Modern Whirlpool
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phillymatt53
Well-known member
Thanks Barry, The gentlman makes a lot of sense.
I'm not surprised at what's been going on, I've done research on other manufacturers products for decades.
Bottom line, - you build junk, you lose customers, and revenue.
Plain and simple.
reactor
Well-known member
Combo, I never knew body weight prevented one from repairing appliances, lol. Much of what he says is speculative in nature, but he admits that.
You stated "most of what he said is not true at all." Filtering out what is speculation, please indicate the segments of the video that are "not true at all" and state why. That will make the video more meaningful to us.
You stated "most of what he said is not true at all." Filtering out what is speculation, please indicate the segments of the video that are "not true at all" and state why. That will make the video more meaningful to us.
This topic was brought up back in April when the video was first released, it's only 7 months old. Ben is a Platinum member of this forum under the name of mrstickball and everything he stated in this video is definitely accurate. In my opinion from being on other appliance forums, Whirlpool is on worse shape than what he stated in the video. Their quality has nosedived, just like their stock.
https://automaticwasher.org/threads/is-it-over-for-whirlpool.97887/#post-1228434
https://automaticwasher.org/threads/is-it-over-for-whirlpool.97887/#post-1228434
vacerator
Well-known member
The Iowa plant was Maytag. It's been gone for some years and Whirlpool is still viable.
Whirlpool today is the largest manufacturers of dishwashers in this country the largest manufacturers of washers and dryers, they are huge force in refrigerators as well
They’re currently spending several hundred million dollars on the Clyde, Ohio plant taking it to the next level with a new updated washer designs, the company is hardly in bad shape. The quarterly profits have been steadily rising.
I believe the plant that was referenced in this video is the old Amana Iowa plant. There were some layoffs there. There were some layoffs at various places in whirlpool, the Iowa Amana plant is still running and building refrigerators every day.
To repair major appliances you need to be pretty flexible and while being heavy doesn’t totally preclude you from doing such if you’ve ever tried to replace an evaporator fan motor in the back of a side-by-side icemaker and fan motors and bottom freezer refrigerators I’m sorry this guy isn’t gonna be able to do it.. Last evening I had to replace a heating element in a stacked full-size Electrolux dryer I had to crawl through a hole that was 12 x 30“ wide to get behind the machine for example. You have to get way back underneath the dishwashers. You have to reach all the way to the back of the thing through a 4 inch opening to remove the heating element connectors and on, and on every day, you have to contort yourself into spaces to efficiently repair appliances.
I guess I just don’t like the sensationalistic style of these click bait videos. It’s not just him that’s true.
John L
They’re currently spending several hundred million dollars on the Clyde, Ohio plant taking it to the next level with a new updated washer designs, the company is hardly in bad shape. The quarterly profits have been steadily rising.
I believe the plant that was referenced in this video is the old Amana Iowa plant. There were some layoffs there. There were some layoffs at various places in whirlpool, the Iowa Amana plant is still running and building refrigerators every day.
To repair major appliances you need to be pretty flexible and while being heavy doesn’t totally preclude you from doing such if you’ve ever tried to replace an evaporator fan motor in the back of a side-by-side icemaker and fan motors and bottom freezer refrigerators I’m sorry this guy isn’t gonna be able to do it.. Last evening I had to replace a heating element in a stacked full-size Electrolux dryer I had to crawl through a hole that was 12 x 30“ wide to get behind the machine for example. You have to get way back underneath the dishwashers. You have to reach all the way to the back of the thing through a 4 inch opening to remove the heating element connectors and on, and on every day, you have to contort yourself into spaces to efficiently repair appliances.
I guess I just don’t like the sensationalistic style of these click bait videos. It’s not just him that’s true.
John L
reactor
Well-known member
It appears that Combo52's earlier ill-mannered and childish comments were removed. I apologize to Ben, (Mrstickball,) if he saw John Lefever's hateful response before administration removed it.
As far as the video being "click bait" that is Combo's personal perception of someone's motivation and not reality.
I didn't attach Ben's video to denigrate Whirlpool, but to bring about discussion. Yes, there is much decline in Whirlpool quality, but there is a reason. That reason extends to many other appliance manufacturers as well.
