End of an Era

Do you remember this guy?  I never met the Maytag repairman in person because our Maytag drier never had any problems.  We purchased it about 21 years ago, when our eldest was a toddler.  (She turned 23 last month.)  We were replacing the stacking, apartment-sized washer and drier that we'd had for several years.  Our family had outgrown them and needed a larger capacity.  We chose Maytag.

That washer/drier set saw us through a 2 year house rental in Ocean Springs, 4 years in a mobile home park  in Gautier, then the move to George County which was 5 more years in the mobile home and then 10 in the house we built.  About 2 years ago we had to replace the washer.  Then one day last week, we noticed that the drier wasn't heating.  It still tumbled and timer worked:  it just wouldn't heat, so the clothes didn't dry.

We went to Lowe's yesterday to look at replacements.  When we informed the salesman that we were replacing a 20 year old machine, he told us he wished he could promise that a new one would last just as long, but it probably wouldn't.

I'm hoping our drier history holds out, because I didn't purchase the extended warranty.