HERE are some of Britain’s worst energy-sucking kitchen zombies – ancient appliances that cost the Earth to run . . . literally.
They use up to ten times more electricity and gas than new ones and produce up to ten times more CO2.
Some ten million washing machines, fridges, freezers and cookers, some almost 60 years old, should be extinct but are still in use.
An Eighties freezer and fridge combined cost around £150 a year more to run than new models, so the cost of buying an energy-efficient new model can be made back in a year or two.
HOAR’s Green Team wants to exterminate these zombies and Currys has stepped in to offer our Top 10 Terrors free replacements.
They just have to ditch their old ones, or send them to a museum.
Currys recycles and reuses 65,000 tonnes of old appliances a year, and it will pick up when it delivers the replacement.
Currys’ Kesah Trowell said: “The issue of climate change is driving innovation in more eco-friendly tech.”
1. KELVINATOR FREEZER: 57 YEARS OLD
JANICE Swindlehurst’s chiller has been on the go for 57 years. And the Kelvinator freezer was free too – her partner was a fish-finger salesman for Birds Eye.
While it has never needing repairing, the 1963 appliance has cost her and the planet a packet.
With a new model, Janice, of Preston, Lancs, would save £137 per year – and 594kg of carbon annually.
The retired British Aerospace engineer, 82, said: “I’m shocked it costs so much more to run than a modern one – and I never knew about the carbon. I do other things to help save the planet, so I’ll keep the freezer while it works.”
OLD FREEZER: Emits 651kg CO2, costs £150 electricity per year.
NEW: Emits 57kg CO2, £13 per year
2. PARKINSON COWAN PRINCE COOKER: 54 YEARS OLD
DOROTHY and Graham Cannon’s cooker has been going strong since England won the World Cup in ’66, and is now in extra time – lasting 54 years.
The Parkinson Cowan Prince Two cost £65 (£700 in today’s money) and the couple love the high-up grill and plate-warming racks.
ut ex-receptionist Dorothy, 80, and engineer Graham, 75, of South London, would save £50 a year on gas with a new cooker plus 125kg CO2 emissions annually.
And if they buy electric they would be even greener.
Graham said: “If a manufacturer replicates our cooker’s design, we’d happily buy it.”
OLD COOKER: Emits 170kg CO2, costs £61 gas per year.
NEW: Emits 45kg CO2, £11 per year
3. HOTPOINT FRIDGE: 33 YEARS OLD
RETIRED barmaind Wendy Mitchell’s children crack jokes about her Eighties fridge but her bills are no laughing matter.
She thought she had a winner in her Hotpoint Iced Diamond – a gift from son Paul in 1987.
But when Wendy, 75, of Malton, North Yorks, found out it cost £70 in electricity a year to run she was staggered.
“I’m surprised how much it cost and I now realise it produces a lot of carbon,” she says.
“The Eighties fridge is a family joke. “But it’s still the main fridge in the house. It is jammed full at Christmas and has never gone wrong.”
OLD FRIDGE: Emits 300kg CO2, costs £70 electricity per year.
NEW: Emits 55kg CO2, £12 per year
4. RONSON HAIRDRYER: 55 YEARS OLD
RETIRED West End show dressmaker Patricia Barker has been looking like a star for 55 years thanks to her bizarre 1965 hairdryer.
The 85-year-old, from Basingstoke, Hants, connects a 3ft-long hose to her Ronson 66 hairdryer box to dry her locks.
It costs her £9 more every year in electricity than a modern dryer would.
Her son David says: “Mum says it works exactly as when she first bought it. It might cost more money to run but modern appliances often go wrong.”
5. MIXER/MINCER: 48 YEARS OLD
RETIRED shop worker Sue Holt still uses her 1970s mincer-and-mixer set to whip up spaghetti bolognese and tasty cakes.
The 69-year-old was given the then state-of-the-art appliances as a 21st birthday present from her parents.
Sue, who lives in Chesham, Bucks, brushed off the £20-a-year extra electricity costs of the old appliance, saying: “It works perfectly and I don’t think it costs that much to run.
“There’s no chance of me buying a new one unless it breaks.”
6. FREEZER: 50+ YEARS OLD
FORMER bus driver Jarvis west, 80, bought a second-hand chest freezer in 1970.
Half a century later, he and wife Diane, 78, are still happy with it – though it produces TEN times more CO2 than a modern freezer would do.
“It might produce more carbon but it’s never let us down and means we’ve been well stocked in lockdown,” insists Jarvis, from Wantage, Oxon.
7. BELLING COOKER: 38 YEARS OLD
HER 1982 cooker means mum Jill Castle has a big gas bill – but she’s the sentimental type and has vowed not to ditch her wedding present.
Jill has been using the trusty Belling Compact Auto De Lux since she tied the knot with husband Peter.
It costs them £45 a year to run and produces 110kg of CO2 annually.
Jill, from Ashford in Kent, said: “It’s probably not very efficient and our children say it’s ancient – but if it works, why buy new?”
8. MOULINEX KNIFE: 49 YEARS OLD
IT looks like a hand-held vacuum cleaner – but Brian Holmes uses this 1971 contraption to slice up his Sunday roast.
The retired insurance broker bought his mum the electric carving knife as a present.
Brian, 68, from Braintree, Essex, said: “My mum passed away in 1996 and I still use the electric knife every week.
“It only takes a few minutes so uses little electricity.”
He could save 1kg of carbon a year by using a normal carving knife.
9. BOOTS HAIRDRYER: 50+ YEARS OLD
CAROLINE Wray’s very Sixties appliance was one of the first hand-held hairdryers – and is still blasting out hot air.
When her yellow HD3 was released, many women still dried their hair in full-head heaters like an astronaut’s helmet.
“It was my granny’s, then my mum’s. And it’s still going,” says Caroline.
She would save £10 a year with a new dryer producing 75 per cent less carbon.
10. MORPHY RICHARDS IRON: 30 YEARS OLD
KEVIN Back and his wife Kathryn call their iron “Old Faithful”. It has steamed on even as more modern ones went up in smoke.
“It does produce some carbon but there was far more carbon produced making the modern irons that broke,” says delivery driver Kevin, 58, from Northfleet, Kent.
He and Kathryn, a 63-year-old supermarket admin worker, would save £20 a year in electricity if they used a new iron . . . assuming it doesn’t break.
