What is it with appliances these days?

[s219]

We just had a major problem with our dishwasher, that is only 1.5 years old, and this was one of the top-rated dishwashers on Consumer Reports. When shopping for appliances for our new house, I had come to the conclusion that online ratings and reviews are only some guidance, and it's really a roll of the dice. No matter how well rated, I was able to find bad reviews for almost every appliance we looked at. I am starting to understand why.

This Kenmore Elite dishwasher (made by Whirlpool/etc) is super quiet and has performed well, but Tuesday night, the pump motor fell off the bottom and began belching water all over the place before the dishwasher shut itself down. It only shut down because of a computer error code, triggered by water getting all over a circuit board, so in that sense we were lucky that the stupid thing sabotaged itself. Water ran down to the back of the cabinets, under the edge of the wood flooring, and slowly dripped into the crawl space through holes drilled for plumbing/electrical rough-in. Probably only 2-3 gallons of water, so we were lucky.

Upon googling, I found hundreds of posts from people who had the same problem with multiple brands associated with Whirlpool/Kenmore/Frigidaire/etc, some who experienced thousands of dollars in damage to their floors and cabinets. Turns out that during assembly, the manufacturer used a crimp-style hose clamp that was a little too big, so that over time the main pump hose would wiggle loose. The hose is also one of the supports for the pump motor, so that would cause the pump motor to FALL OFF THE BOTTOM OF THE DISHWASHER and spray water all over the place.

I was able to fix this by ordering a worm-screw style hose clamp with a narrow 5/16" band (all the hose clamps I had on hand and saw in stores were 1/2" band), which let me snug up the hose properly. It was amazing to see the old too-large clamp let the hose slide on and off the fitting like it wasn't even there. So it was basically a time bomb waiting to go off. Also used zip ties to add a second support to the pump motor and prevent it from putting all pressure on the hose. Finally, for some insurance, I bent up a drip pan with some galvanized sheet, and flashed all around it with window flashing membrane:



There is a bead of caulk under the front edge, and caulk near the front openings of the cabinets. If we ever have leaks in the future, this will at least keep water from running down behind the edge of the floor and walls, and will instead move a puddle out the front where we'll hopefully see it. At some point, I may drill a drain hole in that pan and run it down into our crawl space to a catch basin that the washing machine drip pan drains to. Could put a water sensor in that pain to be alerted to leaks.

 

[Moves]

I think this might answer your question:
We rebuilt our home after Hurricane Katrina and moved in 2007. All new everything. Since then, replaced GE Profile fridge; repaired Kenmore washer twice; GE stove shorts out everytime we go to auto-clean (after two repairs, we manually clean now); Fisher-Paykal dishwasher replaced; GE Profile stovetop cast iron gas grills cracked and autolight broke (we light it manually now); have gone thru 3 microwaves; and dont get me started on Obama's life changing CFL bulbs that are supposed to last 5x a normal bulb (and do NOT).

In case you are wondering, we do NOT have Chinese drywall issues.

In summary - "planned obsolescence". Makes me sad that is the approach American industry seems to have taken.

 

[kcflhrc]

Yep, throw away appliances these days. We bought Samsung for our kitchen based on reviews and brand. Dishwasher went out within a year, repaired under warranty, Frig makes all kinds of weird noises, noises not covered under warranty. Range and microwave have been problem free so far. We also bought GE Front loader washer and dryer, so far problem free.

 

[Gary Fowler]

Our Kenmore elite high end microwave burned up in 2 years. I replaced it with a same sized one but $99. I disassembled the old one and found that the connections to the high voltage transformed had melted.
I had an old counter top one in our previous home and it was 15 years old and still worked fine. I gave it to one of my daughters whose MW had crapped out. I guess it is still working

One burner on our Kenmore Pro stove top wouldn't work when new and they ordered a new element. Tech came to replace it and found that it was only a wire not hooked up so we ended up with a spare burner. Kind of shoddy QC inspection to not notice a wire dangling.

Sister in laws Whirlpool washer has had at least 3 repairs needed in 4 years of ownership.
They just don't make stuff like they used to.

 

[HEC]

We were talked into buying a more energy efficient frig. , what a bunch of crap that was . The old frig. was 22 years old and working fine . I later talked to a service rep. and he said if you get 10 years out of the new ones you will be lucky .We needed a new washer and was told most of them are crap compared to our 20 year old one that just went with zero problems up to the 20 plus year mark .The service rep . said he even buys the warranty plans now as he knows how much parts are and they just don't last anymore .

 

[sseelhoff]

We got 1 year out of a new Frigidaire Refrigerator. One year. Started freezing up inside, then shutting down.

 

[bcp]

But the old ones had less to go wrong.



Bruce

 

[NoTrespassing]

Too much tech. My old $300 washer lasted 15 years. Couldn't find one without the new electronics on it. I don't have much hope for it.

 

[sseelhoff]

I 've had the same dishwasher for 25 years. I thought about replacing her, but the alimony payments would kill me. /rimshot/

 

[k0ua]

Our Kenmore elite high end microwave burned up in 2 years. I replaced it with a same sized one but $99. I disassembled the old one and found that the connections to the high voltage transformed had melted.
I had an old counter top one in our previous home and it was 15 years old and still worked fine. I gave it to one of my daughters whose MW had crapped out. I guess it is still working

One burner on our Kenmore Pro stove top wouldn't work when new and they ordered a new element. Tech came to replace it and found that it was only a wire not hooked up so we ended up with a spare burner. Kind of shoddy QC inspection to not notice a wire dangling.

Sister in laws Whirlpool washer has had at least 3 repairs needed in 4 years of ownership.
They just don't make stuff like they used to.

Our old Wards 1.5 cu. ft microwave is still cooking. It is a 1992 model. It has an all electronic control panel with digital readout. All still works. About a year ago the live in Mother in Law (age 81) tried to set the time minder and instead turned the microwave on high with nothing in it and walked off. My wife came by several minutes later and found the microwave arcing like stick welder holding a 2 inch arc. . She said it was pretty hot inside. But any way it still works, but the Mother in Law incident took some of the "starch" out of the Magnetron, and the power of the old Microwave is not what it used to be. You just have to increase cooking times now to get the same results. I have thought about replacing it, and the prices on new ones are much less than what this microwave sold for when it was new, but I doubt any of the new ones are built as well and will last as long.