The Lifespan of Large Appliances Is Shrinking

[freedom_in_4low]

Every major appliance that I installed in 1996 is still trucking along. I've replaced the door seal on the dishwasher, the icemaker in the fridge (about three years ago), and a seal in the transmission of the washing machine about four years ago. My wife wants more modern appliances, but I flat-out refuse to replace something based on aesthetics. I fear the lack of quality that seems to go along with the "latest and greatest" appliances.

When I moved into a house for the first time and no longer had an on site laundromat, I went to Sears and bought the most entry level Kenmore washer and dryer they had. I think I spent $800 total for both. That was 2006, and they are currently in my laundry room having been moved 10 times.

My wife used to talk about updating, but we stayed at a friend's condo for a month in 2021 and had to get a briefing on how to use their fancy front loader without causing trouble and it cured her of that nonsense.

 

[Squatch]

When I moved into a house for the first time and no longer had an on site laundromat, I went to Sears and bought the most entry level Kenmore washer and dryer they had. I think I spent $800 total for both. That was 2006, and they are currently in my laundry room having been moved 10 times.

My wife used to talk about updating, but we stayed at a friend's condo for a month in 2021 and had to get a briefing on how to use their fancy front loader without causing trouble and it cured her of that nonsense.

The other thing is that I was able to do the repairs myself. These modern units designed by NASA are almost certainly not DIY-friendly.

 

[Shank]

A very enjoyable read since I will be buying all new kitchen appliances in the next month

 

[RangerTJ]

We had a Maytag side-by-side that lasted 17 years.

Replaced it with an Amana that made it 5 years.

So we spent a lot (too much) and bought a GE French Door model with a 3 year warranty. Last year it died completely after 4 years.

Oh, another pet peeve about the GE that I wasn't aware of until it was time to replace the water filter: the filters have an RFID chip in them so that if you put any filter other than the $50+ GE filter in there, it will cut off the water.

I cut the chip out of the "emergency bypass" kit that came with it and taped it in the fridge over the RFID sensor.

That let me use a generic filter, with the refrigerator constantly displaying "water is not being filtered" whenever we used it.

Thanks to that load of steaming BS, another GE appliance will never again darken my doorway.

Now back to a Samsung side-by-side that we bought the extended warranty on.

Let me sound like a Redditor for a moment: "Hey, we've had it 6 months and no problems at all!".

 

[bbaldwin237]

A very enjoyable read since I will be buying all new kitchen appliances in the next month

 

[Westtown Willy]

picked up this new Amana microwave on Friday at Lowes, $199, the one it replaced had been there since my kitchen was installed in 02 & it was the only one I ever had so I wasn't really sure how they were mounted.

That was a pain in the balls.

Some quick measuring I noted that the holes seemed to be universal, though I needed the new wall bracket it came with as the hinges were in a different location, and as it turned out this oven was one inch taller so I had to move the bracket down an inch. Naturally that put it half on top of the existing tile, some shimming resolved that issue.

The real problem came when I neglected to measure the depth which was also one inch greater than the prior unit, so while the existing holes in the cabinet up top were the correct width, they were an inch deeper into the cabinet. I learned that as the oven was hooked onto the hinge and I was holding it up with my knee while searching for the bolt holes in the microwave from the cabinet up top

Not wanting to take the whole thing down, re-drill the holes in the proper locations, or use the template that came with it like a competent person would have, then re-hang the oven due to it being a mother fucker for me to wiggle in there to begin with, I chose instead to hold the thing up with one arm while collapsing my painter's ladder with the other and jamming it under the oven laterally to hold it up. Once it was stable enough I grabbed my giant butcher block cutting board which was far more stable than the tapering ladder legs, and swapped them. Once that was done I went back in from the top and drilled the new pilot holes. Did that by eye

Fortunately it all lined up & I got the bolts in & all is well.

This is pretty much how all my home improvement projects go, often there's some kind of minor injury, so without that I consider this job a smashing success. Delivery and installation would've exceeded the cost of the piece of shit oven so that wasn't an option. At least when I have to replace this one 3 years from now I'll know (better) how to do it...

