I've got a Miele washing machine that's the best part of 40 years old. It's required some maintenance over the years. However, it was designed with maintenance in mind, so all the repairs have been fairly painless.
My 5 year old dishwasher, on the other hand, has cost me more time, money and stress than the (very overworked) washing machine.
Miele shit just continues to exist inexplicably. Literally unbreakable (permanently). And according to what I've read, at least, their modern stuff has not dropped in quality
I honestly can't think of any brands that have anything close to that longevity
I used a Miele hoover as a shop vac, hoovering wall plaster, muck and sawdust etc and pretty much abused it - replaced all filters and gave it a good clean and it still works like new. That was 5 years ago and it's still going fine.
IMHO, if a dishwasher isn’t under warranty, and it’s a mechanical or electrical issue, you might just want to replace it. The cost of technician and parts can add up, and a new machine with a good reviews is only around $500 usd.
It's a bit crappy that manufacturers have managed to essentially force us into a subscription for our home appliances, by making self repair uneconomical and expensive, almost guaranteeing a replacement every 4-5 years.
The repair contract on my washing machine is about to run out, and that thing has been serviced many times at this point. Once for a blown mainboard, burnt out motor, and other miscellaneous issues that some of the techs haven't been able to identify, having to return again with more bits.
At least I have a spare mainboard now and the last tech fitted a brand new motor, which is way quieter than the horrifically loud original one
It's fixed now. It was a 10p sensor embedded in a £65 piece of plastic. The error message had me barking up the wrong tree. It's fixed now, at least.
I dislike being wasteful. When my last TV died, while I replaced it, I then fixed it, and gave it to a friend. £10 backlight, and an hour or so of effort.
Why? Mine went error 17, that's water in the bottom, turns out the seals had become damaged over the years. 1€ replacement part, 25 Minutes of time and a YouTube video and the thing has been running for 3 years as of now, again (total age 12 years).
I got lucky with mine. I started having issues with mine around 2000. I lived in Washington, only like an hour from Nintendo of America. At the time, Nintendo still serviced all their old consoles up to and including their current consoles. (This would change in 2006, with the Wii, when they started releasing old games digitally, it was game-over for their long-term servicing of old consoles.) So I took mine in, and if I recall correctly, it was about $50 to get all my games professionally cleaned and for the console to be cleaned, fixed, and sent home with new power supply and controllers.
I wish I had known about that. The cleaning accessories I’ve found over the years have kept it going without issues, but I definitely would have sent mine in for a preventative professional cleaning and refurbishing if they found anything wrong with it.
I have a hand-me-down NES from a relative that sadly passed away, console works a treat but at some point within the past decade the cartridge batteries went flat. Finally have the gamebit driver to replace them but the gear is all packed away at the back of my storage cupboard...
Could always do the melted pen trick (outside; burning plastic is not good for you). Could risk melting the game cart plastic, though if you get the pen too hot.
A pocketwatch manufactured in 1889. I keep it running as a memento mori: the watch may outlive the watchmaker. Build things well -- they may be all people remember you by, one day.
I also have a slide rule at my desk at most times, to remind me of false-precision.
I guess the oldest though, is a Wu Zhu coin from the Three Kingdoms period (currency is a technology, too?). I keep it to remember that all empires arise from chaos, and must return to it; that all assets eventually have no value. That the things that endure, are stranger currencies still.
If you happen to want one, they are surprisingly affordable (I think I paid ~100$). So many were made, for so many years, that they are not exactly rare! Some antiques are fun like that.
A 1940s era Sterling Siren Model "F" factory siren. This siren spent decades outside of a Long Island, NY firehouse, acting as a street clearing siren to allow fire engines to exit the station unimpeded during an emergency. It was decommissioned a few years ago and popped up on eBay, and I was able to get ahold of it for cheap as the seller didn't know its worth. Model F sirens are very hard to find, as they haven't been made since the 1960s, and the need for street clearing and fire sirens have lessened with the advent of pagers. I believe there are less than a dozen left in service across North America.
Mine is in very good running shape, despite its age. I lubricated the bearings recently (brass sleeve bearings) and let the motor break in. It isn't quite as loud as my Federal Sign & Signal Model "L" (built in the 1960s) but still packs a punch. I usually set them off with the city sirens every Monday. It does need cosmetic restoration, as the paint is badly weathered and the projector has some dents in it, but it won't be hard to fix up.
