What if household appliances were like tube amps?

[Clashcityrocker]

You would turn your tv up full blast then use an attenuator to bring it down to a living room level.

Your toaster would have a toast screamer pedal in front of it.

Your food processor would shred better than any youtube guitarist.

Instead of end tables just use 2 Marshall 4x12s

Your clock radio has a loop function instead of snooze.

Your blender would be a Fender blender.

Your small screen tv is from 1954 but sounds great with those vintage Mullard tubes.

 

[Tone-y]

You turn your oven on an hour before you want to use it as it works best when it's warmed up a bit.

Your oven light would be a 12AX7.

 

[Boogie]

That was just called the 60s.

There was a tube tester at the local drug store where you’d be able to buy just about any tube made. Yes, the drug store. Now we buy tubes and pay prices like we’re doing drug deals. Life comes full circle.

 

[jvin248]

Y
...Instead of end tables just use 2 Marshall 4x12s...

You mean everyone isn't doing this already?

.

 

[Tone-y]

You mean everyone isn't doing this already?

.

When I was younger I had a Laney LC15 valve amp as a bedside table

 

[veinbuster]

I’d have 7 fridges

 

[Alnus Rubra]

The kettle would look like something made by Doc Brown, with valves attached. Water would boil in seconds!

 

[László]

This space reserved until I can think of something funny.

 

[bodia]

That was just called the 60s.

There was a tube tester at the local drug store where you’d be able to buy just about any tube made. Yes, the drug store. Now we buy tubes and pay prices like we’re doing drug deals. Life comes full circle.

I remember those days. My dad managed a local True Value store. I used to go back to work with him on Friday nights when I was a little kid. They'd let me fill bags of nails for customers. Big bins full of different sized nails. Scoop, bag, weigh. Those were the days.

 

[Clashcityrocker]

I just got my microwave oven modded by Doug Sewell. Not only does it go up to 11 it will cook a turkey in 5 minutes.

 

[CandidPicker]

If old stereo receivers were considered "appliances" instead of "electronics", good old tube radios would hold a strong marketshare. Just think: car radios were far more advanced for their time because they were likely solid-state devices, long before home audio receivers made the jump to solid-state.

Also consider that tubes are less energy efficient than solid-state micro-circuitry. More heat output, less cost-effective, energy-wise. I think that is why more recent appliances use computer chip digital circuitry...rather than tube circuitry...

 

[sergiodeblanc]

I just got my microwave oven modded by Doug Sewell. Not only does it go up to 11 it will cook a turkey in 5 minutes.

It’ll cook that turkey even faster if you cover it with aluminium foil first.

 

[Alnus Rubra]

It’ll cook that turkoeven faster if you cover it with aluminium foil first.

And your house too!

 

[merciful-evans]

It would be like living in Thimbleweed Park

 

[vchizzle]

Hmmm. Functional end table speaker cabinets. Fine hardwood selections for fine living rooms. Surely this has been done?

 

[11top]

I'd have an oven made from roasted maple. And I'd switch my electric stove to flame.

 

[merciful-evans]

Well lots of household appliances were really like tube amps.

TV had tubes powering the cathode ray tube screen. When the picture disappeared, you thumped the set until it came back.
Radio also used them. Radios in cars too.

Grandparents lived with families more. They sat in the corner and snored. They were sort of permanently 'on standby'.

Before fridges were 'larders'. Before washing machines were 'coppers'. Not tube driven, but very low tech. I was a small boy, but recall it well.

 

[Shawn@PRS]

I remember my grandparents had a big Zenith console TV. What a behemoth that was

 

[11top]

I remember my grandparents had a big Zenith console TV. What a behemoth that was

I remember when we only had black & white and only 4 channels.

 

[Alnus Rubra]

I remember when we only had black & white and only 4 channels.

Three, but in colour! Then Channel 4 started in the early 80’s!