Are you pleased with your new appliances a year later?

[calmloki]

We had the dishwasher fail - did some trouble shooting and it looks like a $50 part will probably fix it. This is part of a contractor grade kitchen set from 2004 or so. The gas stove has some issues; the whole set is tired after 15 years. The $50 part is six weeks out, so I'm washing by hand. No biggy, just the two of us.

We can afford a new kitchen set. So we started looking and, what luck, appliance packages are on sale all over for 10, 20, 30, 40% off! Wowzer! Looking for a gas 30" range, side by side frig/freezer, dishwasher, and over range microwave/vent. White by preference. A griddle like our $25 1950s gas range up north has would be nice. So white is no longer a normal appliance color. Huh. Stainless? ugh, but ok. We visit Costco and Home Depot and learn that the sheet metal on today's appliances must be tinfoil gauge, because every appliance we looked at looked like it had suffered hail damage and handles were coming off. To really drive home the insult the sets started around $2500 and quickly moved toward $10,000! Just because we can afford something doesn't mean it is worth it. I don't want to be able to start the Samsung microwave with my phone; I don't need a WiFi enabled frig with a door in door that lights up to show the leftovers inside. I want things that make hot, keep cold, and wash dishes. Gal wants appliances that match.
We both want reliable.

edit: and WTF - who decided that frozen goods in multiple drawers you have to bend over to reach was a great idea? not many SxS frig/freezers out there.

So have any of you replaced your kitchen appliances with sets that you feel delivered high value and sustained good service lately?

 

[tulak]

I’m having new appliances delivered tomorrow. I can’t answer how I’ll like them in a year from now, but I know that I’ll be happier than with my current appliances.

New fridge. It’s an LG french door style. I don’t like side-by-side fridges. It has a water dispenser on the outside, which is one my requirements. Other than that, I don’t care about WIFI, much less than having cameras inside the fridge.

New dishwasher. Also an LG. 44db. That’s the most important part for me. I want it to be quiet. Stainless steel tub is also nice.

My philosophy is that these appliances will last about 10 years and much like I do cars, I buy in the midrange. I’d rather spend the extra cash for something else.

 

[Bamaman]

We've moved, and the new house has high line Kitchenaid appliances.

The double built in convection ovens were about $3,500 alone. But I liked our last GE Profile stove with double ovens and the glass top electric cooktop. These Kitchenaid ovens have a fan that rattles. The microhood also buzzes when it's running.

I'm waiting for a repairman right now to come to fix the side by side fridge's icemaker. I'm really missing our Whirlpool double door fridge with the middle drawer and freezer on the bottom.

The Kitchenaid dishwasher is top line and it cleans well--but the door squeaks badly. We're already missing our Bosch dishwasher that is incredibly quiet.

What do you do when The Boss wants all kitchen brands to match? I give in.

 

[Katsmeow]

We bought a new Refrigerator last year when we moved (about 17 months ago). It is an LG, stainless steel, French doors. I love this refrigerator. A couple of things I really like. There is a door that just opens up for the things that are in door of the refrigerator. We tend to keep there things we use often, such as non-soft drinks, mayo, that kind of thing. Then there is a separate drawer between the top and freezer at the bottom. We use this to keep soft drinks in. So about 90% of the time when I go the refrigerator I don't have to go into the main compartment. Refrigerator cost I think around $2500.

The only negative is that I wish it was counter depth. That area in the kitchen doesn't have a lot of space the refrigerator sticks out.

We bought a Kenmore freezer around the same time. It is an upright that we keep in our utility room. It is pretty simply and has been fine.

The people we bought the house from put in a new smooth top electric cooktop right while we were under contract on the house (they ordered it before). It has worked fine, but I would rather have induction.

 

[Ronstar]

We got new kitchen appliances 15 months ago. All work fine. Don’t like our side by side fridge. Have to open both sides to open a full width drawer inside. Don’t like the design of the lower freezer either. Drawers within drawers makes it tough to put stuff in without interfering with drawer closure when the main freezer drawer is closed.

