Kitchen Appliance opinions

[bcla]

I thought I read that Kenmore is LG appliances. My washer and dryer are about 4 years old and they are Kenmore Elite.

Kenmore can be almost anything underneath. I bought a Kenmore refrigerator years ago for my townhouse, and it carried a sticker mentioning an award won for refrigerator efficiency. I'd heard of that award, and it was won by Whirlpool. Sears has purchased from nearly all the major appliance makers over the years, including Maytag, GE, Whirlpool, Amana, Frigidaire, etc. Also - a lot of brand names are simply meant to sell at different price points, such as GE selling the Hotpoint brand.

 

[skuttle]

Take a good look at your plates or take one with you when you shop for your dishwasher. DH saw that recommended by Consumer Reports and thought it was nuts until we got into the store and I realized I could not buy the Bosch I planned on because our plates will not fit in their racks, which are the same throughout their entire line. Their racks will only accommodate very flat plates, not those with a curved rim like ours. Not sure when Bosch changed their racks to this design, but IMO it is dumb. We went back to a Kitchenaid Dishwasher and are happy with it two months in.

Thanks for that tip! I never would have thought of my plates not fitting in certain dishwashers!

3 - Know that Amana / Whirlpool / Maytag / KitchenAid / Jenn-Air are all the same manufacturer with increasing levels of "luxury" features depending on badging. Kind of a Chevy - Buick - GMC progression.

Wasn't aware of this. Thank you!

My "old" cookware scratched my glass stovetop. Grrr...

Look on the bottoms of your pots and pans. If you see pits and dents, do not use it on your new glass cooktop.

My old pots and pans have some circle ridges on the bottom. They were getting to the point that I was thinking of replacing them, so I may have to do that sooner rather than later.

Kenmore can be almost anything underneath. I bought a Kenmore refrigerator years ago for my townhouse, and it carried a sticker mentioning an award won for refrigerator efficiency. I'd heard of that award, and it was won by Whirlpool. Sears has purchased from nearly all the major appliance makers over the years, including Maytag, GE, Whirlpool, Amana, Frigidaire, etc. Also - a lot of brand names are simply meant to sell at different price points, such as GE selling the Hotpoint brand.

Yes, that's what I understood as well. I think I read that most recently they were LG appliances. I noticed that my current GE fridge is Hotpoint. I didn't realize Hotpoint was a separate brand. I just assumed it was a type of GE!

Thanks for all of the input! I really appreciate it.

 

[bcla]

Yes, that's what I understood as well. I think I read that most recently they were LG appliances. I noticed that my current GE fridge is Hotpoint. I didn't realize Hotpoint was a separate brand. I just assumed it was a type of GE!

At any given time Sears will source from different manufacturers. They don't move from one single sorce to another. However, it's not like their car battery lines, which are currently from a single source.

 

[bcla]

3 - Know that Amana / Whirlpool / Maytag / KitchenAid / Jenn-Air are all the same manufacturer with increasing levels of "luxury" features depending on badging. Kind of a Chevy - Buick - GMC progression.

They're the same company - now. However, they were united by acquisitions and not as some "badge engineering" exercise. Jenn-Air was purchased by Maytag years ago. Amana Refrigeration was purchased in the 1960s by Raytheon to sell microwave ovens. They divested Amana to Maytag in the 90s. Whirlpool bought out Maytag in 2006. The whole appliance industry is crazy.

Heck - General Motors used to own Frigidaire.

 

[IDoDis]

You should never let aluminum foil contact the porcelain interior of any oven - even a conventional oven.

We replaced our appliances last summer. Our old oven came with the house 17 years ago and never had an issue with it, but it was almond, so it had to go! With that oven, we used to keep foil on the bottom to catch the drips and spills. The new oven has the words, "Do not use foiling bottom" on the bottom tray. DH didn't see the huge warning and put foil on the bottom of the oven a week after it was delivered. While the pizza he was making was baking, I saw flames inside the oven! I turned it off and then opened the oven door to see the foil still burning and melting to the bottom plate.

