Need all new appliances after 9 year - suggestions and ones to stay away from

[tvguy]

Two years ago my Whirlpool washer and dryer broke after 10 years. I replaced them with LG front loaders and I have been very pleased with them so much so when our TV broke, we purchased an LG TV that has 3D. Very happy with TV choice. We will be moving this Spring/Summer and the only kitchen appliance I'm regretting leaving behind is my Bosch dishwasher. Love it! I also have a dual fuel Bosch stove and a Bosch microwave. Can't complain much about them. The only thing is with the stove, getting a burner fixed before we put house on market. I would definitely say stay away from Kenmore. Not only is their brand terrible, the Sears repair team is too. Had problems with my Kenmore fridge since day one. It's on it's last legs. Had Sears come out to take a look at it, said it can't be fixed and they don't make parts for it anymore. It's only 7 years old.

I have a Kenmore Fridge. It's made by LG. Identical to the LG model they had it next to in the store, but a lower price. I bought the service contract, and Sears service people have been good, although in the 5 years I've had it all they have done is inspect it, plug in a laptop to it to check all the systems

 

[Southernmiss]

Look for Speed Queen washer and dryers. Usually sold at smaller, independent appliance stores. Bought ours in September. Love them. Made in USA and built to last 25 years. Google them or look for threads on these forums.

 

[UCFGrad01]

I just built a new home, and it only came with some of the appliances. I had to buy the fridge, washer, and dryer. I did an obsessive amount of research online and with Consumer Reports. I went with a Samsung 28 cf french door refrigerator and an LG top load HE washer/dryer set. I'm really happy with all of them so far.

When you zero in on what you want, it really pays to do a lot of comparison shopping online. Home Depot, Lowes, HHGreg, Best Buy, Amazon, Sears, etc etc. Most places will at least match prices (even from Amazon). You can also go to the post office and get a change of address packet. There is a 10% Lowes coupon in there, most of the big retailers will accept that too. Just wait until you get them to match the best price before handing that over too

 

[Danman]

Sad thing is they don't build them like they used to. I talked to a independent appliance service professional once when we were shopping for a washer and dryer and he said your better off buying a 20 year old used set lol. At least they could be repaired more easily.

I don't get it. When I was a kid growing up in the 70's and 80's, you had a good car if you made it to 100,000 miles and it didn't start rusting within 2 years but appliance you couldn't kill them. They reversed

 

[ronandannette]

Sad thing is they don't build them like they used to. I talked to a independent appliance service professional once when we were shopping for a washer and dryer and he said your better off buying a 20 year old used set lol. At least they could be repaired more easily.

I don't get it. When I was a kid growing up in the 70's and 80's, you had a good car if you made it to 100,000 miles and it didn't start rusting within 2 years but appliance you couldn't kill them. They reversed

So, so true and I run the warranty department for a high-volume homebuilder (that includes appliances in our sales). Appliances are far and away our #1 source of customer dissatisfaction and volume of service calls - like exponentially! My very best advice is NOT to skimp on buying the extended warranty - you will need it. Also, there are actually very few separate manufacturers of appliances any more - each of them produce identical products with many brand names: http://www.appliance411.ca/purchase/make.shtml. This chart is very informative; especially look under the Whirlpool heading - one factory makes most of the brands that have been mentioned here.

In my well-informed yet unpopular opinion , you are also wise to buy any appliance with the absolute LEAST amount of computerized functions you can manage with. In fridges and washer/dryers especially, the little things like humidity sensors and fancy chimes are what malfunction most often. These things are not separate modules (like in the older, mechanical units) and often result in a complete "mother-board" failure.

 

[C-CMom]

I'm a fairly faithful user of Consumer Reports' ratings for reliability. We are in possession of some old (fridge, stove, washer/dryer all 20+ years, these are Kenmore. GE and Whirlpool respectively), but nicely functioning appliances. Fixed a couple of minor things myself, but if I had had to pay someone else to fix, may not have been worth it. One could argue at some point that new appliances would be more energy efficient, but I hate to toss something that seems to be doing the job quite well (not efficient to throw away either). What was reliable for us that long ago may not match the best value these days, however.