It's relatively common in small towns. Some towns with volunteer fire departments will have a siren they use both to call all available volunteer firefighters and to announce the need to shelter for a tornado. They used to sound it at noon every day and my wife (then girlfriend) used it as an alarm clock when she worked 2nd shift anytime she slept in too late
About 5 years ago they stopped sounding it at noon, and honestly I'm not sure when the last time i heard the sirens was since tornadic storms are becomes much less common here and the firefighters have become increasingly reliant on their radios instead. I kinda miss it. There's a quaintness to just listening for the noon whistle to tell time
My paternal grandmother's KitchenAid model K mixer she bought just after my grandfather returned from WW2. She gave it to my mother in the late 70's because she wanted a new one and the damn thing showed no signs of dying. My mother gave it to my wife about 15 years ago for the same reason.
We've bought some new accessories but that fucking zombie mixer will outlast the roaches.
I still listen to my music using a 160 GB iPod Classic. Apple struck gold with that clickwheel. Carrying around a dedicated device for music just for that elegant one-thumb control I don't even have to look at to use is still totally worth it to me.
It's currently not working, but I'm going to replace the battery soon on my 80gb Zune. I fucking loved that thing back in high school. I want to make it my dedicated music device for my stereo set up, as a digital parallel to my turntable
I'm sorry you were bullied (I kid, I've had non ipod music players (still do), but I hope you didn't get beat up a lot for having a zune, thats not fair to you)
Those things were built like tanks. As long as the main inner rod (name is escaping me right now) isn't literally bent, and you can keep uo with maintenance/minor repairs it'll probably keep running forever.
I'm a bit of a collector of old sewing machines; I love how simple a machine they are and yet so incredibly useful! They were also built to be able to be repaired by just about anyone, which is so cool. If you had to pick a single machine that shows how much capitalism has engineered backwards into built-in obsolescence from something we had already figured out, the sewing machine would be a good example.
Not at all impressive, but to maximize interactions on a newborn thread:
It's probably my PS3, which I would have gotten Christmas 2008 (or maybe it was 2009?). I recently started sailining the seas, and the most convenient way to watch those videos is to burn them to a disk, and so the PS3 is really just a glorified DVD player (can't even be bothered to use it's blue ray functionality)
Hey, keeping a first gen PS3 running after all those years is more impressive than you might think. Wayyy too many of those cooked themselves on 12+ hr gaming sessions back in the day
Similarly, my PS2 which I got for Christmas in 2003 is still running strong, I replayed Simpsons Hit & Run recently and it the console plays as well as it did when I first booted up.
It also has the honour of being the last device I own capable of playing DVDs since my PC's optical disc drive died.
I have a General Post Office model 711 telephone. I installed a microcontroller into it and it's now the keypad for my home alarm system. It's also hooked into Home Assistant so I could have it for other things if I wanted.
They're a lot of fun if you can get the film. Some company reverse engineered it and then went out of business, but I think there are still options if you're willing to pay $2 a photo.
I have a Kodak Brownie here somewhere. I've never tried using it, but it should work - the shutter spring is in place and functional. The mirror for the viewfinder is messed up, too, so I might not be able to frame the shot correctly either.
I have several firearms well over 100 years old in perfectly operational condition.
Quite a few kitchen appliances from the 70s that will never die.
And a working Apple IIgs.
As far as use on a daily or near daily basis, I have a 1974 Fender guitar amp, and a few other speakers and musical instruments that are vintage that are also going to outlive me.
What's amazing to me is that for guitars / basses, even amps, the value often goes up for the truly old stuff. Even (sometimes especially) if there's visible wear and tear. The bass I own was one I bought new, so it's only about 15 years old. But, I was just curious the other day so I was searching for basses on Ebay, and they're selling basses that are $50k and are 40+ years old.
A 12" Samsung TV that I've had since I was a kid. If I had to guess I'd say it's from 1989 or so. It still works perfectly except that it now has to warm up for a minute or so. I currently have a Roku box connected to it that I use for watching old shows in SD format lol
If you've not done so, look into replacing/getting replaced the electrolytic capacitors in the TV. They are one of the only parts that truly suffers from aging. By the sound of it, some of yours are on their last legs. If you replace them before they go completely, you can limit the damage. A failed cap can often cause damage to other components.