I pointed out earlier in the year, that we had moved, and the builder had placed a new Whirlpool dishwasher in the house and it leaked from a bad seal. Thankfully, our inspector caught it before we moved in. I got a 600 dollar allowance from the builder, and he removed the defective dishwasher. That doesn't say a lot about Whirlpool's quality control, although that was one machine and I can't make an overt generalization from one data point. BTW, I replaced the defective Whirlpool with a older non-tall tub GE tower-wash which, of course, washes with perfection.
The builder also had a Whirlpool over-the-range microwave (imported, of course) which works great. We also purchased a new Whirlpool counter-depth refrigerator. Time will show how reliable it is.
I certainly want to support Whirlpool, as it us the last U.S. owned full-line major appliance manufacturer. Just because of their size and massive sales volume doesn't mean they can't fail. I certainly hope they do not, and hope they never sell off to another manufacturer.
Sadly, U.S. consumers seem to want high tech snd low costs over higher price and quality.
Case in point is Alliance's Speed Queen. Great quality, but steep price and they have, sadly, a very low percentage of the residential laundry market, sales-wise.
Unless consumers are willing to start paying for quality over glitz, I think we will continue to see an overall decline in products...for all appliance manufacturers.
As far as the video being "click bait" that is Combo's personal perception of someone's motivation and not reality.
I didn't attach Ben's video to denigrate Whirlpool, but to bring about discussion. Yes, there is much decline in Whirlpool quality, but there is a reason. That reason extends to many other appliance manufacturers as well.
I pointed out earlier in the year, that we had moved, and the builder had placed a new Whirlpool dishwasher in the house and it leaked from a bad seal. Thankfully, our inspector caught it before we moved in. I got a 600 dollar allowance from the builder, and he removed the defective dishwasher. That doesn't say a lot about Whirlpool's quality control, although that was one machine and I can't make an overt generalization from one data point. BTW, I replaced the defective Whirlpool with a older non-tall tub GE tower-wash which, of course, washes with perfection.
The builder also had a Whirlpool over-the-range microwave (imported, of course) which works great. We also purchased a new Whirlpool counter-depth refrigerator. Time will show how reliable it is.
I certainly want to support Whirlpool, as it us the last U.S. owned full-line major appliance manufacturer. Just because of their size and massive sales volume doesn't mean they can't fail. I certainly hope they do not, and hope they never sell off to another manufacturer.
Sadly, U.S. consumers seem to want high tech snd low costs over higher price and quality.
Case in point is Alliance's Speed Queen. Great quality, but steep price and they have, sadly, a very low percentage of the residential laundry market, sales-wise.
Unless consumers are willing to start paying for quality over glitz, I think we will continue to see an overall decline in products...for all appliance manufacturers.
I don't trust modern Whirlpool.
It reminds me of what GE did. Now we see the end result.
Are you sure?
Honestly, Whirlpool has been declining in quality since the 1980’s. I remember John posted about awhile ago on how the people who got the earliest direct drives were irate about the linting issues and how they were harsh on certain types of items, so much so people went to the nearest Whirlpool dealer or Sears and bought another belt drive.
The programming got stingy in the 1980’s with the lack of spray rinses and overall programming (no gentle agitation on the rinse cycle on permanent press), in general wasn’t as thought out as it was on the belt drives.
phillymatt53
Well-known member
Like the current society trend of "following the crowd", being sheep or puppets, manufacturers follow others to their eventual demise and failures.
vacerator
Well-known member
Well, the first direct drives used to tear up couplers. They improved the coupler. Whirlpool decided rather than replace the worn out tooling and continue production of the tripod design to go with the world washer belt drive design. Brasil and Mexico were already building one. You realize junk is junk at any price.
And it's only getting worse.
Too many people think more expensive is better. That's a lie!
phillymatt53
Well-known member
Indeed Jerome!
It's the classic Marketing Tool used by corporations, among others, that just because more features are involved, they can set the price sky-high.
In reality, it's true that more features add to manufacturing costs, however stating that an appliance is "superior" or "High-End" is something hammered into society's brains. - that "conditioning" of society that I've often mentioned.
And so.... they can jack up the price of something to utterly rediculous costs.
Yet, people buy-into that propoganda without question.
