Let's talk appliances (fridge, oven, dishwasher...)

@cinoclav I agree with the brands, but I think you could get it for under $3k especially with 4th o’ July sales. Depends on how fancy you want to go.
Try Lowes. That’s probably where we’ll buy ours after we close on the house. I think it was Samsung that was suppose to have a “fingerprint resistant” stainless finish… I didn’t really put it to the test though.
Like Keurig coffee things? Well, they have fridges with those built-in now. Makes sense since it already has water connected to it. Free up a spot on your counter that way.

Edit: Oh, didn’t see the dual fuel requirement. You might be hosed for the $3k.

@cinoclav I posted a few links below to a set that would come with the home if I didn’t upgrade at all. Any thoughts on that set? I’d have ~$1700 (plus some if needed) to buy a fridge on top of that. I don’t need fancy french doors, but would like freezer on bottom.

@medz We’re not a coffee drinking home, so no need for the super fancy fridges.

Any idea if Lowes or somewhere would hold appliances when I buy them at the 4th o’ July sale until I’m ready to install them in early August?

@luvche21 yes, Lowe’s would hold them. If you are buying LG or Samsung, you will probably be waiting 3-4 weeks for them anyway because they can’t make those appliances fast enough to keep up with demand. Highly recommend getting the warranty on them as well, because parts are expensive if something breaks.

@RiotDemon More than that - will parts even be available?! LG is pretty bad when it comes to parts being manufactured/available several years down the line.

@luvche21 we have a fancy french door fridge…I think it is a samsung, we got it as a closeout at home depot and paid for it with gift cards from the pointson amex…it has a fridge drawer and freezer on the bottom… I know you said you did not need the fancy doors, but it helps with kids…the typically only open one door at a time. It makes me feel like it is saving energy that way. We also put all of the kids stuff in the fridge drawer, like veggies and their lunch food. They knew they could help themselves to anything in that drawer. The only thing that didn’t fit was milk and with water in the door, the kids drink it like it is going out of style.

Stainless…oy…I like the idea about the wax. I have a 13 year old Kenmore elite dual oven, with gas top…LOVE IT…except for the fingerprints.

I think our dishwasher is a ge…we hemmed and hawed and went with this one…infinitely better than the kenmore elite we had before. So, I guess I am saying some brands are better at some appliance and not others…

The grime boss wipes cut through everything and don’t seem to ruin the surfaces, but streak something awful…

@mikibell Ooh, lots of excellent tips here, thanks!

Interesting info about the fancy drawered fridge, now it sounds useful!

@cinoclav agree with Samsung. We have a fridge, dishwasher and microwave from them and are happy. We bought from best buy and opened up a credit card that allowed us to finance it, interest free, for 18 months. Paid it in 16 and closed it afterwards…

@cinoclav Agree with Samsung, but I would steer clear of LG appliances. We bought a top-of-the-line LG 5 years ago and it brought nothing but regret.
The stainless steel was paper thin and has numerous dents from being touched; the plastic parts are flimsy and apparently not “cold-resistant” as half of them have broken; replacing door gaskets became an annual ritual; the computer failed and cost almost as much to replace as a new unit.
One of my biggest purchase regrets of all time.
PS: LG’s Customer Service was even worse: Would not even reply to written snail-mail letters of “compliment.” Never again.

@luvche21 With the fancy drawer fridge - my friend has one of those. The drawer isn’t all that deep but useful for things you can’t stack very easily. Look at Consumer Reports for appliance review. Over the years I have found I generally don’t go wrong if I look at their top choices. Has helped me avoid some dogs. If you log into your library you can access it that way in databases.

@medz dedicated ice machine might be a better fit: http://m.ebay.com/itm/Built-In-or-Portable-Ice-Maker-Machine-w-Reversible-Stainless-Steel-Door-/221495352947

You can even get the kind that makes Sonic ice (the crushed pellet style) if you want.

@djslack Awesome. Sonic does make some nice ice. I’ll check 'em out and see if I can get one that’s stackable or at least a small fridge that could handle the weight on top.
Probably cheaper too, since it seems an ice maker drastically increases the fridge price, anyway.

