# Life Expectancy of Electronics



## nathan79 (Feb 21, 2011)

http://www.ce.org/Blog/Articles/2014/September/The-Life-Expectancy-of-Electronics



> On average, consumers expect most CE products to last approximately five years.


I did a quick inventory of my electronics (I own something from every category except for a tablet) and my average life is 9.2 years.

Maybe there's a difference between perceived life expectancy and actual... or I've just been lucky.

All of these items still function like new. The only purpose to upgrade them would be for minimal gains in resolution, speed, or extra features that I don't feel I'm missing much by not having.

Both my Blu-ray player and TV are 6 years old and they perform virtually same as ones sold today. Features like 4K resolution still have very limited availability. 

I still have video game consoles made in the 90's that work fine (in addition to newer ones).


Is anyone else achieving better than expected lifespan out of their electronics?


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## DollaWine (Aug 4, 2015)

I always great lifespans out of my electronics because I make sure to take very good care of them. I'm using a 2012 Macbook Pro with top of the line specs that compete with some of the 2015 MacBooks. Works like a charm, no issues. People often upgrade their technologies for the social status of being able to say they have the newest one. The technology itself isn't always necessary to upgrade. I have an iPhone 5, I think those came out in 2012. Works fine. I only use my phone for texting, phone calls, the occasional web browsing, and checking email. So why would I need to buy a new $900 iPhone 6S Plus? Not necessary. Got my TV from BestBuy in 2012 and it still works great. It's the BestBuy brand (Dynex) but it hasn't given me any issues. Some people might jump at the latest Sony TV because it has slightly better resolution. Why? How much clearer do you want the image to be? I mean really. Just my opinion.

I gave my dad my old laptop that I bought in 2009. It still works great for him till this day. But on the other hand, I know countless people who mistreat their technology and wonder why it stops working after 2 years or less. My girlfriend goes through computers like socks because she treats them like crap. All I can do is shake my head!


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## peterk (May 16, 2010)

My first Nokia cellphone I used for 8 years before peer pressure drove me to upgrade. It still works today but sits in a drawer uncharged. Computers seem to last forever if you reformat them every couple of years. I have an old desktop at home that runs on XP just fine that's 8-9 years old.

My newest cellphones have turned out not so great. First one I bought to replace the Nokia slowed right down after only 1 year of use and became a brick practically. The new replacement one is only 2 years old and the camera on it is screwed up already.




nathan79 said:


> Both my Blu-ray player and TV are 6 years old and they perform virtually same as ones sold today. Features like 4K resolution still have very limited availability.


I find the new TVs on display blow old stuff out of the water, even from 3-4 years ago. Whatever they are doing with these newest LED panels is miles better than LCD, LED and Plasmas from a few years ago. I remember thinking the same thing in the store several years ago about how the LCD and plasmas blew the DLP and projection LCD away, and the CRT projections before that...


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## sags (May 15, 2010)

For those of you who have old game machines and games, google them before you ever throw them out.

Some of those games are really rare and worth a small fortune.


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## Ruger (Jan 5, 2014)

I seem to average about 1.5 - 2 years with laptops I pay about $500 - $600 for. After hearing about the longevity of Macbooks, I'm thinking about just holding my nose and spending the $1200 for a Macbook Air when this laptop dies. I've never been a fan of Apple, but if I can juice 3 - 5 years out of the Macbook, I've broken even. Any longer and I'm winning.


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## Brian K (Jan 29, 2011)

I find electronics will last for about 20 years. If it lasts for the first year, it will last for many years - usually. I generally don't get the extended warranty either. What fails, from what I have seen, is the power supply capacitors. Unfortunately you can't stop time. Computers need to be reformatted regularly - I just did my 2009 PC with Win 7 rather than upgrade to Win 10 and it will be good for many more years. Obsolence is the biggest killer of electronics - like phones. Batteries don't last forever either.


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## hystat (Jun 18, 2010)

the link in that article refers to the "Life Cycle" of electronics, not life expectancy. Blogger didn't understand his own link.


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## Ag Driver (Dec 13, 2012)

Deleted


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## Joe Black (Aug 3, 2015)

My personal experience has been that if it doesn't die in the first couple weeks, it will last well past 5 years.

As a side note, the only products that didn't work out of the box were 2 RCA products - I will not buy RCA again.


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## nathan79 (Feb 21, 2011)

DollaWine said:


> But on the other hand, I know countless people who mistreat their technology and wonder why it stops working after 2 years or less. My girlfriend goes through computers like socks because she treats them like crap. All I can do is shake my head!


