Boomhauer

The plastic spray bottles that household chemicals come in always stop working not long after re-filling the bottle after the original product has gone. For example: If I finish a bottle of Clorox foaming cleaner or Lysol anti-bacterial, I refill the bottles with diluted Citrus cleaner or diluted bleach and they work fine for the first 2 or 3 refills then they stop working.

TimFountain

The Whirlpool oven and microwave are original to my house. Both have date codes of1993. Touch wood still working fine. Dishwasher is 8 years old (Bosch) and starting to fail, it throws an E24 error occasionally. I've tried just about everything to fix it but so far I've been SOL. I'll run all of them 'till the wheels fall off, and then fix them myself. I just did the drier. Now rollers, tensioner, heating coil and belt.. I also heard the other day on OPB about shortages of white goods and long wait times for repair technicians. I have a friend whose dryer went out and she ordered a new one in Sept, It will arrive 'some time between Thanksgiving and Christmas' according to whoever she ordered it from. Crazy times....

scrubbedexpat091

Just don't buy modern Whirlpool, we have those in our rental, they are less than 1 year old, and nothing but trouble, they are having to constantly repair and replace them, and the repair guy does nothing but complain about how bad they are....

scot47

Vance Packard was the writer who highlighted this, many decades ago.

scrubbedexpat091

It's smart on the companies part, find the sweet spot where consumers don't get mad when their appliance breaks and needs to be replaced but you as a company get more sales.

I guess from a companies perspective there is no point in building something that lasts 2 or 3 decades and can be easily repaired when you can sell more instead.

I'd imagine modern appliances having a lot more electronic stuff may play a role too, always seems to be some electronic gizmo breaking these days.

SpoogleDrummer

It's not smart when they get it wrong, my LG microwave died a couple of weeks ago after 2 years, I won't be buying another LG kitchen appliance.

scrubbedexpat091

I've not heard good things about LG. Wonder if the Microwave was made by LG?

I notice at Wal-Mart often the brand name on the small appliances is licensed to another company, so it may say LG or whatever brand, but it's not actually made by the brand. Wal-Mart in Canada does sell LG microwaves, considering the price point is so low, not sure they are actually made by LG.

I see in Canada the magnetron is warrantied for 10 years, but the rest of the thing is only warrantied for 1 year, and I have this feeling it's the "other" stuff that ends up breaking.

Marketing people, gotta love em. Aquariums are getting like this, brands buying "fancy" looking aquariums from China, slapping their own name on them, putting on a 1 year warranty, then posts on forums of 2 and 3 year old tanks splitting at the seams. A well built, well hell even a mass produced aquarium should last 10+ years before the seals start to give, but these manufacturers use the el cheapo silicone glue, and with glass aquariums it all boils down to the quality of the silicone.

But if a $200 off the shelf aquarium has a life time warranty against manufacturer's defects, but the 1,200 "fancy" one only has 1 year, gives me red flags, but people buy these expensive ones and more $$$ seems to most = higher quality which isn't always necessarily true.

Except when an aquarium goes, especially a big one, your floors, walls etc are ruined too, especially if its a saltwater tank, as saltwater is treated like sewage for insurance/cleaning purposes, but 100-300 gallon aquarium bursting causes a lot of damage.

spouse of scouse

After buying an expensive 'brand name' kettle and toaster, they both conked out after a year. I bought cheap chain store replacements and they're still going after 3 years.

SpoogleDrummer

I'm assuming it's LG, it was the first microwave I've bought as a Panasonic one came with the house and lasted 10 years. I think it was $250 so probably mid-range price for a microwave. The issue with it is that the fancy diagnosis over the phone feature doesn't work so although the magnetron part has a 10 year warranty you run the risk of calling someone out to fix it, that not being the issue, and then getting stuck with a bill for more than the microwave is worth. Suffice to say I have another Panasonic microwave now. It doesn't look as nice and doesn't play tunes or magically know when popcorn is cooked but it will probably last longer than 2 years.

scrubbedexpat091

Fancier it is the more there is to break it seems.

We were looking at microwaves the other day, (some reason this rental doesn't have one which isn't the norm) and I think I am just going with the el cheapo RCA (not really RCA licensed by some company in China) but when on sale its like $48 so even if only lasts 2-3 years, the per year cost is pretty low and good chance we will be in a different rental 2-3 years from now that will again have one included.

Upside to renting, just call the landlord "my stove isn't working, deal with it" but you know in a nicer tone.

Pulaski

A very good friend of mine used to run an engineering design department for a Korean electronics firm. He impressed upon me a deep scepticism of the quality of Korean electronics and appliances, and, to the points quoted above, I only ever hear terrible things about LG and Samsung appliances, and have stayed clear of them.

One of our neighbours told me just a few weeks ago that his LG washing machine has been repaired several times despite being only two years old.

I am pleased enough with my Samsung phone, but there isn't a lot of competition if you don't want to join a cult, and think that Chinese electronics are the worst possible choice.

SpoogleDrummer

I find anything with a screen is usually ok with Samsung such as TVs, monitors and phones. They do tend to ditch support for their products quicker than I like but so long as they keep working as they did when I bought them I'm not too upset. I'd never go near a fridge or cooker from them though even if it did have a screen.

HDWill

I remember reading an article describing Korean engineering as faster paced and less deliberative than the Japanese, which has allowed the Koreans to undercut pricing. That said, LG has for years made the best TVs in world (OLED).

scrubbedexpat091

Another example although less common products since its aquarium hobby based, but the "name brand" LED lighting usually they have a 1-2 year warranty (of course you have to send the lights to them usually at your cost both directions, but varies by company) and these lights have the nasty habit of breaking not long after the warranty ends, usually a control chip and not actually LED thingers that emit light, oh and they have taken the Apple route of where you can't buy most parts, but they will offer a 10 or 20% discount on a new one.

The chinese knock offs are far less, and while they don't last much longer than the name brand ones do, $100 every 1-3 years surly beats $700+ for name brand versions which are likely be done and needing to be replaced every 2-3 years.

Funny the whole thing about LED's is they were supposed to save money on both electricity and bulbs, so the higher price point on the LED aquarium lights was marketed as such, but man do the LED lights suck and short lives, but its the trend in the aquarium hobby all around, even basic box filters, making it so not one part can be replaced, pump goes, gotta buy a new filter, where in the past you could buy a new pump and presto working again.

There are people running filters from the 80's where a filter bought today might last 3-5 years tops.

There is one filter the AquaClear it's basically the same today as it was 40 years ago, and the motor can be replaced if it goes. Sure it doesn't have the fancy bells and whistles, but if it ain't broke why fix it?