@medz Compact with a built-in icemaker? A quick search on ajmadison.com yielded 8 results, and the cheapest is $1,519.

Buy a stand-alone ice maker + mini fridge instead!

@narfcake Yup. I think that’s the best route. Might have to get creative with the placement, but more bang for my buck for sure. Thanks!

@medz I think you’ll be best served looking at appliance suppliers for trailers/motorhomes, those tend to be smaller than the usual fare you’ll find at Lowes / Best Buy / etc.

@medz @jbartus Except RV ones tend to be 12 volt.

@Kidsandliz yeah but that’s usually an option type thing, they’re made for trailer homes running off the city grid and such too.

@medz Don’t know anything about no bar fridge, but I have one of those compact Emerson ice-cube makers & I’ve been pretty pleased with it

@jbartus House trailers might have something different although most of the ones I have been in have full size appliances, but nearly every RV I have been in have 12 volt ones since those systems tend to be 12 volt when running off of the battery and then when you plug into shore power (or generator) you have a converter (whatever they are called) to deal with the house power to 12 volt power. Actually many of the RV fridges (and many boats for that matter) are 3 way (often Dometic brand) - propane, 12 volt and regular electricity - but those cost an arm and a leg and then some compared to straight regular electricity ones.

@Kidsandliz I do mean house trailers yes. I didn’t mean it’s optional to have 12v an RV, I meant it’s an option on the appliance.

@medz Right now the woot-off has a refurbished Emerson portable ice maker up for $69.99. Don’t know how long it will last or whether it’s a good product or deal.

@msklzannie Thanks. Saw that. I don’t think it has a water hookup, so I’d have to refill it all the time. Plus there are complaints of mold. Pass! Thanks for thinking of me.

@medz I have this model (not from woot!)
It does not have water hookup; I fill it when I want to make cubes (usually to fill up a cooler) and it’s making ice within a few minutes.
It does not get moldy unless you leave water in the machine and turn off the power for a REALLY long time (don’t ask me how I know).

@narfcake Not important to stick with one brand, whatever works and is best. If you can’t tell, this is my first time buying appliances

I figured sticking to one brand would be cheaper so that I could get a discount for buying the whole ensemble at Lowes or similar.

@luvche21 The discounts aren’t by package, they discount individual pieces, so you won’t necessarily save more by buying a package. However, if buying stainless steel, especially the non fingerprint type, you might consider getting all the same brand because the color looks different brand to brand.

@RiotDemon Have you tried out the non-fingerprint type and do they actually work? I’m really worried about that… once the kitchen is done, it will look awesome, so I’d like to go stainless if possible.

@narfcake Plus, the little that I’ve heard of Frigidaire has been negative. Is it worth putting in extra to go with a better brand?

@luvche21 I have two different brands of stainless in my kitchen, and they’re both annoying when it comes to fingerprints.

I do not have any of the non fingerprint ones… But let’s just say, I look at them almost every day, and it’s a huge difference compared to the regular stainless.

To me, the nicest looking appliances are the black stainless that Samsung is making… But you have to be careful not to scratch them.

@luvche21 That range is all gas. Is the kitchen layout a free-standing range or a separate cooktop / oven setup?

@narfcake Free standing range.

Yeah, I thought that was all gas, but I thought my builder said it was a gas cooktop, but the oven part was electric. Hm, maybe my memory is fuzzy on that one. I’ll definitely look into that before buying…

@luvche21 Electronic control, perhaps, but not electric in the sense that it’s electric heating elements, aka dual-fuel.

@luvche21 FWIW, these 3 appliances at Lowes, inclusive of current discounts, is showing up as $1328 + tax here in SoCal. A little reading and overall, they’re good models with a few better-than-basic features and aren’t a whole lot of price-padding fluff.

If there’s one thing you can ask, it’s whether you can upgrade the range to the WFG530S0ES with convection fan for another $100.

As for the fridge … are you near an Ikea? $1500 for this french-door - no through-the-door dispenser, but they are backed with a 5-year warranty that’s serviced through Whirlpool.

