There goes GE Appliances, sold to Electrolux

[Telly]

Yuk. GE has entered into an agreement to sell their appliances division to Electrolux, the Euro-company that bought Frigidaire and years ago Eureka (vacuums).

I consider the GE heating appliances (smooth-top electric cooktops, electric wall ovens, microwaves) and build-in kits for the above to be the best.

And Electrolux to be overpriced and questionable. Time will tell if Electrolux follows a common Euro-centric pattern of thinking that they are the absolute best in everything, and those rube colonists over in North America just need to wise-up and buy their products.

Since they usually can't make significant inroads into the NA market on their own, a common Euro-way of doing this is to buy a NA company, then work in their Euro-products into it, while cutting the North American R & D that knew the home market the best. Been there, experienced it, yuk.

I wouldn't be surprised if we see some new bail-out GE retirees show up in the next year or two here at E-R.org

 

[mpeirce]

The last couple of GE appliance products I've owned have been pretty shoddy (microwave and cooktop - both didn't last very long and I was happy to replace them), I say good riddance.

I just hope their jet engine quality stays in the "good" range ;-)

 

[robnplunder]

I consider the GE heating appliances (smooth-top electric cooktops, electric wall ovens, microwaves) and build-in kits for the above to be the best.

We haven't bought GE appliances for some time. My recollection is (we bought a Samsung washer about 6 months ago) that GE's products weren't very competitive. They must have lost quite a marketshare but am shocked that it is being sold. I wonder if they are going to keep its brand name.

 

[Walt34]

The last couple of GE appliance products I've owned have been pretty shoddy (microwave and cooktop - both didn't last very long and I was happy to replace them), I say good riddance.

The house we are in came with them and that has been our experience too. In 12 years we have replaced three of the original five. Not impressed at all.

 

[TrvlBug]

The last couple of GE appliance products I've owned have been pretty shoddy (microwave and cooktop - both didn't last very long and I was happy to replace them), I say good riddance.

I just hope their jet engine quality stays in the "good" range ;-)

Same experience here. IMHO GE has gone the way of Maytag…used to manuf great products, but no more.

 

[bld999]

The house we are in came with them and that has been our experience too. In 12 years we have replaced three of the original five. Not impressed at all.

All the brands are equipped with printed circuit control boards these days, and a failure of one can "total" them. Even the vaunted Bosch dishwashers, a little puff of smoke and you got trouble.

I think white - westinghouse makes about 80% of the brands in north america

 

[bssc]

We got GE appliances since DW used to work for them and we got an employee discount. Only problem we had was when the ice maker didn't work. The issue turned out that the circuit board wasn't plugged in right.

 

[Lsbcal]

All the brands are equipped with printed circuit control boards these days, and a failure of one can "total" them. Even the vaunted Bosch dishwashers, a little puff of smoke and you got trouble.

I think white - westinghouse makes about 80% of the brands in north america

Those PC boards can be expensive to replace. Our 17 year old Thermador ovens look great but the display has gone very dim. The part cost is $335 plus maybe 1 to 2 hours to install for total cost of maybe $500.

So we probably will buy a new double oven.

Are GE ovens really that bad?

 

[Meadbh]

Tax inversion again!

 

[BTravlin]

This will probably spell the end for GE Appliance Park in Louisville. There were over 20,000 employees working there in the early/mid 70's but I think it's down to around 5-6,000 now. GE has threatened to close it many times over the years but the union and/or the city have made concessions time and again. The employees also boosted productivity. Shame to see it go bit I doubt Electrolux will keep it open.

 

[Lakewood90712]

This will probably spell the end for GE Appliance Park in Louisville. There were over 20,000 employees working there in the early/mid 70's but I think it's down to around 5-6,000 now. GE has threatened to close it many times over the years but the union and/or the city have made concessions time and again. The employees also boosted productivity. Shame to see it go bit I doubt Electrolux will keep it open.

Electrolux may keep the plant open. They have bought up several US brands over the years. When you see a "Sears" or A and E appliance repair van, it is Electrolux running the operation.

Electrolux wants to be in the appliance business, GE does not. GE has been looking for a buyer for years. The GE thing from Jack Welch days is "Grow Profit or be thrown to the ash can ". They would have sold it years ago, if a buyer was willing.

 

[Senator]

They really do not make a damn thing here in the USA anymore. Welcome to globalization. Wages are the next thing that will be globalized and equal.

That is why the world is in a defaltionary mode.

 

[Lakewood90712]

Those PC boards can be expensive to replace. Our 17 year old Thermador ovens look great but the display has gone very dim. The part cost is $335 plus maybe 1 to 2 hours to install for total cost of maybe $500.

