Rant: Modern household appliances are of poorer quality

[westcliffe01]

The ice makers take up quite a bit of space in new refrigerators so we have opted to buy models without ice makers and benefit from the extra space in the freezer. We make ice the old fashioned way and are never wanting for ice. The more crap you add to your appliances, the more there is to go wrong. A further point is that I suspect the newer refrigerators can be more easily be damaged by rodents than the older models. the newest double door one we bought for over $1100 has just a piece of cardboard underneath. A mouse would be through there and into the "guts" where there are control boards and wires running everywhere in a matter of minutes. I know this because the previous one we bought for a second house was even more expensive, that one did have a very thin steel sheet covering the bottom but still had plenty openings big enough to let mice in and that house had plenty mice. During the fall mouse migration we would be trapping up to 12 mice a day at strategic points that we knew they would emerge from in search of water. I had a couple of families move into that refrigerator and so there was finally a great purge after which I added some woven steel mesh to key points to lower the entry and it seems to have worked. The mice can still hide underneath the fridge but not get inside it...

 

[2manyrocks]

When they delivered the new refrigerator last month, I thought they had left some of the shipping cardboard on the bottom. Turns out, that thin piece of cardboard is supposed to stay in place for airflow. Then the thing ran for over 12 hours to cool down, and I was not impressed with the loudness compared to the old one we had.

 

[dodge man]

If you take a refigerator, place it in a small insulated space, turn it on high with the doors open, that space will become warmer, not colder.

Kind of like putting a dehumidifier and a humidifier in the same room and letting them fight it out.

 

[CADplans]

There is zero chance that today's appliances are of poorer quality.

In fact, the appliances are of FAR SUPERIOR quality, and all the comments in this thread prove it!!

Poor quality is when a failure occurs due to a missed assembly on a Friday after 3PM.
Once in a while that happens.

These new appliances are being produced with "Planned Obsolescence"!
This is demonstrated by how many of them are failing,, exactly as designed, and planned.

 

[tom3]

And repairs are about impossible. Neighbor had a couple year old Whirlpool front load washer, big unit with all the bells and whistles, not cheap. Plastic start button quit working. Tore it apart (youtube helped a lot) and found there is a small plastic rod on the back of the button that hits a micro switch had broke off the button. 89 cent part. No such thing, have to buy the whole circuit assembly for $400. We got some JBweld & rigged up a fix. And about any new fridge has a built in water filter, specific design, replace every six months, $60 item - but get a subscription and it's 10% off. Real deal there. And nothing on a TV these days is fixable, just toss it and buy a new one.

 

[tom3]

Fridges aren't heaters, so yes, if you have the thermostat in the fridge set to 40, and your garage is 0F, the fridge will never come on, and eventually, it, and anything in it will get to 0F.

I put a night light in our garage fridge, 7 watt filament bulb. Makes just enough heat to make it kick on some. This fridge was listed as good for an unheated garage too, just a come on apparently.

 

[check]

Anybody price the cost of a replacement plastic vegetable crisper drawer for a refrigerator? YIKES!

Yup - $100 each! We keep cracking them by jamming too much stuff in.

 

[JethroB]

With all the electronics in appliances I put little cube surge suppressors ($10) on them. On more expensive items such as StarLink internet equipment or PC’s I use a small UPS ($50).

Amazon.com

 

[MossRoad]

Yup - $100 each! We keep cracking them by jamming too much stuff in.

Ours got cracked when it was left extended out a bit and someone (might or might not have been me ) closed the door on it.

I wonder if I could buy a 3D printer large enough to print these drawers, and make a side business selling replacement drawers. That's how expensive they are!

 

[MossRoad]

With all the electronics in appliances I put little cube surge suppressors ($10) on them. On more expensive items such as StarLink internet equipment or PC’s I use a small UPS ($50).

Amazon.com

A whole house surge protector is less than $200.