[Jsebast24]

Let's say you have these two options: buy a $4,000 fridge that can last 20 years or a $1,000 fridge that lasts 5 years. Think about it. With the $1,000/5 yrs option you'll get one new modern fridge every 5 years (add a bit more $ for inflation), or 4 brand-new in a 20 yrs period. If you go with the $4,000 option, you'll be stuck with the same equipment for 20 years.

[woodruffw]

Serious question: what "must-have" technology has been added to fridges in the last 5 (or even 10) years? It's hard for me to imagine even wanting to upgrade that often. I could see upgrading for significant energy savings, but it seems like that's already mostly been picked bare.

(I rent, and I have what seems like a pretty modern fridge. The only real innovation I can discern between it and my childhood home's 20+ year old fridge is that it beeps when it's been left open for more than a minute.)

[Arainach]

My refrigerator is the one appliance in my house I haven't had to replace yet, but depending on the age and your budget there are a number of nice features including:

* Better organization - pull out can drawers or exterior-facing small doors so you don't need to expose the whole contents of the fridge to warm air just to grab a can of soda or the ketchup

* Water and ice dispensers - not brand new tech but I've owned plenty of fridges without them (even bought one such fridge within the last 10 years) and much prefer to have them.

* More temperature zones

* Better internal organization

* Significantly better energy efficiency

* Reduced noise

I don't want to have to replace appliances (or cars, or most anything) every 5 years, so I'm glad there are a range of options, but there do continue to be quality of life improvements.

[woodruffw]

This is a helpful list, thanks. I don't think the efficiency improvements have been significant in the last 20 years (see adjacent comment), but anecdotally I think you're right about water/ice dispensers becoming more common (and popular). Same with temperature/humidity zones.

[dzhiurgis]

If you have no imagination - look at Japanese fridges.

Couple of really nice ones - vacuum chamber for meats, humidity controlled area for vegetables.

Or just being able to put hot food without worrying it will spoil everything else (probably ok with most modern fridges tbh).

[woodruffw]

I think my parent's 20+ year old fridge had humidity zones.

(But practically: I don't think the domestic Japanese refrigerator market is available to me, at least not without going through some very expensive and individualized import process. So maybe I'd like to buy one of these, but they're not immediately available to me on a 5 year cycle anyways :-))

[dzhiurgis]

Yes most fridges have a zone within a fridge for veges (i.e. mine is missing a seal so everything is drying up), but it's not same as an actively controlled completely separate zone.

[m463]

similar to efficiency is keep cold time during a power outage.

It's possible the food you lose could cost a significant portion of the fridge price.

I have always wondered about that when I see the LG fridges with glass doors (knock to light up). I don't think the R value of even a great glass door can be very good.

[rmbyrro]

I think they've gotten more energy efficient over the years

[woodruffw]

I think I addressed that. I would definitely buy a 2000s fridge over a 1970s one. But energy efficiency improvements appear to be largely stagnant since the mid-2000s[1].

[1]: https://appliance-standards.org/blog/how-your-refrigerator-h...

[ifyoubuildit]

I know that I'm an outlier freak in this, but I hate being forced to solve the same problems repeatedly.

When I've found a fridge that solves the problem of keeping my food safe, and does it reasonably well (quietly, efficiently, etc), I never want to solve that problem again. I don't care about any incremental improvements whatsoever. I could die happy without ever buying another appliance of any kind.

This is true for most things that I own. My car, my phone, my computer, my TV, etc.

When it comes to hobbies, sure, I can indulge a little in the hedonic treadmill thing. For the rest of it, don't bother me.

[swatcoder]

Nevermind that the mines, landfills, groundwater, and air can only support this kind of consumption for so long.

That's not your problem until a government makes it the manufacturer's problem, and of course you're going to be against them doing that because it's an affront to free markets and will increase your costs so you can no longer get a new "disposable" fridge every five years.

Oh, well. Nothing to do, I guess.

What could go wrong?

[fuzzythinker]

The only good reason is having a new/shinny one every 5 years. Tons of reasons for me to choose the 20 years one:

- No carbon waste

- No hassle/time waste to install new one

- Good tech that I truly want in a fridge comes around every 20 years, not 5.