 Ha, I know what you mean. My uncle is the same way. He'll complain that his laptop is slow after one year and I find it's infested with viruses. Not to mention the keyboard is so filthy that I'm almost afraid to touch it.



peterk said:


> My first Nokia cellphone I used for 8 years before peer pressure drove me to upgrade. It still works today but sits in a drawer uncharged.
> 
> I find the new TVs on display blow old stuff out of the water, even from 3-4 years ago. Whatever they are doing with these newest LED panels is miles better than LCD, LED and Plasmas from a few years ago. I remember thinking the same thing in the store several years ago about how the LCD and plasmas blew the DLP and projection LCD away, and the CRT projections before that...


Those Nokias are bulletproof... I have one from 2008 kicking around. Good to keep around for a backup just in case.

As for TV's, I always thought Plasma looked the best, which is what I bought in 2009. Sadly, it looks like they no longer manufacture plasmas... http://plasmatvbuyingguide.com/hdtv/death-of-plasma-tv.html

These days, OLED basically replaces plasma as far as quality goes, but you really have to shell out the dough for them. You also have to be careful of the store displays because a lot of them are showing 4K video feeds, even though 99% of movies and TV are still only available in 1080p.



sags said:


> For those of you who have old game machines and games, google them before you ever throw them out.
> 
> Some of those games are really rare and worth a small fortune.


I still have a lot of my SNES games from when I was a teen. I am amazed by what they are going for on eBay, especially complete copies. Makes me wish I didn't throw away most of the original boxes (though I did keep a few).



Ag Driver said:


> Computer: I have never had a laptop or computer die and not function. However, I will say that they stop functioning to standard after about 5 years of heavy (well taken care of) usage. Ie. Slows down, updates render certain software useless, etc. I tend to use 5 years as my rule of thumb for cycling out and updating my computer.


I agree with the five year rule of thumb for computer equipment... that's when I usually make the decision whether to upgrade my current PC or build a new system from the ground up. My current PC is from late 2009, but I changed the RAM two years ago and added an solid state drive last summer. I'll probably upgrade the hard drives soon. I believe I can get another three or four years out of the motherboard and cpu.


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## amitdi (May 31, 2012)

DollaWine said:


> I have an iPhone 5, I think those came out in 2012. Works fine. I only use my phone for texting, phone calls, the occasional web browsing, and checking email. So why would I need to buy a new $900 iPhone 6S Plus? Not necessary.


For ocassional web browsing and emails, even the iPhone5 is totally unnecessary. Any free phone would do the job and elegantly.


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## amitdi (May 31, 2012)

My last laptop went for 3-4 yrs...I could have used more with replacing the screen but it was too heavy. This one is 3 tears on and still good. TV - 3 years on and still going good. I always make a 2yr voice contract and get the best free phone I can. So far I have 2 Samsung Core LTEs, 1 Lumia 625, 1 Lumia C6 and one Samsung Ace II x all in good condition. dont use anything else much.


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## brad (May 22, 2009)

I've kept a few laptops for nearly 10 years, both Windows and Mac. I saw my nieces at a recent family reunion and both of them were using iBooks (Mac laptops, no longer made) that were at least 12 years old. I had two Lenovo laptops that worked flawlessly (hardware only...software is another story) for 8-9 years, although I had to replace the batteries a few times.

We have a first generation iPod Touch here from 2007 that still works good as new and the battery still holds a good charge. My Nokia E71 cell phone is from 2008 and also works good as new although I did have to replace the battery last year. I spent last weekend with an 82-year-old guy from Ireland who has a first-generation iPhone and it's still working fine as well--he only uses it for email, phone calls, texting, and a few basic apps.

The main issue I find is security: a friend of mine had to replace her 10-year-old iMac when she was no longer able to update her system software and web browser, and thus was more vulnerable to malicious software (yes Macs are vulnerable). Plus many websites no longer worked because her browser was too old, and newer browsers couldn't be installed on her machine.


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## DollaWine (Aug 4, 2015)

brad said:


> I've kept a few laptops for nearly 10 years, both Windows and Mac. I saw my nieces at a recent family reunion and both of them were using iBooks (Mac laptops, no longer made) that were at least 12 years old. I had two Lenovo laptops that worked flawlessly (hardware only...software is another story) for 8-9 years, although I had to replace the batteries a few times.
> 
> We have a first generation iPod Touch here from 2007 that still works good as new and the battery still holds a good charge. My Nokia E71 cell phone is from 2008 and also works good as new although I did have to replace the battery last year. I spent last weekend with an 82-year-old guy from Ireland who has a first-generation iPhone and it's still working fine as well--he only uses it for email, phone calls, texting, and a few basic apps.
> 
> *The main issue I find is security: a friend of mine had to replace her 10-year-old iMac when she was no longer able to update her system software and web browser, and thus was more vulnerable to malicious software (yes Macs are vulnerable). Plus many websites no longer worked because her browser was too old, and newer browsers couldn't be installed on her machine*.