The caps will generally have their value and tolerances printed on them. They are ¢ each, so it's fairly cheap, parts wise.
A very rare 1965 push button UK telephone, which I converted to work on DTMF.
Almost all UK phones from this era are dial based so it was very hard to find. It is our actual land line phone, not that our landline is ever used. Looks cool though.
1959 mechanical cameras. An electronic camera from 1969. Polaroid SX-70 from 1976. A calculator from 1988: FX85P from Casio. And then the Atari Lynx from 1991.
The most reliable car I ever owned was a 1998 Suzuki Sidekick Sport. I drove it for over a decade. It was the only car from my son’s childhood that he remembers. We got two more with identical parts to move stuff around when it broke.
Now he’s driving it. It’s all to hell at this point, but it’s sentimental to him. It isn’t his daily driver, but he still takes it out pretty often to ride around in the mountains.
That car is two years older than him.
I barely ever changed the oil in it. Speed shifted one transmission too long and had to replace that. The harmonic balancer took a shit once. Otherwise just coil packs and a battery from time to time. Any other parts were minor and yanked from the identical one that sat right beside it. He still has both. I hit a deer with the old one, he hit a deer with the other one before we parted it out. The front is rigged together.
Volvo 940, here. I'm replacing it this spring, though. But it still runs fine, and it recently passed inspection. The main reason why I'm upgrading is because I need an extra seat to fit the entire family.
I still use my Dad's old hifi from the 70s to listen to records. It's one of the only things I have that was his, so it has a lot of sentimental value to me.
I don't still have my dad's whole 60s-era stereo but I do have the speakers and they're absolutely fantastic. Heavy as fuck with the giant magnets and solid wood cabinets. Modern stuff just does not compare, especially on the low frequency end.
Those are the best systems. They can always be repared, not like the junk they have been selling since the 80s. Make sure to keep it, and maybe get a recap at some point.
I’ve got an old iRiver mp3 player thats still ticking (as soon as you pop a AA in it. Would play enough music for me and can plug it in via mini USB I believe.
My iRiver is just lying around in a box somewhere. I totally forgot about it. Poor thing. Has some nice weight to it, well-distributed, very high-quality build.
In terms of things passed down, I have the original Wii my parents bought for us on Christmas of 2008. In terms of consoles, I have a Nintendo 64 I got off eBay to play the collection of cartridges we had been accruing since the late 90s.
As for the oldest antique item, I have some mechanical slide calculators, two from Australia, one from Japan, and one from the US. No idea the exact years of manufacturing, but the US one is a Tasco Pocket Arithmometer, which I think ceased manufacturing in the early 1900s ( it's been a bit since I last researched it.)
I have a couple of original Nintendos (NES) lying around. Including the one from when I was kids, missing its door because my sibling would toss controllers at it when they lost.
Those controllers are solid.
Also a few dozen cartridges to go with it. Nothing of value as far as I know but future family heirlooms.
I wish I still had the original N64 controllers. The nintendium shells they were made out of were thicker, heftier. Now I've just got these off-brand ones that don't feel as good.
Tell you what, though - the joysticks are just as floppy as the originals we had. I'll eventually get those GameCube joysticks to upgrade them.
I'm still using an IBM model M keyboard from 1989. Picked up a conversion cable to go straight from the weird RJ45 connector to USB and have zero issues with it.
Also using a Model M from 1991, still going strong. Very serviceable too if I ever need to repair it, so long as I can get the replacement parts on ebay.
Not that old but my 2009 i5 750 can still rock most of the games at a solid 1080p. I added a fan and overclocked it to 3.6, some ram and a 1060 gpu. It now serves as our main streaming / gaming computer on the TV and shows no sign of giving up. Overall I've spent less than 650$ over 15 years on a computer that we use daily.
I still use a nearly 20 year old DSLR as my primary photography camera. It’s all personal stuff so the lower resolution and overall lower quality compared to modern cameras doesn’t bother me much. The battery isn’t doing so well after 20 years though, so I’m getting a couple new ones and a larger memory card for it. Hoping to buy a new camera soon and get at least 20 years out of that too, but I still plan to use my current one alongside any other camera as I really like the look of the images it produces.
