> Samsung hardware is top-notch
Sometimes. In some ways. Their appliances (washer/dryer/etc) are notoriously unreliable, and their phone batteries appear to swell more than others.
Sometimes. In some ways. Their appliances (washer/dryer/etc) are notoriously unreliable, and their phone batteries appear to swell more than others.
What I don't get about this is that consumer reports continues to frequently recommend their appliances. We bought a Samsung fridge, and that experience told me "don't buy any more Samsung appliances" but when we needed a new washer and dryer, CR rated a pair of Samsungs as top of the list. I thought "well, CR is supposed to be reliable, so maybe I am okay to get these."
Both broke within the first 18 months of ownership and left us unable to wash clothes until a repair could be scheduled.
Fool me twice, yep. I'm the fool. But I can learn, and never another Samsung appliance shall be brought into my house. With the possible exception of a TV; my current TV is a big Samsung and it's been flawless. I think it's actually a different company entirely, even though the appliances and electronics all claim to be "Samsung"
The TVs are better... but the OS was too much for me. Not only because it is full of ads and unlikely to get updates for very long, but also because it's Tizen (which one security researcher, admittedly in 2017, said "may be the worst code I've ever seen" and "Everything you can do wrong there, they do it." He also single-handedly found 40 separate flaws.) Considering Samsung's track record, I find it hard to believe that they would have improved in the last 5 years.
https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2017/04/samsungs-tizen-is-ri...
I still rely on CR, however, in the absence of personal experience, bias, or that of someone else I trust. I just bought a new induction cooktop and Samsung was nowhere to be found on their recommended list, so I thought maybe they were starting to get wise to all the problems, but I noticed that the top gas cooktops are Samsung. Maybe those particular models are that good, but I'd never risk finding out. Gas cooktops are awfully simple devices, though, so the risk is limited.
Lots of reviews of poor build and materials quality ("stainless" surfaces bubbling or being scratched by paper towels, knobs breaking, the finish on the grate coming off during regular use and it rusting, etc), burners failing, burners melting the knobs, samsung denying warranty for various and sundry reasons, service techs being unavailable in many areas, service techs saying samsung doesn't supply parts and half the cooktop needs to be replaced for these issues, etc.
In products ranging from a couple weeks to a year old.
I'm dreading the day when we have to replace our decades old propane cooktop + oven.
Sandwiched between "Fisher & Paykel" and Asko.
And for a nearby post: Older phone batteries tend to go out if stored fully charged and left for ages. Turning them off at 50% is the better option, especially if cycled once in a while.
My hi-fi system is 25 coming up on 26 years old. Rotel. :)
Edit: Ah the flat ones are still fine, they have decent glass in them - it's the plastic milk/bottle door bins (also called bottle shelves or guards) that are cracking up. Sorry my original post wasn't precise. Good to know about the actual flat shelves, they're the main thing.
Every month or so the bottom filter sensor says that its blocked. So you have a machine full of water that can't drain, and the lowest point in the machine saying there's a blockage. There's not. There never is. It's an optical sensor that gets dirty. The thing is, at that point, the only way to drain the machine and clean the sensor is by undoing a little 3mm ID hose and pulling the stopper out that they have helpfully supplied. You get water everywhere. Why on earth you would use an optical sensor in a machine built to handle dirty water, small solids, and is known to accumulate soap and detergent scum is absolutely beyond me.
To remedy that, I have a 12v laptop adapter + a 12v bilge pump for a boat and some spare drain hose, put the bilge pump in a baking tray, let the bilge pump take care of sending the water to the shower or sink, and drain the machine via the tiny hose. Clean off the sensor with water from a spray bottle, maybe a little vinegar or glass cleaner. Replace everything, and start the load.
Well over $1,500 of machine and in my mind it's a piece of crap. I wished for a small commercial top loader. It didn't match the nice theme. Now we have a Rube Goldberg disaster mitigation plan that gets actioned quite frequently.
Also, booking a Samsung service tech is hard.
And as you say, draining is a great big PITA. I've gotten okay at doing it without any water hitting the floor, but it took some flooding before I nailed my technique.
No more Samsungs. Every time ours fails my wife gets a little more amenable to the idea of a Speed Queen toploader.
We basically went to all Bosch and Apple after that. Heaven help anyone who bought recent high-end Samsung SSDs and doesn't read the news.
Yep. I am in a house that is all Sanmsung appliances. The Dishwasher's intake valve started leaking, the Oven's LCD panel broke and only showed garbled information, and the dryer's heating source broke. These were all appliances bought in 2019.
Thankfully, I was able to get replacement parts for the first two and fix easily enough, but there was no way to easily fix the dryer (I ended up getting a new dryer).
There is no way I would buy a Samsung Appliance again, and it frankly makes me question the quality of anything they make.
To me that's more valuable than a 2 or 3 year warranty.
Yale Appliances in Boston, MA, runs their own service department (instead of sub-contracting it out), and so have in-house statistics. According to them, Samsung are relatively reliable as compared to other brands they sell:
* https://blog.yaleappliance.com/are-samsung-appliances-reliab...
One thing they note is that Samsung has become quite popular, and so even if you have a low rate, if the total units are high, then you're going to get a number of service calls, which can raise visibility.