Efficient Appliances

You may have heard the term efficient appliances thrown around of late, but striving for the most efficiency possible is not a new trend for the manufacturing community. Ever since the industrial revolution made large scale manufacturing a reality competitors have tried to gain an edge by doing more with less. The phrase 'they just don't make them like they used to' is a common refrain from older generations referring to what they see as a lack in quality in the modern world, and it rings very true, if not always in the way that it is meant by the people who say it.

The first major difference between the manufacturing community today and that of the 1950's is what they were building. In 1950 the American industrial complex was still trying to adapt to post war life. We had built vast shipping yards for the creation of aircraft carriers, factories to churn out tanks and planes, and assembly lines for rifles and small arms. All this capital was trying to find a use for itself after the demand for these items dropped. They started off making other needed items, such as beds, irons, pots and pans, furnaces, and the like. The materials used were the same as those being used for the large scale military applications: primarily iron and steel.

Today energy efficient appliances use lighter weight materials such as ceramics, plastics, aluminum, and others. The first thing this does is cut down on shipping costs, which makes the new energy efficient appliances less expensive than their predecessors. Another advantage to the variety is that it allows manufacturers to pick the best material for the job. An iron dishwasher would rust out, and before it could even do that, the interior would be a playground for bacteria. An energy efficient plastic interior dishwasher both protects the wet surfaces from water corrosion and prevents bacterial growth by giving the germs no place to gain a foothold.

Fiberglass serves a similar function in cars. The cars of the 70's were large, steel clad behemoths that boasted impressively low fuel economy. Today a similarly sized car with a fiberglass body can shave hundreds of pounds off its road weight, improving gas mileage before it even starts looking at the engine.

Modern air conditioning units and furnaces are a place where new techniques are creating much more efficient appliances. A new furnace can cut 30-40% off of your heating bills compared to a unit just 20 years old. A new air conditioner can perform even more efficiently if compared to a swamp cooler or old AC unit.

While a curmudgeon might scowl and berate the advances we have made in appliances over the decades, the fact is that we have produced lighter, stronger, better, and more efficient appliances over the years. That doesn't mean that an unscrupulous manufacturer hasn't cut corners with their products. It does mean that there are still manufacturers out there trying to do things the right way.