I’m about to buy all the appliances to a new place in Europe and could use some more horror stories and learn which brands to avoid. So far I’ve been told to stay away from Samsung ovens. Anyone has any regrets on appliances?
About 8 years ago I got my kitchen redone and went all in on IKEA, mostly because others had horrible waiting times. Now remember it's 8 years later so I don't know how much their stuff changed over time but here's how my stuff is doing:
Fridge: still working perfectly, light, temp control, auto-defrost, fans. I think the compressor got a bit louder but that's it.
Dishwasher: still working fine, the upper basket (or whatever that's called) and its rails show some wear ie tilting downward when pulled out. Sometimes the drainage pump sounds a little strange, maybe something's stuck in there.
Stove: induction, still working fine. Unfortunately all the models they had available had touch buttons on top, probably to make it appear modern. They don't work when your finger is wet or greasy, and the whole stove turns off when water spills on any of the buttons and it starts beeping like crazy. For some funny reason, the stove stopped making beeping noises on button presses. I guess when you don't have real buttons you want this as some form of feedback that the press registered, but the beep sounded really cheap like a square wave. It still beeps when you turn it on or off, and when there's water on the buttons.
Oven: working apart from the bottom heating element. It broke about 3 to 4 years ago. Never bothered to replace it, just using hot air mode now.
They all look like simple no-bells-and-whistles appliances, but also not sturdy. I think in all cases I picked one of the cheapest options.
Bonus nerd stuff on the stove: when the beeping-on-button-press still worked, very rarely one of two things happened: a) a button press registered, but no beep was emitted. b) a beep was emitted but nothing happened. I was suspecting that there's something going on like two completely independent sets of wires going to all the buttons, one for actual functionality, the other one just for beeps, like it was bolted on later by a different department or even company. Maybe the original design had it just beep on power on/off and they wired this in after the fact.
I would stay away not necessarily from specific brands, but models and even variants of models.
Case in point: factories producing my mother's washing machine model were located in three different countries. Depending on the country of origin, one important part would be either integrated with a few others or not. In the former case repairs were not worth the cost.
Only way to tell if your particular machine would be repairable was to check the country of origin.
If you can afford it, get Miele or specifically the Bosch models that are made in Germany (many lower-end Bosch models are contracted out to e.g. Turkey, and not quite as good).
Be wary though. Miele started fucking up their value proposition too. Parts may no longer be sold by repairfolk not associated with Miele. That's usually the start of the slide down the quality and repairability scale.
See this message from an independent parts seller:
Exactly - Miele, or Bosch Series 6 or 8 are usually made in Germany with longer warranty. And Siemens(which is just rebranded bosch nowadays, usually with even better finish and longer warranty).
Yes and no. First it should be a German Miele. But in general, new Mieles aren’t as good as old ones. Across the board. Washers, dryers, dishwashers. The only benefit they offer is energy efficiency (at least based on brochures). If I had to buy again, I would opt for second hand refurbished Miele/Bosch/Siemens with at least 10 years of age. Where I live there are lots of second hand shops that even offer warranty.
Our fridge however is Japanese Panasonic. Not a common choice in Europe but it’s been great so far. Zero maintenance. No frost. Has some minimal digital control but we don’t touch it. YMMV.
We are actually quite happy with our Samsung American style fridge. It is about the last model before they went all the way with integrated lcd and wifi etc. It is also pretty energy efficient for a double door fridge/freezer.
Bosch, Siemens, Neff, is all the same brand underneath and there is little difference between the models across years. Just get something that is offline.
I have had Miele appliances forever and have been very happy with them. My current fridge, dishwasher and dryer are both almost 20 years old. The fridge has never had anything wrong with it, nor has the dishwasher, the dryer needed a new thermostat which I replaced myself. I opted for the simplest models that Miele make.
Want to add a story from my parents here: they also are diehard Miele fans, and when their dishwasher broke a few years ago, they went Miele again. Unfortunately it broke six months in. The Miele repair tech came in, asked what program they usually run, and they replied they just turn it on and press start. That meant they always run the ECO mode that's taking ages because it's running at low temp and little water.
The repair guy told them that the thing breaking was their own fault since the manual clearly started you need to run one of the other modes every X cycles if you normally do ECO, otherwise all the internal tubes gunk up. They got a rebate on a new one, but they refused to replace it. I'd been done with Miele at that point, but they just bought a new one. How a company known for quality and engineering can't implement a simple logic that the device would automatically use more water/temperature every X runs, or at least show a warning on the display, is beyond me.
Oh, and the new one, according to my parents at least, occasionally just stops in the middle of the washing cycle and they need to restart it. But I wouldn't rule out that this is some sort of user error. Maybe you just shouldn't go with the model that has a dozen buttons and knobs when you're 80. :)
I've been happy with my Electrolux fridge (it's only seven years old but literally zero maintenance in that time and it's still working like a champ), which I bought because my parents were happy with theirs which they'd bought five or six years before I got mine. Theirs is still going well too.
My washing machine is a Bosch series 8 which has also been really good, same age, no problems.
Seconded. No-Frost freezer compartments since the 80's i think and they are manufactured in Germany actually. Miele's fridges are also whitelabeled Liebherrs
We bought all new appliances for a kitchen remodel about 1.5 years ago, everything pretty nice, mostly LG. Even after this time I am still in love with the LG fridge, glass door, two kinds of ice, middle drawer chill or freeze. It’s pricey but I’ve never marveled over an appliance this much.
My GE dishwasher made it about 4 years and my range hood just under 6(needs a new blower due to spun bearing now and it was never sealed well). Garbage.
But the first year service rate for even high end dishwashers is very high(over 10%!). Got a Bosch and got lucky so far but it still feels like luck..
I have a 10 year old Bosch. A part recently failed. I repaired it myself. During the repair I noticed that this thing was built for repairability. The parts manual is available online. The company seems to take an interest in quality.
I just can’t say the same over the other appliance brands in my house.
Likewise. GE dishwasher got a fault after a couple years and spewed water everywhere. Got a Bosch and never had a problem in about 8 years now. It cleans way better too. Simple, reliable, looks and works great.
I'm not so sure about Miele. I looked at their washer dryers recently and there were a lot of complaints about TwinDos. I would say keep it simple and don't extend to features you wouldn't normally expect just because a manufacturer is offering it.
Bosch - Siemens and Balay are the same builder with three different brands. Seems many times the core elements are the same. Balay is the cheapest, I think Bosch is their top line.
All 3 are quite good, and knowing this you can try to get more bang for your money.
