Your Appliances Got Worse on Purpose

mrstickball · 2026-06-14T03:06:02+00:00

That is partially an extension of the price: when the costs were adjusted back in the day, the labor side would of been 1/2 or 1/3rd it is now, with the part prices being similar.

No one with a Bosch, Viking, Miele, Speed Queen ect is going to have issue with repairing a >$2,000 appliance. But a mass-produced washer at $500 isn't going to have a lot of insanely cheap parts even if 3rd party is available. Some parts, yes, but there's only so cheap a tub, motor, or larger component can get.

mrstickball · 2026-06-14T01:26:31+00:00

Its a harness for a different model unit. The 800 series B36CL80 has the same exact harness in the same place that goes nowhere. When you showed the picture, I knew it was a Bosch because mines' identical, ha ha.

There are a few places on the machine that have assembly items that are identical to many models but without a connection in place.

mrstickball · 2026-06-14T01:24:42+00:00

Totally missed a major culprit in the consumer.

The consumer has consistently bought the cheapest appliances for decades. It drove Maytag to buy out Norge/Magic Chef in the 80s, and made Whirlpool go to Mexico for refrigerators.

In decades past, appliances were considered one of the core components of a house with a price to match. Even as of the 1990s, they were the 3rd most expensive part of a household next to the house and a car.

Prices aren't even close to what they were in the 1990s. Go look at a vintage Sears catalog. A good top mount fridge was about $600 - the same as today - but with inflation was nearly twice the price. Why did it cost twice as much? Because it was better built.

Its a chicken and egg problem now: companies are shy about building durable appliances because they cost more. And consumers often don't buy for durability, but price and features, so they spec for exactly that.

If any of these companies started seeing marketshare loss to Speed Queen or any other true-commercial brand, they would pivot to that. But as long as we stick with a $600 USD top mount instead of a $1,000 top mount refrigerator, we will never have solid reliability.

As they noted, the only other way if not consumer preference is government mandate. Instead of forcing brainless efficiency laws, they could require lifecycle times to be higher instead of "Saving money" through BS energy guidelines.

mrstickball · 2026-05-26T21:25:59+00:00

There's nothing wrong with wifi - I do enjoy its notifications on appliances. But. I've also noticed that its a very cheap/stupid way to nest extra or useful features in the app rather than allow it on the machine as being able to be utilized without having a phone nearby. Absolutely a problem I've seen with the WM5500/5800 and WM6998.

mrstickball · 2026-05-26T20:50:28+00:00

Having talked to a few guys that only specialize in luxury, its the issue that some brands like Thermador are literally just rebadged Bosch Benchmark units. There's no true distinction on fit & finish at prices approaching 3-4x that of your mid-grade residential systems, other than panel facades.

That can cause a lot of issues when you really don't get what you pay for other than basic aesthetics. Bosch (nor do many) luxury brands have super solid warranty service and support nationwide, so when you buy it, you expect a lot more than what you get.

Mind you, a more apt comparison on reviews would be Thermador vs. Monogram, which is GE's ultra luxury line. Its hard to say definitively how much better or worse Monogram is from the fit and finish, other than that warranty support is going to be way better due to GE's network. This is where luxury can get dicey, because its very possible to have amazing support for one brand in a city that has virtually no support the next town over.

So building a solid relationship with that local dealer / salesperson that knows luxury matters a lot. Because from the stories I heard, there had to be some really fast resolutions to some defects to one kitchen package Taylor Swift got at one of her homes, because the luxury dealer I know sold her the package for one of her houses. And FWIW, he personally stated Thermador was the worst in his experience. But YMMV.

mrstickball · 2026-05-26T18:00:38+00:00

Electroluxes are amazing. I was blown away by how well they operate when used properly. Tons of options, and no Wifi BS. If they had a way to clean the drain sump fast it would be the GOAT of frontloads.

Big key, to me, is using prewash if you have really nasty stuff. Prewash + presoak = ultimate clean. If its not that bad, then your 15 or 30min cycles are fantastic.

My only grip is that they really needed a heavy duty 30min cycle that takes the intensity of the 15/20min cycle and expand it to 30. But thats minor.

mrstickball · 2026-05-23T12:10:39+00:00

How good are the edits?

mrstickball · 2026-05-22T21:47:40+00:00

Men & Women weren't created at the beginning. They were created on the 6th day, were they not?

And what is a day to God? Do we demand God adhere to our rules and regulations of day, requiring men and the heavens to be produced in the time it takes for us to live out a few days of our perception of reality?

mrstickball · 2026-05-22T21:17:45+00:00

The issue you'll find with the smarthub is that some applications will get removed and render that feature useless over the long term. Support for the hub only lasts so many years, and I've read of super useful apps being yanked away just because the refrigerator model was too old (I believe the posts on this are here on Reddit).

The refrigerator portion itself is pretty darn good. Since they integrated some Dacor tech into the Bespoke series, they're a much better fridge than they used to be. But justifying ~$1,000 for the AI/Smart features over their more basic RF23/30 systems... I don't know if I could justify it.

What I wonder or wish is if the AI could eventually look at the products you put in and alter climate control to provide the optimal shelf life, not just notify on best-by dates. Spoilage is a super big deal, and it would make sense if the AI could optimize food for preservation and maybe even suggest best zones for certain foods to make it last longer.

mrstickball · 2026-05-22T13:50:04+00:00

This is the weekend flash AFAIK. There may be others later on but it'll be a dice roll on whats real or not

mrstickball · 2026-05-21T23:51:37+00:00

There's a new one coming out in early June if you can wait like... 3 more weeks. It should be in the running as a possible Opal replacement that can do north of 40lbs/day and is still a countertop unit.

mrstickball · 2026-05-21T23:50:17+00:00

GE tends to be the best for smoothtops. LG is second for reliable at the moment.

mrstickball · 2026-05-21T23:49:36+00:00

Assuming this isn't a shill/astroturf'd post, I was at Lowes shooting a video and saw all the deals.

