Standard service life of household appliances. Refrigerator service life

How long household appliances will last - this question worries almost every buyer. It's no secret that modern technology loses in this matter to older samples. Today, any manufacturer strives to minimize their costs by using cheaper, thinner materials. In addition, it is beneficial for another reason: equipment breaks down faster, which means that it will be bought more often. Let's try to figure out how much is the average service life modern devices, and what this definition includes.

If you study regulations, it becomes clear that legally the service life of equipment means a little different than we think. According to the law, this is the period of time during which the manufacturer undertakes to ensure the possibility of using the product: to supply the necessary expendable materials and spare parts in case of product breakdown. Also, the manufacturer is liable if, during the established service life, the equipment has caused any harm to its users.

The determination of the product's service life by the manufacturer is mandatory for individual product groups. Household appliances are included in this list.

If we turn to history, then in the USSR the service life of equipment determined by GOST... So, according to the standards, a gas stove had to work for at least 20 years, an electric stove - 16 and a half years, a refrigerator - up to 15 years. These figures correspond to the GOST standards of the 80s of the 20th century, and they were observed for a long time. In addition, there were 2 service life: average and fixed. Installed - this was just the period that today is the only service life. The term "average" meant the period of operation of the device, according to the average statistical data.

Modern manufacturers decide for themselves whether to follow GOSTs or not. An enterprise can develop its own technical specifications (technical conditions) and follow them when developing equipment.

Thus, the current definition of "product life" refers to that warranty period, which the manufacturer gives on its product. But how to determine how long this or that device will last? This can be done based on statistics.

How long will a household appliance "live"

It should be noted that large household appliances lasts longer. So, all types of household stoves work on average for 10 years. This includes electric, induction and gas cookers, hobs, as well as ovens... The hood and refrigerator will last the same amount. Expensive dishwashers which are also large household appliances, have been working for only 5 years, judging by the reviews of the owners. But washing machines "live" from 7 to 10 years. It depends on the installed engine: washing machines with inverter motor work longer.

Some manufacturers give a separate warranty for the inverter motor, this period can be up to 10 years.

Microwaves last about 7 years. Longer use of these devices can be dangerous: the housing begins to transmit microwave radiation, which will negatively affect the residents of the apartment. If we talk about vacuum cleaners, then some break down after 3 years, while others work for 7-8 years without any complaints. Of course, it depends on the motor - inverter technology has reached this type of technology as well. The quality of all the materials used also affects: cheap vacuum cleaners of unknown brandsbreak down faster than a quality unit from a renowned manufacturer. However, this rule applies to all types household appliances.

Small kitchen appliances such as multicooker, meat grinder, kettle blender works for 3 to 5 years. A hairdryer will last the same amount. However, if there is a professional motor on it, then the service life can increase up to 7 years.

The legal concept of "service life" is not exactly what an ordinary person imagines. By law, this is the time during which the manufacturer is obliged to ensure that the product can be used. For example, he will have to supply spare parts and consumables (how can he use them without them?). And he - the manufacturer - during the service life is responsible for the damage caused by a poor-quality product.

In general, it is voluntary for the manufacturer to establish the service life of a product. But there is a list of goods for which this period must be established, since then such goods can become dangerous to humans or to nature. Electrical appliances are included in this list.

Basically, ahead of time service was also regulated by GOSTs and regulations: for example, the service life gas stoves was 20 years, electric stoves - 16.5 years (these are the data of the 1982 standards, and they were observed for a long time), refrigerators - 15 years (GOST 16317-87, observed since 1988). Moreover, the concepts of "established service life" and "average service life" were divided: that is, the period during which the manufacturer is obliged to produce spare parts and consumables, and the service life for which the device is approximately designed. Now the manufacturer has the right to follow or not follow the GOSTs and at its own discretion. For example, he may, instead of complying with GOST, comply with TU -technical conditions... Therefore, we can only talk about the service life of a particular type of equipment by analyzing how long for which categories of goods the manufacturers themselves install (usually this information is in the user manuals). Which is what we did.

Estimated service life of household appliances

Electric hobs, ovens and stoves: 7-10 years old

Induction cookers: 10 years.

Gas hobs and stoves: 10 years.

Washing machines: 7-8 years old. Washing machines with an inverter motor sometimes have a longer service life - from 10 years. Sometimes the service life is 7 years, and the motor warranty is 10 years. What does it mean? Only that the motor will be produced, repaired or changed under warranty for 10 years (if the car does not "die" earlier).

