Opinions/Experience's with Kitchen Appliance Brands

[sygazelle]

Originally Posted by e92SG

In the beginning of a home renovation and seeing crazy lead times for kitchen appliances and want to try to put in an early order. Curious to hear what good or bad experiences you guys may have had recently with appliance brands. General reliability experiences, favorite brands and general appliance input all welcome here.

I am considering a zline 36" gas range and microwave as I have a family member who is a vendor and have a few friends who have had great experiences with zline last couple of years. Want to keep dishwasher and fridge same brand, considering GE Cafe or Bosch!

Thanks again

We've had good luck with Thermador for stove and oven. The Thermador induction cook top was a big hit for us after years with an electric cook top. If you haven't tried induction, give it a look. We moved and we are back to a gas cook top but I really do like induction better better than electric or gas. To me, the are pricey but worth it.

Good luck with all the choices. It can be mindblowing to do a renovation.

[exE36M3]

We remodeled our kitchen a couple years back. Saved $2k over any other store and got ALL the fun stuff like an induction cook-top and drawer-micro-wave oven.

Go to Goedeckers.com. Everything is about 10% less than any other retailer.
BUT use that 10% savings to buy their extended warranty.
You want this as even the best branded appliances die, ask me how I know :P

And since they are based out of Missouri, no sales tax and free-shipping.


P.S. Before you consider induction cook-tops... check your electrical box. If your house is older (like 20+ years), you might need to add more wiring and and a new box - which is an electrician and new equipment. Ask me how I know this too. :P

[omasou]

Originally Posted by Frostynorth

Happy with the Bosh dishwasher and gas range, HATE the refrigerator.

Why do you dislike the Bosch refrigerator?

[zx10guy]

Originally Posted by Frostynorth

Happy with the Bosh dishwasher and gas range, HATE the refrigerator.

Friend of mine has/had a Bosch refrigerator. It broke and had to get a repairman out. To his surprise, the repairman had to cut open the back panel of the refrigerator to gain access to an electronic board. Friend asked how come he had to do this. Repairman said the engineers at Bosch didn't make any provision to access this board as they felt it wouldn't ever fail.

[zx10guy]

Originally Posted by Mein11

Stay away from Samsung French door refrigerators. I have to "dethaw" mine once every 5 months because the center radiator freezes with ice and in turn ends up sounding like a hemi V8 in the middle of the night.

Dishwasher is a new LG model, works great, never had an issue.

Mine is doing this. It's a GE but it's made by Samsung. The issue is with the drain. There is a kit that "fixes" this problem. The issue is where the metal bracket for the evaporator coil sits in the back of the refrigerator. This bracket has a metal tab that inserts into the drain. Over time, the tab will rust and also be a magnet for other junk to form. This will end up clogging that drain.

After a recent thaw needed to clear out the ice that's built on the evaporator coil, I attempted to clear the drain. Unfortunately there's not enough clearance to really get in there. I attempted to use a snake type extension for my Dremel with a drill bit at the end. That didn't work. I then tried a 90 degree elbow on the Dremel which did work somewhat. But as far as I can drill, it seems the clog goes further down in that drain than I can reach.

I also had to pull apart the ice maker assembly as the shutoff switch got stuck.

[zx10guy]

I replaced both GE dishwashers that came as builder appliance packages with Bosch dishwashers. One of them needed a factory retrofit kit to keep the door edge from flexing. The flexing was causing the safety switch to not trigger and stopping the dishwasher from running. The kit was just a metal bar that was screwed in place to provide more rigidity. The other Bosch dishwasher's top dish rack has a couple of the "fingers" rust at the bottom and are about to fall off. I've been looking for a replacement rack on eBay and haven't decided on which one to get as the photos of many of them show they're well used. A new one is stupid expensive along with the shipping.

It seems anything GE in terms of a refrigerator has been junk. The side by side I got with my primary house has had non stop issues with the icemaker. I finally junked the refrigerator when it stopped cooling. I replaced it with a GE french door refrigerator/bottom freezer. Come to find out it's really a Samsung. I'm dealing with the freeze over of the evaporator coil as I mentioned above. My vacation home has a GE side by side as part of the appliance package. Again, ice maker issues specifically with the flap that opens to dispense ice. First, a new flap was installed with a heater element to keep condensation from occurring. Then condensation was happening on the outside of the door. Door was replaced twice. Last door received mounted on crooked and couldn't be adjusted. Builder agreed to replace the entire refrigerator at that point.

