We're replacing two of the last original appliances in the house ("original" in the sense they were here when we moved in.)
The water-softener is failing; it is 20+ years old, according to the repair guy. It's being replaced on Monday. This was the cause of what we thought was a problem with the dishwasher: no matter how much or little soap we used, there was a film left on the dishes. Well, in fact, the water-softener hadn't been regenerating or using ANY salt in possibly six months.
The garage-door opener is failing- it doesn't recognize the top or bottom limits, so it always reverses at the top and bottom of its cycle. It, too, is 20+ years old: hard to say how old, but that's when Stanley got out of the Garage Door Business. Both the opener and the door are in sad shape. At the top of the cycle, the opener is trying to commit hari-kari as the L-bar rams into the front cover for the motor-assembly. There are knobs, which are supposed to adjust the limits, and I took off the chain to see how far it would naturally go before stopping, but neither knob seems to do anything.
the_infamous_j and I will be taking a look at it again this afternoon; and probably then we're going to at least replace the opener.
Sort of a shame to me that both replacements will probably last less than 20 years. Butwhatchagonnado.