 

[tvguy]

I'm a fairly faithful user of Consumer Reports' ratings for reliability. We are in possession of some old (fridge, stove, washer/dryer all 20+ years, these are Kenmore. GE and Whirlpool respectively), but nicely functioning appliances. Fixed a couple of minor things myself, but if I had had to pay someone else to fix, may not have been worth it. One could argue at some point that new appliances would be more energy efficient, but I hate to toss something that seems to be doing the job quite well (not efficient to throw away either). What was reliable for us that long ago may not match the best value these days, however.

I agree. I'd be doing some serious complaining with the manufacturer if my appliances died after only 9 years. I guess the manufacturers that are aware of people like me since at least some do warranty their products for 10 years. Although when we did our kitchen remodel, we discovered for a big chunk of folks appliances are not primarily functional items, they are a fashion or style statement. Our microwave was listed was being available in Black, Bisque and Stainless steel, but Samsung mid-year had stopped making the black or bisque, and we had to go with Stainless.

 

[bluezy]

...
In my well-informed yet unpopular opinion , you are also wise to buy any appliance with the absolute LEAST amount of computerized functions you can manage with. In fridges and washer/dryers especially, the little things like humidity sensors and fancy chimes are what malfunction most often. These things are not separate modules (like in the older, mechanical units) and often result in a complete "mother-board" failure.

I agree. That was the main problem with our Samsung dishwasher. One little sensor in the garbage disposal kept going bad (the sensor was just there to shut down the dishwasher if water started backing up in the disposal) but the dishwasher simply would not function because that one sensor was bad. It was sooooo frustrating. I was willing to run the dishwasher and take the chance that food got stuck in the disposal and water couldn't drain and might flood my kitchen (it's pretty easy to make sure all the plate and dishes are scraped clean before putting them in the dishwasher), but the computer wouldn't allow me to do that. And that's why a nearly new Samsung dishwasher is probably sitting in a landfill right now.

I agree. I'd be doing some serious complaining with the manufacturer if my appliances died after only 9 years. I guess the manufacturers that are aware of people like me since at least some do warranty their products for 10 years. Although when we did our kitchen remodel, we discovered for a big chunk of folks appliances are not primarily functional items, they are a fashion or style statement. Our microwave was listed was being available in Black, Bisque and Stainless steel, but Samsung mid-year had stopped making the black or bisque, and we had to go with Stainless.

When we built our house 13 years ago, we were hoping that we'd get 10 years out of the new appliances (which we purchased on our own. They weren't high-end models but they weren't the low end/low cost models that a typical contractor would put in a house). Our washing machine died after about 5 years -- which seemed way too soon. However, once we did a little research on how long a washing machine should last it was apparent that 10 years was about average....for a family of 4. We have 5 kids...plus my mother lived with us for several weeks each year at that time. We quickly realized that we were doing double the amount of laundry the average washing machine was designed to handle. So 5 years was not really that short of a time span for the quality level of washer we had purchased at that time. We replaced it with a slightly better model and that has been going strong for 8 years now...of course 2 of our children are adults and no longer live with us and my mother lives in her own apartment, so we aren't doing as many loads of laundry in a week. When everyone was still at home, it was not unusual to do 15+ loads of laundry in a week including sheets and towels.

