This Vintage Refrigerator 'Still Runs Like New' After Almost 80 Years, According To A Redditor

It is a common refrain that things these days simply aren't built like they were in the past. Not only is technology advancing at such a pace that the shiny new appliances seem to be hopelessly outdated in less than a decade, but newer appliances also seem to break down much faster. If you're looking for a case-in-point scenario, look no further than the Westinghouse refrigerator of one lucky Redditor, which has been in operation since 1948.

While it may lack some of the bells and whistles that you would expect from a modern model, this 77-year-old refrigerator seems to be cranking along without any signs of stopping. According to the original poster, it still keeps its contents plenty cold, even on the economy setting. In fact, this user attributes its apparent energy efficiency to the Westinghouse's older design, which supposedly prioritized insulation to a higher degree than newer refrigerators do.

For any who might doubt that this ancient appliance actually runs efficiently, the Reddit poster included some data they collected about its electricity consumption one summer while the fridge was parked in an outdoor building. According to the post, this old Westinghouse beast used only $2 to $4 worth of electricity per month during that time. If you run some quick math, that's somewhere around $2,772 of electricity over the entire lifespan of the fridge — not bad at all. Perhaps most interestingly of all, this phenomenon doesn't seem to be a total outlier. There are a handful of stories out there of Westinghouse refrigerators from the 1940s and '50s lasting well into their '70s.

It is hard to imagine even a modern refrigerator from one of the best brands boasting anything approaching that kind of longevity. But before we get too far, it is important to note those long-lasting fridges have always been the outlier worthy of becoming an anecdote. Nearly all of the refrigerators from the '50s (even most Westinghouse models) were long ago replaced. We can't say for certain, of course, whether it was because they broke down or simply because homeowners were enticed by new and improved technologies — your fridge is, after all, the appliance in your kitchen that you should upgrade first — but it does seem to be a universal belief that the lifespan of these appliances is getting shorter.

Unfortunately, hard data on these numbers is hard to find, while anecdotes abound. According to the U.S. Department of Energy, a brand-new refrigerator should be expected to last about 12 years. While this number certainly doesn't stack up against the 50- or 80-year lifespans reported by some, it may not actually be all that different from the actual average for older refrigerator models.

According to a 2025 study on Norwegian appliances in the Journal of Industrial Ecology, the lifespan of some appliances has dropped slightly in recent years. However, refrigerators and freezers have actually gained a few years of longevity, with the median hopping up from 11.8 years to 14.5 years. In the end, neither one study nor a handful of anecdotes about 70-plus-year-old refrigerators is enough to get a pulse on the overall longevity of these appliances. Does that mean that if you avoid the common refrigerator-buying mistakes, you might land a model that could last all the way to the year 2100? Only time will tell.