These are the top rated brands by Consumer Reports. The top rated brand by reliability? Their site…doesn’t seem to list prices. That’s never a good sign…But a search of Google shopping indicates that their fridges start at $7000 and up. Quality brands exist. They just cost 3-10 times the cheaper brands.
“75” is kind of a shit high score, with the scale going to 100 and all.
Demonstration of that point: LG is #2 with a score of 74, in spite of the fact that the terrible track record of their big-dollar linear-compressor fridges has made national news.
We might also note that the span of scores here is really small; it’s just 8 points on a scale of 100. How meaningful is all this?
CR’s reports like these are based on CR subscriber surveys. So they’re about consumer experience and sentiment for things bought brand new and generally things bought recently. I wouldn’t expect such a report to say much about lifespan or repair-ability.
I’ve been a CR subscriber forever. I keep thinking I should cancel, though, because I’m not prosperous enough to live the way their target audience apparently lives.
I was a subscriber to Consumer Reports for years and trusted them implicitly because they seemed so thorough and rigorous. Then they did reviews on a subject with which I am intimately familiar (it was computer related), and I was shocked at how badly they fumbled just about everything. I’ve also seen some really dubious ratings on high ticket items like cars that I knew were not great, so I take their ratings with grain of salt anymore.
The fact that Whirlpool is even on this list makes it a joke to me. I will say I’ve had a Miele dishwasher in the past and it was fucking awesome, and have heard great things about a lot of Bosch appliances. But LG and Whirlpool frequently put out trash appliances.
I rented a house for a while with Miele appliances in it (dishwasher, double oven, steam oven, microwave, and hob), they were amazing. They felt well built, never had an issue (I only lived there for five years though) and had features I would never dream of using, the oven had a sabbath mode or something that you could set up to turn on and cook your food for you a day in advance or something crazy like that.
After moving to my current house I looked into them, they are way too expensive for my blood.
The fact that they seem to fail to comprehend that LG and Signature Kitchen Suite are both made by LG in the same factory, and that Fisher & Paykel and “Cafe” (actually GE) are both owned and made by Haier, and that Thermador and Bosch are also the same company with several of their products being rebadges of each other does not fill me with confidence.
At the very least if they insist on breaking those sub-brands out separately they ought to make at least some mention at the bottom of the chart that they’re actually the same entity.
Seems like there could be a crowdsourced version of Consumer Reports. A standardized battery of tests for each product category, and different youtubers could test products according to the test and produce (ideally reproducible) reports for each product. Not sure how the standardized tests would be created or maintained, or how the whole thing would be funded. But it would be cool to have some common, non-commercialized benchmarks that do what Consumer Reports does, but with better transparency and less opportunity to fudge.
Seems like there could be a crowdsourced version of Consumer Reports.
By the time it gets critical mass to be good crowdsourcing it’ll suffer from astroturfing and spam and other SEO techniques, which will have to be met with stricter and more proactive moderation, which may go a bit too hard and alienate casual users from participation, which will hurt its own reliability.
Yeah, CR has been waving a red flag since the day I discovered them. Their testing methodology is meh and the fact that they (afaik, it’s been decades now) don’t purchase the items they test, but instead request them from the manufacturer, means they are not impartial, thus they cannot be trusted.
I’ve always regarded them as drawing parallel lines to things like the BBB. Sure they put on a decent public image and people put trust in them, but… why? What do they actually do? Specially, what do they do for you? You’re basically purchasing a magazine that is 100% ads. Even if you are already interested in an item in that edition, it’s still literally an ad that you will be reading. A biased ad. That you fucking paid to read. That is bonkers, and yet apparently there is still enough people who willingly buy ads for the company to continue existing.
I find it very suspicious, LG (like Samsung) is famous for unreliable fridges. And Miele sell rebranded Liebherr fridges, which come with 10 year warranty… I wonder what their methodology is (not enough to research but I would if buying an appliance).
I had a Samsung dishwasher in my previous house. Had to replace the pump twice in the 3 years I lived there. Utter garbage. Didn’t clean very well either.
I have a Liebherr fridge that’s 20 years old, got it second hand and just works like expexted. The plastic elements start breaking piece by piece (a freezer drawer, a door shelf, the lamp cover), but i still consider it trustworthy and would buy again.
