AIBU to ask what’s the oldest appliance / utensil you still use regularly?

[AlmondsAreGreat]

Another thread got me thinking - what’s the oldest appliance or utensil you use regularly? Something that has truly outlived its life expectancy but is still going strong? I mean things you actually use for their tended purpose.

I have a hot water bottle inherited from my Gran who died 27 years ago, although judging by the thread I should probably give it up!

I also have a gravy boat that I still use that was my Great Grandmothers, and must be at least 90 years old. I also have her rolling pin, and still use it.

The boiler in our last house was newly installed in 1973 and still going strong when we moved in 2013.

Any others?

My father was a chartered electrical engineer, with involvement in producing various editions of the IEE wiring regs. In his younger days it would have been well maintained. And a vacuum cleaner plugged in and used only under immediate supervision is less of a hazard than, say, an electric blanket left on for an hour or so in an unattended room.

A Prestige carving knife that I bought in 1987.

I have a chefs knife that my grandad used when he was working in cruise ships. He died in 1963.

@Longtimelurkerfinallyposts (nobody's been talking about using 100yo electrical gadgets with their original cloth-covered wiring).

You didn't read my post then

It wasn't the cloth cover that was the problem. it was the rubber cables which eventually perish, and crumble away revealing the wires inside.

So much of my kitchen equipment is from my young adulthood 50 years ago, or from my mother and therefore 80 years ago, that I would struggle to pick out a particular item.

In summer we use my grandmother's butter cooler, a glass dish which sits inside a lidded pottery dish which you fill with water, so the evaporation keeps the butter cool.

A butter knife that came from my nan's after she died - I remember using it as a kid 50+ years ago and it was old then: I use it every single day and think of her every time and about the summer holidays we spent with her - picking blackberries and making jam, baking bread and cakes, making apple and blackberry pies.

A good old fashioned food processor.

It was a wedding gift. The gifters are long gone now, as is XH! It's 35yrs old and going great!

I’ve jewellery and china which was my great grandmothers which the family hid from the Nazis during the war

We have a kitchen knife still in use which belonged to a relative who was born in 1799. (I've no idea whether she got it new!) That's probably the oldest, but there is plenty more which is over 50 years old.

I have a pair of kitchen scissors, my parents gave me - I remember them in their kitchen in the early 60s, so they probably date from the 50s?

Pair of silver regency serving spoons which are monogrammed from an ancient relatives bridal gifts and are used regularly
Electric whisk, carving knife, coffee grinder were all wedding presents 35 years ago
I still occasionally use my Grandmothers singer sewing machine from the 1950s
I collect 1920s and 30s pottery and old glassware from regency/victorian period - all of which are used frequently as well as on display
On Saturday eve, DP and I were drinking Sake from glasses that are nearly 200 years old in a stunning Bristol Blue colour way

I bought a plastic comb for a quid from the Body Shop, definitely over twenty years ago. I use it daily and I hate all other combs. I think it will see me out so if I follow both of my grandmothers that's another forty years of use.

My pressure cooker, which I got when I was a student about 45 years ago.

I saw one the same in a museum display a couple of years ago, but with a broken handle. Mine's in better condition, but still in use so not available for a museum.

Love this thread. So good to see so many things still going strong.

I have a small Kitchen Devil knife that I have had since I was at Uni, so that is over 35 years in my possession and used daily.

I have a kitchen lid from a saucepan set that my Mum got a few years after she was married, so that is over 60 years old.

My toaster was a wedding present, which means it is just over 27 years old and has survived 4 times longer than my marriage! 😂

One of the lamps in my living room belonged to a great-aunt and was made in the 1930s. The electric cable was replaced about 30 years ago. It gets used daily too.

I have loads of my grandmother's kitchen things. One that gets a lot of use is a very un- fancy, utilitarian ladle. I make soups and stuff a lot and serve with the ladle that is easily 75 years old. There are prettier things - gravy boats and tea pots which do get used occasionally. The ladle almost daily.

Aaah @Dontfuckingsaycheese I wish I had my grandma's hand whisk. It was just like yours! I don't remember seeing it when we cleared the house out so no idea where it went, I've gone through so many electric whisks.

Not quite in the same league as some of these but we have a fridge and freezer which we bought when we moved into our first house over 30 years ago and they are still absolutely fine. The door seals are a bit yellowed but other than that they're perfect. And they weren't even expensive as we were impoverished newly weds who bought the most basic of everything. But the fridge and freezer have come with us to every house we've lived in and never given a moment's trouble.
Washing machines on the other hand...I've lost track of how many of those we've been through!

I have quite a few. I inherited some things from my Granny's kitchen when she died. One was a set of kitchen stuff (fish slice, ladle etc) which she got as a wedding gift, she got married in 1940, so they are over 80 years old.
And her silver cutlery canteen, which was also wedding present.

I have a jug I use for flowers which was from other Granny, again about 80 years old.

and I got a magimix food processor when I left home and it has been half way round the world with me and back. 37 years old.

No, my post was in response to Gaspanic's at 10:16am.

Yep, I'm very aware of the problems of old-fashioned wiring (cloth-covered but also containing perishable rubber/ gutta-percha, sometimes with lead and/or asbestos as well), but until you mentioned the 1920s vacuum cleaner, nobody had talked about such an old electrical gadget.

Replaced my 27 year old Bosch fridge/freezer this summer after it went 'bang' and started to smoke
Almost certainly a simple fuse related thing, that could probably be fixed, but it was on a Saturday morning and we'd just come back from the supermarket with enough loaves and fishes for the five thousand, and no handyman would come out on a Saturday morning for under £200
We bought the replacement same-ish model from John Lewis, delivered 8 hours later!

Our Panasonic microwave is also 27 years old and going strong

My saucepans and all-purpose kitchen knife were bought when I went to Uni in 1983 and are in sterling nick

Our iron is over 20 years old

Hmmm… I must be seconds away from bursting into flames according to this thread. My vacuum cleaner is from the early ‘90s, one of my furnaces was installed in the ‘70s, and my oven and range are original to the house which was built in 1956.

All except the vacuum has been serviced in the past 5 years and working perfectly.

My potato masher is pretty old but my mum bought it for me second hand so not sure how old it is.

I have a baking bowl I got as a wedding present in 1984. It's still going strong - unlike the marriage 😅

Oh forgot about our washing machine… ~25 years old. Still works great!

Not me, but Mum uses a bread board that was my grandmothers. DM can't remember her ever not having it so we think it must have been a wedding present which would make it 85 years old.

A roasting dish from around 1930 that my nan gave my mum and I purloined from her in the early 90s when I left home. We firmly believe in our family that this dish is the secret to an excellent roast and that nothing tastes the same if its not used.