Built to last
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Similar story for clothes dryers:
My parents' dryer had 2 knobs for temperature and run time, and a start button. Ran forever and dried clothes.
My dryer has like a dozen programmed cycles that rely on a moisture sensor that doesn't work and leaves clothes damp unless you use the manual time & temp settings, which takes several capacitive button presses on a circuit board that is likely to die before any of the actual mechanical components of the dryer. Also for some reason it has Wi-Fi.
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Don't buy American washers, I think only speed queen still bothers with quality.
Maytag has one good model too.
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Efficiency does little for your wallet and the environment if you need to buy/produce a new machine every few years.
(Not to say that we shouldn't strive for efficiency.)
Obviously
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There's no comparison between an old Maytag washer and dryer and a new/current Maytag washer and dryer. This is a case where survivorship bias does not apply, imo. Appliances were built more durable back in the day. There are plenty of older appliances working just fine today while some stuff under 5 years is already getting scrapped because it's too expensive to fix and/or parts aren't even available. It's total nonsense
Your penultimate statement is an absolutely textbook example of survivorship bias.
The average lifespan of a washer has declined a little but the frequency of use during that lifespan has increased measurably.
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It's such an unfortunate name. They really need to rebrand.
I heard the guy who founded the company was a real smeghead
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Also don't get a Samsung one from what I hear. Apparently LG is okay.
I have heard Samsung is bad so often on the internet, but my personal experience is different. I've used a Samsung washing machine for almost 10 years now and it still works and looks like the day I bought it. It's very easy to use, has a large front loader door, is quiet and power efficient (as far as that's even possible with a washing machine). Never regretted it.
My brother also has a Samsung washer and dryer, because he loved how large the door was on my washing machine, so he bought one as well. It has served him fine for about 5 years now.
But hey, maybe I'm just lucky with the one I've got.
Before this one I had a Beko washer and dryer. I was unemployed at the time and didn't have a lot of money, so I wanted a cheap model. The salesman in the store said it was bad (this was a long time ago, when they still had salesmen) and would break within a couple of years. But they did upsell an extended warranty for 5 years, which my mom paid for so I could afford to get the washer and dryer. Those units had served me very well for over 15 years. I did have to repair them a couple of times, but nothing major and some normal wear items. I sold those when I bought the Samsung as an upgrade. I switched to natural air drying instead of a dryer for environmental reasons, so I didn't buy a new dryer.
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For front loaders you should leave the door cracked at least. Also clean under that rubber seal once in a while...
this, plus what's important to not to use too much detergent and not just use them on 40°C the whole time, because thats a really good temperature for an incubator. Give them a 95°C load once in a while, that kills off whatever is trying to smell in there.
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Also don't get a Samsung one from what I hear. Apparently LG is okay.
Anecdotally, I loathe my LG and am trying to figure out what to replace it with.
I have replaced the drain pump on it 5 times, because they did a terrible job designing the strainer basket, and the impeller is very fragile. It only takes a few strands of long hair to reach 3/4" past the strainer basket to tangle and break the impeller.
It's also an all in one, but the dryer functionality was clearly designed as a bolt on afterthought. There's no lint filter so inevitably lint builds up and choked off airflow. Then the air temp gets hot enough to melt the front boot.
When we first got the unit, our 40psi water pressure ruptured two internal hoses because lg couldn't be bothered to use fiber reinforced hoses. Dealing with potential water damage so lg could save a few cents is not worth it.
I will actively avoid LG going forward.
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Similar story for clothes dryers:
My parents' dryer had 2 knobs for temperature and run time, and a start button. Ran forever and dried clothes.
My dryer has like a dozen programmed cycles that rely on a moisture sensor that doesn't work and leaves clothes damp unless you use the manual time & temp settings, which takes several capacitive button presses on a circuit board that is likely to die before any of the actual mechanical components of the dryer. Also for some reason it has Wi-Fi.
"And for some reason it has Wi-Fi ." will be the last line in humanity's epitaph.
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I personally used the same washing machine from the time I was 13 until I was 36.
Been through some dryers though, and the old washer gave out a few years ago. I probably could have repaired it but I couldn’t find the time.
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Your penultimate statement is an absolutely textbook example of survivorship bias.
The average lifespan of a washer has declined a little but the frequency of use during that lifespan has increased measurably.
wrote last edited by [email protected]I'm seeing 20+year old machines taking the same work load as newer machines a fraction of their age and they're still going just fine while some of the new ones are breaking for no reason outside shitty electronics and/or plastic garbage components. I guess it is survivorship bias. Whatever the case i still can't take anyone seriously when they claim modern appliances are better than the older stuff. Reliability is a key feature of an appliance but also serviceability in the long term and neither of those are features of modern appliances (at least prole-grade appliances like i work on)
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You know the funny thing?