- Fridge seems to be getting bigger and bigger. No decision fatigue in having to choose a decreasing number and best of limited options every 5 years.

[mihaaly]

That 4x1000 is more like 1000+1100+1200+1400 in present value, also you have to go out on moment's notice when it brokes down and get something just to have anything to store food in, forced into new 'features' while basic things malfunction (like in ours the cool box breaks easily because it is redesigned from a brand new weak material), also I mostly (almost exclusively?) need the feature of cold that was there for long time. Don't expect much more from a fridge than storing food in it for long. Energy efficiency is a good improvement, yet littering the Earth with 4x the fridge is not, absolutely not.

'Stuck' with something good and reliable is good thing for god's sake!! Where the minds got distorted into this get a lot new things fast, just because it is Brand New kind of nonsense?....

[mercutio2]

Why does your NPV calculation include a negative discount function?

There's no reason to expect refrigerators of constant quality to get more expensive in real terms, and NPV calculations traditionally assume a reasonable (and positive) cost of capital, likely exceeding the rate of inflation.

So I would've said 1000 + 920 + 850 + 780, or something like that.

[mihaaly]

No reason?

You mean no such reason that you want to find. Same extremely lowered (shit) quality things cost same present value, so increased through time with inflation, items made more complex as this is the case with fridges involving unnecessary 'engineering' and 'development', adding additional costs, old inventions hit wall for improvements after a while, probably we could find some more reasons if we analyse how prices increase for the same kind of product in time, which is the norm for things exist for multiple decades. (you may think about months or few years timespan here of new inventions/developments with maturing manufacturing and the pay off of investments of develping something new, but it is so very far from the situation here).

[oremolten]

What is the technological or feature upgrade in refrigerators even over a 20 year period? My primary fridge is from 1997 and food is cold, ice is made, water dispensed and it didn't cost 4,000 dollars in 1997 either. Oh and the inside shelving is done with metal and not plastic.

[hangonhn]

I think they've gotten more efficient. For example: https://www.reddit.com/r/mildlyinteresting/comments/dojlwe/e...

[hangonhn]

This is it. You can still buy fridges that last forever, such as Bosch, but it's twice as expensive. Appliances have gotten cheaper both in terms of build quality and cost and become much more accessible and overall cheaper over the same period of time as you've pointed out.

I also wonder how many people had fridges in 1935 vs now. I don't think it's some cynical plot to make things worse over time but a result of competition. It's similar with flying and how miserable it is. People fly a lot more these days because competition has driven cost down and make it more accessible but quality had to be sacrificed. If you can afford it, business or first class flying is still pretty nice.

[clarkevans]

My new bosh dishwasher does clean better and is quieter compared to prior bosh, that had to be replaced at the 7 year mark. This one is far more plastic and I expect it to last only 3-5 years.

[theshrike79]

The problem with plastic is that plastic != plastic.

Some plastics last forever, others don’t. There’s no way to tell without buying one and seeing if the parts self destruct or not.

With metal it’s simpler, it just lasts.

[voisin]

I think a big part of the problem is that most people go to the giant big box store for a new appliance and the only things they sell are in a fairly tight price range of $800-$1600. If you want a $4000 one you have to go to a boutique appliance place and then you don’t even know if the thing you are buying is better quality or simply paying for the brand.

When I recently went through this for a new oven I found the high end ovens were all gas tops (I was set on switching to Induction - and boy am I thrilled to have made that decision!) and on the metrics they were smaller ovens, had fewer bells and whistles, but had a big brand on the front for impressing guests.

[clarkevans]

Except that the one that lasts for 5 years will have 3 maintenance breakdowns during that time, where the appliance is unusable for 3-7 weeks while the service tech goes back and forth replacing components. I'd rather be stuck with the 20 old machine that has a few breakdowns but with simpler parts that could fit in the truck.

There is a business opportunity here, like Framework (with open specs), but for Induction cooktops, refrigerators, dishwashers, etc.

[JohnFen]

Interesting that you phrase it as being "stuck with the same equipment". I'd think that being able to reduce the hassle of replacing it to once every 20 years would be an enormous benefit.

[loco5niner]

Alternatively, I don't have to hassle with a broken fridge every 5 years.

[m463]

you forgot option 3 - buy a subzero 48" fridge that is like 8' tall and pay $15-20k