The price for a new bottom plate was $75.00! After hearing my story the CS rep on the phone took pity on me and gave me a bunch of Sears Shop Your Way points and free shipping so I only had to pay $35.00. Lesson learned.

 

[3boymthr]

We just replaced our 21 year old kenmore traditional refrigerator with a samsung frenchdoor. Just a word to the wise. Not matter how great the deal unless you have no choice do not buy ANYTHING that has to be dropped shipped from the manufacturer - especially if that manufacturer is Samsung. We had what used to be a standard size refrigerator but because of changing needs/wants of consumers a 33" fridge (actually 32.75) is no longer standard (at least in our area) so no matter where we bought it we were going to have to have it special ordered. Got a great deal through Memorial Day sale at JC Penney. Saved $200 on the price of the fridge over Home Depot or lowes or local place plus 0% financing (we could pay in full but took financing to keep our savings as our savings since it was 0% financing). It's a LOOOOOONG story that involved many many many hours on the phone but it took over 40 days to get our refrigerator because it got lost in shipment. Not sure if the problem was JC penney or Samsung but based upon things I was being told and how many times I had to call and tell and retell my story I'm laying the blame on both of them. After a month Dh was like cancel the order and buy again somewhere else. JC Penney "couldn't" cancel because the order was complete on their end. Samsung said the same. Then the rep at Samsung actually told me "I can't cancel that because it will cost us money." This was after it had been missing for over month. At which point I lost it and they finally agreed to cancel and reorder on their end. I finally got it (today) but man it was such a pain.

 

[skuttle]

I went ahead and subscribed for the month to consumer reports and I think it's confusing me even more! some of the higher rated appliances in my price range by consumer reports get terrible reviews from users.

Would I be completely crazy to ignore all reviews and just go to the store and pick out appliances with features I like in my price range??

 

[bluezy]

We just replaced our 21 year old kenmore traditional refrigerator with a samsung frenchdoor. Just a word to the wise. Not matter how great the deal unless you have no choice do not buy ANYTHING that has to be dropped shipped from the manufacturer - especially if that manufacturer is Samsung. We had what used to be a standard size refrigerator but because of changing needs/wants of consumers a 33" fridge (actually 32.75) is no longer standard (at least in our area) so no matter where we bought it we were going to have to have it special ordered. Got a great deal through Memorial Day sale at JC Penney. Saved $200 on the price of the fridge over Home Depot or lowes or local place plus 0% financing (we could pay in full but took financing to keep our savings as our savings since it was 0% financing). It's a LOOOOOONG story that involved many many many hours on the phone but it took over 40 days to get our refrigerator because it got lost in shipment. Not sure if the problem was JC penney or Samsung but based upon things I was being told and how many times I had to call and tell and retell my story I'm laying the blame on both of them. After a month Dh was like cancel the order and buy again somewhere else. JC Penney "couldn't" cancel because the order was complete on their end. Samsung said the same. Then the rep at Samsung actually told me "I can't cancel that because it will cost us money." This was after it had been missing for over month. At which point I lost it and they finally agreed to cancel and reorder on their end. I finally got it (today) but man it was such a pain.