The other option - how close are you to a Sears Outlet? They do run sales from time to time, like the current 50% off on french door/bottom freezer. You will have to go in person to check it out, but it could be a great budget option too, especially if the damage is on the side or on the back where it won’t be visible after installation.

@narfcake I’ll look into that upgrade for the oven, we would love convection if possible.

Not close at all to a Sears Outlet, but that would have been awesome!

That Ikea one looks awesome, but I’ve never heard of NUTID before. Also, it’s been a life dream of mine to have a fridge with and in the door ice machine

@luvche21 NUTID is just the model series name, kind of like EFFECTIV or KLIPPAN or any of the other ÖDD-NÄMËS-WÏTH-LÖTS-ÖF-ÜMLÄÜTS.

@luvche21 I’ve been happy with my new Whirlpool french-door fridge & dishwasher; purchasing them @ Sears Outlet (just a few minutes away) saved hundreds of $$.
Know a few families (including my brother) who were not very satisfied with their LG appliance purchases - variety of reasons

@compunaut I don’t have a Sears Outlet close by, but they can still ship it to me at a decent price. They also show 1 low quality picture online - would you recommend buying anything from there without first seeing it in person?

@luvche21 oh…I bought my washer from a sears outlet…I knew it was a scratch/dent, but they were awesome about it. I had the advantage of having 3 in a close area, so I shopped all the different locations, printed out the ads from the further away stores and the closest store price matched +reduced 10% more. I would think, imho, you could buy online with confidence…however, if you are very concerned about the appearance, I would suggest not. The outlet stores are typically returned/damages items. I didn’t care about the washer…it was going in a closet and a dent in the back of a fridge is probably not going to be visible (depending on your kitchen design)…

@luvche21 At our store, the “scratch & dent” units are mixed in at the showroom with all the others; we selected the EXACT item we would be getting. Prices vary unit-to-unit depending on model/features, how long they’ve been for sale, damage (if any), etc. Manager had some discretion on final price. All are covered by Sears as new for functionality, but if you’re looking for a pristine aesthetic might suggest you contact store mgr (suggest phone call) to discuss optional delivery refusal if you notice issues you didn’t expect

@luvche21 I recommend against buying scratch and dent stuff like they sell at Sears Outlet sight unseen. There’s so much that doesn’t show up on the pictures.

Regarding your ice-on-door desire, while it’s handy it’s also a pain in the ass, especially on poorly designed ones. We’ve owned three ice dispenser fridges in my family and I have extensive experience with a family friend’s.

The best one we’ve ever owned has a full depth ice hopper inside the freezer which takes up a lot of space such that the only part of the ice dispensing mechanism on the door is a chute and a flappy door to keep the cold air in when not dispensing ice. This one was great until the part that turned the screw mechanism to push the ice out the front broke. Part is gonna cost in excess of $100 so we’ve not bothered to fix it.

Our other fridges and the one the family friend has are the variety with the on-door ice hopper. These have a variety of issues with them. While it’s nice that it leaves you with more overall shelf space in the fridge the design restrictions mandated by containing the entire mechanism on the door have resulted in sacrifices with negative repercussions.

On ours the chute tends to get backed up with ice because it’s narrower and more prone to clogging which results in ice sitting in the chute which, despite the sealed door, does not keep the warmth out enough to prevent the ice melting in the chute. This ultimately results in puddles on our floor from the ice cubes melting and overflowing the drip tray. On our family friend’s fridge, their door insulates the fridge so badly that their ice literally melts in the hopper and freezes together rendering the door dispenser useless.

To be honest, I find that these issues are enough of a hassle that I don’t even use the mechanism anymore, instead I simply open the door and scoop out ice by hand into whatever container I need it in. While the features are nice, the new designs are pretty dismal and the older designs are expensive to repair. YMMV but I personally am planning to push for a french door fridge with drawer freezer as our next purchase. The benefits of having a massive drawer instead of tiny shelves are the same as having a chest freezer. You can just pile stuff in until it’s full, far less hassle to put stuff into and make fit.