My dad was showing us all Moon Shuttle for the 64, some old game he'd never played. And then he pulled out a chip he called "the shadow" that I guess has a history to it. It was a replacement for another chip you'd plug it into the hard drive to... Copy games? But they didn't work or they didn't make enough? He even showed me his thermal printed complaint letter he wrote explaining how long he waited and how many times he was fobbed off.
I recently bought a 1970s Sunbeam food processor to replace my broken modern one. It's so incredibly quiet that I thought it was broken as well until I tried it out grinding stuff and found that it was even better and faster than the modern one. It is much heavier, though, and a pretty ugly shade of '70s yellow.
I have a GeForce GTX 970 from 2015 that's still doing sterling service every day in my recently refreshed HTPC, delivering 4K movies and the occasional game to my 65in Sony OLED TV. My best tech buy ever.
I just gave mine away, like an hour ago. I recently upgraded my hardware so I listed the old 970 for giveaway since it has very little market value nowadays, and this guy showed up for it, turns out he's the pilot at a nearby scuba centre, and he told me I got a diving session in exchange for the card. Good business
My 970 made it until the end of the crypto boom and GPU shortage. I got a GPU shortage special 2060 that was manufactured after the 30 series release to replace it with
My mom gave me her Atari 2600 that she had when she was a kid. It still works. It even still had all the cables and games stored with it at her parents' house when they passed.
Mines not so interesting, but I do have an original N64 from launch. I wish I had picked up the gold plated Zelda console, but I instead grabbed the regular grey one that came with Mario...I had never played a Zelda game before and regret the decision today.
If I'm going even older, it would probably be the planer that my father made about 50 years ago. Still works amazingly for being all cherry.
There is a website called Console5 that has tons of repair and upgrade parts. Replacing components in the Atari wasn't bad.
Hope you never have to replace the capacitors on a SNES. You're almost guaranteed to lift a bunch of pads unless you have a hot air station or a specialty tool that's half soldering iron half tweezers.
I have a Panasonic "Genius" microwave from 1983, still going strong.
A multimeter from the 70's, although I don't use it often anymore (I have two newer ones)
A Back and Decker b-100 corded drill from the 1960's with a skill saw of the same era. (Both backups in case my newer ones die.)
Also not really tech, but A scythe from the 1930's, an old clothes iron from the early 1900's (The kind you heated on the stove) a machete from 1920, and a couple old hand pump sprayers from the 20's or 30's (The type you screw a glass bottle onto) that all are functional but mainly just collect dust.
I probably have some other old crap I'm not thinking of at the moment, I just like collecting weird old things.
I'm going to cry when mine finally dies. I bought it second hand in 1991/92 and have only ever replaced the light bulb in it once around 98. That microwave has survived both my daughters growing up and a lot of moves over the years.
Although at this rate I might crap out before it does lol.
Easily beaten by others, but I'm happy that my old Das Keyboard lasted nearly twelve years before it started missing keystrokes. Only retired it last week
I think it's an issue with the PCB itself, it's getting kinda rusty from old spills. I'm saving it of course, it still mostly works and I love the case and keycaps. Maybe someday I'll create it anew with even louder switches and a fresh PCB.
An old blade server I was able to take from my very first job, state of the art for the time it was made around 2002. It's still running and I've been using it as a media and hosting server for years despite how out of date the specs are now.
1975 Gibson Grabber bass. Instead of having multiple pickups, it has one pickup that you "grab" and slide across the pickguard. I had to get the fretboard re-set, as it had been sliding down the neck and making it impossible to intonate.
Terrible design, but it's a unique piece of music history that I enjoy having on hand.
Should be able to dig up a fully functioning Sony Minidisk player. Owned and lost quite a few of them over the years. Damn things were sleek and small, but they meant the world to me. Napster and then Limewire provided the mp3s thanks to the old 56k dialup modem, then a mini jack connection from PC to the Minidisk. It took a hell of a long time to get everything set up just so, but it was worth it. Every time.
I used my Minidisk player a lot for radio interviews. A nice little machine. You could run over one of those disks with a steamroller, then drop in in boiling water and it would still play just fine.
My dad has a 65+ year old tube radio that still works great. Sounds amazing too. It was my grandfather's radio and it's older than my dad is we're not sure how old it is exactly.
A 1960s electric meat slicer. Use it every Thanskgiving. That thing is built like a tank and a probable fire hazard.
A 70s crockpot/fryer. Another fire hazard that is relegated to hot buttered rum and frying food.