And I hear ya on the color issue. When we built the house we had a fairly new refrigerator that was almond/bisque color. In the new kitchen, I wanted black appliances so anything we bought new for the house was black. When we bought a new over the range microwave (we had a counter top model before), the only ones that had the features I liked had a black *and* stainless steel front on them (but predominantly SS with black accents). Fine. We replaced the refrigerator with a black one. For a few months I had all black (with a little stainless steel) appliances. Then we had the dishwasher issues and when we went to buy the Bosch, Lowes only had stainless steel in stock even though their computer showed 2 black in stock. I had been without a working dishwasher for 5 weeks and I was at the end of my rope. The manager checked how long it would be to get a black one in. Three weeks!!!! He saw my frustration (or maybe heard it) and sold us the SS model for the price of the black one....and knocked off another 10% for the "inconvenience" of him originally telling us they had black in stock. Great. Went to replace our range last summer. Again, every model/brand that had the features I wanted was only available in Stainless Steel with black accents. <sigh> So now I have a black refrigerator, a stainless steel dishwasher, and a microwave and range that are a combination of both. Now I wish I had gotten a stainless steel refrigerator (we actually had to order that in black and wait 6 weeks for it to be delivered which was fine because my old one still worked -- but they had stainless steel in stock). Of course it's a toss up as to which finish shows the most fingerprints...they're both frustratingly bad.

 

[tvguy]

I agree. That was the main problem with our Samsung dishwasher. One little sensor in the garbage disposal kept going bad (the sensor was just there to shut down the dishwasher if water started backing up in the disposal) but the dishwasher simply would not function because that one sensor was bad. It was sooooo frustrating. I was willing to run the dishwasher and take the chance that food got stuck in the disposal and water couldn't drain and might flood my kitchen (it's pretty easy to make sure all the plate and dishes are scraped clean before putting them in the dishwasher), but the computer wouldn't allow me to do that. And that's why a nearly new Samsung dishwasher is probably sitting in a landfill right now.




When we built our house 13 years ago, we were hoping that we'd get 10 years out of the new appliances (which we purchased on our own. They weren't high-end models but they weren't the low end/low cost models that a typical contractor would put in a house). Our washing machine died after about 5 years -- which seemed way too soon. However, once we did a little research on how long a washing machine should last it was apparent that 10 years was about average....for a family of 4. We have 5 kids...plus my mother lived with us for several weeks each year at that time. We quickly realized that we were doing double the amount of laundry the average washing machine was designed to handle. So 5 years was not really that short of a time span for the quality level of washer we had purchased at that time. We replaced it with a slightly better model and that has been going strong for 8 years now...of course 2 of our children are adults and no longer live with us and my mother lives in her own apartment, so we aren't doing as many loads of laundry in a week. When everyone was still at home, it was not unusual to do 15+ loads of laundry in a week including sheets and towels.

And I hear ya on the color issue. When we built the house we had a fairly new refrigerator that was almond/bisque color. In the new kitchen, I wanted black appliances so anything we bought new for the house was black. When we bought a new over the range microwave (we had a counter top model before), the only ones that had the features I liked had a black *and* stainless steel front on them (but predominantly SS with black accents). Fine. We replaced the refrigerator with a black one. For a few months I had all black (with a little stainless steel) appliances. Then we had the dishwasher issues and when we went to buy the Bosch, Lowes only had stainless steel in stock even though their computer showed 2 black in stock. I had been without a working dishwasher for 5 weeks and I was at the end of my rope. The manager checked how long it would be to get a black one in. Three weeks!!!! He saw my frustration (or maybe heard it) and sold us the SS model for the price of the black one....and knocked off another 10% for the "inconvenience" of him originally telling us they had black in stock. Great. Went to replace our range last summer. Again, every model/brand that had the features I wanted was only available in Stainless Steel with black accents. <sigh> So now I have a black refrigerator, a stainless steel dishwasher, and a microwave and range that are a combination of both. Now I wish I had gotten a stainless steel refrigerator (we actually had to order that in black and wait 6 weeks for it to be delivered which was fine because my old one still worked -- but they had stainless steel in stock). Of course it's a toss up as to which finish shows the most fingerprints...they're both frustratingly bad.

Our stove and fridge came from Sears and we kept them after the remodel. Inventory is what has us coming back to Sears. They are the only place that has everything in stock (okay, 3 blocks away in their warehouse) and available for immediate delivery. Everywhere else can get it in a week or 2 or 3 or 4. For the remodel, that was no problem, because we ordered appliances 2 months before we needed them, but if my fridge just died, I want the replacement delivered TODAY.