Tear up couplers ... how often would that occur through the duration of ownership/use? Three years? Five years? Ten years? Granny's 1984 DD had zero repairs in the 15 years she used it, which included five+ years of my laundry when I lived in an apartment before I bought a house. Her DD and 1972 WP dryer (which also had zero repairs) were replaced with my 1991 KA pair when I bought an F&P set in 1999.
vacerator
Well-known member
How many lived in Granny's house? How many loads per week. My dad serviced Kemore's for Sears. A family of four direct drive coupler on early models lasted through the warranty period to one or two years after.
I don't miss working on appliances in homes. There's always the risk something will get damaged if you're not careful enough, and there are customers who refuse to believe, for instance, that the rotten brass trap under their sink was still holding water because the chrome plating hadn't failed yet. You were the last one who touched it, so it's YOUR fault it needs replaced after 40 years... Most folks are very happy to have whatever working again, but there's a percentage that are just never satisfied. Like the Priest who complained that he shouldn't have to pay for the $6 fill hose on his Maytag, while not one, but two late model Benz sedans sit in his driveway... Liars who told the buyer they threw away the ice when they cleaned out the fridge, when you condemned it 6 months before the sold the house... (actually, that one was fun when the buyer happened to call us to fix it!)
michaelz08
Well-known member
I really hope they pull through their current troubles. Of all the commodity appliance brands I've spent time with, they've given me the best user experiences and I have yet to have a major quality issue with any of their products; not to discount the well known quality issues they're facing or the fact they they certainly do have higher initial failure rates/quality issues than brands like Bosch. This feels like a solvable problem compared to some, they need to improve their quality checks in the factories to prevent bad products from being shipped out and do a better job either A) responding to failure trends of components and B) stop saving 50 cents on components that may fail 3x faster (this is a generalization, I know, but the point I'm making should be clear about cost-cutting too much).
The idea of a buyout is not a good one, to me. There has already been a lot of consolidation, brand discontinuation, and ownership changes in the industry and, perhaps less valid but more on a point of pride, I don't want to see the last domestic brand disappear.
The idea of a buyout is not a good one, to me. There has already been a lot of consolidation, brand discontinuation, and ownership changes in the industry and, perhaps less valid but more on a point of pride, I don't want to see the last domestic brand disappear.
they need to improve their quality checks in the factories to prevent bad products from being shipped out and do a better job either A) responding to failure trends of components and B) stop saving 50 cents on components that may fail 3x faster (this is a generalization, I know, but the point I'm making should be clear about cost-cutting too much).
This needs to be implemented across the entire industry, not just Whirlpool.
This needs to be implemented across the entire industry, not just Whirlpool.
vacerator
Well-known member
Haier owns GE so? How many owners has Chrysler had? Daimler AG, Cerberus, Fiat spa, now Stellantis. To recall that After the 1980 bankruptcy of Chrysler, that witin 5 years Lee Iacocca repaid the govt, loans, and in 1988 they bought AMC/Jeep. It's a different world now. It'll be different more for the next generation too.
phillymatt53
Well-known member
LOL!
I've had that "occasional" customer come in the shop with complaints too.
One idiot tried to sue us for the replacement price of his severely damaged 55 inch flat screen tv.
The set came in missing several back cover screws, cracked circuit boards, obvious hands inside doing damage.
It was beyond reasonable repair, and I discussed this on the phone with the idiot.
I suggested that it be recycled, and that we have a recycling program, which he agreed to.
4 days later, the set went out the door, we have recycle guys that come pick up these sets.
A week later, the idiot comes back in the store in an attempt to get his broken tv.
I told him it went out the week before to be recycled.
After a heated argument, he left.
Three weeks later I got a call from the Better Business Bureau, the idiot wants to claim $1500 for the set from our shop. - and obviously lied to the BBB.
What he didn't know was that we have shop DVR video, with audio, of him, at the front counter, along with recorded telephone audio proof of his agreement for us to recycle the tv.
This was done for our protection...... just in case.
Which came in handy!
He obviously tried to "pull a fast one" on us to get money to buy a new TV.
reactor
Well-known member
It's terrible, Matt. Sadly, many people think it's OK to lie to and cheat a store, company or business. If they owned a business, and someone tried to cheat them, they would certainly not be OK with it. Many of us
on this site are old enough to remember the "Golden Rule" being taught to us by our parents and in school..paraphrased it meant treat others as you yourself would like to be treated. Unfortunately, it often seems "Take care of number one." is the primary theme of the day with the implication..even if you have to cheat or steal. Life we be so much better if we all cared about each other.
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