So the idea of “buy it for life” is to buy items that are durable and last for a long time, things you could buy once and have your whole life, which can save money and be good for the environment
What are some of the top items you recommend for this?
Washer/ Dryer: Speed Queen. Yes, the machines you use in a laundry mat. The washers are not the absolute best at cleaning, but they do a good job. More importantly they will sit there in your laundry for DECADES and clean your clothes. Mine just turned 10 years old and it still works like new. It replaced a GE front loader that died at 6 years of age.
Stove/ Cooktop: Wolf. Contrary to popular belief, they are not just a luxury brand the “Joneses” buy. They are actually well built and great performing culinary tools. I have a DF304 that is 13 years old and I love it. I will never part from my Wolf and it will probably outlast me. I may move to an induction stove at some point.
I used to sell appliances and the number of idiots coming in whining that their $300 Amana “only” lasted six or seven years was saddening. Every single time they would bitch about how “Well my grandma’s Derpomatic washer lasted for like thirty years!” and I would ask them how much grandma paid for the thing. Oh, you don’t know? Well good thing the internet knows. Is that the one she had? Yeah? It was $300 too! In 1962. Meaning it was about $3,000 in current-day dollars. Buy a fucking Speed Queen if you want that kind of longevity.
Oh, you don’t have that kind of money? Well then go bitch to your boomer-ass parents about how they ruined the world and leave me out of it.
Reminds me of the old saying: “It’s expensive to be poor.”
Durable goods should be just that, durable. Everything should be rated for their number of cycles before expected failure. Which Speed Queens are, it’s 20,000 cycles or some such. At ten years of use, I’m just a touch under 6000 cycles as a rough estimate.
I paid $750 for a GE front loader in late 2006. In 2013 it was replaced by my current washer that I paid… $800.
Of course the Speed Queen is an old school washer with a mechanical timer. It doesn’t have WiFi, it isn’t pretty, and it doesn’t play ‘Also Sprach Zarathrustra’ when a cycle ends. Why people want that I have no idea, as most of these fucking idiots have no idea what the hell ‘Also Sprach Zarathrustra’ is in any case. Unless you tell them it’s the theme to 2001 A Space Odyssey.
Speed queen is very good. For ranges I would throw Blue Star in the running. Usa made, high quality.