 

[calmloki]

We bought a new Refrigerator last year when we moved (about 17 months ago). It is an LG, stainless steel, French doors. I love this refrigerator. A couple of things I really like. There is a door that just opens up for the things that are in door of the refrigerator. We tend to keep there things we use often, such as non-soft drinks, mayo, that kind of thing. Then there is a separate drawer between the top and freezer at the bottom. We use this to keep soft drinks in. So about 90% of the time when I go the refrigerator I don't have to go into the main compartment. Refrigerator cost I think around $2500.

The only negative is that I wish it was counter depth. That area in the kitchen doesn't have a lot of space the refrigerator sticks out.

We bought a Kenmore freezer around the same time. It is an upright that we keep in our utility room. It is pretty simply and has been fine.

The people we bought the house from put in a new smooth top electric cooktop right while we were under contract on the house (they ordered it before). It has worked fine, but I would rather have induction.

Interesting that you do find the door-in-door to be useful. I thought it was just a gimmick and more stuff to break. The LG you have has the user's choice drawer frig or freezer?

 

[RobbieB]

The large 25 cu-ft Whirlpool side by side fridge and the GE induction range / convection oven are both working well going on 2 years old.

 

[Katsmeow]

Interesting that you do find the door-in-door to be useful. I thought it was just a gimmick and more stuff to break. The LG you have has the user's choice drawer frig or freezer?

Yes, the door in door is very useful. I literally use it multiple times per day. The drawer is only frig not freezer. (I think -- maybe not -- we have a standalone freezer so would only this for the refrigerator) Use it multiple times a day as well.

 

[pacergal]

Replaced frig, dishwasher, clothes washer and dryer. All LG. And a very small whirlpool freezer.
Frig is French door with lower freezer and water/ice dispenser on the outside. Love it.
Dishwasher is much quieter than the previous one, but doesn't have "heated dry". I guess the stainless steel holds in the heat and a fan blows around(?). It works fine.
Love the washer/dryer. All of these appliances conked out about the same time, most were 20 +years old
The oven and cooktop are 25 years old and work fine (so far!)

 

[Souschef]

We also had contractor grade appliances. We replaced the stove, microwave and dishwasher with GE appliances that were far superior. GE did make a bottom freezer fridge in our size, unfortunately. We ended up with a Maytag that we are very happy with..
I removed the icemaker to give us more freezer space, and because our local water is very hard. I have a separate icemaker that uses distilled water.

 

[davebarnes]

We had above average quality appliances installed by our builder.
After 6 years we gutted an entire wall and got what we wanted: Sub-Zero, Miele, Wolf, Zephyr.
Two years in, we are extremely happy.

 

[pb4uski]

We have Kenmore in both homes other than one refrigerator that we haven't replaced. One set is 7 years old and the other is 2 years old.

Had some issues with one fridge in the first two years that could have been our fault, but those problems are fixed and long gone.

Kenmore fridge is made by LG, both Kenmore dishwashers are made by Bosch, not sure who made the ranges and microhoods.

 

[EastWest Gal]

Cannot recommend a Bosch dishwasher enough. The third silverware drawer on the top means more room on the other two shelves. It's quiet and gets everything really clean. Got it about 2 years ago.

Also recommend GE convection oven and induction cooktop. Induction cooks more easily and quickly than gas, and without the fire hazard. When our 25 year old oven went out a year ago (gas oven and cooktop), we shopped quickly and there was a special where we got a high end set of cookware with the oven-several hundred $ in value. Two "burners" can be linked to use as a large griddle, and there is a special warming burner in the back. This is not a super large or high end model, is just a standard 30" wide range. Burned on food is not likely given the stove itself does not get hot, only the pan on it. Any heat on the cooktop surface is from the pan sitting on it.

We do not buy appliances from big box stores. We have a couple of good family owned appliance retailers in our area, both which provide good service. They arranged capping off the gas line to the range and installing appropriate electrical circuitry to handle the new range. We had to pay for the service, but trusted their judgement in selecting a contractor.

This is the kind of thing where using Nextdoor app might help you with finding a good business to work with. You won't get much service with a box store.

