The 61-year-old fridge that STILL works... and other trusty appliances from the 40s that are still going as the UK prepares its drive to end 'built-in obsolescence'
- Ministers have discussed introducing a Union Jack kitemark for white goods
- The Government will launch a policy framework for energy products in Spring
- Appliances will be built to last and kitemark will signal ‘world-beating standard’
It was a story of an enduring decades-old relationship built on trust and dependability… even if one of those concerned was always cold-hearted.
After The Mail on Sunday last week told of Edmund Garrod and the fridge that has been serving him faithfully for 56 years, readers have inundated us with stories of their own appliances that are going strong decades after they were manufactured.
Fridges older than Boris Johnson, hair shears made during the Second World War and a tumble-dryer dating from the Swinging Sixties – the stories highlight how appliances were once built to last.
In contrast, more modern models have a ‘built-in obsolescence’, which means they designed to be replaced after a few years, at huge collective cost to homeowners – and the environment.
Last week, this newspaper revealed how fridges, washing machines and TV will have to be guaranteed to last longer as part of a Government war of the practice.

Harold Macmillan was in Downing Street when Susan Loftus’s (pictured left with her 94-year-old mother, Brenda) father Frank brought his Prescold Packaway fridge in 1960
Plans include a legal requirement to stock spare parts for seven years after devices are sold, and labelling to set out the appliances’ expected lifespans.
Now we can disclose that Ministers have also discussed introducing a new Union Jack kitemark for white goods which they plan to herald as a ‘world-beating standard’.
A senior Government source said: ‘This could well see the return of the Union Jack on white goods being the standard to which the rest of the world aspires.’
In the spring, the Government will launch a policy framework for energy products, expected to go further than EU rules.Typical washing machines now last about eight years before breaking, but some fridges installed in the 1950s and 1960s still work.
Mr Garrod was named as the owner of Britain’s oldest fridge for the 1954 General Electric Company DE30 he has in his High Wycombe home.
Experts welcomed the Government’s proposals, pointing out that even if it means appliances cost more, they will last longer and save money in the long run.
SNP MP Angela Crawley has attacked ‘planned obsolescence’ as a ‘cynical marketing strategy’ which damages consumers’ interests.
The Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, which has drawn up the plans, said it was considering the responses to two consultations and would publish the results in due course.
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