I wonder if it now makes sense to buy the extended warranty. They’ll probably have some way to weasel out of honoring it, though.
My $650 LG electric stove from Bestbuy needed a new temp controller for one burner recently......at $140 if I need to replace the other 3 controllers it would be about as cheap to just buy a new stove.
Just put a new belt and rollers on the Kenmore dryer i bought in 1989. And had to replace a knob on the matching washing machine. They will probably outlast me.
I bought a dryer at Kmart over a decade ago. Still going strong.
I noticed that the new refrigerators are really poorly constructed compared to those from 30 years ago. I can’t image they’d last even half as long.
We’ve actually had very good luck with appliances. We bought a house in 1983 that was built in 1952. The kitchen was remodeled in the mid 60s, we think. We kept that refrigerator for another 35 years, so it was probably close to 50 years old!
We replaced it around 2010 with a new GE upper-lower with bottom freezer and the only thing wrong with it has been the ice maker.
We bought a house in Idaho with a Sub-Zero upper/lower that the previous owners installed about 12 years ago and it’s running fine.
We’ve got Bosch dishwashers in both houses and they are working fine.
The only failure we’ve had is on a Maytag Neptune front-load clothes washer that’s about 20 years old. The hot water cotton cycle occasionally fills the tub with water and the cycle doesn’t complete. But all the other cycles run fine. I bought a replacement control board for $90 that I need to install (it’s a used one as original parts are no longer available).
Two microwaves, ovens, range, and gas cooktop all work great. Replaced one microwave after about 40 years!
So, surprisingly, I can’t complain about our appliances. I count myself as fortunate.
I’ve had issues with 4 different Whirlpool brands appliances, some quite high end, between this house and my son’s. I wouldn’t buy anything they make at this point.
And your regulatory morons in DC are part of the problem. They’ve made it so appliances don’t operate well. If they’re going to do anything (arguably they shouldn’t), they should be focusing on longevity and repairability of the device so it doesn’t end up in the landfill prematurely, vs. water and energy use when operating.
They’re ripping everyone off with Chinese junk appliances, most all these new appliances are nothing but junk from China and Korea.
I chose the simplest, most basic model I could find, and checked the on-line reviews which generally said it was a very reliable model. It's the bells and whistles that cause the most problems.
I have learned to buy appliances with the fewest number of bells and whistles possible. Those features are always the first thing to go out and they decrease the usable life of the appliance.
I have a dryer from Sears that is almost 60 years old. I had the heater element replaced about 15 years ago. the technician said as long as you can buy the heater element it will last forever. You can’t say that about washers though,. Time to go back to the old time manual washers. Surprisingly, they are still available, at a high price.
Just seems a lot of appliance stuff are basically disposable/garbage post 2000...and much more $$$(like so many other things).
My folks bought a late 1950s Amana (I think) upright freezer when they got married in 1966. It was still running in 2011 when they had to move into a smaller house and got rid of it. It ran for at least 42 years with no issues.
I got a free washer/dryer stack from Costco two years ago. They shipped us the wrong color, and issued a $200 credit when I called to complain and they told me they were out of stock on the color my wife wanted.
Then six months later I got an email saying they were refunding the whole thing. I don’t have any complaints about any of my appliances, so I guess this is yet another example of my White Privilege...
No such thing as a cheap water heater anymore either.
Had to buy the mechanical timer from eBay because none of the online appliance parts places carried it any longer.
$85 for the timer, but cheaper than a new washer/dryer set.
I do not understand government claims the new washing machines are more energy efficient.
My old Maytag washing machine used to do a large load in just over 30 minutes. My new LG washing machine can’t do any size load in under 50 minutes and most are 60+ minutes.
We bought our Maytag top load washer in 1996. It finally died last week after 28 year’s, and we replaced it with a Speed Queen top load washer. My wife loves the Speed Queen.
Meanwhile, my Kenmore series 70 washer and dryer are running fine. No chip in either one.
Interesting to see so far on this thread no one is making the link to government efficiency regulations. We now have government appliances, so of course they are more expensive and trouble-prone.