More recent would be a 720p Samsung TV hooked up to an AppleTV HD we still use in our Master bedroom, mostly for classic movies on TCM. We’ve had it for 15 years and she’s still kicking.
That thing is built like a tank and a probable fire hazard.
Back in the '70s my parents got gifted an electric hot dog cooker. It basically had two rows of electrode spikes and you'd stick a bunch of hot dogs between the spikes and electrocute them. Dangerous as fuck since it had no kind of guard or anything - and how hard is it to just boil hot dogs anyway?
1940 Turkish Mauser (8mm), at the newest 83yo. But that year's production was cobbled together from old stock receivers and barrels made just before 1900. So parts of it could be ~120yo.
Might not be tech now but in the late 19th c. the Mauser bolt action was absolute tech.
1961 Gibson Discoverer Amp. Found it in the basement as a teen. Replaced the fuse holder and fuse. Powered up all the tubes no problem and still running strong today.
Quadrophonic 8-track player. I use it as an amplifier.
I also keep a copy of "Star Wars and Other Galactic Funk" by Meco loaded into it. It's a disco/jazz fusion that's truly horrible, but authentically 70s.
If a razor counts my Gillette Fat boy (~1954). If you're wanting to know about electronics the motherboard/ram in my media server(2011). I have older stuff around but not in active use.
10 year old Dell machine that I’m using as my home assistant and Plex server. Picked it up on Facebook for $30, tossed new ram in for $10, and a new SSD for $40 and it’s snappy and does a great job. And the SSD will go to any new machine.
I’ve got planes and a chisel from late 1800s, some of the best tools I own. The steel of the blades is fantastic, and the feel of the handles after more than 100 years of being handled is fairly unique
My rather ancient audio setup: a Yamaha RX-496RDS stereo receiver with a Vestax PMC 17A Mixer and T+A Triton R130 speakers for 2 (lame ass) Gemini PT 2100 Turntables (through a preamp) and some PC-Audio.
Most of this stuff is from the 90s or early 00s. Wasn't the best setup in the first place but it still works fine to this day and probably even beats some of the contemporary bluetooth thingies.
I'm not an expert by any means, but I don't really think so. I think hi-fi audio is one of the few fields in which technical development is stagnating or even lagging behind in terms of sound quality. This is probably mainly due to the fact that the quality of streaming files is much poorer than that of lossless formats on data carriers such as CDs anyway. The same probably applies to wireless solutions. Streaming and wireless audio transmission is of course much more user-friendly, but in terms of audio quality it is probably not a step forward.
Old speakers had enormous, heavy magnets and were great at reproducing audio, especially on the low end. The only major "development" with modern speakers has been the ability to sort of reproduce sound with lighter-weight, cheaper materials.
Until recently, my daily driver laptop. ThinkPad x200s from 2008. When covid hit I started using my desktop and a month ago I tried the laptop and it doesn't turn on anymore :(
Nowadays nothing noteworthy... maybe my smartwatch, Samsung Galaxy Watch 1.
I’ve got plenty of stuff that’s older than I am. I’ve got mechanical cameras dating back to the 1930’s, electronic camera’s from the 70’s, watches dating back to that time as well. And there’s game consoles dating back to the NES, like many here.
I like old tech. Just because it’s old doesn’t mean it’s bad or unreliable. If you treat stuff well and maintain as needed, a lot of things will outlast you. I’ll be shooting film in cameras that are a hundred years old in a few years.
Got my grandpa's Minolta XE7 in the bag on my way to visit my daughter for the holidays. Not my oldest camera, but he's not around anymore so there's some nice sentiment capturing family moments with his camera. Security hand checked the film, no questions asked, so that's nice. Couple rolls of HP5 to push for inside, and some Gold 200 if we get some sunny weather.
I own a few Minolta's, including the X500 and X700. Those were basically the last of their manual focus SLR's. I love classic bodies like that; metal built bricks that feel solid and chunky to use. I also bought a ton of Minolta glass back in the 2010's when they stuff went for pennies on the dollar on Ebay. Good glass is good glass, right?
I've never shot HP5 myself; I tend to be more of a Fuji shooter in general with Acros for my B&W needs. I've developed my own rolls, especially when I had to shoot that in cut-down form in Minox cartridges. Not exactly the kind of thing you take to a one hour photo place :D
Though I've also shot stuff like Tri-X 400, Ektar and a bunch of other stuff from Kodak and Fuji over the years. But the thing I absolutely LOVE to shoot is slide film. Velvia 50 & 100 in particular. Absolutely amazing to see slides on a lightbox. You get a lovely depth and color that you just don't really see in other negatives in my opinion.
