Appliances are so cheap these days

[BLAZEY]

Planned obsolescence is half of it, and the other half IMHO is this, people now want to replace their appliances about every 7 years.
I sold my moms 53 year old house with the original wall oven, stove, furnace and a/c. The "flippers" who bought it ripped out the kitchen, so the oven and stove were placed, but when they put it back up for sale, that ac and furnace were still there.

My mom was, however, cheap when it came to washers, dryers and refrigerators. She bought the cheapest Kenmore model from Sears, usually got 20 years from them, when something acted up, she just bought new ones. She NEVER paid more than $200 for a washer or a dryer.

I feel the same way. I buy basic models of appliances and have them for years (15+) and still going strong. My sister has the fancy expensive ones and something is always going wrong so either they need fixing or replacing. The more "features" on it are just more things that could break.

 

[OhMari]

I had a dryer that lasted 11 years and th the repairman told me I was lucky, most appliances like my dryer only last 4 years.

Gas or electric?
Not much on an electric stove to go bad. Stove top elements are $20 at the hardware store and snap in. Oven elements are $25 and snap in (just make sure to turn off the power when you change them).

I can't speak to gas stoves. I would never have one, they scare me to death.

My husband talked me into a gas top burners and we have a wall unit oven. I hate both of them. You can never simmer anything, a flame is a flame and food burns on the bottom. I have to transfer food to my slow cooker. I had a slide in glass top electric range in our old house and I wish we would of used it in our new home. The realtor told us we had to have appliances in the house for it to sell-that was a lie too.

 

[low-key]

I hate there washing machines that saves water, you just can never convince me they clean is the good old water beast with an agitater

 

[Callie]

I hate there washing machines that saves water, you just can never convince me they clean is the good old water beast with an agitater

Can you believe they make a washer that doesn't require soap to clean towels? We have one at my part time job at a tanning salon. Soapless laundry!

 

[DebbieB]

I still have our first microwave from 1985.

 

[ronandannette]

The dishwasher is an annoyance of mine as well. We had a warranty guy come out (when we had our 1 year inspection on our house) and he adjusted the settings on the dishwasher putting on the Boost setting.

He also tested the temperature of our water. When our house was built they put the water temp I think max around 101-103 degrees as a norm (mostly because of risk for children, etc). My husband had already adjusted our max setting to something like 121 degrees. Well he tested the water temp and said you need around the 120-122 range along with the boost setting. He also said to run the hot water on the hottest setting on the sink for around 15-20 seconds before you start the dishwasher.

Also he mentioned using Jet Dry which along with all the other things would help speed up the drying time. We haven't done the Jet Dry yet though we've been meaning to. We do use Cascade Complete Platinum. We've used other stuff and it is just subpar to the Platinum. The dishwasher guy also talked about cleaning out the filter every now and then (however our filter wasn't really dirty) though I don't think that was related to dryness but more about making the dishwasher parts last longer.

Perhaps if we did the Jet Dry it would help more but at this time I just simply open the door and let it sit overnight and then unload it in the morning as a norm. The only real issue is with things that have lips to them like coffee mugs and whatnot where water collects. Most other stuff is dry.

*all information is just advice we were told not necessarily how everyone's would work

All of this is pretty good advice. I manage Warranty for a high-volume home builder and what you've said here is exactly what my own Technicians would do to trouble-shoot a dishwasher before calling out the manufacturers' reps for repairs.

I feel the same way. I buy basic models of appliances and have them for years (15+) and still going strong. My sister has the fancy expensive ones and something is always going wrong so either they need fixing or replacing. The more "features" on it are just more things that could break.

Sadly though, you will NOT get that kind of performance out of the next ones you buy, when your current ones eventually go. They're just not built like that anymore.

I hate there washing machines that saves water, you just can never convince me they clean is the good old water beast with an agitater

Amen!! I've got my eyes open in the local trader-paper and kijiji (like Craig'sList) for a used, old-school Maytag. The minute I find what I want my h/e front loader is headed to the dump. I wouldn't even inflict it on anybody as a give-away. I'm dreaming of the day I can properly soak a load of whites in a tub-full of scalding hot water with bleach again.

 

[tvguy]

I had a dryer that lasted 11 years and th the repairman told me I was lucky, most appliances like my dryer only last 4 years.

Our LG dryer came with a 10 year warranty

My husband talked me into a gas top burners and we have a wall unit oven. I hate both of them. You can never simmer anything, a flame is a flame and food burns on the bottom. I have to transfer food to my slow cooker. I had a slide in glass top electric range in our old house and I wish we would of used it in our new home. The realtor told us we had to have appliances in the house for it to sell-that was a lie too.

I lived with a gas stove for 3 years in college, and the pretty much was my experience, a lot of burned food.

But to be honest, both my wife and I had safety issues in the past with gas. And here, electricity is so much cheaper. We live in a subdivision. that was built as an all electric subdivision, and that was marketed as an advantage. And we put solar panels on our house 3 years ago, so our energy savings would be much smaller if we had gas.

 

[usnuzuloose]

Everything is made cheaper. That is how they keep people buying new. They make parts more expensive. And sometimes getting them fixed is almost the cost of replacing things.

 

[mom2rtk]

Although if your appliance is old enough, you might not be able to find the electronic parts for it. Several ppl in my neighborhood had control board failures with their oven, but they ended up replacing the oven because that part wasn’t made anymore 10 years or so after the manufacture date.