I feel for you....we had a huge issue with the delivery of ours as well. And to make it worse, we didn't even *need* a new refrigerator! We were at Lowes one night looking at something else and I just happened to walk through the appliances and noticed that the exact refrigerator that I had been lusting after for a year (and I knew would fit through the largest exterior door of our house *and* fit in the opening in the cabinets in the kitchen) was on a really good sale. At full price, it was out of our preferred price range. And then, not only was it on sale, but there was some other "take an extra 10% off" deal going on that day...and some guy walked by and gave me a coupon that was good for another 10% off *on top of any other discounts being offered*....and we opened a Lowe's credit card and got *another* 15% off the price. All in all, we ended up paying less than 40% of the regular price. We knew the deal was too good to pass up (that should have been a clue that all would not go as planned). They said they had the refrigerator in their regional warehouse and could deliver in a week. They called the night before the scheduled delivery to confirm. After receiving the confirmation phone call, a friend came over and helped my husband move the kitchen refrigerator to the garage (replacing the current garage refrigerator which was being retired as it was about 30 years old and sucking up a lot of electricity). This move involved going down a small flight of stairs. The next day, I receive a phone call from Lowes saying the delivery is going to be delayed by a few hours. No problem. Then a few hours later I get a call saying it's going to be tomorrow. <sigh> Ok. The next day was a phone call saying it would be the *next* day. Not happy. I called the manager of the store telling him I was not happy as they had confirmed the delivery; we moved our refrigerator out of the kitchen; two days later and I still don't have a refrigerator! He says he'll check in to it and call me back. He calls back and tells me they don't know where the refrigerator is and he'll call back again when he tracks it down. An hour later he calls back to tell me the refrigerator hasn't even been manufactured yet and once it's built, it will need to travel by ship to get to California and then be trucked across the country --- it's going to be at least 4 weeks. GRRRRRRR!!!! He generously offered to let me come back to the store and choose *any other* refrigerator and he'd give it to me at the price we paid for this refrigerator regardless of how much more it might cost. I explained the size constraints and how this was literally the only refrigerator of this style that we could possibly buy. He offered to cancel the order. I declined because -- well, I didn't really want to try to lug the old refrigerator back to the kitchen and I knew I'd never get this particular refrigerator at this price anywhere else...ever. I said I would just wait for the Samsung. He gave me another $200 off the price for my trouble. So for the next 5 weeks our refrigerator was in the garage and any time we needed anything from it, we had to make a trip out there. You don't realize how many times you need something from the refrigerator until it requires walking out of the kitchen, down a hall, and then down a flight of stairs to do it. What a PITA. And then, once it was finally delivered and installed, the freezer stopped working and we had to have put in a service call. So *again* I was making the trek to the garage.....

 

[3boymthr]

I feel for you....we had a huge issue with the delivery of ours as well. And to make it worse, we didn't even *need* a new refrigerator! We were at Lowes one night looking at something else and I just happened to walk through the appliances and noticed that the exact refrigerator that I had been lusting after for a year (and I knew would fit through the largest exterior door of our house *and* fit in the opening in the cabinets in the kitchen) was on a really good sale. At full price, it was out of our preferred price range. And then, not only was it on sale, but there was some other "take an extra 10% off" deal going on that day...and some guy walked by and gave me a coupon that was good for another 10% off *on top of any other discounts being offered*....and we opened a Lowe's credit card and got *another* 15% off the price. All in all, we ended up paying less than 40% of the regular price. We knew the deal was too good to pass up (that should have been a clue that all would not go as planned). They said they had the refrigerator in their regional warehouse and could deliver in a week. They called the night before the scheduled delivery to confirm. After receiving the confirmation phone call, a friend came over and helped my husband move the kitchen refrigerator to the garage (replacing the current garage refrigerator which was being retired as it was about 30 years old and sucking up a lot of electricity). This move involved going down a small flight of stairs. The next day, I receive a phone call from Lowes saying the delivery is going to be delayed by a few hours. No problem. Then a few hours later I get a call saying it's going to be tomorrow. <sigh> Ok. The next day was a phone call saying it would be the *next* day. Not happy. I called the manager of the store telling him I was not happy as they had confirmed the delivery; we moved our refrigerator out of the kitchen; two days later and I still don't have a refrigerator! He says he'll check in to it and call me back. He calls back and tells me they don't know where the refrigerator is and he'll call back again when he tracks it down. An hour later he calls back to tell me the refrigerator hasn't even been manufactured yet and once it's built, it will need to travel by ship to get to California and then be trucked across the country --- it's going to be at least 4 weeks. GRRRRRRR!!!! He generously offered to let me come back to the store and choose *any other* refrigerator and he'd give it to me at the price we paid for this refrigerator regardless of how much more it might cost. I explained the size constraints and how this was literally the only refrigerator of this style that we could possibly buy. He offered to cancel the order. I declined because -- well, I didn't really want to try to lug the old refrigerator back to the kitchen and I knew I'd never get this particular refrigerator at this price anywhere else...ever. I said I would just wait for the Samsung. He gave me another $200 off the price for my trouble. So for the next 5 weeks our refrigerator was in the garage and any time we needed anything from it, we had to make a trip out there. You don't realize how many times you need something from the refrigerator until it requires walking out of the kitchen, down a hall, and then down a flight of stairs to do it. What a PITA. And then, once it was finally delivered and installed, the freezer stopped working and we had to have put in a service call. So *again* I was making the trek to the garage.....