 

[RangerTJ]

picked up this new Amana microwave on Friday at Lowes, $199, the one it replaced had been there since my kitchen was installed in 02 & it was the only one I ever had so I wasn't really sure how they were mounted.

That was a pain in the balls.

Some quick measuring I noted that the holes seemed to be universal, though I needed the new wall bracket it came with as the hinges were in a different location, and as it turned out this oven was one inch taller so I had to move the bracket down an inch. Naturally that put it half on top of the existing tile, some shimming resolved that issue.

The real problem came when I neglected to measure the depth which was also one inch greater than the prior unit, so while the existing holes in the cabinet up top were the correct width, they were an inch deeper into the cabinet. I learned that as the oven was hooked onto the hinge and I was holding it up with my knee while searching for the bolt holes in the microwave from the cabinet up top

Not wanting to take the whole thing down, re-drill the holes in the proper locations, or use the template that came with it like a competent person would have, then re-hang the oven due to it being a mother fucker for me to wiggle in there to begin with, I chose instead to hold the thing up with one arm while collapsing my painter's ladder with the other and jamming it under the oven laterally to hold it up. Once it was stable enough I grabbed my giant butcher block cutting board which was far more stable than the tapering ladder legs, and swapped them. Once that was done I went back in from the top and drilled the new pilot holes. Did that by eye

Fortunately it all lined up & I got the bolts in & all is well.

This is pretty much how all my home improvement projects go, often there's some kind of minor injury, so without that I consider this job a smashing success. Delivery and installation would've exceeded the cost of the piece of shit oven so that wasn't an option. At least when I have to replace this one 3 years from now I'll know (better) how to do it...

View attachment 504356

You have a gas stove?

Climate Denier!

 

[Zorba]

I had an appliance guy tell me to stay with the Whirlpool family, not GE, not Samsung, not LG. I've had my share of GE fridges over the years with no problems but that RFID thing is bullshit. Frankly, the whole filter thing is bullshit as far as I'm concerned - I'm sure there are some places that need a filter; Monterey, Ca comes to mind, but I don't need one here so I never change the thing.
Maytag isn't what it used to be either - I used to swear by Maytag dishwashers, now they're just a re-badged Whirlpool and built the same way. With that said, the Whirlpool dishwasher that came with this house is the BEST at cleaning dishes of any I've ever owned - its fantastic. I don't know how old it is, hopefully it will be around for many years to come.

 

[Apparition]

I had an appliance guy tell me to stay with the Whirlpool family, not GE, not Samsung, not LG. I've had my share of GE fridges over the years with no problems but that RFID thing is bullshit. Frankly, the whole filter thing is bullshit as far as I'm concerned - I'm sure there are some places that need a filter; Monterey, Ca comes to mind, but I don't need one here so I never change the thing.
Maytag isn't what it used to be either - I used to swear by Maytag dishwashers, now they're just a re-badged Whirlpool and built the same way. With that said, the Whirlpool dishwasher that came with this house is the BEST at cleaning dishes of any I've ever owned - its fantastic. I don't know how old it is, hopefully it will be around for many years to come.

Bosch was the best dishwasher I've had.

 

[Zorba]

Bosch was the best dishwasher I've had.

I've heard both sides to Bosch. Some swear by them, some swear at them. I've never owned one.

 

[tworley]

Our washer and dryer are Armana brand. If the power goes out, the washer does something internally and it wont turn on. You physically have to remove the back panel and hit a master reset button for it to come back on. Its happened 3 or 4 times now.

 

[E-Ticket]

I’ve got a clothes dryer with a side exit exhaust that exits the house in the wall right next to it. I tried to replace it a few years ago and found that the exit hole is in a location not standard with what is on the market today. That means a new dryer = a new hole in the wall. So, I’ve got to keep this dryer. So far I’ve repaired it 5-6 times.