I actually just bought a Fuji X-S20 camera which includes a bunch of film simulations, including Acros and Velvia. That's how much I love shooting those, that I want to bring that fun factor to digital as well :D Also own a Fuji X100S, which I found out is a 'TikTok trend' apparently...
My toaster, similar one here. It was the toaster that I grew up with. My father in turn bought it at a garage sale. I recently tracked down the history and found that it was manufactured in the 50's, so it's been in near constant use for around 75 years.
Not sure how loose you define tech, but mine would be my motorcyle, a 1981 Yamaha XS400 that my grandfather gifted me. It's certainly feeling it's age, so it requires a lot more effort on my end to keep running than most bikes made this century. It's not made for modern highway speeds, it's not happy when I try, so I keep it off the interstate, 50 and under. That said, when the weather's good, I've never had a carbeurated engine start so easily, and it's a joy to ride!
Honestly mostly just age related stuff. It spent most of its life leaning against a barn wall, so even though it had low miles when I got it, everything was feeling the age and a lot of maintenance items came due very suddenly all at once. The muffler basically desintigrated one day as I was driving it, had to patch a hole on one side and replace the other entirely. Then it was seals, just about everywhere except the pistons (thankfully), so I've had just about everything except the actual engine block out at some point or another.
Shockingly the fuel system is rock solid after replacing all the rubber bits in the carbeurators. Sometimes I have to use the kick starter in colder weather, but usually I can pop the choke out and the electric start gets it going in 2 cranks.
I was thoroughly impressed by Technology Connections exploration of the Sunbeam automatic beyond belief toaster. Bought one cheap off Craigslist a while ago and added a ground wire. Works great.
I also picked up an IBM selectric pretty cheap, mostly works.
Best I have is an old Midland Gun Company double barrel shotgun that belonged to my great-grandfather. Passed through the Birmingham Proof House and bears 1904-1925 proof marks, but doesn’t actually have a date stamp, my understanding is that they didn’t start date stamping until 1921. The company was bought by Parker-Hale and the records were subsequently destroyed in a fire, so I’ve never been able to find out exactly how old the thing is.
That tablet was the bomb at the time. I ran android on it when webOS was discontinued. It kept up for a while but i saw an OLED tablet that gave me eyegasms.
The original fat PS2 I got for Christmas 20-odd years ago. It still plays games perfectly fine if the discs aren’t too scratched up (RIP my bro’s copy of Marvel vs Capcom 1).
AKAI S-1100 sampler. It is still in mint conditition, released in 1990. It was a studio standard in those days. I don't use it that much these days, but the time stretch on that machine is amazing. For Jungle and Drum & Bass it's an essential piece of hardware imo. The Prodigy for instance had two of them 1100's in the studio and on tour if irc.
It's been over a year since I unboxed it, but my Nintendo 64. Last game I played was Majora's Mask and it suffered a hard reset in the stone temple that made me box it back up.
My oldest piece of tech would probably be my C64 or maybe an old camera I have. But the one that I'm actually proud of is my car, a Mercedes W124 from 1988. It'll be hard to find a bolt on that car that I haven't touched and I'm finally getting it where my even my perfectionist self is happy with the way it looks and drives.
The oldest thing that runs on electricity in my house is probably a tie between my washer and dryer. Both are Kenmore 80 series from the early 90's. I've repaired them a number of times and will continue to do so.
I also have a late 90's vintage Magnavox tube TV which is in working if slightly twitchy order. I set it up every now and again to play SNES games on. The picture's gone slightly orange and depending on what's being displayed there's a notable coil whine, I'm sure it needs to be recapped.
I still have my original SNES, it doesn't work and I'm not sure why. One of its controllers and all but one of my old cartridges is still working. It's not going to be long I'm going to have to change the batteries in the games. Weird to think my copy of Link to the Past has had RAM turned on and running for 33 years straight.
I've still got my RioVolt mp3 CD player. The in-line remote died but the machine itself works fine. I've had it since 2001. I'm very fond of it.
