I want the public to know that the new machines out their are not lasting as long as machines that were built 10 to 20 years ago. It does not matter what brand it is: Kenmore, Whirlpool, GE, Maytag you get the idea.
In my opinion the older machines were built like tanks! They have less electronics in them and in my opinion they were built with better parts. Before you buy a new machine keep in mind that almost anything you buy today will have a electronic control board in it and the more gadgets the refrigerator, washer, dryer, dishwasher or oven has the more things that can go wrong with it. If your machine is in good condition and has been well maintained then you should think about repairing your appliance. The cost of the repair in most cases will be far less than a new machine. Also, most new machine's will not last as long as your parents machine did! And I have just recently discovered that the Appliance manufacture's have been cutting back on the warranty coverage of refrigerator's seal systems, some of them use to be over 10 years and now are only one year.... whats that tell ya?
For those of you that I could not convince and your almost out the door to purchase a new appliance I have a couple of Tips for you.
First, do a litter home work, research the appliance your going to buy. Do a search online about the appliance you want to buy to see if customers are having a problem with it, and do not just look at review pages find some blogs, get the model number of the appliance your thinking of buying and do a help search on the internet. (Example: help (your model #) washer) and see what comes up on the internet. I personally looked up a LG dishwasher that had 3000 complaints on it. Of course you can not rule out something just because it has a couple of complaints.
Second, when your at the check out ready to pay for your new machine, they are going to want you to purchase a extended warranty on the appliance. If you do not have a home warranty that covers your appliance's and your spending a lot of money on the machine you should get the warranty. As I said, the new machines can have more than one control board and lighting and power serges can cause problems with these newer machines, and the makers of appliances are not putting serge protectors on them witch is something else you might what to buy for it also.
Third, on the positive side. I can say that I am happy with front load washers, they do save a lot of water, when a front load washer fills it only uses a few gallons of water compared to 10 gallons or more on a top load washer every time it fills. This could save you hundreds of gallons of water a year. The customers I have talked with say it washes very well. On the negative side, the cost of repair could be on the high side, so don't forget about that extended warranty.
UPDATE: 10-17-09
If you are buying a new appliance please ask the company you are buying it from who will be the service company that will repair the product if it has a problem. We are finding in some areas that some manufactures do not have any authorized Tech's in many areas.
Thank you for reading.
