Crap-Ola-Ville

[don]

Appliance Anxiety: Replace It or Fix It?

APPLIANCES — big, sturdy labor savers — seem like they should last forever. But according to data from Consumer Reports, at least a fifth of gas ranges, dishwashers and washing machines sold between 2003 and 2006 broke within three years. And pity the purchasers of side-by-side refrigerators with ice machines and dispensers: after three years, 37 percent of them needed service.

With 20.96 million major appliances shipped to retailers in the United States in just the first four months of this year, that’s a lot of broken products in America’s future.

Hey, I'm thinkin', it's an overproduction thang

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/28/ga...tml?ref=garden

[flintlock]

Re: Crap-Ola-Ville

I hear this from my customers all the time. These fancy new appliances aren't made like they used to be.

[Jay]

Re: Crap-Ola-Ville

Planned obsolescence; an art that has been honed for years in this upside down world. Sheeple, you must buy more and more, forever!

[BadJuju]

Re: Crap-Ola-Ville

Which is why I am trying to reduce my dependence on appliances.

[flintlock]

Re: Crap-Ola-Ville

I love my convection range. All the bells and whistles.

I've replaced the dishwasher and microwave already in my six year old home! And the fridge is a POS (Fridgidaire, don't buy!!!!)

[plinko]

Re: Crap-Ola-Ville

This backs up my own experiences over the years. Some friends of mine went through a $400 dollar microwave with some fancy sensors that broke within a year and a half, then got a very expensive fridge (luckily not with a side ice dispenser) that's made some awkward compression noises since the purchase. I have a $30 microwave that I loaned to them for a while, has worked flawlessly for over 6 years.

I still can't get over how people chew through cellular phones every year or two, but those take much more abuse than a large appliance in my opinion.

[BadJuju]

Re: Crap-Ola-Ville

We are still using a microwave that is nearly 20-years-old. I am sure that if we purchased a new one, it would malfunction within a few years, if that.

[aaron]

Re: Crap-Ola-Ville

I have had the same experience... and my house came with the fancy Viking crap. The microwave looks shot (it seems to work, but there is a hole where the radiation-thing is). The stove door never closed tightly, so I've "bent" that into shape. The range freaks out sometimes and all the burners try to light... And the freezer ice falls on the floor because it clogs up internally. I never really thought about it in total. The appliances ALL have something wrong (only 2 years old).

It is OK though. All the appliances were included in the mortgage I am no longer paying.

[ASH]

Re: Crap-Ola-Ville

Appliance Anxiety: Replace It or Fix It?

APPLIANCES — big, sturdy labor savers — seem like they should last forever. But according to data from Consumer Reports, at least a fifth of gas ranges, dishwashers and washing machines sold between 2003 and 2006 broke within three years. And pity the purchasers of side-by-side refrigerators with ice machines and dispensers: after three years, 37 percent of them needed service.

The flip side of this is that I have had good luck with the reliability of appliances that Consumer Reports recommends. There is a point to data-driven shopping.

[KGW]

Re: Crap-Ola-Ville

My mother bought a nice, big, side by side with icemaker: expensive. She woke up one morning and the display over the ice/water dispenser was fubar, as was the temperature. . . It was going to take 4 days for the service (just out of warranty, of course) people to arrive. I googled the symptoms and the make of reefer, and found out she was not alone. Over $400 service call.

The good thing was some fellow had taken the time to figure out all it was was 2 bad capacitors on the logic board at the rear panel. Had a color pdf file on how to replace them! So I went to radio shack, got the capacitors, removed the logic board, and replaced the bad with the good. Told my mother to call the service people and cancel the $400 service call. Cost me maybe $3 for the capacitors.

[jimmygu3]

Re: Crap-Ola-Ville

Planned obsolescence; an art that has been honed for years in this upside down world. Sheeple, you must buy more and more, forever!

My top-of-th-line GE 'micro-hood' quit working after a little over a year. Found out online that the magnetron (which has a 10 year warranty) goes bad on these things consistently. GE refused to send me any parts unless I paid $75 for a tech to come out and diagnose it, then $75 to come out again later to fix it, plus any additional parts. Most people online said it ends up being about a $250 endeavour to get a "warranteed" part replaced on a $400 microwave. Some had the part break again 6 months later only to opt for a new unit instead.