If you do opt for an on-door dispenser, try to find one with the full-depth ice hopper that takes the place of your top shelf space. I do believe there are varieties of french door fridge with the ice dispenser as well, but I’m unsure where they store their ice, they might be better than the on-door varieties if they store it in a special compartment and keep it away from the door’s dispenser mechanism.

As far as appliance brands, I definitely recommend you look at Bosch for your dishwasher. The domestic manufacturers are just now getting into the more energy efficient designs that don’t blast the dishes with high heat to dry them but they’re not nearly as efficient as the european designs yet.

As far as Stainless Steel goes, if you think you might possibly resell the house any time in the near future go for the stainless. It’s more work to keep up but worth it for resale value and if you have a BJ’s Wholesale or Costco near you you can get packs of the spray cans of stainless steel cleaner/polish cheap.

@luvche21 Perhaps the appliances sold online are in the best condition to help the stores avoid customers unhappy with their purchase - it’s got to be difficult to adequately describe scratch/dent damage. I would not buy “as-is” or “no return” items, but I don’t think Sears Outlet sells anything that way

@luvche21 @jbartus Our Whirlpool fridge (bought @ local Sears Outlet) is french-door with bottom freezer. No in-door dispenser at all. Not even an automatic ice maker (water line connection not economical in our vintage house). I believe this arrangement is best for reliability & convenience

@jbartus I liked your analysis of fridge ice dispensers, but
/image long-winded

@jbartus every realtor show I’ve watched said stainless does not up the value, matching appliances does. So same color and brand.
YMMV

@RiotDemon usually shows like that are talking bang for your buck. IE having matched brands is more important than finish. Naturally these things vary by consumer so YMMV on all counts. Stainless is ‘in’ right now though so…

@RiotDemon Stainless doesn’t increase the value because it’s expected. Here in SoCal, non-stainless appliances diminish the value by a couple grand.

@luvche21 Another vote on not buying sight unseen. When my folks bought their fridge from Sears Outlet, the damages varied from unnoticable to “looks like it got hit by truck”.

Their “if you look really really closely, you’ll see the ding next to the upper hinge” was the same $649.99 as the one which had two big dents in the front, roughly shaped like the ends of a forklift fork. There were several in between, but still priced the same.

@luvche21 FWIW, the $1500 Ikea fridge has no brand markings on the exterior and is still made (assembled) in the USA.

http://m.imgur.com/7vZqX6H,niRamho,SRKEvq0,ecasKE7

@narfcake Cool, never thought of that.

@jbartus ah man, you’re ruining my dreams of having an ice dispenser in the door!

Actually though, that’s great to hear, and you might be changing my mind. I’m really not up for huge upkeep costs in the future. We were house sitting right before this, and the fridge had similar issues to what you were talking about.

@luvche21 sorry, I just believe in ensuring people are well-informed consumers.

@narfcake

As for the fridge … are you near an Ikea? $1500 for this french-door - no through-the-door dispenser, but they are backed with a 5-year warranty that’s serviced through Whirlpool.

It’s serviced by Whirlpool because I believe it is a Whirlpool fridge. I’d look for the corresponding Whirlpool model to check the price difference, if any. It appears you’re buying a longer warranty if thru IKEA. Compare the $ difference to other 5-year extended warranty prices to compare apples to apples.

@RedOak @luvche21 They are. My fridge is one from Ikea back when it was labeled “Ikea by Whirlpool”; it was an unpowered floor sample I bought for $400 back about 10 years ago to replace a 4-year old GE which shat it’s controller board and wasn’t worth the $250 in parts alone because it’s a GE.

The similar Whirlpool model is a WRF535SWBM. It goes for $1620-$1800 with a one year warranty.

@narfcake Surprising Whirlpool would enable such a transaction price gap. I don’t know what the IKEA 5-year warranty includes, but I believe the Whirlpool warranty is 5-year on the sealed components.

@RedOak Different model, different brand? Fuck you, minimum pricing!