Yes, when my kids were teens, DW (I am not allowed to touch the washer and dryer) was doing 30-35 loads of wash a week. DS and DD had their school clothes, their baseball/soccer clothes, and their after practice clothing each day. Yup, 3 sets of clothing per day during the week. After 11 years the washer and dryer needed repairs, and due to an inheritance, we opted instead to replace them. But they could have gone years longer with repairs. It would have been cheaper to spend $200 each repairing the washer and dryer that cost $500 each, but we opted to spend $1,200 each on top of the line LG stuff.

 

[bluezy]

Our stove and fridge came from Sears and we kept them after the remodel. Inventory is what has us coming back to Sears. They are the only place that has everything in stock (okay, 3 blocks away in their warehouse) and available for immediate delivery. Everywhere else can get it in a week or 2 or 3 or 4. For the remodel, that was no problem, because we ordered appliances 2 months before we needed them, but if my fridge just died, I want the replacement delivered TODAY.

Yes, when my kids were teens, DW (I am not allowed to touch the washer and dryer) was doing 30-35 loads of wash a week. DS and DD had their school clothes, their baseball/soccer clothes, and their after practice clothing each day. Yup, 3 sets of clothing per day during the week. After 11 years the washer and dryer needed repairs, and due to an inheritance, we opted instead to replace them. But they could have gone years longer with repairs. It would have been cheaper to spend $200 each repairing the washer and dryer that cost $500 each, but we opted to spend $1,200 each on top of the line LG stuff.

I'm usually pretty particular about the appliances I buy -- I'll walk in to a showroom and out of 20-25 stoves and I can narrow my search down to 2 or 3 within a few minutes because I have researched the appliance to death before we even walk into a store so I know what features/brands/models I do or don't want. I will then spend an hour deciding between those 2 or 3 "finalists" (which drives my husband crazy). And each and every time, the one I pick has a long lead time and the other 25 models are available same day or next day. While I don't *like* waiting, I'll usually do it to get the one I want because I know if I switch to a different model just so I can get it immediately, I will have buyer's remorse before the delivery guys even get out of the house. Fortunately, we aren't usually in a "I need it today" situation...other than the dishwasher which I really *could* have waited for, I just didn't want to because I was tired of doing dishes by hand.

Yes, we looked into repairing the washing machine when it died and the cost for repair was about half the cost of a new machine. Not worth it to us. The dryer is still the original one we bought when we built the house -- so it's 13 years old. My husband has replaced the belt on it twice (less than $20 and an hour of time) and some other part once. Definitely worth the repair.

 

[tvguy]

Yes, we looked into repairing the washing machine when it died and the cost for repair was about half the cost of a new machine. Not worth it to us. The dryer is still the original one we bought when we built the house -- so it's 13 years old. My husband has replaced the belt on it twice (less than $20 and an hour of time) and some other part once. Definitely worth the repair.

In cleaning out my mom's stuff, I found receipts for every washer and dryer my parents ever owned. My mom had a system down, 1960, 1980, 2000 went to Sears and bought the cheapest Kenmore they had, ran them for 20 years, never fixed them, bought a new one. Last one she bought 18 years after I moved out, and by then my mom was the only one in the house, so it was still going strong when she passed away 2 years ago. Never paid more than $190 for a washer and $150 for a dryer. Oh, and from 1950 to 1960, my parents had a washing machine like this, and no dryer. They left it behind when they bought a new house in 1960.

 

[redsonja76]

Stay away from the overly complicated Samsung. Both my best friend and my in laws bought Samsung appliances (one a dishwasher and the other the fridge) and both of them DIED within 4 years. Like, dead. The Samsung repairman said it would cost more to repair than to replace. In under 4 years. Pieces of garbage.

Now, Bosch, oh my oh my Bosch is my favorite.

 

[tvguy]

Stay away from the overly complicated Samsung. Both my best friend and my in laws bought Samsung appliances (one a dishwasher and the other the fridge) and both of them DIED within 4 years. Like, dead. The Samsung repairman said it would cost more to repair than to replace. In under 4 years. Pieces of garbage.

Now, Bosch, oh my oh my Bosch is my favorite.