As far as computers, I still have my high school HP Pavilion desktop, and it does still barely boot to XP, but I don't use it for anything. I have a Dell Dimension with an old 3-digit Core i7 circa 2009 that does still see some use as it's supported by modern Linux and yet it's got old shit like a PCI slot, optical drives, firewire, extrenal SATA, so it's a useful tool to have around if I have to play with Dubya-era electronics.
2004 Wacom Cintiq 21UX. Drawing on a screen that large and heavy is awesome. I built it into my desk and can raise and lower it from flat to nearly 90 degrees. The brightness has faded over the years, but I won't let it go until I can afford a new one (equivalent $3k + today). I can barely work in PS with just a mouse anymore. It spoils ya.
Technics SL-1900 turntable from 1977, it was a pretty midrange model for its time but it sure as hell is better than any deck you can get new today. The only thing that doesn't work is the dampening on the tonearm lift/lowering.
As for daily usage and "tech" - I have a Samsung Galaxy S1. The battery still holds a charge and it's being used on a near daily basis (for very simple stuff). Runs Omnirom with android 4.
You can, it used to the last resort way of rebooting the phone if it hung completely. Mine is still using the original battery, which, considering the amount of charge cycles, is quite impressive.
Newton MessagePad 2100. I used it daily from 2008-2011 (well after I had an iPhone) for office work and everyone thought I was crazy but I loved it. I still prefer the ui for calendar/contacts/note taking compared to everything else out there.
A few, a silver Pikachu Gameboy color, some synthesizers from the 1980's, a unique guitar that I've only been able to find documentation of 1 other one online (Ibanez Nitro full wood body finish - it's certainly a custom). And I think the last pride and joy is my Sony MDR-V600's.
Anybody remember Cube World? Those little electronic cubes that you could magnetically attach to others and they could interact? Got a set of those too.
The music stuff is the oldest but it's mostly second hand so it's harder to claim. The headphones were a gift and new back then though, so they're for sure, same with the Gameboy color and Cube World. Heh :)
I have a TI 99/4A PC that still works! It has a super weird version of BASIC and I don't have any tapes for it, but it's a cool display piece. I was able to make an educated guess that it was manufactured in 1982 based on the design
An Acetronic MPU1000 games console, from the 1970s - 76 or 78 I think. Still worked last time I powered it up, I also got some extra games cheap off eBay a while back, interesting playing something other than the three or four games I remember from childhood.
I bet it works better than the new ones. I had a 40 year old microwave at my last rental flat and it was like the big muscly shiba inu from the meme. New microwaves are the crying little shiba inu.
I have some railroad stock certificates from the late 19th century that I need to frame. They're a few bucks on ebay and really freaking cool
In terms of electronics, I have some model trains from the 60s and 70s that are pretty worthless but keep going despite the abuse and lack of maintenance thanks to electric motors being so simple and easy to maintain. Other than that it's probably a shoe in between my wife's N64, PS2 and CRT TV, an old police scanner I got off ebay, or the early plasma TV that I got from my parents who got it from my aunt who got it with their house.
Within reach on my desk, Unisonic LC-384 Dual Power Solar and Battery Backup Pocket Calculator - I've not owned it the whole time, so I looked around and see it was produced on or around 1982. It works just fine.
I have a Vendomatic sewing machine form the late '70s or early '80s. Still works like a charm. I still use it a couple of times per year to make/fix clothes or sew badges on my heavy metal jacket
Olympus OM 10. Bought it second hand a few years ago, when I felt I need film cameras back in my life. Must be from the early 80s. I only use it since maybe 4 years now, but I love that camera.
Oh, while I am typing I just remembered my Braun Paxette from the 1950s. But I don't like that camera and thus don't use it. Planning on selling it tbh.
I have a a working box camera from 1930's. Or it would work, if I could still find film for it at a semi-decent price.
My Sansui 1000X - receiver amp is in daily use and was made in 1971, it's in near mint condition in every way. I did a complete internal cleanup and replaced a few electrolytic capasitors just to be sure to avoid any problems in the future. I believe the unit may well outlive me. I love the silverface-teak cabinet aesthetics. It's paired with a Lenco - L75 turntable from the early 70's and AR-7x speakers from the same decade, together they sound pretty much perfect to my ears.
And I also have my great-aunt's windable table clock. It's ~100-120 years old, but still works if only I remembered to wind it every other day.