As for coverage:
http://www.ikea.com/ms/en_US/customer_service/warranty.html
http://www.ikea.com/ms/en_US/pdf/warranty_2015/APPLIANCES_guar_NA.pdf

@luvche21 if your lowes or other appliance stores are anything like ours you will have to wait anyway since they keep very little stock and many of the items had to be sent to the store. We have a new LG stove and love it. We had to wait 3 weeks from sears (that we hate), but home depot and lowes was showing nothing available for the stove we wanted.

@luvche21 If you buy and want to pick it up at the store yourself, Lowes says they want you to do that within 4 days of the purchase. Like mfladd said, however, I don’t see why they’d have a problem with you buying and scheduling the free delivery for August because they’ll be pretty busy after the sale. Might have to call the local store since they’ll be the ones delivering and they’d have to make sure they have it for August and/or a spot to keep it until then.

@medz I’ll check with them and see what they can do, thanks!

@OldCatLady Ooh, great idea! Just use any old sponge to get the prints off? I assume wet with water?

Yes, definitely hard water in the area here, so that borax will be helpful.

Thanks!

@luvche21 I can’t speak to this specific cleaning task, but as an artist I’ve worked with a lot of different sponges and my analysis has been, you usually get what you pay for. I’d recommend at least a cellulose sponge.

More…

The advice above about checking out stores that service folks building homes can lead to decent package deals. But their extended warranty pricing might not be great.

I’d avoid floor model fridges since they might have a year or more wear and tear on their systems.

We prefer best in class (within reason) by appliance even if different brand. Requires a lot of research tho. For example, Bosch dishwasher or LG washing machine (a lot of Sears stuff is LG, I believe).

For energy efficiency consider a solid large counter top oven like the large Breville (800). Williams & Sonoma is clearing the current model out for $200, a great price. We rarely use our full size oven since.

Have a whole house surge protector installed. A solid builder will do this anyway.

A lot if not most appliances have electronic control boards.

It won’t necessarily protect all your stuff from within home surges but it might save you from something outside the home.

We still use additional free standing surge protectors on expensive electronics.

@Shawn - weird formatting issue. My numbered post above was created on a phone and displayed fine there. And it looks fine on Chrome. However, on Firefox, there is an extra line feed/new paragraph after each of the numbers (1., 2., …)

@RedOak So, I’ve definitely been talked out of fancy features, and maybe even my dream of an in door water/ice dispenser. But all makes sense.

I’ve definitely heard horror stories of Kitchen Aid - is Whirlpool really going to be just as bad?

I’m not familiar with best in class - can you elaborate a little?

Thanks for all the tips!

@luvche21 The #3 item applies. It’s the fancy features that add to the problems. Whirlpool is more basic and less likely to break.

It’s akin to cars - the odds that an electronic sensor equipped adjustable suspension will have issues is much greater than that “low tech” shock and spring.

@luvche21 KitchenAid, being owned by Whirlpool, has the same guts. They share much and in some cases all of the basic functional engineering. Think Buick vs. Chevy. Shared drivetrains.

In the context of appliances, yes more features can mean less reliable. But in this case, the areas we had problems with were not simply “fancy features” - they were core functionality - the things that tend to be shared across brands within the same corporate family. We will avoid Whirlpool just like we avoid KitchenAid.

Of course our experience was over the past 7-10 years. Our last remaining KitchenAid appliance is on its last legs.

@luvche21 As for **“best in class” - all it means is, we no longer buy matching brand appliances. It takes a bit of research, but we attempt to find the specific appliance that seems to do its function best (still at a reasonable price), regardless of brand.

So, for example, in our case we selected a Bosch dishwasher with 100% stainless steel tub. It is extremely quiet, washes dishes well, is easy to load and flexible, and so far, durable. For washing machine and dryer, LG - when we bought, the domestic brands were still new to front loaders. And we stacked them to save floor space.

None of our appliance brands match. Sometimes the stainless finish isn’t a perfect match, but we no longer compromise functionality for the sake of matching brands/finishes.

No brand is bullet proof. Even expensive Sub-zero fridges break. It is a bit of a crap-shoot no matter what you do. GE tried making simpler appliances with longer warranties at a slightly higher price - unfortunately they didn’t sell.