 

[rk911]

we renovated the kitchen 7-8 years ago and replaced everything...fridge, dishwasher, range, microwave, trash compactor, wall oven. mostly Kitchen Aid. had one service call on the Bosch dishwasher for a minor problem but that's it.

we bought our current home in 1988 and bought a new Kenmore washer/dryer set. the dryer is still going strong with no service calls. the washer had one service call maybe 20-yrs ago and finally quit about 7-years ago. after an exhaustive search that resulted in a bunch of microprocessor based washers that were clones of each other we went old school, found and bought a new all-mechanical Speed Queen. less than a dozen moving parts, 3-wash cycles and best of all it was made in the USA. zero problems with it. my buddy bought a new LG washer about a year ago and has had several service calls all for the same thing.

 

[CoolRich59]

Dishwasher: A Bosch. Just terrific. Very quiet, cleans well, and zero issues in the 3 years we've had it.

Refrigerator: An LG. I hate, hate, HATE it. We had problems with the ice-maker almost from Day 1. After six service calls, the ice-maker has been replaced a couple of times and now works. But, it's poorly designed and every time you open the freezer, ice cubes fall out onto the floor.

The real kicker was that we got rid of an older, but serviceable, Sub-Zero because I thought it wasn't worth fixing. The DW will never let me live that down.

Edit to add: Our fridge has several dings in it. In all honesty though, I'm hesitant to add this to my reasons to hate LG appliances as we have 5 grandsons who visit Grandma regularly. But, I can't help but wonder how it happens that the fridge appears to have borne the brunt of their invasions, while the stove and dishwasher are unscathed.

Washer & Dryer: Speed Queen. We inherited a mixed set washer and dryer when we bought the house, and both units quickly died. We heard that Speed Queen made "boring" but solid appliances. The DW said she didn't care about 'bells and whistles' and so we went with Speed Queen for both washer and dryer. She hasn't said a word about them which I take as a huge thumbs up.

 

[Telly]

I renovated our kitchen back 2010/11. As I do all the work, and I will be fixing anything that breaks, I buy on quality, not whiz-bang "features". And I will not touch LG, or Samsung, nor really expensive stuff that has poor track records over the years. Everything is black, and they all match, black is black. Not interested in stainless steel. Items are from different manufacturers due to quality... some manufactures excel for certain items, and are so-so to poor for some other type of item.

Whirlpool 25 cu. ft. SxS fridge. All SxS have water and ice through the door. I like it.
Whirlpool dishwasher.
GE Profile electric smooth cooktop.
GE electric wall oven, has convection settings too.
GE big microwave (tabletop) that had a build-in trim kit available, so I could flush wall-mount it right above the wall oven. The trim kit includes baffles that separate input cooling air from exhaust air. I also have a 3/4" plywood sealed separator between wall oven and microwave above, so absolutely no airflow within the wall cabinet from oven to microwave.

Vent hood is a Broan that I direct-vented out its back, had to head off a wall stud, cut brick, etc. to duct out to a screened flapper wall vent. Due to the overall wall depth, I fabricated my own rectangular duct extender.

Oh, ZERO problems with any unit to date.

The only installation pain was the dishwasher - all had gone to the "tall tub" style. The overall D/W height is the same, but the inside "floor" is lower, making the space below for motor(s) and water supply, drain line, and NM cable really tight. Because the space below was so tight, I would not be able to make copper tubing supply work, and get it slid into place without problems. So I used the ss braid-reinforced vinyl hose, and used pieces of auto heater hose to run the supply hose through, to reduce the possibility of the supply hose ever wearing through due to vibration against the concrete floor.

 

[zinger1457]

Replaced all my kitchen appliances (frig, stove, dishwasher, microwave) last year this time, all LG SS appliances. So far everything is working fine. Some of the appliances have a wifi 'smart' feature which I've never bothered to use. Anyone find this feature useful? Maybe it will help troubleshoot problems if I ever need it.

 

[ncbill]

I don't replace an appliance until it breaks.

4 years ago bought new Samsung electric smooth top range & Maytag OTR microwave to replace an all-in-one unit (combo range/microwave...nearly 6' tall!)...bought the 5 year extended warranty for both, expect them not to last much beyond that.

Holding onto the late-1990s Kenmore (Whirlpool) side-by-side fridge until it dies.