The oldest piece of tech I personally own and have running is probably my phone (going on 6 years). In the household it's probably our washing machine ('00s) - unfortunately the magnetron on our late 80s microwave just died :(
I have a 600w ham radio amplifier from the 60s.
It's a Heathkit SB-200
I'm very proud of it because I bought it in rough condition, and repaired it myself. Replaced all the leaky capacitors and did some other work in there. Now it runs like a dream! It was my first time working with tube gear. The voltages in these things is 2500 volts, that'll kill you dead before you know what happened.
I also have an SB-220 that I got broken. I fixed it up but didn't do a full rebuild on it. It'll do 1200 watts, but I don't need that much power so I haven't used it much. It's in storage. That one is from the late 60s early 70s.
My next oldest device is also ham radio gear, a Kenwood TS-530S from the 80s. There's a lot of solid state stuff inside, plenty of transistors doing all the work. But the final output stage is still a good ole pair of tubes. I bought this in non working condition, and fixed it myself as well. Good fun!
Next time I was able go to the shop they had upgraded to GameBoy Advance and no GB/GBC games were to be never found again.
It was the best/worst thing I ever got. :'(
Probably my Canon 5D Mark II DSLR that I bought at launch (2008). Still works fine hundred of thousands of clicks later, multiple trips across the world, etc etc. It even still holds a candle to my current camera on the photo side of things (video specs definitely dated now though).
I have an old CD Walkman that still works just fine. Although looking at the logo alone, it's most likely made after the year 2000, so it's not that old.
Mine’s the 390t with 256mb of storage. So it’s one of the ones that’s triangle in shape with a real smal lcd screen and takes a single AA battery. Suuuuper simple to just plug in with mini USB and drag and drop mp3s over.
Not tech exactly, but does a 22yr old Vicks inhaler count? It's somehow stuck around through every move, and I can still use it when I have a stuffy nose. It's kinda nuts...
A Galaxy S5690 Xcover phone from 2011 as reserve phone, software modded to be nice and fast. Not ancient, but as a reminder of what you could do with 200MB RAM (300MB is reserved for system) and 150MB internal storage. Btw, standby time is measured in semesters.
My dad is farmer, he has a water pump from 1971 still in use.
Well, not that old, and even typing this hurts me (and apologizes to all that are hurt too lol), but I just played a lot with my PSP GO and my DS Lite this week, and in a related field Jackie Chan for PS1 in my Anbernic RG351V (old software in this case).
the oldest is one of my portable cassette recorders, a very early GE model that is in near perfect condition. It's so early on it doesn't have much info online, and seems to be rare, but unwanted.
The one im the most proud of is my IBM LexMark model M keyboard, It's older than me, abused to hell, modified, and is still my daily driver because it's so comfortable
If we're including family consoles, I'm gonna say the family wii my family got in the late 2000s. I was actually pretty pissed when we couldn't find it when it was in temporary storage because there is one mii that I would have been absolutely furious with myself if I couldn't remake it on my switch. Luckily we did find it and I've managed to recreate all the miis we had on there onto my switch, especially the one mii my grandma made.
A 1960s electric meat slicer. Use it every Thanskgiving. That thing is built like a tank and a probable fire hazard.
More recent would be a 720p Samsung TV hooked up to an AppleTV HD we still use in our Master bedroom, mostly for classic movies on TCM. We’ve had it for 15 years and she’s still kicking.
I’m still rocking an old CA tv (it’s missing the R). It’s an L32WD12. It does 1080i.
Someone I knew bought it for over a thousand bucks back in the mid 2000s and one day half of the picture went black so they gave it to me.
A cable in the back of the tv was heating up and shrinking and disconnected itself. I took off the aluminum heat shield (which is what seemed to be causing the problem) and stuck a piece of a credit card in there between the cable and the connector to hold it down, taped the cable so it wouldn’t move much. I have been using it since about 2009. I’ve had to push the cable down a few times, so I just busted a hole in the back so I wouldn’t have to take it apart any more.
A singer 29k53 treadle sewing machine from the 1930s. Nearly identical to this one:
It was originally made for sewing leather shoes and boots -- hence the boot shaped tray. I use it for heavy duty sewing and leather working.
I considered adding a motor, but the hand wheel and treadle give a massive amount of control. On repairs I can usually put each stitch through the existing holes in the material without the machine getting away from me.