Many Americans believe that their appliances have become less durable and reliable over recent decades. Rachel Wharton at Wirecutter has an excellent piece pushing back. Her conclusions mirror what I found when looking at clothing quality: yes, there has been a modest decline in durability, but the main drivers are customer preferences, regulatory shifts, and Baumol effects—not corporate malfeasance or cultural decline.
“Everybody talks about the Maytag washing machine that lasts 50 years,” said Daniel Conrad, a former product engineer at Whirlpool Corporation who is now the director of design quality, reliability, and testing for a commercial-refrigeration company. “No one talks about the other 4.5 million that didn’t last that long.”
The available evidence suggests that appliance lifespans have decreased only modestly over the past few decades. Recent research from the Association of Home Appliance Manufacturers trade group shows that in 2010 most appliances lasted from 11 to 16 years. By 2019, those numbers had dropped, to a range of nine to 14 years. (In some cases, such as for gas ranges and dryers, the lifespans actually increased.)
The modest decline is partially explained by regulation:
Every appliance service technician I spoke to — each with decades of experience repairing machines from multiple brands — immediately blamed federal regulations for water and energy efficiency for most frustrations with modern appliances.
…The main culprit is the set of efficiency standards for water and energy use for all cooking, refrigeration, and cleaning appliances.
The regulations change often and push producers to make changes that consumers don’t necessarily want like switching to lighter plastic parts rather than metal or by adding sophisticated computer controls that increase efficiency but also introduce new break points. See my previous posts on these issues here and here.
But as with clothing, another reason for reduced durability is that many consumers don’t want durable appliances–instead consumers want the latest model with all the whizz-bang features. (Sure, I don’t want this and you don’t want it but heh, they sell!) In other words, appliances and their colors, features and styles have become items of fashion.
And people’s desire for new things only appears to be growing. Petrino Ball said her sales research at AJ Madison showed that today consumers are buying new appliances every eight years, even if what they had before hasn’t fully failed.
…Whitney Welch, a spokesperson for GE Appliances, told me that its research showed consumers are often replacing appliances for aesthetic reasons….
If many customers don’t want to keep appliances for more than 10 years then it doesn’t pay to make them last more than 10 years.
The big story isn’t declining durability but declining price:
In 1972, Sears sold a clothes washer for $220 and a dryer for $90, per 2022 research by AARP Magazine. That’s about $2,389 in 2025, adjusted for inflation. Today you can get a washer-and-dryer pair on sale from Sears for around $1,200.
The Baumol effect means that repair is rising in price relative to buying new which is another reason why we don’t keep products around as long as we did when we were poorer and it it made sense to fix broken goods:
….prices on most new models are so low, his first suggestion to customers is to just replace the appliance. “If the cost of repair is 50% of replacement, throw it cleanly away,” he said. “If it’s 40%, consider the option.”
“Labor is highly skilled,” he added. “It can’t compete with low prices.”
In many cases, it can’t compete with lost time, either. Repairs often require waiting a few days or weeks for parts, said Petrino Ball. “Even one day without a washer-dryer or fridge is really hard for many families,” she said, “but if you buy one, you can have it the next day.”
Moreover, as I argued with clothes, it is possible to find durable appliances if you shop carefully. Interestingly, Wharton notes that you can either go high or low. The top-of-the-line appliances from Sub-Zero and Wolf do last longer but they are very expensive and often do not include whizz-bang features. Alternatively, you can go low–buy a GE or Sears refrigerator and get it without frills–no ice or water dispenser, no electronics, no lux colors and chances are it will last a long time.
In short, appliance durability hasn’t collapsed—it’s evolved to meet consumer demand. We’re not being ripped off. We are getting better products at better prices. Rising incomes have simply redefined what “better” means.
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