I’m told that the cheapeast LG refrigerators with the freezer on top two door are some of the more reliable. The fancy LG fridges have notoriously unreliable linear compressors? that are even MORE unreliable in the USA because we use a different refrigerant than what they were even designed for and they weren’t good before that change.
That’s the other factor with those older appliances that just keep on going forever. They usually serve one function and serve it well. My kitchenaid mixer is 20 years old. I’m the second owner and it’s still going strong. But those things are also built like tanks. Simple parts. Dirt simple operation. There is no app to control the thing. There’s a single control lever that controls power and speed, in the wonderfully precise measurements of “1 to 10.”
My mixer has two and only two functions - to turn a mixing paddle and to power attachments via a power take-off. All the accessories? They’re cheap and easily replaceable. I have some accessories like an ice cream maker and vegetable spiralizer. They can break without affecting the main unit. Your Grandma’s 50 year old fridge? It has just two, or maybe even just one compartment. One or two doors to keep seals to a minimum. No in-door ice maker. No countless conveniences that make life easier but also produce failure points. Might not even have automatic defrost. It’s just a box that keeps things cold. The most common reason for service calls on modern fridges are issues with the in-door ice makers.
If you wanted a bullet proof fridge setup, your best bet would be to find a single cabinet fridge without a freezer at all and then keep a chest freezer elsewhere as your only freezer. Yes, a bit more inconvenient. But if you want to max out your stats on durability rather than convenience, that’s the way to go.
If you want a device that lasts, buy the version of that device that is as dirt-simple as possible.
You can already buy appliances like that.
These are the top rated brands by Consumer Reports. The top rated brand by reliability? Their site…doesn’t seem to list prices. That’s never a good sign…But a search of Google shopping indicates that their fridges start at $7000 and up. Quality brands exist. They just cost 3-10 times the cheaper brands.
You’ll call me a curmudgeon for sure, but:
“75” is kind of a shit high score, with the scale going to 100 and all.
Demonstration of that point: LG is #2 with a score of 74, in spite of the fact that the terrible track record of their big-dollar linear-compressor fridges has made national news.
We might also note that the span of scores here is really small; it’s just 8 points on a scale of 100. How meaningful is all this?
CR’s reports like these are based on CR subscriber surveys. So they’re about consumer experience and sentiment for things bought brand new and generally things bought recently. I wouldn’t expect such a report to say much about lifespan or repair-ability.
I’ve been a CR subscriber forever. I keep thinking I should cancel, though, because I’m not prosperous enough to live the way their target audience apparently lives.
I was a subscriber to Consumer Reports for years and trusted them implicitly because they seemed so thorough and rigorous. Then they did reviews on a subject with which I am intimately familiar (it was computer related), and I was shocked at how badly they fumbled just about everything. I’ve also seen some really dubious ratings on high ticket items like cars that I knew were not great, so I take their ratings with grain of salt anymore.
The fact that Whirlpool is even on this list makes it a joke to me. I will say I’ve had a Miele dishwasher in the past and it was fucking awesome, and have heard great things about a lot of Bosch appliances. But LG and Whirlpool frequently put out trash appliances.
I rented a house for a while with Miele appliances in it (dishwasher, double oven, steam oven, microwave, and hob), they were amazing. They felt well built, never had an issue (I only lived there for five years though) and had features I would never dream of using, the oven had a sabbath mode or something that you could set up to turn on and cook your food for you a day in advance or something crazy like that.
After moving to my current house I looked into them, they are way too expensive for my blood.
The fact that they seem to fail to comprehend that LG and Signature Kitchen Suite are both made by LG in the same factory, and that Fisher & Paykel and “Cafe” (actually GE) are both owned and made by Haier, and that Thermador and Bosch are also the same company with several of their products being rebadges of each other does not fill me with confidence.
At the very least if they insist on breaking those sub-brands out separately they ought to make at least some mention at the bottom of the chart that they’re actually the same entity.
Seems like there could be a crowdsourced version of Consumer Reports. A standardized battery of tests for each product category, and different youtubers could test products according to the test and produce (ideally reproducible) reports for each product. Not sure how the standardized tests would be created or maintained, or how the whole thing would be funded. But it would be cool to have some common, non-commercialized benchmarks that do what Consumer Reports does, but with better transparency and less opportunity to fudge.
By the time it gets critical mass to be good crowdsourcing it’ll suffer from astroturfing and spam and other SEO techniques, which will have to be met with stricter and more proactive moderation, which may go a bit too hard and alienate casual users from participation, which will hurt its own reliability.