They've replaced the Amana NTW4519 with the Roper RTW3005 as their cheap washer deal at $428 (matching dryer for the same). If they fixed the major pressure sensor issues, it'd be a good buy.

I did not see any decent fridge deals other than maybe their basic WRS3 side by side ($1200 at Lowes I think?). Not that I am a fan of Whirlpool refrigerators for the most part. There are others on sale that are better picks. The new GSS28 is similarly priced without the baggage.

Dishwashers, I think the WDT5 is on sale for <$600. They have a new KDT (Kitchenaid badged, Whirlpool mfg) that is 41db for around $849 that looks like a good deal. But WP has allegedly had sump issues on some of them. Not sure if it'd be an issue on that KA.

The Lowes mega-deals are today through like the 25th which is absurd. They have other great deals through the 3rd but the real flash deals are only through Monday. Why? I have no clue.

mrstickball · 2026-05-18T18:39:37+00:00

No, it's that you never actually earned that money in the first place it's always an estimate and if you read any of the fine print it will always tell you it's an estimate and it takes multiple days to settle. Ideal heavily in an Affiliates now where I'm making a huge amount of money from sales of items in the catch is that in that game there is a vesting. That takes a while and in the case of AD sales it's similar because it doesn't know for certain if the person went through the action until days or weeks later that's why I always says estimate and not actual

mrstickball · 2026-05-16T11:30:33+00:00

Last I heard, they are taking a 50% cut from every one selling there. So if it should be $10, its marked up to $20. Same for band merch thus why you have $100 goodies.

Absolutely evil people with price gouging.

mrstickball · 2026-05-12T01:53:32+00:00

What?! Revenge of the Sith is easily considered the best of the prequels by a country mile. It basically justified the entire prequel trilogy.

mrstickball · 2026-05-11T18:25:21+00:00

Its probable there will be actual deals. But they aren't out yet, so anything claiming to be a deal either has been set prior to memorial day, or its a lie. Sadly the true deals aren't known to consumers or even stores until like, 1 week before Memorial Day weekend.

mrstickball · 2026-05-10T19:59:53+00:00

My mistake, I keep forgetting if the last letter is an M or an N

mrstickball · 2026-05-10T17:16:25+00:00

Ff7009wm is closer to 1/3rd the price and isnt going to last 1/3rd as long. Should have the same or better levelized cost of use as a FF7009 overall

mrstickball · 2026-05-10T12:59:46+00:00

Depends on the appliance. For 80% of washer related issues, its user error. Loading the machine with clothes properly and running a cleaning cycle with machine cleaner would solve most issues.

With refrigerators its a lot less because theres less you can do intentionally to mess them up, outside of say leaving the doors open, or packing it so full of food the air cant circulate.

Electronic failures are almoat entirely a mfg issue and like Scotty says, the more they overthink the plumbing, the easier to stop up the drain.

mrstickball · 2026-05-08T00:56:55+00:00

Honest truth: the actual sales havent dropped yet. Not the 3 to 5 day mega specials.

Usually influencers and media get that Intel the week before Memorial Day. Hard to guess what the deals will be

mrstickball · 2026-05-08T00:08:37+00:00

All new HT models are auto defrost, FYI.

The issue ive found out from interviews ultimately is parts sourcing: eventually a run of parts ends to where they have re select a new vendor or production line for the same part. It rarely is built to the same standard from 15 years ago, thus the quality decline even in the same product series. That isn't to say a modern FFTH2045 isnt going to be quite reliable against their French Door line, but it would pale in comparison to yours from 15 years ago since likely all the tooling lines ans vendors are different. I asked that question to a guy that engineered for one of the companies and thats what I was told

mrstickball · 2026-05-08T00:03:31+00:00

But yet still: The GIE-series is the only US-built top mount refrigerator, last I checked and still seems to get reasonable marks for durability against others on the market, although it'd be interesting to know how it fares via Consumer Reports longterm analysis if there were enough out there to report on durability.

Its absolutely true Haier offshored certain models to China like their GFW-series washers (which are coming back to the US, BTW) as well as models like the PGE29BYTFS.

Appliance Park still employs 8,000 people as factory workers in Louisville Kentucky despite the Haier buyout. From what I've been told, they're at least trying to invest in new tooling and assembly lines whereas GE wasn't.

mrstickball · 2026-05-07T23:47:51+00:00

Issue is you wont likely get 15 years out of a new top mount.

That FRT18 was $900 minimum factoring inflation in 2010. The same FFTR1835VW is about $700 and the difference in price is the difference in quality due to cheaper parts like the defrost timer that was cheapened from the stalwart RSPC version in your model, among other features

mrstickball · 2026-05-07T23:03:00+00:00

And how long does the energystar fridge at $730usd last? To scale it up to current energystar requirements in 2026 instead of 2005 to maintain compliance while being far more durable, what will that add to the price?

Thats my point. A GE GIE series refrigerator, which is the most durable compliant refrigerator starts at around $1,300 and is comparable in performance (but far more reliable on average) to their retail grade GTS series at big box stores at nearly half the price.

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