[megf]

We haven't had great luck with Samsung (builder chose these for all in our house).
French door fridge- nothing but issues with the icemaker. Repairman told us that any fridge that has ice maker in the fridge and not freezer section is an issue. We replaced it with a GE side by side about 6 months ago with ice maker in the freezer and so far so good.

We JUST (as in today) got our Samsung double wall oven replaced by PC Richards after 20 service visits for the steam oven. We're replacing it with a Kitchenaid that also has a steam function- fingers crossed.

We have a Gaggenau wine fridge built into our cabinets and it's been great.

[Mein11]

Originally Posted by zx10guy

Mine is doing this. It's a GE but it's made by Samsung. The issue is with the drain. There is a kit that "fixes" this problem. The issue is where the metal bracket for the evaporator coil sits in the back of the refrigerator. This bracket has a metal tab that inserts into the drain. Over time, the tab will rust and also be a magnet for other junk to form. This will end up clogging that drain.

After a recent thaw needed to clear out the ice that's built on the evaporator coil, I attempted to clear the drain. Unfortunately there's not enough clearance to really get in there. I attempted to use a snake type extension for my Dremel with a drill bit at the end. That didn't work. I then tried a 90 degree elbow on the Dremel which did work somewhat. But as far as I can drill, it seems the clog goes further down in that drain than I can reach.

I also had to pull apart the ice maker assembly as the shutoff switch got stuck.

Interesting, didn't know the GE's were made by Samsung. Good information when I decide to get rid of this thing.

Yeah did all the reading and saw that, tried messing around with it but ultimately just kind of accepted this as the "normal". Admittedly banging on it does not fix anything, although it does help take out the pent up aggravation.

Does your icemaker still work? I can get about 5 lazy ice cubes after thawing so at this point just don't even use it. Bought cheap ice trays and do it the old school way. What a piece of shit that thing is. Only thing it has going is it "looks" nice.

[zx10guy]

Originally Posted by Mein11

Interesting, didn't know the GE's were made by Samsung. Good information when I decide to get rid of this thing.

Yeah did all the reading and saw that, tried messing around with it but ultimately just kind of accepted this as the "normal". Admittedly banging on it does not fix anything, although it does help take out the pent up aggravation.

Does your icemaker still work? I can get about 5 lazy ice cubes after thawing so at this point just don't even use it. Bought cheap ice trays and do it the old school way. What a piece of shit that thing is. Only thing it has going is it "looks" nice.

I don't know if all GE refrigerators are made by Samsung. I just know the french door refrigerator I have is a Samsung. I haven't dug into who made the GE side by sides.


The ice maker is working. Part of it is bad design and part of it is I guess my fault. I didn't use the ice maker for a while and the ice jammed up in it to the point where the shut off lever to tell the ice maker there's enough ice in the bucket got jammed up preventing any new ice from being made. I had to tear apart the ice maker to un jam the lever to get the ice maker to work again.

[wdb]

We went with a KitchenAid package of appliances when we redid our kitchen 9 years ago.

Fridge: okay I guess. A drain clogs on them and causes the defrost water to run out the front of the freezer onto the floor; replacing the drain cap with a better design fixed it. The french doors are garbage as is the freezer door, in that we constantly have to check that they're *really* closed. We purposely did not get a model with a bunch of silliness in the door so that has saved us from the icemaker woes everyone else has. Do yourself a favor and open the damn door when you want ice or water (ours has a water spout inside).

Stove/oven: okay I guess. I love the way it looks in our island but wish the gas stovetop had two big BTU burners instead of just one. The oven takes an age to heat up but the convection function is awesome. The warming drawer works well but every time I use it I'm reminded just how well made -- or not -- the unit is.

Dishwasher: flaky but not awful. The controls have a mind of their own. Occasionally I have to flip the circuit breaker so the thing regains its senses. Dishes are washed well though.

I'm with other folks regarding abstaining from needless complexity. A few years ago we replaced an ancient Maytag washer/dryer combo with Speed Queen stuff. Top load. Not an electronic panel in sight, just knobs that go clickety-click when you rotate them. They've been flawless.