 

[skipro33]

We have all LG Profile appliances installed 2006. The fridge ice maker I've given up on and just buy bag ice and keep out in the garage freezer. The main circuit board has gone out 3 times, but I researched and found it was a known problem and gotten LG to replace for free or at most, only paid shipping for the board and replaced myself. It's now up to the 5th generation of that board but Gen4 is holding for now. It uses a lot of electricity too. The LG Profile microwave has been replaced twice; the magnatron burns out. It's a 1200watt unit, very fast, and I had a custom shelf built for it above a coffee station, so I don't want to have to shop for another model that MIGHT fit. The stove/oven is gas and seems to work fine. Dishwasher works great, never fails and that's a problem; my wife says it is too loud and wants another. I'm hard of hearing so it doesn't bother me, but her nagging sure does! Ha!

Clothes washer/dryer are LG and the washer has broken several times. I get on youtube to figure out how to trouble shoot and fix. I've saved this machine from the dump 3 times now and my wallet hundreds of dollars. Parts are readily available from Amazon, sometimes next day, for little cost. Youtube vids are very detailed. I learned how to reset the water level on my front loader so the clothes actually can get clean. Now I only need half the soap with the right water level. A simple screw adjustment and a secret button push sequence got me to a screen that shows water level. (among a lot of other stuff like spin cycle speed, water temperature setting, etc.) Who knew you could hack your washing machine and punch up the performance!? I know cars can be with special programmer boxes, but right from the screen on the washing machine. Ha!
We added a studio apartment in our attic for a care giver living space and went GE with everything there in black stainless. All working fine, but to be honest, those are rarely used.



If anyone is still reading my ramble here, I'm going to be replacing the dishwasher with black friday special. Any recommendations? So far, sounds like Bosch is thought well of. Be model specific if you could please.

 

[travelover]

......... The fridge ice maker I've given up on and just buy bag ice ............

There is a new invention that you might find of use.

 

[mountainsoft]

We bought a low-end Maytag dishwasher for about $325 when we built our house in 2004. After repairing it a couple times we "upgraded" to a new Maytag dishwasher in 2012 for $530. The stainless steel interior doesn't stain like the old plastic one did and seems to hold the heat in longer. However, the new model takes twice as long to wash a load of dishes and doesn't clean as well as the old model. The new rack design is also very restrictive. It's harder to load dishes, and only has a designated space for two wine glasses. Any more just flop around unsupported. I had to repair one of the wheels on the lower dish rack, but otherwise it's still working OK.

Exactly one year ago we replaced our 30+ year old washer and dryer with a new top load Whirlpool washer and dryer. Front loads were all too big to fit the space. So far they are working well and we have been very happy with them. They use less water and made a noticeable reduction in our electric bill. Despite being smaller on the outside they can hold a lot more without the center agitator. We've even washed our large king size comforter in it.

 

[rk911]

i should’ve added that the 10-yr old frigidare ‘fridge we moved to the new house in 1988 has been living and working in the garage ever since. 41-yrs and still going strong. they don’t make ‘em like they used to.

 

[RobbieB]

No ice makers or water dispensers for me either. No built in tap, house too old.

Have bin in freezer and 4 ice trays. Have 5 liter jug with tap valve in fridge.

 

[Starsky]

We remodeled a couple of years ago. I don't understand why someone would want a wi-fi enabled fridge, but they actually sell them.

We can't recommend Bosch highly enough. Our new dishwasher is virtually silent, and the refrigerator is wonderful. They even offered a fridge without an external ice maker, which my wife really wanted. They seemed to be rated as the most reliable of the brands we looked at, and so far they have been trouble-free.

Our big splurge was a very nice [yellow] BlueStar range/convection oven. Wow! Having a real professional quality stove makes a huge difference in how food cooks. It is the centerpiece of our kitchen.

The big surprise was when we purchased a Delta touch faucet for our new sink. We weren't sure if it was a gimmick or not, but we took the leap and now we love it! It's super convenient to just touch the faucet to turn it on and off when your hands are mucky or full.

 

[dirtbiker]

We replaced all of our kitchen appliances about a year ago. It was low to mid-range with a price tag of around $4000-$5000 ($2500 OTD after sales) for fridge, electric range/oven, dishwasher, and microwave. It was all Samsung. We've been happy with everything except the dishwasher. It has really let us down. No specific issues other than that it doesn't clean half as well as the 15 year old dishwasher it replaced (that eventually quit working and was the impetus for replacing everything). We are thinking about replacing this one after only a year...