I'm wondering if your samsung is the same samsung that I have. Which might explain at least in part as to why it was such a pain to get.

 

[IDoDis]

... After receiving the confirmation phone call, a friend came over and helped my husband move the kitchen refrigerator to the garage (replacing the current garage refrigerator which was being retired as it was about 30 years old and sucking up a lot of electricity). This move involved going down a small flight of stairs. The next day, I receive a phone call from Lowes saying the delivery is going to be delayed by a few hours. No problem. Then a few hours later I get a call saying it's going to be tomorrow. <sigh> Ok. The next day was a phone call saying it would be the *next* day. Not happy. I called the manager of the store telling him I was not happy as they had confirmed the delivery; we moved our refrigerator out of the kitchen; two days later and I still don't have a refrigerator! He says he'll check in to it and call me back. He calls back and tells me they don't know where the refrigerator is and he'll call back again when he tracks it down. An hour later he calls back to tell me the refrigerator hasn't even been manufactured yet and once it's built, it will need to travel by ship to get to California and then be trucked across the country --- it's going to be at least 4 weeks. GRRRRRRR!!!! He generously offered to let me come back to the store and choose *any other* refrigerator and he'd give it to me at the price we paid for this refrigerator regardless of how much more it might cost. I explained the size constraints and how this was literally the only refrigerator of this style that we could possibly buy. He offered to cancel the order. I declined because -- well, I didn't really want to try to lug the old refrigerator back to the kitchen and I knew I'd never get this particular refrigerator at this price anywhere else...ever. I said I would just wait for the Samsung. He gave me another $200 off the price for my trouble. So for the next 5 weeks our refrigerator was in the garage and any time we needed anything from it, we had to make a trip out there. You don't realize how many times you need something from the refrigerator until it requires walking out of the kitchen, down a hall, and then down a flight of stairs to do it. What a PITA. And then, once it was finally delivered and installed, the freezer stopped working and we had to have put in a service call. So *again* I was making the trek to the garage.....

We had a similar experience with Sears when having our Kenmore stove and microwave delivered. We sold our old stove on Craigslist a couple of days before the scheduled delivery of the new stove. We used a countertop microwave and ate out one night -- no big deal. On the scheduled delivery day, no one showed up during the 4 hour delivery window. I called Sears who connected me to the delivery company. They said they were behind schedule and would be coming in 2 hours. No one came after 3 hours, so I called again. It was now 7:30pm. They said they'd be here in an hour. By 9:00pm no one answered when I called and no one showed up. The next morning I called to reschedule the delivery for that afternoon. I left work early, came home and waited. The delivery window passed. I was able to look online at the delivery info and it said they'd be arriving at 6:30 (delivery window was between 2-6pm). Still nothing. The delivery time online at 7:00pm said the stove was delivered. What??? I called the company, but no one answered, so I called Sears. The CS said yes, the stove was showing that it was delivered to an address I was not familiar with. While on hold, I googled the address and it was a warehouse. The CS rep came back and said they delivered it to a warehouse, but this warehouse was where the stove was drop-shipped the day before.

Delivery was again rescheduled for the next day and the SAME THING happened with the delivery window passing and the with the delivery time being pushed back online over and over again. Finally they arrived with the stove at 8:30pm! They unloaded it, connected it, and while the burners worked on the stove, the oven wouldn't come on. They said I could schedule a repair or have a new stove delivered. We chose to have a new stove delivered which took 3 weeks! They left us the current stove to use until the new one came, so at least we had a stovetop to use.

No wonder Sears is going under!

