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Laundry machine, whether at home or laundromat. It’s one household chore that almost nobody does manually in the developed world.
Hot water heater. It’s almost dirt cheap to run, but damn if I don’t love me some hot water.
Refrigeration. Shit is so cheap and ubiquitous, but fucking ice and cold beverages, hell yes.
Cannabis. It’s not free but it’s really not expensive. A little goes a long way these days.
Internet maps and GPS. Usually you don’t have your pay for the maps, or GPS, but somebody has to store and update all that information about places you’ve never been. Also phones and data connections aren’t free. Trips used to take a lot more planning, and getting lost. I think a smart phone is worth its cost for mapping alone. And it also calls people too. And plenty of other amazing stuff.
Serious question: why is it called a "hot water heater"?
If anything, it heats cold water to make it hot.
Why not just "water heater"?
I don’t know. I wanted to say “hot water on tap”, to differentiate from a tea kettle, which is also a water heater. But the prompt was about items you might purchase, and I’ve always called it a hot water heater.
With the missing hyphen, we'd better understand it's for scalding water. It just became less cool to write all the symbols required.
We moved into a place that had a massive washing machine in a room attached to the garage. We ended up buying a massive dryer to match. It's like having our own laundrette. And since I do my laundry like an animal (no separation, no gentle cycle, now low heat dry) I can get most of my clothes done in two loads.
Unfortunately, unless you pay top dollar for something like a Speed Queen, most brands have become hot garbage and have a near-50% chance of breaking down within the first 3-5 years.
Samsung has been particularly bad as of late with home appliances of any kind, with many retailers dropping them entirely due to warranty issues and repeated call-backs for repairs.
Still, to be specific: most models of Speed Queen washers and dryers have a MTBD of 15-30 years. They still see the occasional lemon, sure; who doesn’t? But it’s damn rare with them.
The cheapest Speed Queen in 1950 was $100, which is about $1300 in today’s dollars. It looks like Speed queen starts about the same cost now. Now you can get these machines for $500. 1/3 cost for 1/3 quality. So either way it’s roughly $100 per year that’s about $2 per week. Still quite affordable and worth every penny compared to a washboard and basin, wringing, and line drying (and spending 2-4 hours of your time doing laundry every week).
I've been happy with my Electrolux, I want to say it's about 8yrs old now.
Speaking of hot water, a few years back I needed to replace the boiler for my home heating, and I learned that there are "indirect fired" hot water tanks that use the boiler to call for heat. I did the math and had one put in.
I love it because the tank is dead simple, very little to go wrong, no burning and rusting and blowing out the bottom seams.
And my favorite aspect is that it exercises my boiler all year round, so I know won't have nasty surprises when the winter season starts.