So we probably will buy a new double oven.

Are GE ovens really that bad?

I have found new "old stock" appliance parts on E-bay for a lot less than the normal supply sources , but your repair service may not want to use somebody elses parts. Like automotive, a lot of the repair revenue is parts mark-up.

 

[Lakewood90712]

They really do not make a damn thing here in the USA anymore. Welcome to globalization. Wages are the next thing that will be globalized and equal.

That is why the world is in a defaltionary mode.

I seem to remember reading that 40% of the us economy back in 2007 was "Financial Services" Being a money-changer is great while it lasts.

 

[W2R]

The house we are in came with them and that has been our experience too. In 12 years we have replaced three of the original five. Not impressed at all.

Uh-oh! I've had a GE washer and dryer for 12 years too, with no repairs or problems of any kind at all so far. Sounds like I had better start shopping around.

 

[mpeirce]

They really do not make a damn thing here in the USA anymore.

I know this is hyperbole, but I hear this from others and it's just not true.

Actually, the US is a bit of a manufacturing powerhouse. Not all of it is US owned, but much of it is. Lots of it is no longer unionized, but some of it still is. Lots of it is in the south rather than the "industrial midwest" or east.

The USA was second in the world in exports last year (yes China exports more than we do). America shipped US$1.579 trillion worth of goods around the globe, up by 49.4% since 2009. (Top US Exports)

A couple of examples:

Lots of car/truck companies have moved manufacturing into the US. More than three million vehicles are assembled in US plants by autoworkers employed by foreign brands like BMW, Honda, Hyundai, Mercedes-Benz and Toyota.

America built aircraft accounted for 7.5% of all US exports - thanks Boeing.

Even GE sells aircraft engines all around the world among many other items - just not appliances any more.

The world has certainly changed, and change is hard. But the US is actually doing rather well if you look closely.

 

[38Chevy454]

I used to work at Appliance Park in Louisville. At the time (early 90's) the only thing that mattered was making the profit and keeping Jack Welch happy. I was not and still not a fan of him. After transferring from GE Aircraft Engines in Evendale, OH (Cincinnati); it was a big shock to go from aerospace quality to bare minimum quality. At GE Appliances it was "how can we make it cheaper" - not like it should have been "how can we make it better". I will not get into some of the actions that I feel were unethical business practices, driven by the almighty profit. Let's just say I sarcastically call it Generous Electric now and will never buy any GE appliance for myself.

It will be a blow to the Louisville area, but in reality it has been dying a slow death for a long time. Most of that slow death is self-inflicted by making poor quality cheap products. I understand it has to be globally competitive, but as the old saying goes "the bitterness of poor quality lingers long after the sweetness of low price is forgotten".

GE has been living off their legacy and capital investments for years. The financial arm has carried a lot of the profit, along with medical. Most GE manufactured items the name is the only thing GE. The name was sold in the name of profit.

 

[purplesky]

I know this is hyperbole, but I hear this from others and it's just not true.

Actually, the US is a bit of a manufacturing powerhouse. Not all of it is US owned, but much of it is. Lots of it is no longer unionized, but some of it still is. Lots of it is in the south rather than the "industrial midwest" or east.

The USA was second in the world in exports last year (yes China exports more than we do). America shipped US$1.579 trillion worth of goods around the globe, up by 49.4% since 2009. (Top US Exports)

A couple of examples:

Lots of car/truck companies have moved manufacturing into the US. More than three million vehicles are assembled in US plants by autoworkers employed by foreign brands like BMW, Honda, Hyundai, Mercedes-Benz and Toyota.

America built aircraft accounted for 7.5% of all US exports - thanks Boeing.

Even GE sells aircraft engines all around the world among many other items - just not appliances any more.

The world has certainly changed, and change is hard. But the US is actually doing rather well if you look closely.

The American worker isn't seeing any benefit yet unfortunately.

Those are "Right to work" wages and unfortunately we will not see a recovery in the middle-class. But its great for shareholders and multinationals to pile up more cash.

I own GE,Boeing, and Toyota shares and yes I do want manufacturing wages in the south to be increased.

Hopefully this GE spinoff will help GE stock. It has been stuck for too long.

 

[Looking4Ward]

We put GE Profile appliances in our last house we had built.

Every single one of them had to be replaced over the course of five years, the dishwasher and range twice (once each under warranty and again outside of warranty).

In our current home we started with all new Frigidaire Gallery appliances; they have been trouble free for five years now.

 

[Telly]

We put GE Profile appliances in our last house we had built.

Every single one of them had to be replaced over the course of five years, the dishwasher and range twice (once each under warranty and again outside of warranty).