@LaVikinga yes! I’ll second this advice. Fix stuff yourself all over your house. In the appliance category for parts and even diagnostics, we’ve been using these guys since they started many many years ago: http://www.repairclinic.com.

My dad taught me fearlessness in tearing down stuff by bringing home complex broken machines to disassemble. Doing the same thing with our son. Safety Lesson 1: discharge all large capacitors by touching an insulated screwdriver across their terminals.

Google and YouTube are your fix it friends if you don’t already know how.

Fresh example in our home: we were close or replacing our $3,000 central A/C when it failed (20+ years old). A $25 capacitor fixed it.

@RedOak My Dad is a fix-it-yourself guy, too, and gave me an earlier version of this book for Christmas a few years ago. It’s proved invaluable. Make sure to get a “lay-flat” version of these kinds of books if you can find them. SO worth it.
Silly me thought ALL men were handy with home repairs and car engines. Found out after I married that wasn’t quite the case. I’ve had to flat out refuse to have a plumber to my house to replace a simple 99 cent wax seal on a toilet. "You lift, honey, I’ll pop it into place and then guide it back down."
Fix-ItManual

@LaVikinga hah! Plumbing = Electricity. They work pretty much the same way.

Think of your toilet’s wax seal just like having to replace a lamp switch that is shorting out (leaking) against that brass colored housing.

@RedOak I draw the line right past rewiring a lamp. Electricity is Black Fucking Magic as far as I’m concerned. If it involves messing with the wiring that’s connected to something, I nope right on out of there.

@LaVikinga That is certainly sound reasoning - if you’re uncomfortable due to safety issues - stay away! I’ve been messing around with wiring since my very early years. (Nothing has burned down yet!)

@LaVikinga electricity as pertains to lamps and the like is mostly a match the colors exercise.

@jbartus Yeah, and usually not plugged into the wall! Zzzzzpt!!!

@LaVikinga @RedOak @jbartus I’ve saved all of your links for future use, but any recommendations on where to start to learn the basics for plumbing and electric stuff? I’ve got some of the basics down, but I feel like I don’t know all that much. I’ve done things like repairing sprinkler line, installing a car stereo, general landscaping, bike repairs, etc but nothing too complicated beyond that.

@luvche21 for plumbing are you dealing with PVC or copper pipe?

I don’t personally have links for electrical but this stuff looks decent: http://www.dummies.com/how-to/home-garden/home-improvement/interiors/electrical-lighting.html

@luvche21 you can google stuff, or take time talking to someone experienced at home depot, they generally love sharing their knowledge, but you have to be able to figure out if they know what they are talking about

@luvche21 Learning Plumbing and Electricity… Google and a healthy dose of curiosity are your friends. As is Youtube. Amazing expertise out there for anything you can imagine. Sometimes the source is a professional who has documented their knowledge, while other times it is a layperson who learned the hard way and shared those lessons.

If the thing is complex or potentially dangerous and you still want to tackle it, use several sources online prior to jumping in so you’ve achieved consensus.

I learned this stuff before the Internet - by reading, being an inquisitive pest anytime I run into an expert, and good old real world experience.

You might start by subscribing to Family Handyman. And for the next level up if you really enjoy home technology, the most amazing publication is Taunton’s Fine Homebuilding - they do an amazing job of straddling the line between homeowner and professional. Taunton Press publishes top notch books on every imaginable home construction/function imaginable. Go to your library or local book store (assuming one has survived nearby!) where you should be able to sample the above.

@luvche21 Online fix it help is your friend.

Yesterday I just fixed one of the exploding toilets meh posted a recall about (mine was newer, no recall, I think they are retrofit low water volume pressure devices) using the contractor repair videos the company provides online. The three year old only partly pulled the handle down to flush. That screws it up so then it won’t flush, fill with water, etc. (that thing is a fucking PITA and if I were to ever buy one this would not be it - unless of course the others are worse) and dumping a ton of water down it (I live in HUD housing and the water is off fairly frequently so I have a 7 gallon container I keep full of water) didn’t make it completely flush like the old style toilets would do. Grrrr. Anyway I was able to figure out what to do to get it working again using the video. Good thing as it would have taken maintenance a long time to get around to doing it, not to mention they don’t work on the weekend.

