Were Gadgets More Reliable 30 Years Ago?

Reliability would all depend on what we are talking about. Electronic gadgets, well no , my first intellivision died within a week, then I got a second one and it died 3 months later, then a 3rd and 4th, they always broke down.... Tv's always needed repairing, and new valves etc. Radios were fairly reliable. Washing machines.. and fridges lasted years and years. My Walkman was always breaking, and eating tapes. My Commodore 64 was reliable as anything (being all solid state), but the disc drives broke down every year (from over use). Kitchen appliances how ever, are more unreliable today than they were 30 years ago. I still have a toaster from 30 years ago that still works, and 30 year old tumble dryer still going!

So overall I'd say some devices were made well and others not so well.. not much has changed really.

I had a microwave that's older than some of my friends. It still works. A two year old washing machine? Not so much.

Yes, mos def.
My dad built his entire basement into a showroom for 1960s-70s Soviet radios. ALL (100%) of them (about 200) work like they did the day they were manufactured.

If gadgets weren't more reliable 30 years ago, they sure were easier for an average handyman to fix. Re-string the tuning wheel and get your transistor radio working again. Today, a broken gadget that's not under warranty is instant junk.

I think they are less reliable now. Things break a lot now, and most stuff is useless lead china crap.

Gadgets are much more complicated now then they were 30 years ago. This complexity results in easier to break and harder to fix gadgets. It's that simple..

I agree with "Me" above -- circuit boards are *massively* more complex and fit an astonishing number of transistors into smaller and smaller spaces.

Smaller = more delicate
more complex = more ways it can break down

So yeah, I'd say they were more reliable in the past.

30 years ago we didnt have the gadgets we have now, therefore they weren't more reliable

Ahh, everyone forgets they all baught like 4 PS1's.
Or go way back, Celeco vision units would overheat and melt/stop working.
Games for the Comadore 64 and like computers - the disks would stop working all the time. Do you remember repair kits for your Nintendo games?

Some things seemed to last longer, some things did. We just have a lot more crap now then we used to. I bet the failure rate is about the same. Just the amount of things we have is a lot higher.

I still cant find any material stronger than 1980's nintendium! That nintendo got thrown out a second story window and survived.