Refrigerators and freezers: 7-10 years old. As a rule, inverter compressors also have a separate warranty.

microwaves: 7 years (then it is recommended to change, as the camera may start to transmit radiation).

Vacuum cleaners: 3-7 years old. For the cheapest "cyclones", "sticks" for 3000-5000 rubles - as a rule, 3 years. And it also depends on the motor and the manufacturer, because vacuum cleaners with inverter motors and digitally controlled motors have appeared. This increases the service life and safety margin.

Dishwashers: 5 years on average.

Kitchen air purifiers (hoods): 7-10 years old.

Multicooker: 2-3 years and heating element, 5-7 years with induction heater.

Meat grinder: 3-5 years.

Kettles, hair dryers, small household appliances: 3 years. Professional motors (AC, DC) are sometimes installed on blenders, hair dryers and some other equipment - and then the service life is 5-7 years.

We will remember the former glory of those enterprises and the quality of their products for a long time, especially when the Soviet industry was faced with the task of eliminating the shortage of household appliances, and therefore rattled ZILs in kitchens for 25 years. And now the main objective manufacturer - force to buy new thing... Someone achieves this with an attractive appearance of goods, someone with new opportunities, but someone follows a simple path - they order things not to live long. Is this possible? Very much!

A year of operation for microwaves, steamers and heaters, two to three years for refrigerators, televisions, air conditioners and washing machines - this is the standard uninterrupted life of appliances specified in the warranty coupons. Specialists in the repair of household appliances argue that the brain of automatic washing machines burns out even in branded models, and repairs are very expensive.

The consumer protection inspectorate is being contacted more and more often every year. Complaints come from people about low-quality equipment, and most of the complaints are related to Cell phones... The central boards of mobile phones, as if on purpose, are made fragile and practically disposable. Most often, mobile phone owners prefer to buy a new phone instead of repair.

Short service life of household appliances

Having traced this circulation of goods in nature, the American journalist spent ten years and found out that 95 percent of the total volume of products produced today we are throwing away in a landfill in a dozen months just because it is profitable for producers. “The two most successful strategies: planned obsolescence and forced obsolescence. Short life is another name for landfill products. These are the laws of the dominant growth model in the economy - goods need a turnover.

The concept of "growth economics" was ignored only in the USSR and the GDR. There was a course towards combating commodity deficiency, and not towards production for the sake of production. Therefore, the goods created in the Union and Democratic Germany survived even these countries themselves. Only Soviet or GDR technology is being equipped by knowledgeable people, who are now purchasing it at flea markets. From the old TV set to the power strip - everything is superior in quality to the current counterparts.

It is unprofitable for the manufacturer if the equipment works for a long time!

Replacing materials with cheaper and more short-lived ones becomes a problem. Now it is unprofitable for the manufacturer, From which we conclude: the vast majority of manufacturers of household appliances deliberately put in their products short term services for the purpose of their continuous updating by the consumer and subsequent profit by the company. By the way, some of them honestly warn you about the short shelf life of their products in the instructions for use. In some cases, people turn to local craftsmen who, thanks to their developments, are able to breathe life into broken equipment.

Pay attention to the lifespan of household appliances

Still, as an option, there is an opinion that planned aging can, if not be defeated, then at least outsmarted. Through the court. The warranty period indicates the minimum period during which the product can be used. However, after its expiration, it is worth paying attention to the "service life" column - usually it exceeds the warranty period by several years. If we do not violate the rules of operation, and our TV still breaks down four years after purchase, we have the right to demand from the manufacturer to replace the device.

Don't you respect yourself?

Those who do not like and do not want to mess with the courts, it is likely that due to the breakdown of household appliances, the idea of ​​buying a new one will do, consoled by the fact that there is also a fashion for the equipment, and it is better to buy a newer model. By the way, constant advertising campaigns are also pushing us to regularly change household appliances, convincing us that using old appliances is not to respect ourselves.

Can everyone afford to change household appliances every 5 years?

And yet, every five years, not everyone can afford to update the electronic filling at home. family budget... In Europe, where equipment can be thrown into the trash at the first breakdown, salaries are several times higher than Russian ones. For domestic consumers washing machine for $ 400 is already a significant waste. Therefore, people do everything possible to get the minimum guarantees for the same money that the equipment will last at least ten years. In the hope of protecting themselves from further breakdowns of household appliances, many people carefully study the market of the offered goods, make inquiries about the quality famous brands... According to experts in the household goods market, the products of leading brands are quite comparable in quality and, in fact, differ little from each other.

