OT-Stainless steel appliances-Would you buy them again

[Mickeysfriend]

Slightly off topic, but I guess can be considered budget since they cost a little more! We are in need of new appliances and LOVE the look of stainless. I have spoken to people however that hate them just due to the fact that you are always having to clean them to keep the fingerprints/smudges cleaned up. So, I'm doing a poll to see if you had to do it again, would you still get stainless?

TIA

Sherri

 

[minnie1928]

I love the look of SS, but there certainly is more upkeep with it. I swapped out all my appliances about a year ago. My Samsung frig really shows the prints, but my GE stove is much better at not showing them. My Bosch dishwasher is somewhere in between.

 

[Purseval]

We don't like SS and bought black instead.

 

[maslex]

I've always wanted the stainless steel appliances and ended up getting a free side by side SS fridge from my SIL when she bought a new one for herself. Now that I have one, I don't like them. I love the look of them but I hate the cleaning of them. They show EVERYTHING and then some.

 

[Melrosgirl]

I have 2 fridges, both in SS. One is Maytag and one is G.E. Both SS. There is an obvious difference b/w the two in terms of SS quality. The Maytag is always shiny and very seldom gets "dirty" (the fingerprint dirty that people complain of). The G.E. though is just not as nice. I never understood why people complained about SS until I got the G.E. fridge and then I understood.

Would I do it again? Yes, but I'd get the better quality SS.

 

[DawnM]

We had them in our last home (purchased by us as replacements for old appliances) and when we had to replace appliances in this home we opted again for stainless.....so, YES, we have done it again already.

Dawn

 

[dizneechic]

We have GE Profile for all of our stainless appliances and don't have much of an issue with prints at all. I think it also depends on the layout of your kitchen if they will attract prints as much. Ours all face the island so you can't really "hang out" in front of any of them so really unless you are using one your not near them so they don't get handled. I did notice the same appliances at a friends house (big open kitchen) and hers had way more prints and also her fridge and dishwasher were dented up from where kids drove toys into them.

 

[lizzyb]

We have them and while I like the look of them with kids I hate the fingerprints so I would not but they again unless they didnt leave the mess.

 

[StephMK]

We did a black DW and stainless/black microhood, stove & refrig. The fridge is clean steel so it looks like stainless but hold magnets & doesn't get as many fingerprints. The stove is a pain to clean but doesn't get terribly bad prints either, more smudges. I do like the black DW and think that would probably show the most if it were stainless.

I've never been a huge stainless fan, just got them because the kitchen was so dark & white would have looked odd. Now that I've painted the cabinets creamy white, I guess I don't know what other color would have worked.

 

[gower525]

We just built a new house and got to pick out the appliances - sort of. I was also concerned about smudges on SS- but the salesman at Lowe's showed me different types of SS. Some show smudges much more than others. Ours hardly shows a smudge at all. Go and look around and try to smudge them and you will see what I mean. It doesn't have to be a problem.

 

[abrock]

We have had stainless with our first two houses...loved the look! Then we had a child and I had to keep up with the fingerprints. Built a new house and went with white to be frugal and have a cleaner less maintenance look....ended up switching 1 year later to all brand new ss appliance. I love the look and will take the upkeep over the alternative! All I do is wipe them down 1x each night. Made our kitchen feel more high-end!

 

[kato0627]

we just ordered all new appliances from Kitchen Aid. Will let you know if a few weeks. Never thought about the dent issue from toys. Thanks for the heads up. My youngest is 8 so it should not be an issue, but I will warn them.

 

[msce2]

We have stainless steel dishwasher, stove and fridge + 3 kids. I could spend every day all day wiping them and they would still have finger prints. Also we were told that it will eventually go out of style just like other colors of appliances where as black and white are constants.

 

[Shleedogg]

Our dishwasher and stove are stainless and our fridge is the stainless look. We don't have issues with fingerprints on the stove or dishwasher. The problem with the dishwasher is water drip marks. I don't think I'd go real stainless with a fridge, too many hands and fingerprints. DH was afraid that the fridge would look bad with the real stainless stove and dishwasher, but you can't tell, they look great!

BTW, we have Kenmore appliances, Kenmore Elite fridge. Thrilled with all of them, especially the dishwasher! The dishwasher is one with the hidden control panels but was only about $500. The rest that look like it are around $1k.

 

[Nicolepa]

I love my stainless. I use pledge to clean them and ever since I started doing that I don't have a problem with smudges. I have 3 kids. I had black before and that was horrible for finger prints, streaks, dust etc.

 

[StitchFanZ]

I hate having stainless. The fingerprints drive me nuts! I will never get stainless appliances again. The next time a salesperson tells me they don't show fingerprints, I'm going to bring a butter container into the store and see for myself.
As a side note, magnets do not work on the stainless appliances so if you like to use magnets to put up pictures and things, you won't be able to do this with stainless.
Also, I know not to use paper towels to clean them but we have a lot of company. Some of them used paper towels to wipe off the control panel on my stove and there are now very visible scratch marks that I will be stuck with forever.

 

[NMW]

I really don't know. I love the look of the stainless, but there is a lot of upkeep. The dishwasher is the worst with constant water drip marks. My kids are 13, 11, and 8. Also, not all stainless steel cleaners are the same. Some work well, some so-so, others stink. I have tried them all.

We bought Whirlpool gold Stainless steel dishwasher, micro/hood, oven and left our white fridge. A year later we replaced the fridge with a Kenmoore elite shiny black finish. Now if I had bought them all together, I probably would have gotten the stainless steel fridge. But after dealing with cleaning the drips off our dishwasher...I just didn't want to deal with it. I looked at the smudge free stainless look fridges, but they were a darker color than the stainless appliances I have and I didn't feel that they would match very good.

I really like the shiny black finish on my fridge. Yes, it can show greasy prints and water drips if you look really hard, but no where near what the stainless shows. Plus, all it takes to make it look fabulous is a little Windex.

 

[PatsMom]

I hate my stainless steel appliances. I didn't like them when DH picked them out - he does the cooking so he was in charge of designing the kitchen when we built the house. I am constantly cleaning them.

I tell him he has to outlive me because if he goes first, I plan to immediately remodel the kitchen and all stainless steel will go!

 

[sparkyboy]

When we remodeled the kitchen I picked GE Profile SS appliances. I use Cerama Bryte Stainless Steel Cleaner only when cleaning with white cloth(no paper towels) and believe that the mineral oil is the key ingredient in keeping the appliances clean of finger prints and food spots. Personally I would pick SS again rather than the black if I had to replace.

 

[Mickeysfriend]

Thanks for all your opinions/comments. I guess I'll head to the showroom and see what they've got. I really do love the look.