In our current home we started with all new Frigidaire Gallery appliances; they have been trouble free for five years now.

I'm not surprised at all. Just about every major appliance mfg. makes a line of "builder's specials". Some were resistant to the idea at first, that it would give their brand a bad name over time. But by not participating, they were then shut out of the builder market due to too high of cost. So... they bit the bullet and came out with a cheapo line to compete in that market. And that is a very big market, with no retail overhead. These models are not easy to ID, they can have the upscale model names on them. They don't scream "cheapo".

And sometimes people have been snookered by unscrupulous salesmen/developers, that the new house buyer paid extra for the "appliance upgrade"... and got builder's specials anyway, the salesman pocketed the difference.

 

[Looking4Ward]

I'm not surprised at all. Just about every major appliance mfg. makes a line of "builder's specials". Some were resistant to the idea at first, that it would give their brand a bad name over time. But by not participating, they were then shut out of the builder market due to too high of cost. So... they bit the bullet and came out with a cheapo line to compete in that market. And that is a very big market, with no retail overhead. These models are not easy to ID, they can have the upscale model names on them. They don't scream "cheapo".

And sometimes people have been snookered by unscrupulous salesmen/developers, that the new house buyer paid extra for the "appliance upgrade"... and got builder's specials anyway, the salesman pocketed the difference.

I'm sure you are probably correct, but I don't think that applied in our case as we purchased the appliances outside of the builder channel (Lowe's, Home Depot).

These were bona-fide GE Profile models but as a friend of mine commented during our troubles, the higher you go up the model line the more problems you may have because the manufacturer makes less of the higher tier products and hasn't worked out all of the bugs.

 

[Midpack]

We put a new GE fridge, dishwasher, range and microwave in our kitchen 16 months ago, so far so good though 5-10 years is the real test. Consumer Reports generally rated GE appliances higher than most other brands when I was reseaching then, and the premium cost brands were mostly rated lower, some shockingly bad despite very high prices. We had a friend who bought an expensive LG fridge a few years ago and it was a nightmare in year one. Time will tell...

 

[Telly]

I would not touch a GE refrig.
But back in the 70's we bought a house with a GE refr. that the prev. owner did not want to take with, would not match their next house kitchen. The left kitchen appliances were "coppertone" color! (remember them?) The only thing we had to do over the years we lived there was to replace the refr. evaporator fan, the bearing seized. It took me longer to take all the food out of the freezer to get at the panel that the fan was under, than to actually replace it.

But in much more recent times many have had big probs with GE refrs. We looked at refrs. maybe 5-7 years ago, at that time some of the GE models seemed to be a very thinly disguised other make, Samsung I think. IIRC, the bad GE refrs. were out before that, maybe they threw in the towel on their own.

My pref. for refr., D/W, washer, dryer is Whirlpool. And that is what we bought for refr. after I did the major kitchen renovation, a Whirlpool s-b-s w/water/ice through door (we moved up!). We gave away our still running fine 20 year old top-freezer Kenmore (mfg. by Whirlpool).
For D/W, Whirlpool. For elect. cooktop, elect. wall oven and M/W and build-in kit for the last two, GE. Zero problems so far.

Just a note, many Kenmores today are made by others, not Whirlpool, can tell by the first digits of the Sears model # as to who the mfg. is. I used to have a big list of Sears prefixes to mfg. coding.

 

[Telly]

We put a new GE fridge, dishwasher, range and microwave in our kitchen 16 months ago, so far so good though 5-10 years is the real test. Consumer Reports generally rated GE appliances higher than most other brands when I was reseaching then, and the premium cost brands were mostly rated lower, some shockingly bad despite very high prices. We had a friend who bought an expensive LG fridge a few years ago and it was a nightmare in year one. Time will tell...

It is amazing that some very high-price brands can still be around. I would think that the cachet would wear off eventually, but not so far. When we moved here a couple decades ago, you just didn't have a first-rate kitchen to be proud of if you didn't have a built-in Sub Zero refr.! Way overpriced, a maintenance nightmare. Not for us! A lot of the "commercial" ranges that people put in are in that category, like Thermadore and something-king, and others.

On the topic of LG, I will not buy anything of theirs anymore, nor anyone else's model if it is their brand but made by LG. I learned my lesson. I don't need the aggravation. It can be hard to determine, and the salesmen really don't know anything or not to be trusted on info like that, make something up.

 

[bld999]

Here is what claims to be a definitive list of who makes what:

Appliance411 The Purchase: Who Makes What?

I made the statement somewhere on page one that white-westinghouse made 80% of us appliances, which is clearly not the case, and other sources say that w-w is under license to electrolux since 1986. Time to defrag the old meat hdd.