It’s not an easy problem to solve.
https://www.rtings.com/
They’re trying to avoid the pitfalls of popularity.
Project Farm on YouTube is an alternative I’ve been happy to have discovered
Torque Test Channel is another good one, but very niche
Yeah, CR has been waving a red flag since the day I discovered them. Their testing methodology is meh and the fact that they (afaik, it’s been decades now) don’t purchase the items they test, but instead request them from the manufacturer, means they are not impartial, thus they cannot be trusted.
I’ve always regarded them as drawing parallel lines to things like the BBB. Sure they put on a decent public image and people put trust in them, but… why? What do they actually do? Specially, what do they do for you? You’re basically purchasing a magazine that is 100% ads. Even if you are already interested in an item in that edition, it’s still literally an ad that you will be reading. A biased ad. That you fucking paid to read. That is bonkers, and yet apparently there is still enough people who willingly buy ads for the company to continue existing.
My rule is if the company has ever made a TV or Cell Phone I will NEVER buy their kitchen appliance.
i feel like this rule accomplishes nothing. Do you just hate LG?
And Samsung. Had one of their appliances. It broke. Less than 10 years old and Samsung doesn’t make parts anymore.
I had to find someone on eBay that could fix it.
Meanwhile the Whirlpool washing machine I bought at the same time had issues and parts were readily available.
It works for Samsung… So, rule is definitely accomplishing something.
I’ve long since learned never to touch Samsung for anything that isn’t a screen or flash memory… Any software or appliances are pretty much trash.
Whats the source of that ranking?
As I mentioned, Consumer Reports.
The second is a mass market brand though.
I find it very suspicious, LG (like Samsung) is famous for unreliable fridges. And Miele sell rebranded Liebherr fridges, which come with 10 year warranty… I wonder what their methodology is (not enough to research but I would if buying an appliance).
I had a Samsung dishwasher in my previous house. Had to replace the pump twice in the 3 years I lived there. Utter garbage. Didn’t clean very well either.
My rule is if the company has ever made a TV or Cell Phone I will NEVER buy their kitchen appliance.
What about heavy duty construction equipment?
That’s ok.
What about a company that makes appliances and self-propelled Howitzers?
Now that’s a Kia of size worthy of the US roads
Having a Liebherr fridge as a fan of big cranes sounds so ideal.
I have a Liebherr fridge that’s 20 years old, got it second hand and just works like expexted. The plastic elements start breaking piece by piece (a freezer drawer, a door shelf, the lamp cover), but i still consider it trustworthy and would buy again.
They are a bit pricey, but the 10 year warranty gives peace of mind. Quite efficient and silent too, but I think that’s normal for any modern fridge.
I’m told that the cheapeast LG refrigerators with the freezer on top two door are some of the more reliable. The fancy LG fridges have notoriously unreliable linear compressors? that are even MORE unreliable in the USA because we use a different refrigerant than what they were even designed for and they weren’t good before that change.
Thanks to a rather high profile class action lawsuit, LG no longer uses linear compressors in their refrigerators. At least in the US.
That’s the other factor with those older appliances that just keep on going forever. They usually serve one function and serve it well. My kitchenaid mixer is 20 years old. I’m the second owner and it’s still going strong. But those things are also built like tanks. Simple parts. Dirt simple operation. There is no app to control the thing. There’s a single control lever that controls power and speed, in the wonderfully precise measurements of “1 to 10.”
My mixer has two and only two functions - to turn a mixing paddle and to power attachments via a power take-off. All the accessories? They’re cheap and easily replaceable. I have some accessories like an ice cream maker and vegetable spiralizer. They can break without affecting the main unit. Your Grandma’s 50 year old fridge? It has just two, or maybe even just one compartment. One or two doors to keep seals to a minimum. No in-door ice maker. No countless conveniences that make life easier but also produce failure points. Might not even have automatic defrost. It’s just a box that keeps things cold. The most common reason for service calls on modern fridges are issues with the in-door ice makers.
If you wanted a bullet proof fridge setup, your best bet would be to find a single cabinet fridge without a freezer at all and then keep a chest freezer elsewhere as your only freezer. Yes, a bit more inconvenient. But if you want to max out your stats on durability rather than convenience, that’s the way to go.
If you want a device that lasts, buy the version of that device that is as dirt-simple as possible.