YouTube is your friend with applicance repair just like most things. Simple parts replacement is normally easy. The hardest one so far was to replace a relay on the motherboard. That repair if done by a repairman was more than the cost of a new machine. The relay was $10 from eBay. I watched videos on how to replace a soldered on component on an PCB and it worked! Now hopefully I have not jinxed it by posting this…

 

[freedom_in_4low]

Our washer and dryer are Armana brand. If the power goes out, the washer does something internally and it wont turn on. You physically have to remove the back panel and hit a master reset button for it to come back on. Its happened 3 or 4 times now.

We're dealing with something like this at work.

One of our compressor manufacturers launched a new electronic module that monitors operating parameters, logs data that we can review for troubleshooting, and will shut down the compressor to protect it. We've put about 100 of them out in the field and then discovered they have a bug that triggers a lockout fault for a motor thermistor and has to be reset every time they have a power loss. Theres no firmware update, but there's a hardware update and they're dragging their feet on giving us the updated hardware hoping that we give in and install a relay and update our controls software to automate the reset.

They're closer than they realize to being replaced with an alternate supplier.

 

[Zorba]

We're dealing with something like this at work.

One of our compressor manufacturers launched a new electronic module that monitors operating parameters, logs data that we can review for troubleshooting, and will shut down the compressor to protect it. We've put about 100 of them out in the field and then discovered they have a bug that triggers a lockout fault for a motor thermistor and has to be reset every time they have a power loss. Theres no firmware update, but there's a hardware update and they're dragging their feet on giving us the updated hardware hoping that we give in and install a relay and update our controls software to automate the reset.

They're closer than they realize to being replaced with an alternate supplier.

"There's no firmware update..." Probably because the code grinder who originally wrote the thing didn't format or document his code worth a damn and is no longer with the company - so nobody can figure out the code and nobody wants to touch it.

 

[freedom_in_4low]

"There's no firmware update..." Probably because the code grinder who originally wrote the thing didn't format or document his code worth a damn and is no longer with the company - so nobody can figure out the code and nobody wants to touch it.

I'm sure that happens as well, but my guess in this scenario is since their historical offering has never included sophisticated electronics that they have a very small software team, maybe even just 1 guy, and they don't want to put resources into updating firmware for the v1 hardware when they're only shipping out v2 hardware now (which already has the fix).

I say that because the phenomenon is widespread in the industry, including at my own employer. In the past 15 years we've gone from being able to do most everything with relays, timers, and bimetal strips to now requiring digital controls to meet mandated efficiency levels and assure mechanical reliability with the continuing march of new refrigerant gases that are supposedly better for the environment but are almost always worse in use.

I can reliably predict what kind of time I'm going to have setting up a communications interface between my controller and a third party device based on the history of the third party manufacturer. If they're an 80 year old company that has been making boilers, compressors, thermostatic or pressure-actuated valves, 3-phase induction motors, pumps, etc., their implementation and documentation will be atrocious and I'm going to need a sample so I can do guess-and-check for a week to figure out how their frames are built and how the data is encoded, signing, scaling, etc. Companies who started out in the digital age and had electronics in their foundation or that have acquired other companies to get electronics into their portfolio, like a variable speed drive or a brushless motor or a PLC, I'll be able to build the interface just based on the documentation and it'll work on the first try.

 

[Zorba]

I'm sure that happens as well, but my guess in this scenario is since their historical offering has never included sophisticated electronics that they have a very small software team, maybe even just 1 guy, and they don't want to put resources into updating firmware for the v1 hardware when they're only shipping out v2 hardware now (which already has the fix).

I say that because the phenomenon is widespread in the industry, including at my own employer. In the past 15 years we've gone from being able to do most everything with relays, timers, and bimetal strips to now requiring digital controls to meet mandated efficiency levels and assure mechanical reliability with the continuing march of new refrigerant gases that are supposedly better for the environment but are almost always worse in use.