That's how they get you and eventually force you to upgrade, by discontinuing software for older machines, discontinuing security services, etc. They basically try to slowly strip you of any reason to avoid buying a new one.


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## brad (May 22, 2009)

DollaWine said:


> That's how they get you and eventually force you to upgrade, by discontinuing software for older machines, discontinuing security services, etc. They basically try to slowly strip you of any reason to avoid buying a new one.


This may not end up being the case with Chromebooks, for example, which if you believe Google will continue to improve as the years go by even if you never buy a new one -- the software is updated constantly online so you always have the latest version and security protections, and the system requirements are low. 

I also think this is a non-issue for Linux; I imagine the latest Linux distributions probably still work on pretty old computers that can no longer run current versions of Windows.


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## carverman (Nov 8, 2010)

Brian K said:


> I find electronics will last for about 20 years. If it lasts for the first year, it will last for many years - usually. I generally don't get the extended warranty either. What fails, from what I have seen, is the *power supply capacitors*. Unfortunately you can't stop time. Computers need to be reformatted regularly - I just did my 2009 PC with Win 7 rather than upgrade to Win 10 and it will be good for many more years. Obsolence is the biggest killer of electronics - like phones. *Batteries don't last forever either*.


Agree, the power supply electrolytic caps dry out over time and the switching power supplies used in most PC stop working when that happens. This summer that is what happened to my friend's old HP Pavillion desktop.
He had a power interruption and the desktop would not start up. Looked around locally for a used power supply, but none fit or had the right cables to connect.

Had to order the correct power supply from tiger direct via a US supplier. It was an old desktop, but we got it working again.

Batteries...their mileage seems to vary. Some expire in 3-4 years, others a bit longer. had to order a replacement battery for my 8 year old cellphone. It was a lithium ion specific to my cellphone. Finally found it on Ebay.

BTW..I read years ago (*60s) in the GE transistor manual that a silicon transistor expected lifetime was about 40 years. This was their estimate back then, but
time has proven that these transistors last longer than that...as long as heat does't kill them, or a circuit malfunction shorts them out. 

Problem today of course is that the old neighbourhood repair shop doesn't exist any more for you to take your electronic devices to to get fixed. You either have to scrap
it and buy a new one, or send it to an authorized repair centre. This take time and shipping charges and labour, if not covered by warranty.
Most people just say forget it and buy a new one.."planned obsolescence".


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## Ponderling (Mar 1, 2013)

Then there are crazy electronics fiddlers like me that keep old stuff alive because sometimes I think it is better than contemporary products.

I have more than a few old stereo receivers around the house in various rooms. Most are from the mid to late 70's when stereo vendors were in the equivalent pursuit as the space race. Good solid amps, analog tuners. Yes they need new dial lights/led's, and mostly a new crop of capacitors, and contacts in controls cleaned. They come out sounding very good. 

I even have a restored late 50's tube hifi that I like to play old collections of 45's on from time to time. 

But yes, old computers are best to let pass on. 

In my ham radio hobby I do have some packet radio add ons peripheral that run z-80 processors. They have embedded bulletin board servers and are a hoot to fire up and use .


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## brad (May 22, 2009)

I have a small portable Minidisc recorder/player that I bought in 1996 that has performed flawlessly all these years despite heavy use. I have used it to record and play thousands of hours of music; it uses a standard rechargeable AA battery. The technology is obsolete but as long as this device keeps working I see no reason to upgrade to something new.


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## carverman (Nov 8, 2010)

With silicon bipolar transistors, heat due to current handling is their biggest enemy. If there is a malfunction in the circuit they are working in where the engineering hadn't designed in worse case electrical parameters to protect the power outputs (such as used in amplifiers), or a short circuit occurs at max power output..in most cases the power outputs will blow (open up like a fuse).. and have to be replaced.

There are many types of transistor technologies. so it's hard to describe the failure modes. Some failure modes occur more often than others.

In PCs, where everything is surface mounted and tightly packed, heat and clock speed are the worse enemies. Transistors used in the large ICs within and the CPU chip do slow down a bit as they age.

Some designs include a safety factor in the clocking speeds, so that the throughput of the CPU chip and it's peripheral chips are not noticeable, as the parts age (over 10 years), but today, with planned obsolescences and non repairable mother boards, most owners see the PC as a "disposable item",
unless of course,it's an evident failure, like a replaceable hard drive, CD Rom reader, or a peripheral card that is in itself replaceable. 

But if the mother board develops a fault, it is not always possible to find the source of the fault, and even if you could, how do you remove a component/chip from a multi-layer
mother board? ..you can't. So it goes into recycle, and you go for an affordable new one on sale.
because of the downtime and extra cost an d hassles of taking it to comp tech that will charge to troubleshoot it. In the end (if it' s hardware related strange failure).. 
they will more than likely tell you to go out and get another one.


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