One of the reasons frequent repairs household appliances

This is objective. And subjectively, another reason for the frequent repair of household appliances is the elementary illiteracy of consumers in the operation of this very technique. Therefore, it is not superfluous to remind once again that the instructions for the user contain important information, which helps to use all the possibilities of your technique and use it for a long time. In addition to the rules for connecting and installing household appliances, the instructions also contain a lot useful information on the appropriate care of household appliances, ignoring which means deliberately shortening its service life.

Car enthusiasts and car owners are also often worried about how to repair their best friend... You will find many professional recommendations on this topic on the website

Modern electronics (computers, office equipment, tablets, gps - navigators, mobile phones) are complex devices. Today, electronics are manufactured using high technologies. The number of elements in microprocessor crystals, the size of the memory of flash cards, the performance and capacity of hard drives, the frequency of the processor and many other characteristics of units and assemblies of modern electronics are growing in arithmetic progression... Every year, modern electronics is becoming smarter, faster and more convenient. The most powerful modern machine (computer) in two years becomes an ordinary middle peasant and all this thanks to the use of high technologies and constant progress in the development and manufacture of modern electronics. Modern man no longer knows how he can live without modern electronics, but literally 30 years ago it all seemed fantastic. Any progress brings us both positive and negative points. Increased incidence of human injury electric shock... Every year we are more and more exposed to the effects of electromagnetic and radioactive radiation, and this leads to oncology and other diseases. Every six months, the modern electronics park is substantially renewed. Old technique ceases to meet the user's requirements (new requirements, interfaces, games, applications, etc. appear). Manufacturers do this deliberately so that we change our equipment more often and, accordingly, replenish their budget more often. When developing a new device, the manufacturer sets the service life. For modern electronics, the service life is maximum five years. Even if we do not consider technical progress, service life and user requirements, components and assemblies of modern electronics physically wear out differently. Some units are able to work for 7 years, and some may not work even for 3 years. The main "problem" of modern computers is hard drives. Some hard drives reach 15,000 rpm. Accordingly, no matter how hard programmers try to operating system economically read and write files, drives and bearings of the hard drive quickly deplete their resource. At first, information starts to be lost, and then the computer stops seeing its hard drive. Until recently, the most important "Achilles' heel" of electronics was electrolytic capacitors. They often failed, were afraid of overheating, exploded, and caused short circuits. Scientific and technological progress solved this problem, manufacturers began to produce not electrolytic, but solid-state capacitors. The new kind capacitors, in comparison with their predecessor, have high reliability, increased service life and good electrolytic capacity.

The main reason for the failure of modern electronics is overheating.

When buying modern electronics, one of the main criteria for the buyer today is the size of the product. To please the buyer, the manufacturer has to trick: make the motherboards multilayer, placing them on an area of ​​2-3 square millimeter billions of transistors, while reducing the size of the case to the limit. As a result, the motherboard of the product becomes more fragile and multi-layered, the density of the placement of parts increases and, accordingly heat dissipation, and due to the tightness inside the case, the ventilation (cooling) system deteriorates. Naturally, with a poor cooling system, the service life of the product is reduced significantly, radio components fail faster. The cramped casing of the product will quickly clog the ventilation holes with dust and dirt. In turn, dust deposited on the board can cause short circuit and even fire electrical appliance... Fragile and multilayer motherboards are afraid of shocks and falls like fire. For the above reasons, the service life of modern electronics does not exceed five years, and the physical and moral deterioration of technology makes us increasingly buy new electronic products.

Probably, many have noticed that in last years more and more devices fail, like clockwork, having worked a little more (less than 130..150%) gantle term. Given that the service life of the product, determined by the manufacturer, is usually (as they say in the instructions) 300..500% of the warranty period. According to our observations, this has been happening since the early 2000s. It turns out this is not without reason! Indeed, many devices start to break down abruptly immediately after the expiration of the warranty period. Whose fault is it? - Of course, manufacturers ...

Surprisingly, the devices literally start to crumble after a certain period of time. Printer cartridges stop functioning normally, monitors deteriorate, small parts in complex mechanisms wear out, the battery has stopped working in the laptop, or good phone... And what are you forced to do? That's right, buy a new product or use an expensive service. And only a few will be able to fix something themselves. So, what tricks the manufacturers go to, we will now consider.

