Some of you may be old enough to remember the old Maytag commercials where the poor repairman sat around his shop all day with nothing to do because none of the products broke. Well the manufacturers have certainly solved his problem. My lovely wife and I are retired teachers. We are careful with everything we own and our appliances only work for the two of us. We now feel the need to purchase service contracts on appliances because many of the new ones are so poorly made. I just got off the phone again with the company that handles Whirlpool. (Whirlpool owns Maytag) I had the service contract in front of me and called one week ago but heard nothing. Our five year old machine is on it's third repair and this one will be a big one. Probably the main bearing has gone bad as it is noisy during the spin cycle. Other than someone who lives alone, no washer could have an easier life than this one. Imagine how much more use a machine in a family with three kids would get than ours. Our machine is a Whirlpool Cabrio Platinum which cost about $700 new. I am aware of The Forum's Like for Speed Queen and the only thing that troubles me about them is the small size of the tub. Anyway the quality of most new appliances is pretty dismal compared to what it was years ago.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Gene Hillman,

Years ago, when I lived In Reading, Pa. there was an electrical repair/parts shop that stocked all kinds of small electrical brushes, bearing, bushing and other parts needed to repair fans, toasters, coffee makers, or you could have the items repaired at the shop for a modest fee.

Owner said business was slowing going under due to many people just throw the defective appliance away and buy another, now made in China, item.

Don't know if he's still in business, but he's probably not the first or last small appliance repair shop to go under.

It's almost criminal how we've gone from buying appliances with a 1 year warranty that last trouble free for 10+ years to appliances that need service calls on a regular basis throughout its short life.

I'm thinking we should move to a business model of paying for an appliance by the month. Instead of $1000 and expecting it to last 10 years, I'll pay $8/month for 10 years. If it lasts 10 years, win-win. If it breaks before then, take it away and I'll buy something new with similar terms.

Designing products with a limited life, but whiz-bang features appears to be all the rage.

I can see where this is good for profits and even keeping employees in the work force. How this is reconciled by the green environment first folks, escapes me.

$$ spent on quality wear components, construction, etc. instead of fancy facades and digital wipe your hiney gadgetry would better service to save the environment.

Here's the problem, in my opinion:

There are no washers, dryers, refrigerators, etc. anymore. You cannot buy them.

Instead, you can only buy a computer. In some cases, it has a barrel with an agitator attached; in others, it has a heating compartment, somewhat like an oven attached. In other cases, it has a cold compartment attached, similar to a refrigerator/freezer.

The advent of consumer-level microprocessors has allowed manufactures to add all kinds of whiz-bang features. But making a computer that can stand up to temperature, humidity, vibration, etc., at a price consumers find acceptable is too difficult. This is what we are facing today.

I finally broke down and bought a speed-queen washer. Only time will tell how long it lasts. It cost about 50-60% more than the Whirlpool it replaced.

My 6-year old LG refrigerator freezer recently had its icemaker die. Too early, in my opinion, but OK. They said complete replacement of the icemaker at $350 was the only way to fix it. I was about to give the OK to do this, when the technician asked how old the refrigerator was. When I told him 6 years, he said it's not worth fixing because it was on its last legs, at ONLY 6 years of age! And this was a refrigerator-freezer that I paid $2,000 for on SALE!

I'm very fed up with the state of appliances these days, but don't know what to do about it. Speed Queen is one answer, but they don't make anything other than washers and dryers.

I basically see new appliances as disposable. I DO NOT fix them as the cost to fix them is almost as much as a brand new one. I have had very good luck with Whirlpool as a whole. I have a set of Whirlpool duet's I bought in 2010 that I did 1000 loads of laundry through in 3 years and then my tenants still use them and they've never once had one issue. NONE. I have a set of Cabrio's from 2014 that have over 500 loads through them and no issues.

But you just have to figure a $500 washer is going to last 5-10 years, A refrigerator 12, dishwasher 5-7, etc. The other thing you have to remember, is new appliances are about 1/2 the price they were 15 years ago. They're the same price, but the cost of money is twice as much now so they have to save money building them somewhere. Not to mention all of the EPA mandated stuff has added cost to the build (making them save water and still do a good job).

I'm not a fan of service contracts as they cost about 1/4 the price of a new appliance. I'd rather take my chances on 5 appliances, and just spend the service cost fee on all of them on replacing one that gives issues.

The other thing that NOBODY thinks about, is the amount of money they save in water, soap, and electricity over their life, pays for themselves, even if their lifespan is shorter.

Speed Queen has their purpose, but I too will NEVER go back to a 3.5 cu foot washer, ever in my life. I do full loads, less often, in my 4.9 cu foot cabrio's.

I almost had a coronary in HH Greg when we were buying a $1,800.00 Samsung refrigerator (on significant sale, mind you) and the 25 year old salesman told me that a refrigerator like that should only last 4 years...

BTW, it doesn't take a design engineer to figure out why anything with moving parts doesn't last very long these days. Back when I was shall we say, younger... you would find a minimum of plastic/nylon parts in anything.
Now... it's the greater percentage.

When you have icemakers with plastic gears/flaps/activators and plastic everywhere it's no mystery why they break/fail in 2-3 years.

They design it with a limited life to make sure you are a customer sooner.

quote:

Originally posted by btanchors:
Here's the problem, in my opinion:

There are no washers, dryers, refrigerators, etc. anymore. You cannot buy them.

Instead, you can only buy a computer. In some cases, it has a barrel with an agitator attached; in others, it has a heating compartment, somewhat like an oven attached. In other cases, it has a cold compartment attached, similar to a refrigerator/freezer.

The advent of consumer-level microprocessors has allowed manufactures to add all kinds of whiz-bang features. But making a computer that can stand up to temperature, humidity, vibration, etc., at a price consumers find acceptable is too difficult. This is what we are facing today.

I finally broke down and bought a speed-queen washer. Only time will tell how long it lasts. It cost about 50-60% more than the Whirlpool it replaced.

My 6-year old LG refrigerator freezer recently had its icemaker die. Too early, in my opinion, but OK. They said complete replacement of the icemaker at $350 was the only way to fix it. I was about to give the OK to do this, when the technician asked how old the refrigerator was. When I told him 6 years, he said it's not worth fixing because it was on its last legs, at ONLY 6 years of age! And this was a refrigerator-freezer that I paid $2,000 for on SALE!

I'm very fed up with the state of appliances these days, but don't know what to do about it. Speed Queen is one answer, but they don't make anything other than washers and dryers.

Buy a Sub Zero. The Speed Queen of refrigerators. BUT, you're looking at 6,000 and nobody wants to pay that for a refrigerator.

Determined to keep a 2001 vintage Whirlpool top load washer front load dryer going.

Design age on these were listed something like 12 yrs. Right at 12 the washer transmission died. So being a hardcore DIY fixit type. I replaced it. The dryers belt was ragged and so replaced it and rollers same time. These machines are really built pretty cheap but do a good deal of physical work to clean your clothes.

Since then I replaced agitator pawls, something to do with a clutch and the fill control selector. The fill valve stuck open last week. Wife calls while I'm away says laundry room flooding. SHe arrest problem and later I short cut it by switching hot/cold lines and set temp control on blend so we can limp along. Have that part in house now next surgery maybe this weekend.

Our house came with 1994 whirpool ovens/frig. The frig I've replaced both condensor and evap fan motors. The builtin micro I replaced capacitor. These kitchen appliance are of pretty good quality. Only one fan motor of the two was really bad the other was preemptive maintenance.

I'm ready for new appliance and you know my wife really is. I like to step up to more features than circa 1994. Wish someone made appliance with all the bells and whistles that still lasted a long time.

Speed Queen etcc. so much like what I've got but reliably is a lot less stressful than snazzy is exciting.

Was at scrap yard selling 12,000 lb load of batteries and saw a frig like ours on top of a mountain of scrap metal. You know your frig is old when you see it on top of that pile all battered up.

A whirlpool washing machine is $400-500. How many years do you really expect it to last with so many moving parts? Think about it? It also has what 75 pounds of metal?