We had a Bosch dishwasher, quiet, ran fine, cleaned dishes fine, but pieces kept falling off the insides. Rack always was coming off the track, I'd find plastic pieces in the filter, one thing looked like a cap to cover a screw or something, never did figure out where it came from.

 

[natfrac]

We love our Samsung bottom freezer fridge. It's about 7 years only and going strong. The same for our Kenmore Elite dishwasher. We just replaced our "regular" Kenmore stove and microwave with Kenmore Elite. I guess it's currently made by Electrolux, but we haven't owned them long enough to know how well they're made.

 

[Judique]

I agree. That was the main problem with our Samsung dishwasher. One little sensor in the garbage disposal kept going bad (the sensor was just there to shut down the dishwasher if water started backing up in the disposal) but the dishwasher simply would not function because that one sensor was bad. It was sooooo frustrating. I was willing to run the dishwasher and take the chance that food got stuck in the disposal and water couldn't drain and might flood my kitchen (it's pretty easy to make sure all the plate and dishes are scraped clean before putting them in the dishwasher), but the computer wouldn't allow me to do that. And that's why a nearly new Samsung dishwasher is probably sitting in a landfill right now.
When we built our house 13 years ago, we were hoping that we'd get 10 years out of the new appliances (which we purchased on our own. They weren't high-end models but they weren't the low end/low cost models that a typical contractor would put in a house). Our washing machine died after about 5 years -- which seemed way too soon. However, once we did a little research on how long a washing machine should last it was apparent that 10 years was about average....for a family of 4. We have 5 kids...plus my mother lived with us for several weeks each year at that time. We quickly realized that we were doing double the amount of laundry the average washing machine was designed to handle. So 5 years was not really that short of a time span for the quality level of washer we had purchased at that time. We replaced it with a slightly better model and that has been going strong for 8 years now...of course 2 of our children are adults and no longer live with us and my mother lives in her own apartment, so we aren't doing as many loads of laundry in a week. When everyone was still at home, it was not unusual to do 15+ loads of laundry in a week including sheets and towels.

And I hear ya on the color issue. When we built the house we had a fairly new refrigerator that was almond/bisque color. In the new kitchen, I wanted black appliances so anything we bought new for the house was black. When we bought a new over the range microwave (we had a counter top model before), the only ones that had the features I liked had a black *and* stainless steel front on them (but predominantly SS with black accents). Fine. We replaced the refrigerator with a black one. For a few months I had all black (with a little stainless steel) appliances. Then we had the dishwasher issues and when we went to buy the Bosch, Lowes only had stainless steel in stock even though their computer showed 2 black in stock. I had been without a working dishwasher for 5 weeks and I was at the end of my rope. The manager checked how long it would be to get a black one in. Three weeks!!!! He saw my frustration (or maybe heard it) and sold us the SS model for the price of the black one....and knocked off another 10% for the "inconvenience" of him originally telling us they had black in stock. Great. Went to replace our range last summer. Again, every model/brand that had the features I wanted was only available in Stainless Steel with black accents. <sigh> So now I have a black refrigerator, a stainless steel dishwasher, and a microwave and range that are a combination of both. Now I wish I had gotten a stainless steel refrigerator (we actually had to order that in black and wait 6 weeks for it to be delivered which was fine because my old one still worked -- but they had stainless steel in stock). Of course it's a toss up as to which finish shows the most fingerprints...they're both frustratingly bad.

I know that I am looking at new appliance purchases very soon!

Like you I am now very specific about what I want, but I feel that I am not being realistic or reasonable about one appliance - the refrigerator! Costco has an LG with door in door and black stainless steel, which doesn't show fingerprints - my biggest peeve regarding stainless. I look at this refrig each time I go to Costco which is often, but the thing is $3800! A new refrigerator at half that cost would suit my needs, just not my wants. Yikes! I could take a nice vacation for the cost of that thing!

I can tell you now it is probably going to end up in my kitchen very soon, along with the rest of the matching set. There's a small discount for buying all four appliances.