My dad was not a fix it guy so I had to teach myself how to do this stuff. Over the years I have fixed a dishwasher that was leaking, made one working laptop out of two broken ones, my washer, various different kinds of water faucets, installed a car radio where the wires going out did not match the color of the wires coming in (somewhere along the line they were spliced), disassembled the dash to replace some bulbs that would have cost a fortune to replace (hmm the design plan behind that was to enrich car repair people?), camp stoves, and a couple of lamps. And the lawnmower. Like someone else I stay way from hard wired electricity unless I know beyond a shadow of a doubt it is off. Had a broken stuck light bulb arc and burn a black divot in my rubber handled pliers (was very lucky but that was the event that made me decide no more hard wired electricity). Oh yeah and while working on a tall ship learned how to fix, sometimes against my will, all sorts of things including marine toilets.

Being a repair person would not be on even my long list of things to do for a living. While if it is mechanical likely I can finally figure out how it works, those skills were painfully acquired. The odds are high you can do this too. And then if you post about your successes who knows what meh might send you. LOL I was the first choice of the meh fuku pallet of broken TV’s. Had I a place to put them I would have taken them too as likely I could have made at least one working one out of that pile. Likely posting about the 2 broken = 1 working laptop got me on that short list.

@pfarro1 I’m glad you tried all the cleaners for me - I’ll check that one out. Is this it?: https://www.amazon.com/Comet-Stainless-Steel-Cleaner-Polish/dp/B00H3R87HQ/ref=sr_1_2_a_it?ie=UTF8&qid=1466974226&sr=8-2&keywords=comet+stainless+cleaner

@pfarro1 And how annoying is it to clean fingerprints off of stainless? I’ve heard of a couple people with kids that hate their stainless appliances because of it…

That is the cleaner i use. Mine dont get too many fingerprints since its just me, but that cleaner seems to do the job really well. And its always a bit of a trade off…White or black appliances always have some sort of texture to them so gunk gets in the textured areas. Stainless is smooth so its easier to get Bbq sauce off of. Or chocolate. Or mac n cheese sauce. Or whatever the kids are dragging around with them these days.

@DMlivezey Regarding LG & Samsung, I’ve heard the same thing - that parts can be a challenge, even on new appliances. We’ve had an LG washer and dryer for about 7 years and have lots of friends with them - so far everyone seems to be pretty happy. But you do need to pay attention to the owner’s manual for how to operate them.

One veteran repair guy I talked with believed it was partially due to the relative newness of LG and Samsung in our market. That the domestic brands have decades of installations to build upon.

BTW, whilst Kenmore stuff used to be largely made by Whirlpool, I believe a lot of their stuff is now LG underneath.

I wish we had found a reliably solid brand - next time we’ll be looking closer at Bosch since our dishwasher has been great. Gotta figure out how to get those prices down a bit tho.

Interesting for the future: from what I’ve read the president of Haier (Chinese company) is really focused on quality and wants to get into the US market. It will be very interesting to see what they do with their new purchase: GE appliances.

@RedOak I have a Haier toaster. Meh

@RedOak I had a Haier portable A/C, it barely lasted two seasons of very intermittent use, then died and would have cost more to repair than replace. Ditto a neighbor’s Haier window air conditioner. GE is now Haier? Meh is right.

@pooflady @duodec Heh, reading the following, Haier does have a few “hair” balls in its past. Seems the GE acquisition was an attempt to buy credibility in the US. We’re feeding the monster with our Chinese product purchases since Haier is pretty much a Chinese Govt company. Had to get that $5 billion to buy GE Appliances somewhere.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haier

@jimmyd103 That’s exactly what I’m doing right now: shopped at RC Willey last night, and once I have a quote from them for a package that I want, I’ll take it to a local shop. Good to know about free delivery etc.

So you’re happy that you mixed and matched appliance brands?

@sassymango Not yet, but I do have a couple close by. I’ll check them out!