Whirlpool no longer an appliance technology leader?

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verizonbear

verizonbear

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was reading some of the news regarding the possible buyout of Whirlpool by Bosch.

Seems like Whirlpool is going down the same road as GE appliances did.
Consumers used to turn to them for the latest technology and best built appliances. Now all of their "innovation" is more gimmicks driven by marketing than innovation driven by engineering.

A few cases in point.

1. The line of Maytag washers, dryers and dishwashers that have a special "pet cycle". This was no more than a rehash of agitator based lint filters in the washer, a larger lint screen in the dryer. For the dishwashers not seeing where this would make a difference to have a dedicated pet dish cycle just use the sanitary cycle? Again gimmicks

2. They released two washer dryer combos for the US market both failures. One was a 220 model that was a condenser dry the other is a 110 model large capacity with condenser dry. They have yet to come out with a model to compete with the releases from GE, LG and Samsung .

3. The Whirlpool top load HE washer with the wash plate and removable agitator. The agitator would increase the actual cleaning action why remove it? Claiming that there's extra capacity without the agitator but it's common knowledge these wash plate machines don't handle larger loads well at all.

I will give them credit for a couple of product releases things that were innovative from an engineering perspective.

1. The low profile, smaller OTR microwave vent fans. Excellent idea ! My only concern is replacing a standard footprint OTR microwave with one of these may necessitate covering or redoing the wall /backsplash due to the size difference.

2. TOL Maytag and KitchenAid Dishwashers with the 3rd rack spin tube water jets. I believe the Maytag wash tube is static and does not spin. Great idea.

Why is Whirlpool falling so far behind in innovation? They are a global company?
 
Whirlpool in decline?

Hi Phil, you make some good points, however, whirlpool has never really been the most innovative company back in the 80s. We were always after world pulled the introduce new products and they were usually pretty conservative about introducing them.

But whirlpool has been hurt by the acquisition of Maytag Initially, we were happy that Whirlpool got it going to the Chinese but now it’s obvious because they spent so much money for it and that took away from other product development, etc. cost of closing down more than 10 factories Acquired from buying Maytag among the costs.

The other thing that is surely hurt whirlpool is the loss of Sears appliance sales, for years The majority of whirlpool appliances in the US went through Sears however, whirlpool was really coming out on their own throughout the 70s 80s and became a very strong brand.

Don’t know what the future will bring, right now whirlpools the best thing in America we’ve got going it’s still American owned. It’s still largely union and they do produce some of the best appliances in the different categories. They certainly build the best dishwashers overall and they’re still the biggest maker of laundry products and still build the best clothes dryers they have some great refrigerators.

Whirlpool never been as strong as we would like in cooking appliances. It’s been kind of hit and miss for decades in that category.

John
 
Jiminie jilikers.
Whirlpool’s dishwashers ARE the same design as KitchenAid and Maytag.
They differentiate them in the marketplace with MARKETING.
The WP line uses filter cups. It’s the Chevrolet of dishwashers. Jeez.
It’s been years. How do you not know this? You live on this site GELaundryForever.
 
I believe Jerome is asking why the TOL self clean mechs used by Whirlpool aren't used in their BOLs. 

 

 

Jerome, IIRC BOL models use the manual clean filter, TOL models a self clean filter. 

 

 

In an ideal world all dishwashers would have a self clean filter capable of filtering out a very dirty load. Pre-rinsing makes no sense however I can understand the sentiment considering filterless dishwashers are what conditioned people to pre-rinse with said pre-rinsing setting energy regs into motion. 
 
Well I have:

(1.) the Pet Pro washer, with the center, agaitator-mounted pet hair filter, however the pets we'd bought it for, which are a pair of guinea pigs, don't produce as much hair as their linen we wash tends to accumulate a lot of hay in their cage that this filter does not completely filter out... Would be nice to see something like this be a true manual lint filtering design I wish my Maytag could go back to making that this is still to me easily in the impression of--but who wants to clean what looks to me a bit of goop?

As for the matching dryer, I prefer a door mounted lint screen to the top mount, so I don't have the Pet Pro dryer, which has a reversible left/right opening door, but a basic Maytag with a bottom-opening door with the preferred lint filter in the threshold there...

-- Dave
 

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