What is it with appliances these days?

Kyle_in_Tex · Dec 14, 2014

SPIKER said:
The fact is that about 70% of the major name brands are all made in same factories & by same company, up in North West Ohio (Clyde & Findley)

ApplianceMagazine.com*|*Clyde, OH: Achieving Quality and Quantity*-*Whirlpool Special Section

Whirlpool, KitchenAid, Estate, Roper, and Kenmore brands (for Sears), as well as Whirlpool's Canadian brand Inglis. It also produces the appliances on an OEM basis for Crosley, Kirkland, and GE, and exports about 12-15 percent of its production outside of the U.S.

From that article they say production/capacity has increased by 60% (in last 14 years) from the Clyde factory.

& From Wiki
The company markets Whirlpool, Maytag, KitchenAid, Jenn-Air, Amana, Gladiator GarageWorks, Inglis, Estate, Brastemp, Bauknecht and Consul. After acquiring the Maytag Corporation on March 31, 2006, the Whirlpool Corporation surpassed Electrolux to become "the largest home appliance maker in the world."[5]

SO looks like we can point our fingers at who the culprit might be for making total C R aP appliances as one maker has bought out the majors to consolidate into a 70,000 employee maker of low dollar engineered to fail products.

Appliance411 The Purchase: Who Makes What?

chart that leads back to what I can tell amounts to most all fo the brands bought out and produced under umbrella of Whirlpool and or Electro-lux. Couple others in mix such as Samsung & LG are produced mostly outside USA. so maybe better quality ??? Only know the rest is NOT very cost effective or quality...

Mark

Good super sleuthing Mark. You would think the Koreans (trying to gain a share of the market) would build a quality product, but many here have complained about problems.

TomSeller · Dec 14, 2014

I have had good luck with LG. Korean, I believe. I think there might be a related company that makes good tractors with a similar name.

Oaktree · Dec 15, 2014

3930dave said:
Higher speed, down-sized compressors pushing much higher pressures through wall-thickness reduced tubing..... you don't need a Masters in Mech. Engineering to predict what is going to happen to the failure rates.....

Never mind the fact that the coils are underneath the fridge where they collect all sorts of dirt, dust and other assorted fuzz and are almost impossible to keep clean. They've been doing this for decades now...I wonder whose bright idea this was?

3930dave · Dec 15, 2014

Oaktree said:
Never mind the fact that the coils are underneath the fridge where they collect all sorts of dirt, dust and other assorted fuzz and are almost impossible to keep clean. They've been doing this for decades now...I wonder whose bright idea this was?

They're counting on their customers not knowing/noticing, till well after the sale is made.

Rgds, D.

milkman · Dec 15, 2014

Locoweed said:
Speed Queen still makes washers the same as xx years ago. No electronics. If you get a appliance that has modern electronics, I recommend getting a good quality surge protector to plug the thing into. YMMV

Back in the '50s, my uncle had a Speed Queen washer and liked it so well that he wouldn't buy a TV for years because he couldn't get a Speed Queen.:laughing:

chad22 · Mar 16, 2015

Yeah. I doubt any of these new appliances will be handed down to our children grandchildren. They're not built to last anymore.

I'm not sure how much more life it has in it. But I have a Sears Mini Fridge that was 10 years old when a guy gave it to me when he moved. It's now 13 years old.

The thermostat broke and it's stuck on the highest setting. The thing works great still freezes things but at least it keeps things cold.

I just can't leave cans of soda in it or I'll have frozen soda and/or burst cans.

I do put a few cans of soda in it but make sure I take them out before they freeze.

Hopefully the fridge will last awhile longer. But if it does die. I won't be losing anything as it was free to me.

When I was 11 A lady gave my mom an old Maytag washing machine "don't remember how old it was" but it was old. That thing worked like new when she gave it to us.

My mom used it for a few years before we moved. Wish we would've kept it but my dad didn't want to move it to Arkansas with us. When we did so we sadly scrapped it as no one else wanted it.

That washing machine was built like a tank. I bet it'd still be working today.

RedNeckGeek · Mar 17, 2015

chad22 said:
I'm not sure how much more life it has in it. But I have a Sears Mini Fridge that was 10 years old when a guy gave it to me when he moved. It's now 13 years old.

The thermostat broke and it's stuck on the highest setting. The thing works great still freezes things but at least it keeps things cold.

I just can't leave cans of soda in it or I'll have frozen soda and/or burst cans.

Maybe if you put it on one of those wall timers and only let it run for a few hours twice a day it'll keep everything from freezing?

Appliance wise, I've always had pretty good luck with Whirlpool stuff. When I moved up here in '10 I left it at the old place and shopped Craig's List for newer stuff. Ended up paying $0.15 - $0.35 on the dollar for two year old appliances. Stainless steel was the rage then, and all the housewives were dumping their black stuff. The new kitchen had galaxy black granite counters, so black appliances were a natural fit. Found all Whirlpool, and so far so good. The 'frige does make a lot of noise, kind of a pain since the house has an open floor plan, and it tends to freeze the veggi drawer, but I haven't been real good about cleaning the condenser coils, either. I did finally replace the 25 year old Whirlpool washer and dryer with LG front loading units. I was surprised to find Whirlpool slipping down the Consumer Reports reliability ratings, and the LGs were top rated. That was five years ago and so far no problems. I even re-jetted the dryer for propane when I moved. Only problem there is that nobody in Kalifornia would sell me the parts, but Amazon didn't seem to mind. That and the jets were ALL the way at the bottom, requiring almost total disassembly of the thing!:shocked:

A coworker replaced her diswasher with a Bosch as part of a kitchen remodel. During the first week of use it flooded the kitchen, ruining the particle board base cabinets and the laminate flooring in the kitchen, living room and bathroom. Never figured out what the problem was, and I think she's still using the same dishwasher! This house has a slab foundation, but I made sure to wrap the moisture barrier for the laminate floor in the living room up over the edges just in case. All the wet rooms have tile floors.:thumbsup:

MacLawn · Mar 17, 2015

Yep, LG (stands for Lucky Gold) is Korean, also Samsung. Nothing against Korea, but, hey, I'm buying American when/if I can! We paid $600 for an Amana RadarRange microwave in 1979. Remember those? Stainless steel body around some of outside, built like ye olde brick outhouse. Well, we still use it everyday. Hey, that's pretty cheap, eh? Made in Iowa, was it? I hate all this throw away mess nowadays.

Speaking of which, Ethyl bought an old Sunbeam USA made toaster last week at a junque shop for $15. But I have to fix it. At least I think it's fixable.

RedNeckGeek · Mar 17, 2015

I've also had pretty good luck getting parts and repairing Whirlpool appliances. Usually the part is in stock locally, and they'll even sell me a repair manual if I can't find one on line. Same was true for LG, though both the part and the manual were obtained on line (the manual was a free download). :thumbsup: