Modern appliances, grumble, grumble,

[Pilot]

We remodeled the kitchen 3 years ago and this evening an alarm went off on the 3 year old stove. The oven was overheating. Nothing on those electronic controls did anything. Shut off the circuit breaker and after 10 or 15 minutes with lots of very hot air coming out of the open door. I remembered I had one of those infra red thermometers that you point at a heat source and read the temp. 520 degrees after sitting awhile with the door open!

Last stove went 18 years with the only fault being the oven heating element dying. No fancy electronic controls and an easy homeowner repair.

About 6 or 7 years ago we bought a new refrigerator; the previous one was 25 years old, needed it's second repair and the "experts" (Consumer Reports among others) said a new one would save so much energy it would pay for itself in a few years. It died in about 5 years--bad compressor. Sales folks at several dealers said that in order to meet new energy standards manufacturers made the compressors smaller, but that made them run more. Maybe that's just a story they all repeated, but that's what they said. Also said not to expect more than about 8 years out of a new one. Gee, that's really saving the environment when you have to trash a machine after 8 years.

We still have a washer we bought in '78, a dryer we bought in about '88, and a dishwasher we bought in '92, all mechanical controls. I hope they chug along a long time--the parts guy said some parts for the dishwasher are no longer available (we thought it had broken, but it was our diagnosis that was the problem).

 

[tallyho8]

I just installed a new oven today after my 30 year old rusted out. My wife and I are reading the manual now and in about an hour I think we will be able to figure out how to turn it on.

Well, that's not as bad as my new TV. It took me about 3 hours to figure out all the controls on it.

 

[creekbend]

In regards to most products manufactured today, the newer products don't last as long as the products made in the past. We currently live in what some theorists call a "Throw Away Society".

 

[ultrarunner]

I redid my folks kitchen back in 1977 and all the appliances have been trouble free... oven, cooktop, micro, range hood, Dishwasher (All GE) and the Amana Refrigerator and Insinkerator Disposer...

She still has her Kenmore Dryer from 1968 and Washer from 1975 in Avocado Green.

Neighbors have been through many appliances in over the same time...

One bought a nearly $2000 pair washer and dryer about 5 years ago and had to replace them because the service calls were costing a fortune...

Keep it simple is my motto...

The ironic thing is many bought into the energy savings sales pitch and have regretted it because of reliability issues...

Still remember a co-worker was showing off her new LG appliances and I made a comment on how much better they sell since the changed the name from Goldstar... she was stunned...

The only good thing I can say about modern applicances is they are much easier on the back when moving them...

 

[grsthegreat]

Yup the new equipment sure does seem to suck. I had to replace the computer board in my oven (didn't even know it had one ) $600.00. but a new oven was $1900 so i had to do it.

My GE Monogram refrigerator ice maker quite dispensing ice cubes... the dealer told me i had to replace the ENTIRE door unit at a cost of nearly $1,200. I went online and found a blog about how to fix it and i got the circuit board on Ebay for $29.00 . it fixed it right up. (those **** service men really try to ream me on that one. he actually called me back and asked me if i wanted to go ahead with the repair. I told him i fixed it with a $29.00 part and he promptly hung up)

the plus side is... at night i can walk around my entire house courtesy of all the LED lighting and clocks. Its like daylight in the house....

ya, this sure saves electricity.

 

[jmurray01]

Even in the last few years the quality of the products has changed.

Back in 2004 we bought a Zanussi/Electrolux Washer with 1600RPM Spin and "XC" (Extra Capacity) which could hold 6KG of clothes. It was very expensive, as it was fully loaded (pardon the pun), but at the time we could afford it, and boy, it was the best washer I've ever used!

Here is a link to what it looked like - http://is00.thegumtree.com/image/big/97145112.jpg

The plastics were very thick, the knobs and buttons were well inserted and didn't fall out or rattle, and in the 7 years it was used daily (sold it in February this year due to moving to a house with a washer already fitted - I'll get to that in a minute) there wasn't a single problem.

Heck, the belt didn't need changed once!

Well, we sold it for a very low amount of money just before moving house, and there isn't a day I don't regret letting it go.

The new washer in this house is a 2011 BEKO WM5100W with only 1000RPM spin, and it can only hold 3KG of clothes.

Here is a link to what it looks like - http://img.comet.co.uk/images/prod300/472670.jpg

This washer was (and still is) one of the cheapest you can buy.

Jeez, where do I start with the flaws ?

1) It has no variable spin
2) The cycle selection knob is loose
3) The drum has excessive play in it (suspected bearing wear despite not overloading)
4) It almost jumps through the rafters on spin (even though it only gets to 1000RPM)

BEKO, or Zanussi/Electrolux... Hmm... I believe the phrase is "it's a no brainer".

And don't get me started on our fridge.

It gets more ice in it than our freezer!

 

[Western]

I just installed a new oven today after my 30 year old rusted out. My wife and I are reading the manual now and in about an hour I think we will be able to figure out how to turn it on.

Well, that's not as bad as my new TV. It took me about 3 hours to figure out all the controls on it.

Now watch your TV remote turn the oven on when you aint look'n!

 

[WayneB]

I just installed a new oven today after my 30 year old rusted out. My wife and I are reading the manual now and in about an hour I think we will be able to figure out how to turn it on.

Well, that's not as bad as my new TV. It took me about 3 hours to figure out all the controls on it.

You figured out the controls in 3 hours, heck you must be an electronic engineer!

 

[jmurray01]

I hate TV remote controls with symbols instead of words!

What would be wrong with:

ON
OFF
CHANNEL -
CHANNEL +
VOLUME -
VOLUME +
SETTINGS
ENTER
EXIT
UP
DOWN
LEFT
RIGHT

TV remotes used to have words next to the buttons, but now everything is printed on the rubber buttons in tiny symbols that are hard enough to see anyway, let alone when they fade after only a year of using it!

We bought our second hand 42" Hitachi Plasma TV for £100 ($200) a few months ago and I've only just got used to the buttons, seeing as the symbols are all faded away and I have to remember which one does what out of the 50+ buttons.

My 10 year old 28" Toshiba CRT TV in my bedroom however has a remote with WORDS that I can understand

 

[Western]

I bought a new plasma last year and so far I can turn it on with the remote, once I actually got the DVD player right. My wife gets the remote in this house when the S hits the fan, she's the only one that wont "kill" it.

 

[Fixemall]

Hmmm, yet very high end stoves like commercial units are still mostly mechanical...looks like "consumer grade" stuff is where the junk is.

 

[Sammy the red]

Y

the plus side is... at night i can walk around my entire house courtesy of all the LED lighting and clocks. Its like daylight in the house....

Those LED's sure help guide one's way thru a dark house....... Saves a bunch of bumping into stuff !

 

[om21braz]

Hmmm, yet very high end stoves like commercial units are still mostly mechanical...looks like "consumer grade" stuff is where the junk is.

Seems folks with the Viking, Sub-Zero, etc. high dollar appliances still have plenty of issues as do people with the regular units - based upon posts in the GardenWeb forums. Then again, some people are impossible to please.

 

[jonnyc1999]

I bought my house new 3 years ago. After only a year and a half, the handle on my Frigidaire microwave broke off. To open the door i actually have to pry it open from the bottom lip! Like, seriously?!?!?!?! It also has a crack in the plastic on th hinge side. I'm waiting for it to fall off any day!

For a washer and dryer I decided to go with Speed Queen. The technology is "outdated" (toploader) but the machine has all steel gears, almost zero plastic, and according to the salesman is designed to be run every day for the next 20 years! The fact that Speed Queen is the brand that many laundromats use was a big selling point for me :thumbsup:

 

[MossflowerWoods]

I have been a bit worried on this topic myself.

#1 - I am a computer hardware engineer type guy, and I make a living off the fact they ALWAYS break.

#2 - Most of my life the appliances have worked very well for a long time.

#3 - I had no choice in my current house. Basically everything was the cheapest unit that could be found, many, many years old, and they worked poorly. I needed to replace them all (well the washer was fairly new, but it was too small 5-6 years old).

So I bought new everything at the veteran's day sale with 10% off and a couple of them were clearence items. But as amazing as the new washer and dryer are (My wife LOVES doing laundry now she says), I can envision that there is NO WAY they will still be running in 10 years. The swanky Samsung fridge (no I did NOT pay $3000, I got it for $500) is the same, way too high tech. All of the other appliances at my two rentals are at LEAST 10 years old...

I certainly hope my TRACTOR will last at least until I have grandkids, but do you guys think in 50-60 years people will still be bush-hogging on that old Kubota/Kioti/Cub Cadet/ whatever like they do today with an 8N?

In many ways our society has totally become "Throw It Away" or disposable. Heck we even feel that way about people in some cases.

It makes me wonder what is coming in the future? Will the world go the direction of Wall-E or ???

Sorry for threadjacking... Seems I'm thinking too much this morning.

