APPLIANCES LIFE SPAN

[mpvue]

Originally Posted By: sleddriver

One last note: I'm suspicious of the front load washers and new breed of dishwashers. For one, they're outrageously expensive & complicated & billed as saving 'water & energy'. One friend with a Bosch dishwasher said it takes nearly an hour & a half to wash a load of dishes on the normal cycle! So he only uses quick wash now..and they prewash the dishes! It's also smaller inside than my old Maytag. It is very quiet though.


we have a fisher & paykel (made in New Zealand)dish drawer dishwasher, this thing is amazing! we only use the quick wash, takes 36 minutes IIRC, that's all you need, and it's REAL quiet, like so quiet when people come over to visit they don't believe its running.

 

[mpvue]

Originally Posted By: Quest


*just reminded by a Billy Joel's song:"...get a set of cheep white wall tires or cruise the miracle miles...."

Q.

the whole verse is:
What's the matter with the car I'm driving?
Can't you tell that it's out of style?
Should I get a set of white wall tires?
Are you gonna cruise the miracle mile?
Nowadays you can't be too sentimental
Your best bet's a true baby blue Continental.
Hot funk, cool punk, even if it's old junk
It's still rock and roll to me.

the miracle mile he was talking about was Deer Park Ave, used to be a big cruise spot on LI.

 

[IndyIan]

Originally Posted By: Beachboy
I think another reason nobody's touched on as to why appliances don't last as long is that the typical American consumer doesn't seem to WANT them to last very long. Have you noticed how many perfectly good, relatively new kitchen appliances are tossed out just because the wife wants to go with the latest trendy color, such as stainless steel? Same with washing machines, I see a lot of perfectly good washer and dryer sets for sale on Craig's List simply because the wife wanted to get rid of her "old fashioned" top loader for some trendy front loader.

It is a wasteful trend but OTOH you can now buy perfectly good washers and dryers very very cheaply used. We got a front loading washer from my sister in law, and a dryer from some folks who bought a new matching pair when the old washer died.
The dryer has no electronics either so its going to last quite a while I think.

There are still some quality appliances available though, I just recently I had to replace a gear in my wifes kitchenaid stand mixer, its 15 years old and has quite a few hours on it. Anyways I could find a repair manual online with a parts diagram, opened it up with normal tools, ordered a gear and some shims so it won't strip again. We might get a new bigger one as it can handle more loaves of bread at once, and we'll still get some good money for this old one. A new one retails for $600 but there seems to be ones available for $300 online, so quality isn't cheap but its worth it.

 

[mpvue]

Originally Posted By: IndyIan

There are still some quality appliances available though, I just recently I had to replace a gear in my wifes kitchenaid stand mixer, its 15 years old and has quite a few hours on it. Anyways I could find a repair manual online with a parts diagram, opened it up with normal tools, ordered a gear and some shims so it won't strip again. We might get a new bigger one as it can handle more loaves of bread at once, and we'll still get some good money for this old one. A new one retails for $600 but there seems to be ones available for $300 online, so quality isn't cheap but its worth it.

you can find the pro 600 for mid $300's or so, and kitchenaid themselves have an ebay page w/ refurbed units. it's worth it IMO.
the smaller artisan mixer is good, but small. there is also a 'classic' one w/ more platsic on it that they sell in WM and sam's club type of places. williams sonoma has an exclusive pro 620 in copper also if you are so inclined (it's like $800!)

 

[IndyIan]

Originally Posted By: mpvue
Originally Posted By: IndyIan

There are still some quality appliances available though, I just recently I had to replace a gear in my wifes kitchenaid stand mixer, its 15 years old and has quite a few hours on it. Anyways I could find a repair manual online with a parts diagram, opened it up with normal tools, ordered a gear and some shims so it won't strip again. We might get a new bigger one as it can handle more loaves of bread at once, and we'll still get some good money for this old one. A new one retails for $600 but there seems to be ones available for $300 online, so quality isn't cheap but its worth it.

you can find the pro 600 for mid $300's or so, and kitchenaid themselves have an ebay page w/ refurbed units. it's worth it IMO.
the smaller artisan mixer is good, but small. there is also a 'classic' one w/ more platsic on it that they sell in WM and sam's club type of places. williams sonoma has an exclusive pro 620 in copper also if you are so inclined (it's like $800!)

A white pro 600 is good enough for us, no fancy paint job required!
The one we have is a bowl lift model but its only 350 watts so it gets worked hard. I'm tempted to find her a small restaurant size one but we have all the attachements for the homeowner versions... And safety wise, even this one would probably break a childs arm, the monster ones I'm sure have made some amputees...

 

[PandaBear]

Originally Posted By: IndyIan
It is a wasteful trend but OTOH you can now buy perfectly good washers and dryers very very cheaply used.


Been doing that for a long time in my family, a used 2 door 30 in fridge is about $200-250 if it is white, slightly more if it's black and a lot more if you want stainless.

I sold my used 14 year old dish washer and gas range for about $100 ea too when I upgrade to stainless, not because of fashion, but the range flame was too small (builder special) and the dish washer was too loud (also builder special).

Love the used market.