washerdude
Well-known member
Another WhirlFool Engineering Masterpiece!
Not to detract from the thread, but it immediately reminded me of what I have to do to our Whirlpool fridge this weekend, mainly the condenser coils...
You know the coils which are at the bottom? Those zig zag shaped ones making it ridiculously difficult and clunky to clean? Wonder why literally every other manufacture has the condenser coil stack sitting behind the back panel at the rear that can be brushed and vacuumed off easily? It's almost as if they used their brains and realized that those coils need to be cleaned off regularly in order to help the unit to dissipate heat. Why not just copy Whirlpool? It'll fail quicker and you'll get more money because people will have to buy new fridges since basic maintenance is made difficult. The zig zag coils do in fact add more surface area to dissipate heat which in turn raises efficiency, but where does that efficiency go when they accumulate with dust and are horrendously difficult to clean?
I kid you not, I need to roll the fridge across the kitchen to the sliding door and then use a leaf blower (which I had to buy just for this and not blowing leaves ironically) to blow out all the dust from the coils so that it flies outside and not all in the house. I already have a coil brush that I use to clean out the dryer lint trap housing but due to the way the coil is designed and how tight the gaps are, won't fit at all. Making basic maintenance (but vital) like this difficult only leads me to think that they KNEW it would be a problem and just left it out in the field for people to figure out on how to maintain. If they figured it out, good for them, if not, oh well let the compressor burn out and buy a new fridge! Just more pointers to the fact that Whirlpool doesn't care in the slightest bit. If that does happen, my next fridge will be either a GE or Samsung BESPOKE, they seem to have finally improved vastly with the issues they were having a decade back. LG fridges have remained horrifying with their linear compressors failing.
It really is the case that there is no manufacture that can build every single appliance (fridge,stove,DW,washer and dryer) reliably. Not sure if others noticed, but all kitchen appliances from all manufactures have very identical handle designs now, could this be an indicator that they know that people mix appliance brands and tend to not go with just one brand for the kitchen?
Personally my recommendations would be this:
Fridge: GE, Samsung BESPOKE, Frigidaire and Frigidaire Gallery but avoid french doors from them.
Dishwasher: Bosch, maybe Maytag but I've seen reports of them becoming clogged and also being difficult to clean out. BOL Whirlpool, BOL-MOL GE. Miele if you can afford it.
Stove: GE, Frigidaire and Frigidaire Gallery.
Front Load Washer: LG with Turbowash, Electrolux, GE, Speed Queen if you can afford it.
Top Load Washer: Used WP direct drive, if new then a GE top loader with a dual action agitator. If you have the money and are okay with the extremely restrictive control options, go for a Speed Queen TC5 and only that Speed Queen.
Dryer: Electrolux, LG, GE but only the ones with the controls at the front. The ones with the circular heat grille at the back are insanely complicated to take apart for cleaning. Whirlpool with the top mount lint filter but even with those, have seemed to taken a nose dive of quality and assembly, likely go for a used one of those. Speed queen if you can afford it.
Not to detract from the thread, but it immediately reminded me of what I have to do to our Whirlpool fridge this weekend, mainly the condenser coils...
You know the coils which are at the bottom? Those zig zag shaped ones making it ridiculously difficult and clunky to clean? Wonder why literally every other manufacture has the condenser coil stack sitting behind the back panel at the rear that can be brushed and vacuumed off easily? It's almost as if they used their brains and realized that those coils need to be cleaned off regularly in order to help the unit to dissipate heat. Why not just copy Whirlpool? It'll fail quicker and you'll get more money because people will have to buy new fridges since basic maintenance is made difficult. The zig zag coils do in fact add more surface area to dissipate heat which in turn raises efficiency, but where does that efficiency go when they accumulate with dust and are horrendously difficult to clean?
I kid you not, I need to roll the fridge across the kitchen to the sliding door and then use a leaf blower (which I had to buy just for this and not blowing leaves ironically) to blow out all the dust from the coils so that it flies outside and not all in the house. I already have a coil brush that I use to clean out the dryer lint trap housing but due to the way the coil is designed and how tight the gaps are, won't fit at all. Making basic maintenance (but vital) like this difficult only leads me to think that they KNEW it would be a problem and just left it out in the field for people to figure out on how to maintain. If they figured it out, good for them, if not, oh well let the compressor burn out and buy a new fridge! Just more pointers to the fact that Whirlpool doesn't care in the slightest bit. If that does happen, my next fridge will be either a GE or Samsung BESPOKE, they seem to have finally improved vastly with the issues they were having a decade back. LG fridges have remained horrifying with their linear compressors failing.
It really is the case that there is no manufacture that can build every single appliance (fridge,stove,DW,washer and dryer) reliably. Not sure if others noticed, but all kitchen appliances from all manufactures have very identical handle designs now, could this be an indicator that they know that people mix appliance brands and tend to not go with just one brand for the kitchen?
Personally my recommendations would be this:
Fridge: GE, Samsung BESPOKE, Frigidaire and Frigidaire Gallery but avoid french doors from them.
Dishwasher: Bosch, maybe Maytag but I've seen reports of them becoming clogged and also being difficult to clean out. BOL Whirlpool, BOL-MOL GE. Miele if you can afford it.
Stove: GE, Frigidaire and Frigidaire Gallery.
Front Load Washer: LG with Turbowash, Electrolux, GE, Speed Queen if you can afford it.
Top Load Washer: Used WP direct drive, if new then a GE top loader with a dual action agitator. If you have the money and are okay with the extremely restrictive control options, go for a Speed Queen TC5 and only that Speed Queen.
Dryer: Electrolux, LG, GE but only the ones with the controls at the front. The ones with the circular heat grille at the back are insanely complicated to take apart for cleaning. Whirlpool with the top mount lint filter but even with those, have seemed to taken a nose dive of quality and assembly, likely go for a used one of those. Speed queen if you can afford it.