 

[skuttle]

Wow! We had issues with sears delivery years ago for a washer and dryer. They were late with delivery, and delivered the dryer but not the washer. Never told us the washer would be delayed by several days! We ended up canceling order, returning the dryer, went to a local place to buy a nicer washer/dryer which was delivered the next day! Since then I vowed to never buy appliances from Sears!

 

[Praying Colonel]

We bought a house in 09 from a guy who worked for GE and his wife. They had GE everything: microwave, cooktop, stove, dishwasher, fridge, washer & dryer. Within 3 years we had trouble with every single one of them except for the microwave, dishwasher and dryer. The dryer is now on its last legs and we'll probably have to replace it within a few months.

That fridge...a water valve on the fridge failed while we were on vacation, resulting in $17,000 in damage to our floors and basement (thankfully paid for by our homeowners coverage less the deductible).

So my feelings about GE appliances are somewhat less than magical.

 

[bcla]

We bought a house in 09 from a guy who worked for GE and his wife. They had GE everything: microwave, cooktop, stove, dishwasher, fridge, washer & dryer. Within 3 years we had trouble with every single one of them except for the microwave, dishwasher and dryer. The dryer is now on its last legs and we'll probably have to replace it within a few months.

That fridge...a water valve on the fridge failed while we were on vacation, resulting in $17,000 in damage to our floors and basement (thankfully paid for by our homeowners coverage less the deductible).

So my feelings about GE appliances are somewhat less than magical.

The deal recently completed, but GE sold its appliance division to a Chinese appliance maker (Haier). They're still going to manufacture in the US, but it's not really GE.

GE barely has a consumer presence now. They sold off their consumer credit business. They got rid of their TV business in the 80s. All they have left is lighting, and much of that is just bought from China without GE designing anything but the packaging. A lot of items that carry the GE name are just licensed.

GE has always been an industrial company. They liked to keep a public face with their consumer products, but they weren't really big moneymakers for them compared to medical equipment, aircraft engines, power generation, or transportation. Amtrak's workhorse locomotive is made by GE.

 

[Praying Colonel]

^I hear what you're saying (we live in a town that had what was known as "GE Appliance Park" before GE sold to Haier). But we still see GE sold in the big box stores--saw them as recently as last week. So just wanted to send out a big "wave off" on GE appliances, at least from our experience.

 

[daughtersrus]

I love my dishwasher! It actually washes dishes! It's a Kemore that cost us about $350. It's still going strong and it's about 10 years old.

 

[bluezy]

....No wonder Sears is going under!

Wow! We had issues with sears delivery years ago for a washer and dryer. They were late with delivery, and delivered the dryer but not the washer. Never told us the washer would be delayed by several days! We ended up canceling order, returning the dryer, went to a local place to buy a nicer washer/dryer which was delivered the next day! Since then I vowed to never buy appliances from Sears!

I have 3 or 4 friends and family members (that I *know* of) who have had a horrible experience with Sears and appliance purchases in the last few years. Everything from the "it'll be delivered tomorrow....ok, we mean *tomorrow*.....well hopefully *tomorrow*" to warranty issues (having come out and made several repairs while under warranty but then when one of those parts/repairs failed after the original warranty expired (the repair/part was still under warranty) they refused to service the appliance without charging $200 for the service call (on a $500 appliance that was less than 2 years old). While I realize that any brand or store can have issues, I've heard so many first-hand issues with Sears in the last 2 years that I will never shop there for an appliance.

...

That fridge...a water valve on the fridge failed while we were on vacation, resulting in $17,000 in damage to our floors and basement (thankfully paid for by our homeowners coverage less the deductible.

That is exactly why we now shut off our water when we leave the house for vacation (when we don't have a house sitter). We had a water valve leak on our previous refrigerator. Thankfully we were only out of the house for a few hours the day it happened so there was no permanent damage, but it was an eye opener because we were planning to leave for Disney a few days later and all we could think about was "What if this had happened while we were gone????" By turning off the water to the whole house when we're away, at least we're minimizing the damage. We don't drain the pipes but at least there is a limited amount of water that will leak out of a pipe that way.