In which we discuss quality household appliances

I was considering procuring for us some new appliances soon. In particular the washer and drier I have are very old - they were here when I moved into this house 10 years ago and were old then. The drier in particular frequently requires more than one full cycle to do its job. The washer seems adequate but nothing special. More than anything I'm concerned about them breaking down from age, and to a lesser degree cost of operations as I expect newer machines would be more efficient.

To that end I was curious if anyone had recommendations for washers and driers. Money is of concern so i'd prefer to find a good balance between quality and affordability rather than go crazy high end.

On a side note I am also possibly interested in a dishwasher. The one I have isn't really that old. It just sucks. My ex picked it out based off consumer reports reviews but aside from being quiet, I've never really been happy with it. It can't really get anything at all off dishes and I feel like I mainly use it to sanitize stuff that's already washed by hand for the most part. I'm not expecting to get something that I can throw food caked pans in, but something that can actually accomplish ANYTHING on its own would be nice. I am tired of pulling out plates of shame to rewash because there was a tiny smudge of ketchup or something on them when they went in the dishwasher.

I have credit at the dread establishment of Best Buy so stuff I can find there would be ideal.

Re the dishwasher, what do you use for detergent? I have a really terrible contractor-grade dishwasher, but it still gets dishes clean easily; I use those Cascade Complete Pac things. I always thought it was my old (much better) dishwasher that was to credit, but at this point, I think it must be the detergent.

Basic cascade liquid. It has two compartments to fill that open at different times.

I just buy whatever consumer reports tells me is 1) not the most expensive option but 2) is the highest performance of the remaining. Really great results so far.

Your crap dishwasher may be an artifact of the new regulation to reduce phosphate runoff from dishwashers. Getting really good detergent makes a huge difference now.

FWIW, the dishwasher I bought and liked was on the recommendation of Consumersearch, which is sort of a review aggregator/filter site. Definitely worth reading, even if just for the links to primary source reviews.

One thing that has served me well is that retailers used to get a real workhorse version of a premium brand, such as the Inglis version of Whirlpool insides that my wife bought a decade or so ago as a student. I thought it would need replacing when I was having trouble with the dryer half, but it turned out there was a second lint trap that was completely clogged up further up above the machine (is that a possibility in your house? the tube lint trap or whatever it is did not look remotely open-able to my eye, but in retrospect seems obvious, and it had exactly that delayed dry effect). Now that I know to clean that out, it still works incredibly well, and both times the washer has gotten stopped (from small socks going over and getting in the plumbing, both times, because I am lazy and sometimes overload it) the repairmen have been almost reverent with regard to its core simplicity, the fact that it uses metal rather than plastic gears, and the complete absence of computer doodads.

So I would say what I've learned is that I prize simplicity in these machines, if there's a way to get a clear read on the durability of the components, that's good too. If you do get more digital/computer based machines, it's probably a really good idea to make sure your breaker box has adequate surge protection added to it. Otherwise, plumb the bottom tiers and consumer reports kind of sucks for this thanks to the huge variance in model numbers when you actually go to a store. It may be different if you are going all online.

But yeah, I think checking the detergent is a great place to start. Those cascade packets are fantastic in terms of convenience and effectiveness, whether in my better home dishwasher or my shitty rental studio one.

yeah unfortunately with the sewage backup i had last month my stuff was all cleaned out and hose re-routed so I know for sure there are no other backups.

Well, at least that's a given then. How frustrating.

Well I definitely appreciate the advice to check it, regardless. :) Most people haven't gone through having to reset their appliances for other reasons .

Epilogue: I finally picked up some of the cascade complete pack things you mentioned when we were running low on the basic liquid stuff. The difference is night and day. I can even put pots that have sat for a couple days in and run the dishwasher and they come out clean. Before, I could prewash and if I left any solids on the dish at all they would still be there after the wash cycle.

Yeah, I know, go ahead and report me as a Cascade VM.

As an interesting corollary, while I've found this does a much better job of washing the dishes, I've found that if there is any solid stuff that it breaks down and cleans off, it tends to stain the bottle nipples we run through the wash. They still seem and smell clean, but after running a pot of sloppy joe through, we ended up with some orange tinted bottle nipples. So I guess it pays to not be completely lazy and just throw stuff in, but still nice to know it can get things done.

So tell me about vacuum cleaners. I have an older Kenmore one which seems to have lost most of its power. I'm in the market for a new one. Costco seems to carry both Dyson and Shark ones, with a major price difference of course. Does anyone have good or bad things to say about either brand? I'd prefer to get it at Costco due to their return policy but if it turns out there are some awesome non-Costco ones I would be open to that too.