MERRY CHRISTMAS ALL!
David

 

[MossflowerWoods]

I bought my house new 3 years ago. After only a year and a half, the handle on my Frigidaire microwave broke off. To open the door i actually have to pry it open from the bottom lip! Like, seriously?!?!?!?! It also has a crack in the plastic on th hinge side. I'm waiting for it to fall off any day!

For a washer and dryer I decided to go with Speed Queen. The technology is "outdated" (toploader) but the machine has all steel gears, almost zero plastic, and according to the salesman is designed to be run every day for the next 20 years! The fact that Speed Queen is the brand that many laundromats use was a big selling point for me :thumbsup:

Morning Jon!

I've never seen a Speed Queen (Maybe I need to get out more:laughing. Where did you find a place selling them?

Merry Christmas my friend.
David

 

[jmurray01]

I have been a bit worried on this topic myself.

#1 - I am a computer hardware engineer type guy, and I make a living off the fact they ALWAYS break.

#2 - Most of my life the appliances have worked very well for a long time.

#3 - I had no choice in my current house. Basically everything was the cheapest unit that could be found, many, many years old, and they worked poorly. I needed to replace them all (well the washer was fairly new, but it was too small 5-6 years old).

So I bought new everything at the veteran's day sale with 10% off and a couple of them were clearence items. But as amazing as the new washer and dryer are (My wife LOVES doing laundry now she says), I can envision that there is NO WAY they will still be running in 10 years. The swanky Samsung fridge (no I did NOT pay $3000, I got it for $500) is the same, way too high tech. All of the other appliances at my two rentals are at LEAST 10 years old...

I certainly hope my TRACTOR will last at least until I have grandkids, but do you guys think in 50-60 years people will still be bush-hogging on that old Kubota/Kioti/Cub Cadet/ whatever like they do today with an 8N?

In many ways our society has totally become "Throw It Away" or disposable. Heck we even feel that way about people in some cases.

It makes me wonder what is coming in the future? Will the world go the direction of Wall-E or ???

Sorry for threadjacking... Seems I'm thinking too much this morning.

MERRY CHRISTMAS ALL!
David

Sorry, I'm struggling to understand... Are you saying you like old stuff or new stuff ?

I think I need another coffee!

I know what you mean about the Throw It Away attitude these days though.

Over on VacuumLand almost every day I hear about somebody picking up a valuable vintage cleaner that somebody had thrown (literally in most cases) onto the side of the road for the garbage men to take away.

 

[MossflowerWoods]

Sorry, I'm struggling to understand... Are you saying you like old stuff or new stuff ?

I think I need another coffee!

I know what you mean about the Throw It Away attitude these days though.

Over on VacuumLand almost every day I hear about somebody picking up a valuable vintage cleaner that somebody had thrown (literally in most cases) onto the side of the road for the garbage men to take away.

I need another coffee too!

Somewhere here on TBN I wrote up a spoof about Vacuums as "house tractors", I wonder if I can find it... It was a trifle funny...

Mostly I am a worry wart. I LOVE our new appliances, but I fear they will not last.

Same with my new car, I LOVE LOVE LOVE it, but I'm not sure I can see it still driving in 25 years. My buddy had a computer problem in his mini-van recently and it was messing up the throttle, turn signals, tranny, weird stuff as he was driving even! He replaced the computer motherboard... it got a little better...

I was also grousing about the underlying attitude of "disposableness = goodness".

I'm just being negative today. I promise to shape up...
Be well,
David

PS - It is very cool to have a Buddy in Scotland...:thumbsup:

 

[Fixemall]

Seems folks with the Viking, Sub-Zero, etc. high dollar appliances still have plenty of issues as do people with the regular units - based upon posts in the GardenWeb forums. Then again, some people are impossible to please.

When I sat with my engineer to build my current retirement house, he flat out told me to get all Bosch or Thermador commercial units, I was already on board with that as I was selling a house with 15 year old stuff that still worked and looked new, even after heavy use. No LEDs and big clunky metal controls for me are the way to go. Imagine my surprise when I drove by my old house to discover my old dishwasher at the curb, it still resides in my shop as a parts washer to this day...apparently they wanted LEDs

 

[Ridgewalker]

Great thread!

All the LEDs light my way thru the house at night too. I wish there was a way to turn them off.

We recently moved and had to get a new fridge, it's a Samsung with a control panel on the door. When it was delivered the panel didn't work and the door was replaced. I am hoping I get 10 years out of it but I think I am dreaming.

Everything these days is made to last 5 years or so it seems. I do my best to find old stuff before I consider buying new anymore. Heck I just picked up 80 year old Cat 1 Dearborn plow and disc that need a little love but are mostly in fine shape.