I guess I should be happy that they found the parts to fix my stove a couple weeks ago. I thought the heating element was out in the oven but it was the electronic control panel. Spent $400 fixing that and the burner that hadn't worked in years. But a new one similar to what we had was going to be over $1K.

OP, your title is misleading. The appliances might be made cheaply, but our recent hunt for a new stove has not led me to believe they are "cheap".

 

[dish rag]

If you have an older appliance it could be very well worth keeping it going. Consumers demanded cheap and that's what manufacturers gave them. The parts are made in china and are junk.

 

[marcyleecorgan]

Sometimes the power usage from the older appliances isn't worth it to have them plugged in. We had to unplug our super old chest freezer a few years ago and only use the smaller one because it was adding onto the power bill significantly.

 

[Cogswel_Cogs]

This phenomenon really drives me crazy too. I've read that appliances are expected to last about five years. I also read that they are not designed for any serious cooking (unless you've bought commercial grade). As someone who cooks A LOT, I go through stoves every few years. Currently, both my dryer and dishwasher are broken. The motherboard on the stove is beginning to act up. I'll probably just wait til it breaks too and go replace all three. I remember my grandmother had a fridge that lasted forty years.

Part of this is regulation. At least for high flames. I do not think stoves are allowed the BTUs that comercial countertops are as they are selling into houses that would not have propper ventilation devices. I think thats why they play around with big burners little burners caused they are limited on max they can output..
As for things being made cheaply now, they really are. My Whirpool fridge's ice machine went about two years into purchase. THanks to youtube, I had just repaired my dryer, and I was like this will be easy. So go to youtube and cannot find out how to take out freezer shelves. Its a top bottom with water on door, not ice, this was only water on door that I could fit into location.
So I look in the manual and it doesn't tell you how to get too the ice machine. So I call Wirlpool and they tell me that its very complicated and you need a repairman to remove the door and shelves. And Im like tell me how to take the shelves out. Well we argued for a bit and I don't know if they checked how many twitter followers I have or something but suddenly they were like, you know what we will repair for you for free. So I was like okay, and they did. But still if you are going to put a piece of crap ice maker in your frige, you should make it accesible.

 

[Cogswel_Cogs]

I use to work in a pretty isolated spot in Jersey. And these applinsce trucks would pull up back to back. I think they would swap appliances. I think th appliances are so decent that people are replacing that they were swapping the good ones for real junk to bring back to the vendor, and then fixing and selling the real items that was replaced in the houses.

 

[jaiminee krikit]

Our washing machine broke the other day. DH bought it in the late 80s or early 90s. I went into our local appliance store and they asked me what I was looking for. I told them "A washing machine that will last as long as the one that just died". She laughed out loud at me. DH is extremely happy and proud that he was able to fix our "antique".

 

[RedAngie]

I had a dream about appliances last night, possibly inspired by what I read of this thread yesterday.

Some store had a combination stove/oven/washer/dryer. The cooking elements were on top as normal. Right below was a front loading washer. Below that was a combo oven/dryer. I don't remember if the bottom was restricted to one type of usage at a time, or if I could dry my panties and roast a turkey simultaneously.

 

[Callie]

I lived with a gas stove for 3 years in college, and the pretty much was my experience, a lot of burned food.

But to be honest, both my wife and I had safety issues in the past with gas. And here, electricity is so much cheaper. We live in a subdivision. that was built as an all electric subdivision, and that was marketed as an advantage. And we put solar panels on our house 3 years ago, so our energy savings would be much smaller if we had gas.

I had a gas stove in college too and now I'm scared of them. I left to go take an exam at college that was a few hours long. When I got home, my entire apartment reeked of gas. I freaked out and knew I had killed my cat. I was in pure panic. I had accidentally hit a knob a bit with my backpack. I found her burrowed in the closet, thankfully she was alive, just groggy. I immediately threw her in her carrier and put her on the balcony for fresh air.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

I had a gas stove in college too and now I'm scared of them. I left to go take an exam at college that was a few hours long. When I got home, my entire apartment reeked of gas. I freaked out and knew I had killed my cat. I was in pure panic. I had accidentally hit a knob a bit with my backpack. I found her burrowed in the closet, thankfully she was alive, just groggy. I immediately threw her in her carrier and put her on the balcony for fresh air.

Oh my that must have been scary. I'm so glad your cat was ok though!

FWIW the gas stove at the rental house I had and the gas stove I have at my current home you can't really just hit it with a backpack and turn it on. You have to push down on the knob and then turn it slightly to ignite the gas (you hear that sparking noise when you do that). The knob will not turn unless you push down on it otherwise it's locked in place so to speak. So with your backpack you'd have to first push down hard and then actually drag your backpack so the knob turned. If you pushed down on it with enough force with your backpack but didn't turn it the gas valve would shut off as soon as you released pressure on the knob. The gas stove at the rental house was from 2006 and the gas stove in our current home is from 2014 (different companies made each stove). It's possible for sure that models vary on this apect though.

 

[punkin]

I have an electric stove, but gas heat in the house, so the worst of both worlds. I'd really like a nice gas stove.

 

[dish rag]

I have an electric stove, but gas heat in the house, so the worst of both worlds. I'd really like a nice gas stove.

Actually gas heat is a very good way to heat a northern home as long as it's natural gas.

The big thing now in some areas is to look for a very old gas stove, and have it re worked for modern efficiency. Can we a fun and interesting thing to hunt for.

 

[Donnainnj]

Our stovetop and wall oven were last manufactured in the 70's. About a year ago my dh replaced a part, if that didn't work, we probably would have gutted the kitchen and started over. Didn't want to make that "investment" at this time.