You can still buy appliances that last and have good service.
But you don't earn enough to afford them, like your parents did.
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I believe this because I had an old microwave from the 80s not a single issue, bought a new one the light went after a few weeks lol
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If your clothing washer stinks, run it on hot with just bleach inside it, like put in a bit too much bleach, no clothing
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Anecdotally, I loathe my LG and am trying to figure out what to replace it with.
I have replaced the drain pump on it 5 times, because they did a terrible job designing the strainer basket, and the impeller is very fragile. It only takes a few strands of long hair to reach 3/4" past the strainer basket to tangle and break the impeller.
It's also an all in one, but the dryer functionality was clearly designed as a bolt on afterthought. There's no lint filter so inevitably lint builds up and choked off airflow. Then the air temp gets hot enough to melt the front boot.
When we first got the unit, our 40psi water pressure ruptured two internal hoses because lg couldn't be bothered to use fiber reinforced hoses. Dealing with potential water damage so lg could save a few cents is not worth it.
I will actively avoid LG going forward.
Which one did you get? All I've heard are good things from LGs current washer/ dryers
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No. That's not what's happening here.
And just for the record I am an appliance repair tech for the last 20 years.
Hands down appliances from the early 90s to about the 2010s are significantly better than new appliances today.
They are better in everyway. They were made under a different philosophy, they were made to be fixed.
When I stated my career in 2004 I would have a box of common parts that would break for each kind of appliance I would service. Fridge, washer, dryer ext. I wouldn't have to order a part for weeks. I would just drive down to the parts supplier stock up and move on to my next work order. Now all I do is order proprietary parts that are dedicated to one specific model number.
The materials and build quality of older appliances far exceeds that of new ones so much so that I am actually recommending to my clients that they try to find a used appliance rather than buy a new one because it'll probably last longer.
And I've had this argument so many times already on this platform the savings on energy are absolutely negligible. They can easily be ignored. To clarify the way they notate change in energy is by percentages so it'll appear that an appliance is saving 70% more energy but in reality that saving is stretched across 365 days which equates to maybe 25 to 30 cents of savings a day. Or it'll look like you're saving 400 kilowatt hours but again stretched across 365 days that's just over 1 kilowatt hour a day.
The only caveat is the fact that washers use less water which can actually turn into some kind of savings over the course of the year because your water heater will have to heat less water but that's about it.
Generally I fix appliances that are less than 10 years old most of those are refrigerators the extreme vast majority of those are Samsung appliances.
Not a repair tech, but this matches my experience maintaining and repairing my appliances. My early 80s whirlpool range and oven have had small issues here and there, but generally require swapping one part hidden behind some screws and will take under an hour. My Samsung dishwasher not only does a piss poor job, it also throws LC codes every few days. After the fourth time pulling it from the cabinet I had to put a series of shims to lift the leak sensor off the drip tray and buy a separate Wi-Fi moisture detector. My Samsung fridge (4yo) has a broken door ice dispenser and intermittently decides not to dispense water too. Old LG unit had a linear compressor that shit the bed three times before they refused to do any more warranty work on it.
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Spend a little more and get yourself a speed queen top loader and never replace it again.
But also … my Maytag (same brand as my parents that came with the house that was built in 82) high efficiency front loader has been reliable af too.
Just don’t get a washer from a brand that is just a tech brand that now makes washers.
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There's no comparison between an old Maytag washer and dryer and a new/current Maytag washer and dryer. This is a case where survivorship bias does not apply, imo. Appliances were built more durable back in the day. There are plenty of older appliances working just fine today while some stuff under 5 years is already getting scrapped because it's too expensive to fix and/or parts aren't even available. It's total nonsense
The appliances from 30 years ago that fell apart early aren’t here to tell their tale.
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Maytag has one good model too.
If that’s the one with the bottom agitator instead of the tower agitator that washer is assssssssssssssss
I had it and my clothes never came out clean. It was supposed to agitate them to roll but it just twisted everything into a knot. Clothes would come out with dry center bits, like water didn’t make it to them AND it took forever.
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Which one did you get? All I've heard are good things from LGs current washer/ dryers
WM3477HW
I love the all in one concept, but this machine has made me reluctant to get one again.
There's a GE all in one with heat pump drying that I think would be the functionality I want, but the machine is huge.