The other items I will need are washer and dryer. I'm waiting for my (32 year old) Maytag to give up. But it keeps on purring along! I'm looking at Speed Queens.

 

[Disneylover99]

We bought top of the line front loader Maytag washer and dryer seven years ago. Washer was crap. Just crap. Numerous problems.

We just replaced them with Samsung. Fingers crossed that they last a few years longer than our Maytag.

We have a cheap Admiral dishwasher that's 17 years old. That thing just won't die. It works great! My husband wants to replace it and I said no way!

 

[bluezy]

I know that I am looking at new appliance purchases very soon!

Like you I am now very specific about what I want, but I feel that I am not being realistic or reasonable about one appliance - the refrigerator! Costco has an LG with door in door and black stainless steel, which doesn't show fingerprints - my biggest peeve regarding stainless. I look at this refrig each time I go to Costco which is often, but the thing is $3800! A new refrigerator at half that cost would suit my needs, just not my wants. Yikes! I could take a nice vacation for the cost of that thing!

I can tell you now it is probably going to end up in my kitchen very soon, along with the rest of the matching set. There's a small discount for buying all four appliances.

The other items I will need are washer and dryer. I'm waiting for my (32 year old) Maytag to give up. But it keeps on purring along! I'm looking at Speed Queens.

Oh, I am *exactly* the same way. The refrigerator in my kitchen now is a perfect example. It was also regularly priced at ~$3500. There was no way I was paying that much for a refrigerator -- especially since the one I had was still working fine. For 2 years, every time I went in to Best Buy or Lowes or anywhere else that carried that refrigerator I would go "visit" it. I told people it was the refrigerator I lusted after. Then one day we were at Lowes for something completely unrelated and I of course was visiting my refrigerator. It was on sale....marked down to about $2500 if I recall correctly. Hmmmm..... My husband came in to the area and saw that it was on sale and said that we should think about it. As we were standing there, the sales guy came over and said that all appliances were another 10% off. Hmmmmm...... Then, some guy walked by and had a 15% off coupon that was expiring the next day and could be used in addition to any other discount offered. That pushed us over the edge. We also opened a Lowes credit card and got *another* 10% off. We paid about $1700 for the refrigerator. After having it for a few years, I would have paid $3500 for it and still been happy.

 

[Judique]

We bought top of the line front loader Maytag washer and dryer seven years ago. Washer was crap. Just crap. Numerous problems.

We just replaced them with Samsung. Fingers crossed that they last a few years longer than our Maytag.

We have a cheap Admiral dishwasher that's 17 years old. That thing just won't die. It works great! My husband wants to replace it and I said no way!

That's the way I am about my washer! I also like the huge amount of water used to wash the clothes. I go to my daughters and used her energy efficient washer and just couldn't grasp the idea of so little water used to wash.

 

[DVC96]

We replaced all of our appliances during a kitchen remodel in 2009 - GE microwave and stove and LG French door refrigerator and dishwasher. The GE appliances are still going strong. The LG have been nothing but trouble since they turned a year old. I replaced the refrigerator with a French door Samsung a year ago (after spending about a year and a half and lots of money trying to get the LG repaired). Love the Samsung so far. The dishwasher is on the way out the door - hoping to replace it with a Bosch. I will never buy an LG appliance again although I have heard good things about the newer models. Their customer service was horrible and that's enough to keep me away.

 

[tinatark]

Front loaders tend to have a 10 year warranty. Our LGs do. A quick Google search shows Maytag does too.

Never heard of this. My GE profile front load pair had a 1 year warranty - previously, I had a Fisher Paykel pair, one of the selling points was the 2 year warranty, when other manufacturers only had 1 year warranty.

OP - if you are going with stainless, be careful mixing brands - the finish is not equal between them! We have an LG french door fridge, GE profile double oven smooth top range, GE profile above range microwave, and Kitchen Aid dishwasher. Our finishes are very similar, but the handles are the same, so it works for me.

One item I didn't realize would be an issue - my dishwasher uses softening salt. Wish it didn't.