1. Not enough competition. There are basically only four major appliance manufacturers in the world, down from a dozen or more. With competition between companies, the net result was appliances that would last for decades before needing service or replacement. Then over time, Whirlpool and Electrolux slowly bought them all. Here is the latest breakdown of who owns what.

Now refrigerators last 8–10 years, if you are fortunate. How in the world have our appliances regressed so much in the past few decades? I’ve bought and sold refrigerators and freezers from the 1950’s that still work perfectly fine. I’ve come across washers and dryers from the 1960’s and 1970’s that were still working like the day they were made. Now, many appliances break and need servicing within 2-3 years and, overall, new appliances last 1/3 to 1/4 as long as appliances built decades ago. They break more frequently, and sooner, than ever before. They rust and deteriorate much quicker than in the past. Why is this happening, and what’s really going on? I’ve been wrestling over these questions for years while selling thousands of appliances, and more recently, working with used appliance sellers and repair techs all across the country. The following is what I’ve discovered.

Less competition is bad for consumers in almost every respect. It’s easier for them to keep appliance prices high, parts prices high and standards equally poor. Since they own all the brands, they can have several cranking out very poor quality machines and have it not affect their overall brand. If any of those sub brands ever starts to do poorly, they can make the brand disappear and start pushing another one of their brands.

Recently LG and Samsung have gotten into the appliance industry – they are the other two major appliance manufacturers. They sell under their own name and both manufacture and sell smaller home appliances like air conditioners and microwaves for other companies.

2. More parts are being designed to fail. The quality, or longevity of parts has been in steady decline over the past 10-15 years. Let me start with an example: for top loading washers and dryers two of the most expensive parts on the machines are the timer and motor. For decades there were rarely issues with these two parts, but over the past 10 years there has been a plague of washer and dryer timers and motors that fail and have to be replaced. This has been a huge step backward for the appliance industry. On the off chance a person pays someone to come out and diagnose the issue, they find out the part will be over $100 and the repair total often comes to a few hundred at the minimum. When people find this out, they usually replace the machine. The quicker a part breaks, the quicker the consumer buys a new appliance. Motors last about 1/3 to 1/4 as long as they used to. Lid switches are glued together and eventually split and break. (solution is wrapping a zip tie around the lid switch to reinforce it, but though the problem has been known for probably 20 years, nothing has been done). Refrigerator door seals are glued on now instead of screwed on, and because of this they eventually start to pull away from the fridge, warp and ultimately fail, which, you guessed it, leads to replacement. These are issues that were figured out decades ago and there is absolutely no excuse for them to be happening today unless these companies are purposely regressing. There is no other way to explain it.

It’s not just the parts, but the entire design of the machines. For example, one of, if not the best selling washing machines of all time was the direct drive Whirlpool washing machine. They made those splendid washers for a little over 30 years. Then a few years ago they replaced the direct drive with the “Vertical Modular Washer”. These new washers can be recognized by the led lights under the timer as you see in this picture, and can often be seen in large quantities at your local scrap metal yard. They are one of the worst designed washing machines ever produced and you will encounter serious problems within 1-3 years of purchasing one. They replaced the most reliable washer with the least reliable washer.

Another example is the Frigidaire dishwashers. They can often be found for $300 at big box retailers, but they usually break within 2-3 years. I’ve talked with appliance repair techs that have been called to hundreds of homes that have these broken dishwashers in them and joked to me that they called them disposable dishwashers. Dishwashers have been found in almost every home since the 1970’s, how could we be creating them over 40 years later to only last a couple years before breaking? It’s either incompetence or more likely, planned obsolescence.

3. There is too much confusion over who is making quality appliances. Who makes the best top loading washing machine? That used to be Maytag, then for some reason the quality of their washers went in the tank and Whirlpool top loading washers became the best. (Whirlpool made Kenmore’s washers for over 20 years). Then all of a sudden Whirlpool stopped making those incredible direct drive washers a few years ago. Now LG makes the best top load washing machines. Here’s the confusing part: those great Whirlpool washers made under the above brands all have a good name in consumers minds, but now they are all getting a bad reputation because the new washers being produced are very poor quality. So what was the best is now the worst, and millions of people do not know that.

When I observe how these large appliance manufacturers act I think of the mattress industry. What is a good mattress to buy? How much should it cost? Where you should purchase it? All answers you probably do not know, nor do most people, because the mattress industry has more makes and models of beds than you can shake a stick at. It seems like each year they come out with 12 models of beds and to top it off they give the same mattresses different names for different stores! That is absolutely great for manufacturers because it makes it impossible for consumers to hold them accountable and for an accurate review system to be in place. The appliance industry is not too much better. Whirlpool makes the same washers and markets them under different names as do other manufactures of different kinds of appliances. It’s almost like these manufacturers don’t want consumers to focus on one brand over another but rather on creating appliances that need to be replaced as quickly as possible to drive more sales.

4. Appliances are being designed to rust away

One of the most glaring differences between modern appliances and those produced 40 years ago was the quality of paint job. Newer appliances start rusting within even a year or two whereas I’ve seen washers and dryers and other appliances from 40 years ago that are still rust free. How could this be? There are a number major reasons I’ve identified.