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Most of my appliances are about 20 y.o. and working perfectly fine. Some I decided to update d/t better technology, and energy savings. My microwave is 20 y.o. and so is the water heater. Not going to replace till they die...
I also have a "backup" vacuum that I bought used 20 years ago, bulky but does the job.
Maybe appliances made (in the USA) 20+ years ago were just of better quality? Not made to be obsolete in just few years? Not made in China from cheap, inferior parts?
For renters, I would never buy expensive appliances. Newer models, decent quality - yes, but expensive? - no.
Except you are renting a luxury mansion or condo, and charge accordingly
Renters will do the minimum; they're in the house because they need a place to live; it's not theirs, and they usually don't care that much for keeping things up. And some people just don't take care of things - theirs or not.
I neglected to mention.. That Hotpoint fridge... The evap fan motor that I had to replace on it is one of the fancy new hi-tech ones manufactured to meet energy efficiency standards. The guy at the appliance parts store even told me when I went in there.. See you in a couple of years. If it's a part the repair places keep in stock.. You know they get used quite a bit.
The strangest thing i've ever run into.. Family member had a GE side-by-side fridge.. It stopped working and.. When you have the slightest bit of electrical knowledge.. You're the guy who gets called.. I went over and looked at it.. It sure wasn't cooling.. So, got in there and looking around, found a safety switch that was swelled up and just wasn't right.. Popped it out, ohmed it out.. Saw it was certainly bad.. Looked like water had gotten into it and then frozen and just 'popped' it.. Took it to my normal appliance parts store.. Told them I couldn't ID the temperature on it.. He knew what it was by sight, brought me one.. I look on the bag, that safety switch (For the defrost heating element) was set to open at, if I recall properly, 230 degrees.
What the hell? It's in a friggin freezer. Frankly, I think I want the heating element to shut off if it gets above 32 degrees.
All the appliances in the rental were fridgedaire. not top of the line but not cheap either. They broke the new dishwasher in about 2 years. I took it apart expecting to find broken glass in the pump but no. I never replaced that because they said they would rather do dished by hand.. weird I know but ti saved me money.
The side by side with ice on the door lasted them 4-5 years. The ice maker broke first then the compressor. It was going to be half as much as a new fridge to fix the old one so they got a new basic fridge now. So far so good.
The stove lost the oven part but the glass top still worked. I took it apart and started testing circuits and got as far as the main board, power goes in and nothing comes out. A new board was $300 so it made more sense to buy us a new shiny one with all the gadgets and they get our old basic Kenmore.
I hope they don't blow that up since it is at least 12 years old.
Renters are very hard on things.
I would say that things don't last long due to all the electronics in them. In the old days if it didn't work you could hit it with a hammer and get it going again but now not so.
I knew that sales guy was exagerating when he said everything has a life span of 5-6 years. Maybe in his house it does... come to think of it he is a renter.
Based on what you're saying I'm not sure that the "renters are very hard on things." Doesn't even seem like you found anything that they particularly could have done to any of the appliances that died. You'll read similar stories from plenty of owners as well. As an owner, I just had to replace a refrigerator (no idea how long it's been there but I'm not sure how I could be hard on it) and my co-workers were ALL telling me about their appliances that they hadn't had very long breaking down---especially refrigerators.
From my reading, it sounds like ice makers on the door break more than anything else. And because of that, those refrigerators tend to have the most issues.
I am about to replace all of my appliances and I am hoping for the best. When I was a renter, I bought a microwave and it didn't even last three years with mild use (although I guess I could have been hard on the microwave! ) and that was disappointing.
I built my house 13 years ago and got midrange appliances (GE Profile) - all are still working okay - at least haven't had to replace anything. A few minor repairs - the waterline for the icecube stopped working and the washer doesn't seem to spin out as well but I'm happy overall. Now they'll probably all blow up today!
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) and that was disappointing.
