Need Appliances

[Grassyknoll]

Just my own personal experience.
After 4+ years living here I must say that I have never lived in an environment that was so hard on appliances. It'seems not just the rust issues (though seeing rust appear on a 3 month old appliance sucks), but the number of repairs and replacements we have gone through is crazy. I lived 15 years at my last house in Northern California and in that time had one repair to a refrigerator ice maker. In 5 years living in Hawai'i I have had to have multiple appliances repaired.
Might just be only my experience though and not indicative of what the majority experience.

Since you are moving to Oceanview, also consider that getting appliances serviced can be a bit tricky. There are some handyman types around, but often service technicians are coming all the way from Kona (if they will come that far at all). After dealing with a few headache repair scenarios, we actually started buying the 5 year extended warranties on our appliances through Lowe's (I always saw extended warranties as a suckers' game). But so far those added expenses more than paid for themselves. New Samsung dryer stopped working, Lowe's had no techs certified for Samsung so they sent us a new dryer.
Just something to consider. Living in OV or anywhere down in Ka'u requires a certain amount of self-reliance and networking to get a lot of things done.

[terracore]

Here's my experiences buying at Lowes:


Punatalk - Don't EVER buy an appliance from LOWES and other


A local appliance repairman told me, if you buy new get the longest extended warranty they offer. Just consider it part of the cost of buying an appliance. He said that all appliances are now designed to operate through their warranty period, and not a day longer. So an appliance with a 1-year warranty is engineered and built to last 1 year. My dad's refrigerator is at least 40 years old and has never been repaired. There is no refrigerator manufactured today anywhere on this planet that will last that long. ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Planned_obsolescence )


In my personal experience, our GE appliances have done the best. LG appliances are worthless (but oddly their TVs are great), and Samsung appliances are pretty but are reviewed as being worthless. In other words, get an appliance made by a manufacturer that primarily makes things WITH MOVING PARTS. The stainless steel on our GE fridge (only on the front) only has a few rust pock marks. The rest of the appliance is painted and rusting. But GE knows how to make things with moving parts. LG and Samsung know how to make cell phones.



The posting of your message is ironic, because we responded to a FB post and are picking up an old but WORKING clothes washer tomorrow for FREE. We're going to put it outside under the eaves to wash nasty farm crap before we put it inside our regular modern HE washer inside. There is nothing wrong with getting used appliances that work well. In a lot of ways they are testaments that the appliance didn't get the batch of cheap components that are prone to failure. Look for rust and general failures and you could wind up with a refrigerator like my dad has.

[hotzcatz]

We get most of our washing machines and dryers from the dump. There's a small plastic piece under the washer basket that breaks and then they toss the whole thing out. If you find a washer where the water didn't drain out of it, most likely it's that little plastic part that broke. A new part is less than $20 if you buy it new, or find another washer at the dump that has a dry wash basket and most likely it had control board issues. Harvest the plastic part from there and you've got a working washer again.

But, if you want 'plug and play' type appliances, then new is probably the way to go. Or find some on Craig's List from folks who are moving back to the mainland.

For dryers, a line strung between two trees will work until you find something better.

[terracore]

"For dryers, a line strung between two trees will work"


It's almost like... humans knew how to dry clothes for thousands of years before machines were invented! We actually line dry 99% of our clothes, but that's more of a cost/energy saving thing than anything else. Buying fabric softener is cheaper than buying electricity or propane.

[67Cam]

Our GE push button gas dryer, which I bought used 15 years ago and was over 20 years old, finally died last month. No electronics in it.

Most everyone we know who has the front loaders with all the electronics - they look like a Vegas slot machine - has some issue with them. We decided to try and forgo as much of that as we could and went with a base model Speed Queen. A lot of the commercial machines in laundrymats are Speed Queen. All push buttons and dials, no (literally) bells or whistles. It was fairly expensive but they are built solid and should last.

[whtviper1]

Originally Posted by Grassyknoll

rust can be a huge issue. Even in the relatively dry South end of the island, we have had every one of our new appliances show some level of rust usually withing the first few months of purchase.
We had a decent quality stainless steel BBQ literally rust apart after only 1 year.

What a lot of people don't realize - and you don't see it as prevalent on the West Coast or on the East Coast - something about Hawaii salt in the air is unique, is it isn't just appliances with rust if you don't have AC - metal toilet paper holder, rust - metal handles on bathroom drawers or kitchen drawers - rust - metal doorknob, rust rust rust......

[steiconi]

Originally Posted by whtviper1

What a lot of people don't realize - and you don't see it as prevalent on the West Coast or on the East Coast - something about Hawaii salt in the air is unique, is it isn't just appliances with rust if you don't have AC - metal toilet paper holder, rust - metal handles on bathroom drawers or kitchen drawers - rust - metal doorknob, rust rust rust......

Not salt, VOG. When Pu'uo'o started up a few years ago, a bunch of my tools rusted practically overnight.

[Amadrid]

We may just get a couple of used appliances until we get completely moved in. We aren’t bringing anything from the mainland except a toaster oven and some small appliances.

[whtviper1]

Originally Posted by steiconi

Not salt, VOG. When Pu'uo'o started up a few years ago, a bunch of my tools rusted practically overnight.

I don't think it is VOG, since the everything rusts quickly phenomenon isn't limited to just the BI