A dozen years ago, I had a house built, and I bought all the appliances myself. I thought I would research the market, find the sweet spot, and get a good deal through a specialty appliance store because I was getting everything at once. Boy, was I wrong.
I subscribed to Consumer Reports online, and came up with what I thought was the right brand: GE "Gold". I bought everything in the line: stove, microwave, dishwasher, refrigerator, washer, and dryer. Within 5 years, the washer and dryer had both been replaced, almost all the plastic accessories on the fridge had broken, the stove's convection fan failed, and one of the rails on the storage pan fell off, several screws fell out of the dishwasher before I ever started noticing, and the silverware tray broke, and I couldn't keep microwave lights working.
What I finally figured out was that ALL of the stuff CR is reviewing is made by a few companies, and it's ALL crap. They make it seem like you can buy something "good" by paying twice as much, but even if CR is truly impartial, there's no material difference. I got more years of service out of the second-hand, refurbished, mismatched washer and dryer that I bought from the ratty converted house/shop on 3rd street than I got out of the "higher" end models, and paid 1/4 of the price.
And I'll tell you something else for free: it was damn refreshing to hear the guy who FIXES UP appliances for a living tell me he wouldn't even take my old units off my hands to refurbish -- for free -- because they really were total junk. Talk about salt on the wound! Find a local guy who does this and ask HIM what you should buy; not Consumer Frickin' Reports.
Before I was born, my parents went to Sears, and bought a "good" Kenmore washer and dryer. They lasted almost 30 years, till they couldn't get some replacement part for the dryer. I've concluded that the only way to get this level of quality is to buy "commercial" kit, and pay TEN times as much.
> I got more years of service out of the second-hand, refurbished, mismatched washer and dryer that I bought from the ratty converted house/shop on 3rd street than I got out of the "higher" end models, and paid 1/4 of the price.
I think that's one misperception. High end anything models aren't high end because they're more reliable - they're high end because they have more features or more expensive finishes, but have more complexity to go wrong. It's true of cars too.. My pet theory is the most reliable model is the highest volume model because the company doesn't want to get eaten by support costs.
I bought a low-end GE twenty years ago and it kept going with fairly easy parts repair on anything that wore out. But it was a very basic washer. I did eventually replace it with a higher end washer from another company - but I had to make my peace that I was getting low-water use and more complexity while likely giving up reliability. My wife and I have fantasized about starting an appliance company that values repairability and reliability without high-end features, but quality materials ...
> they're high end because they have more features or more expensive finishes, but have more complexity to go wrong
Sigh, this describes my recent tech purchases to a T. New wireless headphones? More trouble than I had with wired cans in five years, at 3.5x the cost. My first laptop with a dedicated GPU? More glitches than my Intel-only MacBook Air ever had, at 2x the cost. €120 speakers? Their wired "desktop remote" was so dumb that I returned them and bought used €11 speakers on a craigslist clone. (I actually think they sound better.)
I spent at least a day reading reviews for each purchase, too.
On the upside, I will save lots of money by never treating myself to "nice tech" again.
The highest volume model also has an entrenched pipeline of parts and widespread experience with any problems that model does experience. So repairs will tend to be more straightforward and less expensive.
The best strategy you can follow is, base your buying decision on objective things, you can verify. Price is something you can verify with 100% accuracy, so is features and usability and energy usage. But, all the other stuff: how long it lasts, I wouldn't take anybody's word for it, unless I knew them personally.
For dishwashers, specifically, I think you have to get a really old one for it to work. One that was made before all the stupid water rationing requirements came out.
This day an age, buying the very cheapest stuff, often turns out to be a pretty good strategy. I got a super cheap Vacuum from target for 30$!! It worked great for 3 years. Of course, the filter is like a zillion dollars, so instead of buying the filter, we just sold the vacuum on letgo for 7$, and then bought another brand new super cheap vacuum for 30$!
Bought a Coffee Machine for 12$ on amazon. it's 9 months later and it still works great!!
> I wouldn't take anybody's word for it, unless I knew them personally.
Maybe that's the thing: We need reviewers that we "almost know", who aren't faceless, but also aren't as deeply corrupt as most YouTubers? A bit like John Siracusa reviewing toasters in podcasts [1]. At least with simple gadgets, I would rather trust him than Amazon reviews, even though I've only heard him talking for a few hours.
Yah, pretty much my experience with consumer reports too. They need more objective analysis, but that is hard too given that all it takes to win a 3 year "long term" study is not to have anything major break.
Having been in this boat myself, a few years ago, I decided to simply start fixing my old appliances. Many of which aren't actually old enough to not be efficient (front loading washer from the late 1990's). Its hard when you move houses, but the older appliances (mostly from the 1990's) in my rental are still chugging along. OTOH, the dishwasher, and microwave that got replaced when I lived in it are now on #3 in under 15 years...
Basically, it seems for a lot of things the "quality" seems to have peaked and then due to penny pinching, offshoring, whatever has declined. Of course my mother might say the same thing about her stove from the 1970's, but the current house has a gas stove with electronic igniters built in the 1990's and its also on #3... It seems electronics aren't really a good way to make something last. They might be better at saving some energy here or there, or providing a cool looking interface, but the old mechanical buttons/igniters/etc are often even better.
I subscribed to Consumer Reports online, and came up with what I thought was the right brand: GE "Gold". I bought everything in the line: stove, microwave, dishwasher, refrigerator, washer, and dryer. Within 5 years, the washer and dryer had both been replaced, almost all the plastic accessories on the fridge had broken, the stove's convection fan failed, and one of the rails on the storage pan fell off, several screws fell out of the dishwasher before I ever started noticing, and the silverware tray broke, and I couldn't keep microwave lights working.
What I finally figured out was that ALL of the stuff CR is reviewing is made by a few companies, and it's ALL crap. They make it seem like you can buy something "good" by paying twice as much, but even if CR is truly impartial, there's no material difference. I got more years of service out of the second-hand, refurbished, mismatched washer and dryer that I bought from the ratty converted house/shop on 3rd street than I got out of the "higher" end models, and paid 1/4 of the price.
And I'll tell you something else for free: it was damn refreshing to hear the guy who FIXES UP appliances for a living tell me he wouldn't even take my old units off my hands to refurbish -- for free -- because they really were total junk. Talk about salt on the wound! Find a local guy who does this and ask HIM what you should buy; not Consumer Frickin' Reports.
Before I was born, my parents went to Sears, and bought a "good" Kenmore washer and dryer. They lasted almost 30 years, till they couldn't get some replacement part for the dryer. I've concluded that the only way to get this level of quality is to buy "commercial" kit, and pay TEN times as much.