This has to be a record !!!

[Calgaryglenn]

It’s not a tractor, but it’s more than worth mentioning.

I just had a 2020 almost brand new whirlpool fridge ice maker go bad…no more whirlpools ever again.

During my rant, l just learned that my 94 yr old uncle has a wedding gift that is still working. It’s a 72 yr old Sears & Roebuck Coldspot freezer that is still cranking out the cold temps. Can you believe it??? I’ve enclosed the ser & model #’s so you can look up the dates. It’s been plugged in the whole time, minus 3 move times…what a beast !!!

Hey brother i get what you are saying. We retired in 2016 and bought top end Kitchen Aid (fridge, stove microwave and dish washer) thinking that at our age spend the $$ on upgrades and they will last until we can't live there anymore. The only thing that has not had multiple repairs is the dishwasher. It's reached the point to where if they fail again I'm not sure IF IT'S WORTH TO CONTINUE TO REPAIR JUNK.

And to make this worse. I complained to the Kitchen Aid help line and they offered to sell me new replacements at 50% off retail as a "customer service". Well 50% off retail was higher price than Home Depot's everyday price!

I told them if you're gonna screw me like that at least buy me a drink before you do it.

 

[Surshot]

Built a new house, put in all new appliances. Just incredible….most companies no longer have any QC staff at all, cheaper to just ship. I have Kitchen Aid,,made by Whirlpool, made by…..etc., etc.
Dishwasher never washed a dish, stove did not work, needed a magic carpet. Turn on right rear stove burner, to start oven. Ice maker, in the freezer, went south, in six months, got a new unit, it does not make ice either.
Warranty repair guy shows up, after 6 months, throws smart phone on counter, waits a minute, looks at it and says, bad board. Pulls unit, throws it to the back of his truck, puts in new unit, what are you going to do with that brand new unit, take it to the dump, drives off.
If I made this garbage I would be embarrassed to admit it. Oh, guy at appliance store said, do mot expect this stuff to last like you old stuff, you mean 20 years, no not even 10.

 

[DieselBound]

Spacing out what my fridge manufacturer is/was, but... It's about 11 years old now, and, knock on wood, is still working. I encountered a problem with it that was due to an "energy saver" function. The problem resulted in wasted food, wasted time (shutting down, defrosting and then starting up again [getting to temp]). I found a tip from a seasoned repair guy that he'd disable this "feature" (via programming) and would NEVER again get a repair call for that unit. I get it that it's a noble idea to converse energy and all, but unless something is well-vetted/tested the true costs of such "features" that I experienced can be net-negative.

Reminds me, I've got a bearing and seal to replace in my old Maytag front-load washer (28 years old?): it had several issues when new, but revamped parts turned it into a long-lasting and trouble-free washer. People claim that these are well-worth doing such simple (well, it's a bit of work) repairs because these units are far superior to the new stuff.

Had a new dryer stop heating (it's propane). Tore it apart and tested everything and found nothing wrong! Put it back together and it worked (and continues to)! I think there was some issue with a sensor and dryer sheets (softener sheets) filming over the sensors and thus causing the dryer to not heat.

Sadly, we've forced engineers to add a lot of stuff that creates piles of crap. All the bells and whistles add complexities that end up defeating the actual functioning/purpose of a thing!

Now, many "old" things that we think of as the best wouldn't exist if people hadn't thought to improve on things/solutions. But marketing and the ever-increasing need to push sales (it's a growth world!) means that bells and whistles need to be added in order to dazzle buyers. And while people might not eve buy from the same manufacturer again (risk it with another one and then find the same thing!) the manufacturer has sold enough to make the payoff to its shareholders.

I've got an old diesel generator (circa 1994). The voltage regulation circuitry started failing. Capacitor issue: all capacitors eventually die. A replacement VR (and I'm thinking it might have been a used one, maybe reworked? [though the capacitors are embedded in some sort of epoxy]) was something like $700. Found a tip on a new modern circuit board that was known to work. Installed and it's rock steady now and ought to outlast the original. Oh, and it was from China: like $20 each; I bought two (folks said to buy two just in case you got a bad one- well, the first and only one I bothered to install was good; I may never find out if the second one is any good, and that would be just fine with me!).

Note: I'm pretty sure that most are aware of this, but when it comes to things like refrigerators it's essential that one makes a habit of cleaning the cooling fins.

 

[DieselBound]

Almost 20 years ago I bought a small chest freezer (I have it still, but, again, I don't recall the manufacturer). The lid was literally sucking water into it. Water was condensing inside it. The appliance store I bought it from (the repair side folks) told me they'd never heard of such a problem before. Rather than shell out for replacement fiberglass insulation I went to the local big box hardware store and bought Styrofoam board and put in in the lid. Never felt confident in the fridge in which case it's not been used other than as a refrigerator when called for duty: I use an external temperature controller; I use one to convert a small[er] chest freezer for our egg chiller/refrigerator (got the freezer used and it's been in operation w/o issue for years- freezers converted to refrigerators are a good way to go, especially chest freezers [very energy efficient]).

 

[Jstpssng]

Note: I'm pretty sure that most are aware of this, but when it comes to things like refrigerators it's essential that one makes a habit of cleaning the cooling fins.

It was a heck of a lot easier when they were in the back, rather than down on the floor.

 

[DieselBound]

It was a heck of a lot easier when they were in the back, rather than down on the floor.

Yes! It's almost impossible to get under the fins to clean them. I ended up blowing them "clean" (hard to tell full effectiveness), and, of course, this becomes a bit messy. One can rest assured that the shareholders who made off with all the gains from crappy products have enough money to pay someone else to do all these sorts of things...

 

[Mart5130]

It’s not a tractor, but it’s more than worth mentioning.

I just had a 2020 almost brand new whirlpool fridge ice maker go bad…no more whirlpools ever again.

During my rant, l just learned that my 94 yr old uncle has a wedding gift that is still working. It’s a 72 yr old Sears & Roebuck Coldspot freezer that is still cranking out the cold temps. Can you believe it??? I’ve enclosed the ser & model #’s so you can look up the dates. It’s been plugged in the whole time, minus 3 move times…what a beast !!!

Our less than 1 year old Samsung had ice maker go out too. Junk!

 

[fishdrivel]

Sadly the better products on the market today are made by Samsung or LG out of Korea, but there is all the pricing....

Samsung and LG are now, suddenly the worst on the market.
They also have terrible or non-existent customer service.

 

[DieselBound]

I won't use an ice-maker: did not bother to plumb for one in my current place; another place for water leaks to sprout from. Ripped out the one in my current fridge; frees up space to! Of course, being in a mild climate means I don't have a big demand for ice cubes...

Regarding "brands," I've NEVER been a "brands guy." Things change. And product lines within a manufacturer's offerings can vary quite a bit. In today's Internet age we're fortunate in being able to get better feedback on product performance: with cutting edge stuff you don't have the data yet and, well, one can expect to get cut.

 

[Jstpssng]

If I wanted an icemaker it wouldn't be tied in with the refrigerator. That's just one more thing to go wrong. Rather, I would buy a free standing unit which I only get out when needed.