Grumble, grumble, another appliance rant

   / Grumble, grumble, another appliance rant #1  

Pilot

Veteran Member
Joined
Nov 20, 2004
Messages
1,208
Location
Oregon
Tractor
JD 770, Yanmar 180D, JD 420 (not running), had a Kubota B6200
Earlier post was about refrigerators, how they don't make them like they used to--really. Our '78 model lasted until 2002 and we replaced it rather than repairing because we suckered into the claim that energy savings would cover the cost of a new unit. It's replacement lasted about 5 years and sales people said to expect new ones to last about 8-10 years. All this is because of the drive for energy efficiency, which doesn't consider the energy cost of manufacturing, shipping and trashing of the unit when it wears out in just a few years.

Now it's the dishwasher. Installed when we built the house 20 years ago, but the rollers in the racks have worn out, they wobble and when you pull out the racks, the rails don't stay aligned and it drips water onto the hardwood floor. You can no longer get replacement rollers or racks. Otherwise the dishwasher performs like new. So for the lack of replacement rollers which should cost less than $5 each, it's time to replace the whole thing.

Looking at new dishwashers, the sales people say to expect about 10-12 years at most and are impressed we got 20 years. Racks on most of what we have looked at wobble and the Bosch models, which CR says are the best, the tines are too close together to really fit our dishes (we tried our dishes on the floor models). Real world customer reviews on any makes I could find are generally not favorable on any of them. Exceptions are when you find only one or two people posted about their dishwasher they have had for a week. And they all have circuit boards, prone to failure (according to reports) which will go out with a power surge which are common around here in the winter storms or they just decide to go bad, which happened to our 2 year old stove. Our old dishwasher has a mechanical timer, not bothered by surges. And most new dishwashers take about 2 hours or more to wash and dry, while our old one takes about 45 minutes. Lastly, Maytag really doesn't make them like they used to (we still have our trouble free 1978 Maytag washing machine) because Maytag is made by someone else now.

I'd be tempted to have some roller custom made, even if it cost $200, but I'd probably have another unavailable $5 part fail 2 months later.

If anyone is happy with their late model dishwasher, I'd like to hear about it, make & model.
 
   / Grumble, grumble, another appliance rant #2  
We just replaced our dishwasher, stove and microwave with new Maytags. Big mistake. Don't know what I would buy next time, but it sure wouldn't be Maytag.
 
   / Grumble, grumble, another appliance rant #3  
Our last refrigerator was a Maytag and lasted 8 yrs with 4-5 service calls during that time period. Replaced it with a Samsung this summer. Also replaced washer and dryer with Samsung this summer. Lots of electronic stuff on these new machines. Time will tell if they will hold up? Ken Sweet
 
   / Grumble, grumble, another appliance rant #4  
We bought this place in 2005 (about 7 years and 2 months ago) and there's a 1999 model KitchenAid dishwasher, Model KUDC25CHBL-1, in it. No problems so far, and my wife likes it.
 
   / Grumble, grumble, another appliance rant #6  
I have a 6 year old Bosch dishwasher that has been trouble free. Our Amana frig is also 6 years old and no problems. I can find the model number if you want. I put a similar Bosch dishwasher in the condo where my Mom lives 1-1/2 years ago, no problems. I try to buy the quietest DW without going overboard. The last one cost $957 at Sears including install, old DW disposal, and a 5 yr warranty. The Sears is a local catalog-type store and is a franchise. The owner's son does the installs. That works well for me since I'm in Maine and Mom's in Ohio.

I don't think appliance lives are shorter now due to energy efficiency requirements, it's just because they are made for a given lifetime and sales price point. I don't know how the current prices would compare to 1975 prices adjusted for inflation. If you think about how often people remodel kitchens and move, it sort of makes sense that they aren't going to build dishwashers with 25-30 year life with a price to match, and if they did, the number of folks who would buy them is very small I bet.

An interesting way to look at it is how many hours does the median wage earner work to buy an average refrigerator? If you had data for every decade from 1950 to present, that would tell you something meaningful.
 
   / Grumble, grumble, another appliance rant #7  
I don't think appliance lives are shorter now due to energy efficiency requirements

And in many cases, the life isn't actually shorter now. We bought a new house in 1972, sold it, and moved to another new house in 1977. During that 5 years, I replaced the pump and motor in our dishwasher (Gaffers & Sattler), the next door neighor's dishwasher, and my sister's dishwasher. Now the house we bought in 1977 had the same brand dishwasher, but it was still trouble free 11 years later.

Of course the GE dishwasher we got with a new double wide mobile home in 1997 lasted almost exactly 3 years and the part to repair it, if I did the work myself, would have been just over $160.
 
   / Grumble, grumble, another appliance rant #8  
Our Refg Range and Furnace were boought new in 1971.
The washer and dryer about 1978.
All are doing fine and working well.
 
   / Grumble, grumble, another appliance rant #9  
My gripe is that the proprietary electronic module controls seem to die just out of warranty and cost about 1/2 the price of the appliance. I know darn well these modules are knocked out in China or Mexico for less than $5 a piece. :mad:
 
   / Grumble, grumble, another appliance rant #10  
As a matter of principle & in the interests of sustainability we try to avoid buying any appliance built in China & Korea or other "throwaways" , so in the absence of local manufacturing (in Australia) most of our home appliances are European brands (albiet not always built in Europe).
We have:
1. Dishwashers - no complants here, the old 20yr Miele was only displaced because of a kitchen renovation & is still going strong being used as an "industrial" parts washer in one of the machinery sheds for the past couple of years... handles ag grease, oil & hydraulic fuild remarkably well..
- 5yr old Bosch
- c.20yr old Miele
- 2yr old Miele x2
2. Washing Machines/Dryers - all going strong/no breakdowns, front loaders with the Miele's extremely water efficient (important to us because we've no mains water)
- 5yr old Miele Washer/Dryer
- 18yr old Miele Washer
- 10yr old Bosch Washer
- 1yr Asko Washer/Dryer
3. Refrigerators/Freezers - only issue we have was with the icemaker on one of the newer Bosch units, component replaced under warranty
- 10yr old Asko
- 16yr old Bosch
- 2yr old Bosch x2
 
 
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