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It is a very frustrating experience to have new and expensive appliances break. It's probably best if I do not discuss my two-year-old KitchenAid dishwasher. My head might explode.
My mom just replaced her 1983 microwave 2 years ago.
Whatever else you buy, don't buy a big Vizio TV. Not only did ours stop working at the end of the warranty, but we couldn't even get the information we needed from them to figure out if it was worth fixing. They claim to have good customer support, but it's mostly nonsense. The techs can hardly do anything but give you a list of things to try, most of which are to work around stupid mistakes made by stupid customers. Their final conclusion was that it was malfunctioning and we needed to arrange to have it repaired, at our expense. They recommended places to repair it, but of course those are probably the ones that pay them for such recommendations. Are we supposed to spend hundreds of dollars getting a TV repaired, when we could buy a new one for just a little more than that?
All we needed was some clues about what specific part was likely to be malfunctioning, and a place to order the replacement part, so we could see if it would fix it. But their techs didn't have access to any of their information about common malfunctions or anything. They consider that information to be secret, and the customer be damned.
Engineered obsolescence mostly and then there is the clever 'engineered to be almost impossible to clean' without an old toothbrush, q-tips, etc so if the toaster or coffee maker still works but looks like hell, yep, I'm buying a bright and shiny new one, ugh.
With larger appliances it seems to be almost the same deal so even buying top-of-the-line you get tired of the dingy look of it, even if it doesn't break down, years before the stuff our parents/grandparents bought...again, ugh.
Keep in mind that you could spend more on appliances 50-60 years ago, because most households only needed a few big ticket items. Washer, dryer, stove, fridge, tv with a built in record player. Now you not only need all of those, but also a microwave, more than one computer, video game consoles, multiple tvs, and cell phones, along with paying for the plans that let you use the cell phones, computers, and televisions. Many more things to buy, so it helps if they're not prohibitively expensive. When you have a similar amount of money chasing many more items, prices have to drop. In the 1800's, many middle class people had live in help, something only the very wealthy have today. Why? Because minus all of the things we spend our money on today, they had the money left over to be able to afford it. A maid was the ultimate "household appliance".
They charge us thousands of dollars for these fancy refrigerators and they are POS. We have gone through a couple over the past 4 yrs. I usually don't buy extended warranties but decided to do so with the last one. Of course we had problems. The service company will continue to come out and try to repair it but it never gets fixed. SO what good is the extended warranty?? Better to buy cheap one used and then throw it away when it goes bad.
I had the same Kenmore washing machine for over 20 years...it was a tank! It was solidly made & my spouse could easily (and cheaply) make repairs to it. Parts were easy to find/buy. We only stopped using it because the tub broke free from the mountings & we couldn't find any replacement parts, or way to fix it. Now, 12 years after replacing it, we have gone through 2 other washing machines, and have a lot less laundry to do than we used to...the newer ones are cheap pieces of c---! And, like someone else said, I don't even want to talk about my one-year-old dishwasher!
Even the old ATT or Western Electric Touch Tone Phones last forever...
Ha - we kept a rotary phone around through about 1997 or 98. A neighbor child came over and I told her to call her mom and let her know she was at our house. She stared at the phone like it was from another planet. I had to show her how to dial.....
As part of a planned kitchen remodel, I just replaced a GE gas range I'd had for 18 years. Still worked - I was dismayed I couldn't even donate it. The only places I could find that accepted large appliance donations, limited them to appliances less than 15 years old. It ended up getting recycled instead. I did buy another GE though. Hope it lasts as long. My (low end) Kenmore front load washer and dryer set are going on 11 years old. I'm on my 3rd dishwasher in 18 years in this house - a lower end Bosch. Probably had it around 8-10 years. Still going great.
My niece stared at the rotary phone at the cabin too... stove, refrigerator and furnishings all date from the 50's...
Really old appliances like gas ranges from the 40's and 50's will last forever... parts are still available.
I have more trouble with anything labled "Saves Energy"
At one time I managed a lot of rentals... much fewer today.
The appliance service calls made up more than 50% of the calls... best decision I ever made was to no longer furnish any free standing appliances and just like that... most of my service calls eliminated and no more 4th of July weekends calls about refrigerator that stopped working or Thanksgiving Day oven problems!!!
My first car was a Model A Ford and my daily driver for years was a 1972 Plymouth Valiant I paid $800 for used... still have both cars today...
One way to look at it is cost of ownership over time...
I have family members that change out appliances every 10 years just to avoid problems... use to work OK... the last go round two have not made it so far.
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