IMO Dysons are incredibly overpriced, as they spend a lot of their money on advertising. I personally am more of a fan of Bissel. I have a lift-off model that makes cleaning stairs pretty easy.

There's actually a vacuum cleaner thread already, with some recommendations there.

I certainly agree that they're overpriced, but I really like the one we have that has a ball in addition to wheels. It is so light and maneuverable that my partner will actually vacuum every once in a while. That never happened before.

We got a deal on a factory refurb, which made the investment slightly less painful.

Perfect, thanks.

We adore our Dyson vacuum. it's the best we've ever had. We got it because of the ball which makes it really easy to maneuver - important with my wife's MS - but it became clear just how much better it was than our last vacuum very quickly. If anything, the suction can be too effective to its detriment because it will tend to suck in solid objects that get stuck that you would expect to be out of suction range.

I never trusted liquid dishwasher detergent for some reason, and yet I don't trust solid washing machine detergent.

I'm weird.

I make my own powdered washing detergent. It works great in my front-loader and cleans far better than anything else I've ever purchased and takes something like 15 minutes to make a couple pounds. I stopped using the dishwasher pellets because a repairman told me that the plasticy outer layer doesn't fully dissolve and can clog the machine up over time. Then I just used powdered Cascade, until I found some capsules that don't have the outer cover, and they're amazing.

I'm looking into a new furnace (that's going to take some budgeting for). The one we have is still working but awfully noisy. It was here when we moved in, and we had it serviced once. I, um.... can't find the filter. I've looked several times. I vacuum around it sometimes in hopes that I'm doing some good, and it does seem to make it run more smoothly. It has a tendency to cycle on and off multiple times before settling down and running. I looked it up by serial number and It turns out it was manufactured in 1979, which means it is original with the house.

I'm sure it's hideously inefficient, and it bugs me that I can't find the filter. But it works, and my goodness, new ones are pricy. I guess we're in the market, though. Any suggestions/warnings/recommendations? (It's a gas furnace.)

I ended up getting a Hoover one that was the best budget upright bagless on the consumersearch site. They had it at Costco for $99 and it works awesome so far. Thanks mkozlows !

The higher the AFUE (efficiency) number, the better. Ideally you want one with variable heating and a variable-speed fan, which are more efficient, quieter, and keep your house more evenly heated. At the very least, you'll want a multistage one. In theory, the more expensive variable-speed ones pay for themselves in a year or two; in reality, I am always skeptical of energy efficiency payback claims, but hey.

With dishwashers, one thing worth spending a little extra for is the stainless steel interior, which tends to be more durable and last longer than plastic. I think I got that tip from Consumer Reports, IIRC. Other than that I go with Jason's methodology--don't be penny-wise/pound-foolish by getting a bargain basement model, but don't go crazy on getting something ridiculously high-end, either. We got a KitchenAid to replace our old dishwasher a few years ago. The old one was also a KitchenAid, from the 80s. That thing was a tank. For the new one, we got the basic model, which has the same housing and stainless interior and the same washing elements as the high end models, but a much more Spartan control panel and way fewer cycle options. But really, how many options do you need on a dishwasher? Our old one had, like, ten different wash settings, and the only one we ever used was "regular wash."

I had a chance to go all nerdy on kitchen appliances when we remodeled our kitchen a year ago. First, though, a before and after photo.

Before:



And after:



I'd initially wanted a gas range top, but once I discovered induction cooktops, I had to have one, so we got a Bosch 5-hob
induction cooktop. It's fabulous -- immediate temperature control, safer than gas, cooks damned fast when you need
it, but has very low simmer settings.

We also got a Samsung refrigerator. It's countertop depth and (at the time) was the only mainstream fridge with
two cooling units (though only one motor driving both.)

The smaller faucet is for instant hot water, which puts out water at just the right temperature for making coffee
in my Aeropress.

The dishwasher is a Bosch. Euro style dishwashers don't have built-in drying coils, so you need to keep them closed
a little longer for the dishes to effectively dry. If I have a complaint about the dishwasher, though, it's that the racks
are a little fiddly, and we still haven't found the perfect way to put our mix of pots, dishes and glasses in efficiently.

At the Samsung CES press conference when everybody else was drooling over their 110 inch 4K television I sat silently and lusted after their oven, that could bake at two different temps at once and their fridge/freezer combo with four rooms that you could define as either freezer or fridge dependent on your needs - it also had an Android tablet bolted on, but it was the cooling tech that impressed me.

Last year it was the Gaggenau zoned induction cooktop. I work for the wrong magazine...

I really like the Samsung refrigerators, but they are all super-tall and our refrigerator opening isn't, so we went with an LG instead. It's also quite nice; I just liked the interior layout of the Samsung a little better.