Comment by LiquidPolymer | Hacker News Reader

Comment by LiquidPolymer | Hacker News Reader

We have friends that just laid out $3000 for a new washer drier set and washer is already leaking from the front door. Pursuing warranty repair has been a major hassle.

My wife and I use a washer and drier set from the late 90's that are nothing to look at but work really well. They appear to be designed with service in mind and changing components is usually extremely easy - something I have done infrequently. These machines are used almost every day. Honestly, for a while I was kind of embarrassed by our beat up old machines. We discussed getting something new but dropped it after sticker shock set in. We also found it nearly impossible to get an honest review of any of the newer appliances. I also just hate "smart home" stuff that requires a wi-fi connection to work correctly.

The workman we hired to re-model our rear entry mud-room was looking at our old washer/drier set and unprompted said if we ever want to get rid of them - please let him know. I wondered why and he explained that he and his wife purchased new a couple years ago and have had nothing but complaints. They miss their old setup that cleaned superbly with minimal fuss.

There are brands built to super high standards, but no-one wants to pay for them or deal with their compromises.

We have been buying Miele appliances, and have nothing but excellent experiences. They aren't cheap, but the general opinion I've seen online is that they are one of the few brands that build quality modern appliances. My experiences would tend to back that up.

Specific to the Miele washer and dryer, we hang dry most things and live in a very dry area, so having a heat pump dryer that doesn't get things crisp and dry is perfectly fine with us. We hardly use the dryer at all actually; clothes last longer if you don't use the dryer and we do spend the money on quality clothes (also hard to find and expensive).

Speedqueen is that brand, and their stuff isn't even all that expensive. The issue is that its washers destroy your clothes by being rough on them.

> There are brands built to super high standards, but no-one wants to pay for them or deal with their compromises

I'm willing to pay. The money is not the only problem though.

1) These brands are hard to find. I've never heard of Miele until I rented an apartment that had one. The owner built the place for himself but then had to put it for rent.

2) Most of the brands that pretend to be high-quality are the same crap but shiny and expensive. You don't know that until you buy them. Makes the point about "hard to find" even worse.

3) Some of the reliable brands sometimes experience the change in strategy (probably caused by change in ownership) and start to produce crap while maintaining the same outlook. The most disturbing betrayal.

As a result out of hundreds of appliances I use I was only able to find quality staff in a handful of categories. The rest is either cheap crap or expensive crap. Maybe I lack some generational knowledge on the topic.

It's exhausting trying to find these brands. You have to do a ton of research, most of which is sifting through ads and the worst google results you've ever seen. If your already in the space you might be so lucky to already know a good reviewer. You also have to update your knowledge constantly, as lots of brands start to decline in quality once they get popular or change ownership.

In Europe heat-pump-dryers are the normal way dryers work and the clothes coming out of them are also crisp and dry. Are you sure there is nothing defective with your dryer?

No, there isn’t. Miele even has notes for its US models to make sure buyers understand they work differently. I just won’t run my dryer long enough to get them that crisp and dry; as I said we mostly hang dry. I can run the dryer half as long and they are 80-90% dry, then hang for the finish.

Miele vacuum cleaners are great. Our Dysons and other newfangled bagless crap came and went, but the Miele is still here, and still rocking.

I forgot to say we have a Miele vacuum as well. Great machine.

Miele for most stuff is unfortunately no longer better than the competition. They only come with 2 year warranties and the you can find lots of complaints on the internet of their appliances failing within a few years.

Additionally, some of Miele's lower-end stuff is made in China, not Germany, and has been reported to be less reliable.

Miele and Bosch are the only brands I'll rely on for "white goods". As far as I can tell, most other (european) brands are owned by Electrolux, and all built to fail the day after the warranty expires.

My toaster is a Dualit - pricey, but very reliable, and very repairable.

My coffee grinder is a manually-cranked burr grinder made of aluminium. There's nothing to fail (and I don't mind cranking for a minute in the morning).

My flat-screen is a Panasonic that used to belong to my father; it must be 15 years old. It's never failed.

I don't own a food processor; that would be me with a chef's knife, a grater, and a pestle-and-mortar.

The presence of an LCD display on a product is a big warning sign.

That's my metric. A VF display is OK but an LCD, especially on kitchen appliances or white goods, is just about a guarantee of a short life span - never mind a touchscreen.

I forgot to say that we bought a Bosch refrigerator, for exactly that reason.

Yes because for the same "quality" today you're likely to have to pay double the historic equivalent due to corporate profiteering. It's a rigged game and people just lap it up and simp for brands like they aren't parasites. It's pretty disgusting.

Don't ever even think about replacing them, but if you do want good unbiased reviews do check out this guy:

https://www.youtube.com/@bensappliancesandjunk

I learned a lot from him and when he reports a recommendation, it'll be specific and well-sourced which is important. Still, none of this current garbage will ever compare to a pre-2000 appliance of any kind.

I use the cheapest washing machine with A+++ rating that I could buy about ten years ago and it shows no signs of aging so far.

Same for me, until it broke.

Old washing machines can break too. They aren't magic.

So many useless anecdotes in this thread.

Washers and dryers are a field in which older models were definitely built better. I inherited a set from the late 1990s that is still going strong, and repairmen have told me that I should never get rid of them, as nothing today is made as well. The dryer blew a thermistor after more than twenty years, and that was easily fixed.

I can strongly recommend the speed queen TC5 if you are getting tired of taking delivery of defective washing machines. It fills up all the way to the top, and you can open the lid whenever the hell you please. It's loud as hell but it cleans very well and quickly.

Front loading is a fundamental engineering mistake if you are seeking trouble free, no maintenance operation for years on end.

> We have friends that just laid out $3000 for a new washer drier set and washer is already leaking from the front door.

What brand?

Not Op, but if I had to guess Samsung. I won't buy their appliances.

+1 for Samsung laundry machines being unreliable. I was in an apartment for 3 years and went thru 2 washing machines due to a “unrepairable” circuit fault on the first one, and a drum leaking perpetually on the second one.

The model of the washing machine was on the lease, was one of the expensive ones, I felt bad that they were buying #3 my last year there. They’re maybe only slightly above landfill in terms of entropic stability.

Edit: to be fair I bet they were warrantied, but still

Samsung stuff has all the pretty songs and touch screens and smart features.

They just forgot to add the actual functionality though.

We've got all AEG stuff and zero issues so far. 7-segment displays and physical buttons. Nothing to break.

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