stainless steel appliances

[Minnie116]

Hi there, I don't post much but follow the board all of the time... We are in the market for new appliances...for those of you that have Stainless Steel, is it really hard to keep clean and nice? would you buy matching appliances or mix and match by appliance? Concerned about the stainless being different in different brands... Thanks!

 

[IUTBAM]

When we bought our current home, the prior owners had just finished a $50K kitchen remodel that included all stainless steel GE Profile appliances. I'm too practical and frugal to pay to replace them, but I hate them...I hate stainless. I'm sure many will disagree, but in my house, it's hard to keep clean, and it seems like the appliances that gets used the most often by everyone, the built-in microwave, and the cooktop, scratch SO easily. I miss my old house's appliances...all black.

 

[dopeynme]

I have stainless and they are fine. I found good quality microfiber cleaning cloths from QVC. I just wipe them off with water and they are good. We mixed the brands (original GE oven with newer fridge from LG). There is no noticeable difference.

Good luck!

 

[bamamom]

I would buy matching if you are going stainless. I have all whirlpool gold stainless and I like the way they look but they are a PAIN to keep clean

 

[gunka]

They have a faux stainless, I forget what its called. But it's less money and easy to clean.

 

[wallawallakids]

I have stainless and 4 kids. Yes, you do see fingerprints but they are not that bad to clean. I LOVE the way stainless looks so I am willing to overlook a fingerprint or two. I do not think they look dirty continuously or anything like that. I don't have a problem wiping them clean.

I do not have matching brands and there is no difference in the way the stainless looks. IMO, stainless matches stainless, matches stainless. The only time it looks really different is if you get the fingerprint-less stainless (faux stainless). Then you can really tell next to the regular stainless. So if you pick one, you kind of need to stick to that one.

My mother has managed to do Stainless and black in her kitchen and it looks nice. Whirlpool also has a new line of White Ice and in the store the other day I saw Black Ice. I really like both because you get a little bit of the stainless touch but not all stainless. However, they were WAY more expensive then regular stainless. Lastly, I just bought all new appliances (building a house that we move into in 2 weeks! ) and I priced out white vs. stainless and was shocked to see the price difference isn't that much any more. A few years ago when we bought our current appliances the price difference was noticeable. This time around, it wasn't. Some things were only $100 more in stainless or the same price!

 

[LJSquishy]

I love having stainless appliances. I wipe the fronts down once a week with a Clorox wipe. It gets rid of any fingerprints and doesn't streak (plus it disinfects).

 

[Sandy61]

The best advice I got on how to clean stainless....

Use a clean dishcloth and hot water to scrub. Use a dry microfiber cloth to dry. Wipe in the direction of the "grain" if you can tell on your stainless. No soap or cleaner.

I've done this for over a year and it still looks great.

 

[bankgirl05]

I have matching stainless appliances, and young kids, I don't find them any harder to keep clean than our old white ones.

I do want to stress to you a lesson that I unfortubately learned the HARD way:

RESEARCH YOUR CHOICE BEFORE YOY BUY!!!

Dummy me was so thrilled with the looks /style and price of our appliances that I never even thought to check out reviews and ConSumer Reports. (I used to check CR for every major purchase, maybe I was just blinded by the shiny, or just exhausted and wanted done with shopping)

WELLLLLL... our appliances (dishwasher, range and fridge) all have the absolute worst ratings/reviews, and have been nothing but problems for the last year (only a year old)

Don't be a (ME) and rush into a purchase without reading those reviews!!!

 

[mdsd8700]

We upgraded our kitchen 6 years ago and got all stainless. Our kids are no longer little so we don't have too much of an issue with finger prints but the appliances are more work to keep clean than the previous material but overall not a big deal.

We mixed the manufacturer's (no difference in look) because there were different/specific appliances I liked. We have a French door refrigerator that I absolutely love. At the time there were not as many French door options as there are today. It has the ice in the door so it is a small ice maker but doesn't take up any room on the inside. I also have a two drawer dishwasher and I simply love this! The stove is more industrial looking but is standard size. The microwave was a mid grade nothing fancy. Microwave has already had to be replaced at 5 years. Everything else has been working quite nicely.

Research definitely is a good idea. Of course it doesn't always work. I researched both my washer and dryer and they didn't even last 5 years each.

Good lucky with your search.

 

[Miz Diz]

I have matching stainless appliances, and young kids, I don't find them any harder to keep clean than our old white ones.

I do want to stress to you a lesson that I unfortubately learned the HARD way:

RESEARCH YOUR CHOICE BEFORE YOY BUY!!!

Dummy me was so thrilled with the looks /style and price of our appliances that I never even thought to check out reviews and ConSumer Reports. (I used to check CR for every major purchase, maybe I was just blinded by the shiny, or just exhausted and wanted done with shopping)

WELLLLLL... our appliances (dishwasher, range and fridge) all have the absolute worst ratings/reviews, and have been nothing but problems for the last year (only a year old)

Don't be a (ME) and rush into a purchase without reading those reviews!!!

What did you buy?

I am considering Slate, but only GE makes it, or the Black ice.

