Washing machines, fridges, freezers face tougher energy standards

The Washington Post via Yahoo ^ | February 10, 2023 | By Steven Mufson

[Jeff Chandler]

BTW, I would get the machines for free, or 15 bucks at most. After I spent an hour on the repair, I would sell the machines for $150.00.

[Dr. Sivana]

My mother had a 1950s Maytag wringer washing machine, whose motor finally died in the late '70s. She replaced it with the same model that she found a junk store (think Sanford and Son). The motor NEVER died on that one. It was done only when the porcelain floor had worn through from many thousands of loads.


(Similar model)

[Rurudyne]

The Ferguson Toilet: the King of Bowl, the Stradivarius of toilets ... per Al Bundy

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IMYZLXDabEg

[dennisw]

These f’n useless eaters in DC are trying to justify their insane salaries and pensions. Reality is that these type of EPA/Energy Department regulators are all/or 95% working from home. They do nothing that is useful. How many are black and other gay. homo, trans, whatever affirmative action babies that are stupid and useless?

The FedGuv was bad enough pre-Scamdemic. Now it 100% useless due to work from home. The biggest rip off ever. There is zero collegiality and collaboration when you work from home. And don’t complain you FR coders and IT guys. We know you produce when you work from home. For the private sector. Not as shiftless FedGuv “workers”

[Drew68]

It’s hard to find a decent washing machine these days. Even the top-loaders are allowing a pitiful amount of water for clothes to swish around in.

Obama-era federal regulations are to thank for this.

Find washer/driers made prior to 2012 and maintain them.

[Saltmeat]

They totally ignore any value to how long it takes the appliance (dishwasher, washing machine, clothes dryer) to complete a cycle. A working mother who has to do the family laundry on the weekend doesn’t have 90, 100, 120 minutes for a wash cycle. Then comes the drying.

The most hated appliance now is probably the dishwasher. They have made it so quiet that it can be installed in the bedroom, but it takes a minimum of 130 minutes to do a load of dishes. Oh, it uses less energy but consumes much more time. Why does it use less energy? They reduced the size of the pump and the kw of the heating element used to aid the drying process.

Our government doesn’t need to mandate energy standards for home appliances. It the consumer wants less energy consumption, then have the appliance dealer offer such a model along side the regular model. Then everyone can be happy.

Congress has abdicated their governing responsibility to nameless, faceless bureaucrats, and then they whine about the results.

[the OlLine Rebel]

I’ve seen those mainly died out by the ‘50s. In the ‘30s some began to show up with the plain cubic cabinet and no wringers.

[Angelino97]

I read a conspiracy theory that GE lobbied to make incandescent bulbs illegal. That's because the patents to incandescent bulbs had long since expired, but GE owned patents to newer light bulb technology.

I wonder if the appliance industry secretly lobbied for these new energy standards? Then they'd have to invent new technology, with new patents, and sell at a higher price. While saying, "Don't blame us. The government forced us to create this new, more expensive technology."

[mewzilla]

This isn’t about saving the planet.

[the OlLine Rebel]

Yup.

I despise these tyrants telling all of us what we can have, AND what we can make.

Toilets getting LESS efficient (if you define efficiency as DOING THE JOB in as little effort as possible), and lightbulbs more annoying and more expensive to MAKE (because it’s harder to make curly-fries OR even LEDs).

Yeah, I want these tyrants legislating EVERYthing! /s

[albie]

My mom had a Lady Kenmore that lasted 30+ years. Today life expectancy of any appliance is under 10. We will soon be at 2-3 years before replacing.

[the OlLine Rebel]

I don’t know.

If they do, it’s stupid.

Alot of work goes into developing something new.

THAT is the “non-recurring cost” that must be re-couped. Recurring cost such as manufacturing it must be kept down also, but adding in the NRC means much more ROI must be achieved.

This doesn’t mean it won’t be worth it, but doing alot of “innovation” can be very expensive and end up not working well.

[the OlLine Rebel]

My parents built their house, when I was born, and that included their Westinghouse washer/dryer.

They lasted 30 years.

There really wasn’t anything wrong with them, per se, when my sister and I bought them a new set.

For some 10 years to that point, we’d put up with rusting holes in the washer that sometimes stained the clothes.

Funniest was the dryer, whose (plastic, I guess) door clip broke in the ‘80s, and for some 15 years we closed the door by jamming a broom down there between the handle notch and the furnace!

So, they basically still worked, just not ideally!

[up hermit]

I was in appliance repair and HVAC for 30 years. My definition of energy efficiency is: “Almost doesn’t work”. It takes very little to cause the modern stuff to not function properly, and then repair costs are astronomical. Thank you alphabet government agencies.

[Combat_Liberalism]

I didn’t see anything about electric clothes dryers. My mom bought a Kenmore in 1971. She put a belt in it in the late 80’s. My parents moved in 1991, giving it to me. It was produced before all these federal bureaucrat busy bodies got busy after the first “energy crisis,” so it uses a little more electricity. It’s a little noisy, but hot diggity dog, can it dry clothes.

Now and then I tell my wife we should get rid of it before it dies in January when we’d have to muscle it out the basement door and drag it through a couple feet of snow, then drag in a new one through the same conditions.

Fortunately, my wife is still pinching the first penny we ever earned and reminds me that newer dryers will not serve us so admirably.

When we go, it will be buried next to our caskets.

[Fido969]

They’re making it more expenses and not work as well.

[sauropod]

.

[Vaduz]

Volcanos releases tons of them by the hour around the world harmful greenhouse gases better have a meeting on how to regulate them.

Don’t worry about the fire ants while the lion is gnawing on you leg.

[William of Barsoom]

The (old) washer-dryer came with the house 10 years ago. Unknown history before that. House built in 1993.

...anyway —

Washer, with only some modest electronical doo-dads and “features,” busted a gut. Local indy repairman fixed it fast and cheap. He said if it ever busted a gut again to consider a Maytag “Commercial” version for a replacement.

Eventually it did, and we did; and while it’s kinda plain-Jane ugly, it’s all electro-MECHNICAL (no chipz), and it runs well and works VERY well.

Good advice, I’m thinkin’

[zeestephen]

Save on water bills?

Every place I have lived had the same water billing system.

A mandatory monthly fee for a certain minimum quantity of water plus a mandatory sewage fee.

If you used more than the minimum quantity, the charge was 10-15 cents per extra 1,000 gallons.

LOL - if I washed laundry every day, maybe I could I save one dime per month?