According to Ben's Appliances and Junk,
> Maytag's new 30-year lifetime washer could change appliances forever >
>formatting link
Will have to check out the video. However, hailing from an era when appliances would frequently last 40 years or more and had relatively simple electro-mechanical parts (like our old Kenmore washer and refrigerator did), a 30-year appliance lifetime sounds like going back in time more than breaking news.
You can blame that on the Tax Reform act of 1986.
During the Reagan administration, Congress passed the Tax Reform Act of 1986, which introduced Uniform Capitalization (UNICAP) rules under Section 263A.
These rules forced manufacturers to capitalize not just the direct costs of making inventory, but also indirect costs\u2014such as warehousing, rent, insurance, and administrative overhead.
The Impact on Spare Parts: Holding warehouses full of slowly-depleting, low-turnover spare parts for older appliances suddenly became an incredibly expensive tax burden.
The Adverse Effect on Appliance Longevity Faced with paying annual taxes on the full value and storage overhead of millions of tiny parts, manufacturers chose the most financially logical route: they scrapped their backlogs of spare parts. Instead of hoarding components to support a refrigerator or washing machine for 15 to 20 years, companies shifted to a "just-in-time" or strictly limited production model for replacements. When a minor component broke down a few years after an appliance's release, the spare part was often entirely unavailable. As a result, consumers were forced to throw away whole appliances over minor, unfixable failures, fundamentally shifting the manufacturing philosophy toward modern planned obsolescence.
After that, Burroughs discarded spare parts that dated back to the first decade of the 20th century (e.g. key caps for mechanical calculators).
Have something to add? Share your thoughts — no account required.
Ask the community — no account required