 

[DisneyMom21]

I love my stainless...I have a 3 yr old & 2 yr old, and it is easy to clean. We use the stainless spray for quick clean, but I like the chemical free methods mentioned in the previous posts and will be trying those.

For us, we like our appliances to match. I like the logo to be consistent in our kitchen, so we prefer staying with one brand.

One thing I would add is depending on the stove top range you get, you may have a choice of a black top or stainless top(we have a slide in). The rest of the stove/oven is all stainess. My mother told us the stainless top was hard to keep clean so we got the black top and that is the hardest of everything to keep clean. It is like a magnet to dust, pet hair etc. Soon after cleaning it looks like it is dusty again! That's what I get for listening to my mother LOL

 

[Jenny3]

Perfect timing on this thread! We are renovating our kitchen this summer and going with stainless.

I'm considering going with Ikea appliances (made by Whirlpool); anyone have those?

I will also be keeping my black dishwasher, that won't look too 'off' with a stainless stove and fridge, will it? I'm hoping to get a stove with a bit of black on it.

 

[2bearsmom]

We just redid our kitchen last summer/fall. We had bought stainless when we moved in 6yrs ago but had to go with all new appliances with the redo because of our new design. We have a Frigidaire Professional french door counter depth fridge (because we had to go with counter depth they are more expensive and also have less room but it hasn't been a problem for us, the ice maker is in the bottom drawer freezer so we'd have more room inside the fridge, we also bought from sears outlet on-line and it wasn't damaged) , Samsung dishwasher, GE micro and an Electrolux range. We couldn't go with all one brand like I had wanted to because no one brand makes what we needed. The main issue was the range, we moved it to the island and needed one with a downdraft. The kitchen looks great and I now don't mind not having everything from one brand. The stainless is easy to keep clean, the stove top I just use a cleaner I get from Trader Joes then go over it with Method stainless steel cleaner and I use the Method on the other appliances also. I have two boys but I never had a problem with fingerprints even on the previous appliances I had. I seem to be the one to make the most mess on them!
I agree with DisneyMom21 on the blacktop cook surface!! Our old stainless range had that type of cooktop and we just could not keep it clean no matter what we did, stuff was cooked on for good and my dh would not have another one again, no matter how expensive we would have to go. We had to go with the Electrolux slide in range with the stainless top (it was hard to even find that) and it's so easy to keep clean, anything cooked on around the burners comes right off by carefully using a small piece of a Magic Eraser.

 

[AndreaDM]

We replaced all of ours about a year ago with stainless. We went with Fridgidaire Gallery, the Gallery line is the brushed stainless so fewer fingerprints. I bought the stainless cleaning wipes, but honestly I rarely have to use them. I'm really happy with what we got.

 

[lost*in*cyberspace]

We have all Samsung stainless appliances and they are great. They don't really show fingerprints, but do get dirty. I use Cerama Bryte for Stainless Steel with a microfiber cloth for cleaning/polishing.

 

[GC&S]

Honestly I hate ours. We have a refrigerator with the double doors and the freezer on the bottom which shows everything and I get so tired of cleaning it. I clean it/wipe it off everyday. It just looks dirty all the time. We also have a double oven and a microwave that are stainless. They just never look clean. I use the microfiber cloth but I hate that I am always cleaning them. I try to clean them well but if I don't get it wiped off right, it just looks smeared. Plus we cant put anything on the fridge and that was my calendar spot. Stupid as it sounds but I have no where else to put the calendar.

 

[pocomom]

Love mine! I use a vinegar based homemade cleaners for everything in my kitchen. When I'm done washing, I just do a quick buff of the stainless with a teeny tiny bit of cooking oil. Looks brand new and helps keep the fingerprints off, till next week's cleaning.

 

[kiki02]

Honestly I hate ours. We have a refrigerator with the double doors and the freezer on the bottom which shows everything and I get so tired of cleaning it. I clean it/wipe it off everyday. It just looks dirty all the time. We also have a double oven and a microwave that are stainless. They just never look clean. I use the microfiber cloth but I hate that I am always cleaning them. I try to clean them well but if I don't get it wiped off right, it just looks smeared. Plus we cant put anything on the fridge and that was my calendar spot. Stupid as it sounds but I have no where else to put the calendar.

Same. I hate them. never again. i hate that i can't find anything tht cleans it except for some toxic product. always looks dirty.

can't wait until we get something else.

 

[scrapquitler]

When we bought our current home, the prior owners had just finished a $50K kitchen remodel that included all stainless steel GE Profile appliances. I'm too practical and frugal to pay to replace them, but I hate them...I hate stainless. I'm sure many will disagree, but in my house, it's hard to keep clean, and it seems like the appliances that gets used the most often by everyone, the built-in microwave, and the cooktop, scratch SO easily. I miss my old house's appliances...all black.

I have a stainless steel refrigerator. I wanted black, but that was a special order and I just couldn't wait two weeks to replace my dead refrigerator. The truth is that I hate hate hate the stainless steel. It's hard to keep clean, it shows every drip or smudge. The freezer drawer got dented by one of the kids hitting it with the stepstool shortly after we got it, and at the edge of that dent there's a rust spot, which I thought wasn't supposed to happen with stainless steel. I paid a fortune for this fridge, I live the functionality if the style and brand but I hate the stainless.