I can reliably predict what kind of time I'm going to have setting up a communications interface between my controller and a third party device based on the history of the third party manufacturer. If they're an 80 year old company that has been making boilers, compressors, thermostatic or pressure-actuated valves, 3-phase induction motors, pumps, etc., their implementation and documentation will be atrocious and I'm going to need a sample so I can do guess-and-check for a week to figure out how their frames are built and how the data is encoded, signing, scaling, etc. Companies who started out in the digital age and had electronics in their foundation or that have acquired other companies to get electronics into their portfolio, like a variable speed drive or a brushless motor or a PLC, I'll be able to build the interface just based on the documentation and it'll work on the first try.

Yep - very few companies make the jump between tech generations very well, and those that do take a long ass time to accomplish. The same was true transitioning from vacuum tube tech to solid state.

 

[CreepinDeth]

Our washer and dryer are Armana brand. If the power goes out, the washer does something internally and it wont turn on. You physically have to remove the back panel and hit a master reset button for it to come back on. Its happened 3 or 4 times now.

If true
Then it should do that anytime its unplugged UNLESS you have a recloser on your provider line thats sending surges.

Basically what that means is if a tree limb blows onto powerlines crossing 2 phases , it will do a “lockout” (breaker at station opens) Then a power recloser gives 2 attempts to reclose the breaker (power up the line) and blow off any potential limbs

If thats the case, put a surge suppressor inline

 

[sab]

Arrgggghhhh! Last night, the oven wouldn't heat for dinner. We ended up making pizza on our grill, instead. This gas Whirlpool range is a POS. It has an electronic controller, and the button contacts get corroded and stop working. I've figured out how to disassemble them and clean them. However, that wasn't the problem yesterday. It was the ignitor. They last about 2-3 years before they burn out and stop working. It's an easy fix, but this is the third time! It doesn't seem to matter whether I use an aftermarket or Whirlpool ignitor. Somewhere around the 2 or 3 year old mark, they quit. I've ordered three of them to keep on hand. Be prepared!

But, that was just the beginning of my troubles this morning. When I went to pull the oven away from the wall, the handle broke off, and the glass window fell to the floor! The plastic that the handle is made from is just crumbling - it can't take the heat of the oven. Fortunately, the glass didn't break. As for the handle and trim piece that broke, rather than spending $200 for new parts (used parts on eBay aren't much cheaper), I'm going to attempt to improve them using steel, aluminum, and high-temp epoxy! I don't know if it will work, but that's today's project...

 

[ColoJeep]

Arrgggghhhh! Last night, the oven wouldn't heat for dinner. We ended up making pizza on our grill, instead. This gas Whirlpool range is a POS. It has an electronic controller, and the button contacts get corroded and stop working. I've figured out how to disassemble them and clean them. However, that wasn't the problem yesterday. It was the ignitor. They last about 2-3 years before they burn out and stop working. It's an easy fix, but this is the third time! It doesn't seem to matter whether I use an aftermarket or Whirlpool ignitor. Somewhere around the 2 or 3 year old mark, they quit. I've ordered three of them to keep on hand. Be prepared!

But, that was just the beginning of my troubles this morning. When I went to pull the oven away from the wall, the handle broke off, and the glass window fell to the floor! The plastic that the handle is made from is just crumbling - it can't take the heat of the oven. Fortunately, the glass didn't break. As for the handle and trim piece that broke, rather than spending $200 for new parts (used parts on eBay aren't much cheaper), I'm going to attempt to improve them using steel, aluminum, and high-temp epoxy! I don't know if it will work, but that's today's project...

Maybe you can start the aftermarket Billet handle craze !

 

[sab]

Maybe you can start the aftermarket Billet handle craze !

Well, I didn't have to go quite that far. Just had to:

1. Cut the crumbling plastic mounting bosses off the handle and make aluminum replacements (I counterbored the handle for the new screws, too - unseen in this photo):

2. Make three new steel brackets with mounting holes (because, if you look closely, you can see the plastic around the original mounting hole crumbled) and epoxy them to the plastic trim piece. Here's one of them:

If all goes well, tomorrow I'll get it all back together, and it will be hard to tell it's not stock anymore!