[Chick Webb]

House came with GE Monogram (fridge, oven/range, dishwasher, drawer fridge, microwave). They were several years old when we purchased 6+ years ago. All but the fridge are still there and have been pretty trouble-free. We had to replace a part in the dishwasher but I was able to do that myself.

Built-in fridge died a couple of years back and we replaced it with a Sub-Zero. The SZ was stupid expensive but it's gorgeous, works extremely well, and we're happy with it. It better last 20 years, though, or I'm gonna be pissed.

[Frostynorth]

Originally Posted by omasou

Why do you dislike the Bosch refrigerator?

The compressor is obnoxiously noisy, it has a variable speed nonsense, and goes into moods where it's really loud. I work in refrigeration, and am quite accustomed to compressor sounds, for an open kitchen/living room it's brutal.
Shut the ice-maker down years ago, as it just added to the frequency of the noise.

Originally Posted by zx10guy

Friend of mine has/had a Bosch refrigerator. It broke and had to get a repairman out. To his surprise, the repairman had to cut open the back panel of the refrigerator to gain access to an electronic board. Friend asked how come he had to do this. Repairman said the engineers at Bosch didn't make any provision to access this board as they felt it wouldn't ever fail.

This is sadly in every industry.

[Esteban]

Originally Posted by Frostynorth

The compressor is obnoxiously noisy, it has a variable speed nonsense, and goes into moods where it's really loud. I work in refrigeration, and am quite accustomed to compressor sounds, for an open kitchen/living room it's brutal.
Shut the ice-maker down years ago, as it just added to the frequency of the noise.

I have a Whirlpool refrigerator that is so noisy and makes so many different sounds you might think it's haunted. lol

The manual that came with it makes a point out of telling you to ignore all the sounds, it's normal. It doesn't sound normal but have had it for a couple of years now and it always makes these strange sounds but works great.

[Frostynorth]

Originally Posted by Esteban

I have a Whirlpool refrigerator that is so noisy and makes so many different sounds you might think it's haunted. lol

The manual that came with it makes a point out of telling you to ignore all the sounds, it's normal. It doesn't sound normal but have had it for a couple of years now and it always makes these strange sounds but works great.

Yeah, modern refrigerators make all sorts of odd sounds, clicks, groans, hisses...
Definitely haunted, lol.

Refrigerator: "let me play you the songs of my people"

When it's time, the fridge is getting the ugly end of a shotgun.

[bosstones]

Another vote for Bosch dishwashers. Replaced a noisy GE with one when I still had my townhouse. One of the first things I did when I got my house was replace the dishwasher w/ a Bosch.

I've had 2 LG fridges now, both french door fridges w/ a bottom freezer. No issues so far.

[vanguard8]

Originally Posted by Caravaggio

....
Our Fisher Paykel appliances have been a mixed bag. But the local vendor may be partially to blame....

We have a Fisher Paykel gas range, and when we bought it I had them come & adjust the oven temp.
The service guy said it was made by De'Longhi.

For the refridge, getting a model that used the least energy was my priority. This was ~ 6 yrs ago, but we found a Whirlpool labeled "tier 3", which was supposed to be more efficient than the "Energy Star" standards.

* Energy Star is you friend.

[The Libertine]

JennAir for gas stove and microwave - very pleased.

LG for refrigerator - very pleased.

Fridgidaire for dishwasher - surprisingly pleased.

Note: before the LG had a GE refrigerator which was terrible, and would not recommend.

[Alfisti]

A reminder again to look at the fisher and paykell fridge, the built in one is absolutely stone silent, it is eerie.

The little bar fridge we bought, looks amazing, forgot the brand, it's noisy AF, drives me nuts.

[Our03z4]

LG for refrigerators, fantastic quality and design.

[nyalpine90]

subzero-wolfe
miele

[Alfisti]

Originally Posted by Our03z4

LG for refrigerators, fantastic quality and design.

The problem with LG anything is service, over here anyway, you cannot just get a repairman in. it HAS to be one of their authorised ones and parts are always an issue. I avoid LG at all costs.

[overcoil]

my Lg range just died today.
A Jenn Air Range as a replacement is six-months backorder.