even oat milk in a latte has a carbon footprint many times beyond the fixed impact of boiling your kettle. Add another 110g CO2(e) for a disposable coffee cup!
Thanks for reading! Spread the word about Buy Me Once and Miele, and help your friends get thinking about buying for durability and repairability. Let’s all do what we can!
With Love,
Your Friendly Neighbourhood Radical,
Croydon,
London,
That patch of earth known today as the United Kingdom
Lat +51.51 Long, -0.118