Fortunately, I called independent repair people until I found one who would diagnose it over the phone, fax me a part number to request from GE, and only charge for the installation. I think I paid $125 and (knock on wood) it's been working for 3+ years.

I decided to "vote with my dollars" and choose other manufacturers in the future. Problem is, all the major brands are owned by a couple of conglomerates. They're all the same!

Meanwhile, my parents' first microwave from 1979 still works.

Jimmy

[ThePythonicCow]

Re: Crap-Ola-Ville

Appliance Anxiety: Replace It or Fix It?

APPLIANCES — big, sturdy labor savers — seem like they should last forever. But according to data from Consumer Reports, at least a fifth of gas ranges, dishwashers and washing machines sold between 2003 and 2006 broke within three years.

Those of us who have worked as engineers designing stuff have seen the reason for this.

Most of the old stuff either died already (beware survivors bias here) or if it's still working well, was probably designed by some engineers encouraged to "make it solid" and managed by some old time former engineers who expected quality work. Design and manufacturing were done in nearby locations, by people who knew each other.

The bulk of the new appliances is coming from a few large companies, sharing an even smaller number of overseas manufacturing plants, run by accountants and financial wizards, with the engineer doing the designing several layers down the corporate org chart. Look what happened to GE, a once proud maker of some fine appliances. It is now dominated by its FIRE financing units.

A bunch of fancy new gadgets have been added to what were basic appliances, in order to compete in the McMansion superfueled residential market in places like the United States. Volume shipment at lowest cost and tighest schedule of the newest marketing geewhiz doodad became the main objectives.

That's no way to run a railroad :rolleyes:.

[Jay]

Re: Crap-Ola-Ville

We rent from a builder who couldn't sell a house he took down to the studs and rebuilt. The entire kitchen is new in late '06. The ice maker creates a block of rigid ice in the freezer and the faceplate of the dishwasher is coming unglued. The microwave and stove are still working well. They are all mid/upper range units. I feel a bit bad that when we move out our reluctant landlord likely will have a kitchen full of partly working appliances in his "new" home. Or maybe it will be the bank at that point, in which case I won't feel so bad.

[FrankL]

Re: Crap-Ola-Ville

I've noticed the same kind of things going on here in Europe with quality of appliances. One used to be able to buy German stuff that would last literally for decades, these days it's mostly Chinese branded stuff or Western brands made in China.
And the build quality shows... often important structural elements are made of plastic of sheets of metal so thin that they flex/bend if you touch them (they're cheap for a reason!).

My girlfriend has one of those Chinese branded microwaves (HE) and it sometimes crashes! As in, it sometimes beeps and shows an error-code requiring a manual power cycle (dis-/re-connect power plug). Think about it... a crashing microwave, how ludicrous is that? Further more, it is really bad at the tasks it is designed for (grill/microwave).

I'm taking pride in carefully selecting appliances for build quality, and often I buy second hand stuff when I know that it is better build than the newly sold stuff from the shops.
e.g. I've now bought 2 different second hand IBM thinkpads over the past half year, as they are reasonably low in price and contain a type of flat panel display (called IPS, 'flexview' in IBM terms) which is superior to nearly anything available on the market these days. After Lenovo took over the thinkpad line, they discontinued these panels unfortunately. And if anyting breaks down in the Thinkpad, the service manual is available from the web and all the spare parts are on ebay

Also bought a second hand Sony Trinitron CRT TV for my parents last week, which should last another 10-15 years at least.

The advantage for non-brainwashed consumers living in a consumption-economy is that 99% of all people throw out their perfectly fine old stuff after just a couple of years to replace it with 'modern' cheap rubbish, and you can buy the decent build leftover for a small amount of money.

[kingcopper]

Re: Crap-Ola-Ville

I've got a ton of appliances in my apartments and have another explanation.

Manufacturers are using sh*t to get an energy* rating. For instance, on new fridges the fan blades are cheap plastic and require smaller motors. The units are now made entirely of plastic with insulation being used for rigidity. The caster wheels are plastic as are the mounts and the wiring is now 18ga. The compressors are tiny and they get hot fast because of the cheap plastic blades and miny mouse motors. The copper linesets are either too thin or made out of other inefficient materials.

I could go on about all the new fandago sensors that supposedly create efficiency but I think ya'll get the point. The only $ savings comes from the repair centers getting more calls!