During my Jr Hi career circa 1959 our family life was improved by a sparkling NEW GE refer with the revolving adjustable shelves. It served the family perfectly until Mom is dealing with the sudden failure mode.

Not quite off the edge to the Alzheimers ward yet, standing with the door open and telling me 'the NEW refrigerator has crapped out....oh....wait....I guess that NEW refrigerator is.....27?....yes, 27 years old';
she was right.

quote:

Originally posted by jimmy123x:
A whirlpool washing machine is $400-500. How many years do you really expect it to last with so many moving parts? Think about it? It also has what 75 pounds of metal?

Not much left to replace thats hasn't been already. timer$$

Just replaced my 10 year old GE Profile refrigerator. The circuit board blew and everything was melted in the morning. Before that the ice maker had died. Then one of the plastic hinges broke. I looked into replacing the hinge. It was $900! You could not buy the hinge. You had to buy the door and the hinge came with it.
Shopping Btanchors is correct. We are buying computers. A couple have TV screens, write your shopping list, surf the web etc. Worse are the ice makers. They are huge. Want one in the door? You give up a hunk of the interior.
Finality found a Kitchenaid. The cold water is on the inside door frame, the ice maker in the bottom. Here's hoping.

Lots of appliance repairs are simple jobs. Go on line and look up the repair you need. Recently the ice maker door would not close. Found repair on line and did it myself saving $75 service call and probably another $20 on parts. We are presently replacing our range with a new LG, dishwasher with Kenmore and fridge with a Kenmore all in stainless. No service contracts. I will take my chances.

They are not too complicated just take time to study what your looking at. Go on line like you said and there is a wealth of information.

If you have the inclination and interest to do it you should.

It less disruption to my life to fix these things than to unload and reload the old/new frig and deal with all the purchase hassles. But new is nice they just need to a make them more reliable.

Government needs to quit tightening efficiency standards so that existing designs can be ironed out and made more reliable.

Couple things that I noticed recently as my wife and I have been looking at new washer/dryer.

Warranties on some machines were out to 10 years. Don't know how they expect that to work out.

Also washers now have a selection to full fill tub with water.

quote:

Originally posted by 9mmnut:
Lots of appliance repairs are simple jobs. Go on line and look up the repair you need. Recently the ice maker door would not close. Found repair on line and did it myself saving $75 service call and probably another $20 on parts. We are presently replacing our range with a new LG, dishwasher with Kenmore and fridge with a Kenmore all in stainless. No service contracts. I will take my chances.

quote:

Originally posted by signewt:
During my Jr Hi career circa 1959 our family life was improved by a sparkling NEW GE refer with the revolving adjustable shelves. It served the family perfectly until Mom is dealing with the sudden failure mode..

I bought one in 1974, used from an appliance dealer who reconditioned units. Paid $85, delivered. It probably was 20 years old at the time. Kept that GE frig for 10 years and sold it for $50 to a neighbor.

Probably still running, too.

I purchased my washer, "scratch and dent" sale for $200 about 16 years ago. I did have to replace the pump myself about 3 years ago. My microwave was bought in 1982. My fridge purchased somewhere around 1970-1971. THAT'S how long I expect my appliances to last.

We're being sold junk because they can, what other option do we have? Sort of like like US auto makers did for years, only to have the Japanese come and shake them up. Unfortunately there doesn't seem anyone is going to be able do that for refrigerators.

In the mid 80s, I lived for about 10 years in what was the servant quarters for a farm. There was a Crosley refrigerator in the kitchen. It was going strong but it was very small. I decided to ditch it for a newer fridge. Wrong. I could not move it by myself. I am guessing it weighed 250 pounds. IIRC, the interior was porcelain coated steel. After struggling with it for a while, I gave up. When I left the property it was still working.

quote:

Originally posted by RHINOWSO:
They design it with a limited life to make sure you are a customer sooner.

That's about it. My parent's refrigerator from Montgomery Ward was still going strong for over 45 years with no repair.

But companies have figured out they'd rather have you back in the store buying a new one in 5 years.