I think they can all be a crapshoot. It is worthwhile to do your homework and
maybe you can find product a little better than the others.
We remodeled our kitchen a few years ago and got new appliances- dishwasher,
builtin microwave, oven, refrigerator, cooktop. After a lot of looking my wife
decided on GE for everything except the cooktop. As far as I'm concerned all
of the appliances have done well and are doing well, except the refrigerator
water dispenser isn't working now and the icemaker is hit and miss.
Unfortunately I think icemakers are troublesome no matter what, and even the
expensive standalone icemakers are not trouble free.
I think appliances have the same problems as other products- they are so driven
by price competition that it is hard for a company to make a quality product
and still be able to sell it.
We looked at the appliances at HomeDepot but I insisted on buying them from a
locally-owned company that sells only appliances. They have been around for a
long time and I figured that if I had any problems with the appliances up front
that I would be more successful in complaining to them than I would be in
complaining to Home Depot. If you can find a good appliance company you might
be able to rely on their advice for brand reliablility, but I'm not sure about
relying on a Home Depot employee's advice.
I think all products can have problems, the thing is to buy the brand with the
fewest percentage of problems. If you find a complaint online, maybe that is
the only person out of thousands that got a bad example. I buy a lot of
computer products from newegg.com, and they have online feedback ratings from 1
to 5. I've compared similar products and one product would have a high
percentage of buyers that gave it a 1 out of 5 while the similar product would
have a low percentage. It is rare to find a product that doesn't have at least
10 percent of buyers giving it a 1 or 2, so I figure that even the best brands
still have problems. I've done the same thing with online ratings at
bestbuy.com. I figure if a product has less than 10% giving it a 1 or 2 then
that's the best I'll find and beyond that I have to take my chances.
> Are they all a crapshoot as far as getting a
> good appliance or has anyone been consistently happy with the
> performance of one brand over another?
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