Kitchenaid stand mixer and blender are the oldest things I can think of. Probably around 20 years old.
If we're not just talking consumer goods, I have a Textronix oscilloscope from the 80's that I use occasionally.
Ask HN: What's your oldest piece of electrical equipment?
31–40 of 51 posts
Re: Ask HN: What's your oldest piece of electrical equipment?
#32My Electrolux Vacuum is far older than I am (50+ years) and replacement parts and consumables are still easily purchased on eBay. Runs like a champ and has never given me trouble. Plastic parts are failing faster than the metal cylinder body is. Has long since outlawed features like a spring retractable power cord. I laugh when I see another 'new' Dyson sitting in the trash heap.
> Has long since outlawed features like a spring retractable power cord.
What country do you live in where spring retractable power cords are forbidden on vacuums? And for what reason?
Re: Ask HN: What's your oldest piece of electrical equipment?
#33[deleted]
Re: Ask HN: What's your oldest piece of electrical equipment?
#341984 Linn Sondek LP12 turntable and 1991 Plinius SA50 Amplifier both of which were my fathers.
Re: Ask HN: What's your oldest piece of electrical equipment?
#35Oldest thingy I bought new myself probably is a Nikon F4s, spring 1994. It is the SLR which is so tough it is the only known object which can inflict blunt force trauma Chuck Norris.
Still use it for a reasonably liberal definition of 'use' - I probably ran 15-18 rolls of Tri-X through it last year.
As for used ones, the oldest one by far is a carbon arc lamp made in 1895-1898 or so; my grandfather was an engineer with the local utility company in Aalesund, Norway - and when he began working there in 1943, they still had a few arc lamps in storage which had been used as the first electrical street lights in Aalesund, being installed from 1895 on.
My grandfather, a terrific tinkerer, wanted to crank one up just to see if he could make it work, and was told to just bring a few of them home and play around with them until he tired of it.
I inherited a lamp and the rest of the carbon electrodes. I crank it up a couple of times a year for giggles. Made by Siemens and an absolute work of art.
Re: Ask HN: What's your oldest piece of electrical equipment?
#36I've got a 70s Pioneer Receiver I still use to listen to the radio sometimes. And I use it for audio with my 2008 Samsung TV.
I have a Philips amp/receiver whose age I don't know but I think it's from the 70's or possibly 80's. I still use it for music and sometimes films or series when I don't want to use headphones.
The connected speakers are probably also from the same era. I can't confirm the age of either since the amp is from my late father and the speakers from some past neighbour.
Re: Ask HN: What's your oldest piece of electrical equipment?
#37My house's electric hot water system is dated 1959, so it must have been installed at the time of the original house build.
(I didn't buy it new - in fact my mother was barely born by then)
I'm slightly anxious about it sometimes, but finances are perpetually such that we have little choice but to soldier on and hope it lasts a good bit longer yet.
Re: Ask HN: What's your oldest piece of electrical equipment?
#38I have a small AA-powered "atomic" clock (radio controlled clock) that I got in college (~20 years ago).
I moved from the US to Europe, and kept several large kitchen appliances by buying a really solid transformer (AcuPwr). I kept a rice cooker, expensive coffee grinder, a Blendtec blender, a sous-vide stick, a vacuum sealer, a stand mixer, and a few more things. Replacing all of those in here would have cost much much more than the transformer.
Many other modern electronic devices are 120-240V compatible, sometimes even those that claim otherwise (e.g. LG OLED TVs).
In your case, your TV and toaster are probably not worth bringing. The SNES you can probably just find a different AC adaptor for, but it is also probably PAL, not NTSC; not sure that matters anymore.
If it is important to keep certain things, you can try Quick220, which lets you make a 240V outlet from 2 120V US circuits (split-phase), or you can do the same from a dryer or electic stove outlet.
Re: Ask HN: What's your oldest piece of electrical equipment?
#39My TI-83 Plus calculator from around 1999. Still use it today, almost a quarter of a century later!
Re: Ask HN: What's your oldest piece of electrical equipment?
#40I have a few Commodore 64s, from the middle-early 80s.
Then there's the TI-30 calculator and the Atari 2600, both from the mid 70s.
If you want to count it as such, my house was built in 1952 and has a cute little switchboard to break out a phone line to every room (and I mean every room, there's at least 6 lines in my two bedroom house). It even has cute little handwritten paper tags attached to each line.