How it all began

All these non-accidental breakdowns became more frequent in a planned manner. Almost a century ago, in the not so distant 1924, a meeting of the owners of thriving lighting companies took place in Geneva. There were representatives of well-known companies such as Osram, General Electrics, Philips. Together, they founded a secret cartel called " Phoebus". Its essence was. To get more profit from products that fail faster. At that time, technology made it possible to create bulbs with a lifespan of about 2500 hours. But the members of the cartel agreed to bring the lifespan up to 1000 hours. they worked longer than 1000 hours, paid them fines, and so they mass-produced short-lived light bulbs, thereby raising sales and their profits to unprecedented heights.
Only in 1942 did the US authorities discover these ingenious plans, and they found penalty receipts and contracts. Trial dragged on until the 50s of the 20th century, but, be that as it may, the members of this ill-fated cartel got out of the water dry. No penalties were applied to them. Such agreements were prohibited, but these are only conventions. What do we see in practice - all the same incandescent lamps burn out, having worked for about a thousand hours.

We are buying a potential marriage

To maximize profits, manufacturers specifically design the product in such a way that it will have to be changed periodically. And why make durable and high-quality products, because then consumers will rarely be forced to buy new products, and this is unprofitable for manufacturers. A special term has been introduced for this phenomenon - deliberate aging. Any search system will return many results for this query, where the problems of the durability of the technique will be discussed. But this is how our modern economic system... We live in a consumer society, and we deliberately buy products, knowing that we will soon replace them. It turns out that this society can also be called - "throwing society". By the way, a lot of all sorts of electronic junk is brought to third world countries, where locals smelt valuable metals... Moreover, they do it without any protection, risking not only own health, but also the health of their future descendants.
In the field of high technology, we are forced to constantly update components and devices due to rapid development and capacity building. The warranty period of the processor may be 5 years, but who will sit for 5 years on one processor, when in 2 years it will be almost twice as powerful and offering more possibilities brand new processor at an attractive price.

Cleverly planned design

Manufacturers of goods seek to accelerate the vicious circle of "buy quickly and throw out even faster" with the help of all sorts of tricks and tricks, in particular, to make a clever design. One of the simplest ways is to make a case that would be very difficult to open on its own without damaging appearance... For example, the same new iPad, it is very difficult to open it without special tools. From the same story - not removable, i.e. built into the cover and cannot be replaced. You either have to pay dearly for repairs, or even buy a new model.
And there is also such a trick: you bought it expensive good camera... The battery died in it after intensive use, you bought a new reinforced Chinese battery. And what do you think? Will work longer - hell with two. The fact is that manufacturers often put a special chip that checks the original battery or not (that's why they write in the instructions to use only original ones. rechargeable batteries). If the battery is not original, then the energy is consumed just before our eyes. And the original ones cost 2-3, or even 5 times more expensive than their Chinese counterparts. Therefore, a lot of angry words are poured on Chinese batteries unreasonably.
Another way to make a device conditionally "age" is an internal counter. This approach is practiced in cartridges for inkjet printers that stop printing after a while. Or digital camera batteries, after shooting a certain number of frames, write that they are worn out and need replacement. Although, in fact, they can still work and work.

Other minor tricks and malfunctions

In order to hook the buyer on expensive original inks, manufacturers can sell the printer at a big discount. And the printers themselves so often and diligently clean their heads in cartridges that not so little ink is spent on this procedure. And all for one reason - to buy more. When the special absorbent sponge is completely clogged with ink, the device will indicate that a defect has been found. Now there are many ways to reset this "Waste Counter" on your own, and to print on.
The release of heat can also be used for your own selfish purposes. For example, some detail during operation can burn out and damage the entire circuit. And the price of spare parts is set such that repairs cost a pretty penny. And for a little extra, you can buy a completely new device.

The same is happening in the digital market. Previously, the service life of TVs was 10-20 years. What about now? Owners of multi-inch TVs will be disappointed with burned-out capacitors from the heat generated by the backlight. Also, manufacturers can put cheap on / off buttons, for example, on a monitor. The plastic spring quickly breaks, the consequence is that you might think that the monitor itself has broken, but in reality it is only a button.

Naturally, the fact of such fraud is very difficult to prove, and manufacturers are not stupid either. The average user will have to sweat for many years to collect evidence. And test laboratories simply do not want to test the product, it will take great amount time. Employees of factories of large IT companies could be a useful source of information, but they do not do this in order to keep their jobs. Therefore, the protesters concentrate on the Internet: on forums, facebook "e, Vkontakte, where you can find many solutions to problems that were believed to be unsolvable. Manufacturers, in order not to discredit themselves, offer spare parts at more affordable prices, provide full technical documentation, well, and give a longer warranty period.