It's an appliance trifecta

bflynn

bflynn

Final Approach
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Brian Flynn
Washing machine, Dishwasher and dryer and all making new weird noises today.

I took the dryer apart and couldn't find any simple reasons for the noise, the bearings are all good and none of the spinny things are making noise. They're all 15 years old, I guess I'm going to spend tomorrow buying new, installing and disposing of the old units.

Does anyone have suggestions?
 
bflynn said:
Washing machine, Dishwasher and dryer and all making new weird noises today.

I took the dryer apart and couldn't find any simple reasons for the noise, the bearings are all good and none of the spinny things are making noise. They're all 15 years old, I guess I'm going to spend tomorrow buying new, installing and disposing of the old units.

Does anyone have suggestions?
Click to expand...
All three started at the same time? Hmmm....Did you recently get a new hearing aide?
 
bflynn said:
Washing machine, Dishwasher and dryer and all making new weird noises today.

I took the dryer apart and couldn't find any simple reasons for the noise, the bearings are all good and none of the spinny things are making noise. They're all 15 years old, I guess I'm going to spend tomorrow buying new, installing and disposing of the old units.

Does anyone have suggestions?
Click to expand...
One thing I'd do, is watch for sales. All the major holidays usually have a major appliance sale, so if you can wait until Labor day, you might save a few hundred bucks.
 
At 15 years they don’t owe you much. But if the dryer is otherwise working fine, I’d check out the rollers. Just replaced all 5 of them on ours (which were about 3-4 years old, but we do a LOT of laundry) and it’s back to being silent and new. They didn’t seem bad at all but it made a difference.

As to brands, do your research as it’s a moving target. For us we bought Electrolux because that seemed to be the best for quality and quiet (our two big metrics). We had a defective washer when we took delivery but they’ve worked well since.
 
Electrical problems? Surge? Voltage drop?

Would be odd to have 3 working appliances suddenly have issues if not a common source.
 
I did the appliance buying spree not too long ago, and tried watching the sales. We've got a local family electronics place that absolutely destroyed any advertised holiday sale price, so find one of those if you can. Brands can't seem to get their quality in place across a whole range, so if you don't mind them not matching, Bosch for the dishes, and Speed Queen for the laundry. Speed queen may not be your cup of tea, so these guys put out a annual review of brand repair frequency and are candid that they have dropped some brands because of poor quality.
 
Weird.

You just missed 4th of July sales. Some still going though.

Our dryer started making noises again and I’ve repaired it multiple times. I finally realized the quality of the PARTS is gone to crap. Bearings, rollers, even the drum seal kit... all crap that lasted two years.

We gave up. The new stuff isn’t built to last either but for the annual amortization it’s a no brainer even at five years if that’s all we get. If we get ten, great.

Went with Samsung. Middle high of the pack. Wouldn’t do the thousands of dollar silliness with 40 settings and steam and whatever.

Of course non-matching units isn’t in Karen’s vocabulary so did both. Wifey is happy. More important than anything else on the spreadsheet. LOL!

Dishwasher is next but we beed serious plumbing work to do that one right and good plumbers out here are hard to come by. After that, the hard water has clearly coated the “ten year” water heater in five and it’s lightly boiling even on lower settings. It mAy be first actually. Highly annoying but cheap to have done. Probably just get the plumber to do it all at once.

Dishwasher I’m impressed with Bosch. Still not the tank / beast this 80a Maytag is, but we have two at the office d that get the holy crap kicked out of them two to four times a day and zero issues. People put insanely caked on junk in them and everything comes out clean.

She hammed it up for the camera. LOL.

87f7ecd76d67662e274995690921998d.jpg
 
masloki said:
I did the appliance buying spree not too long ago, and tried watching the sales. We've got a local family electronics place that absolutely destroyed any advertised holiday sale price, so find one of those if you can. Brands can't seem to get their quality in place across a whole range, so if you don't mind them not matching, Bosch for the dishes, and Speed Queen for the laundry. Speed queen may not be your cup of tea, so these guys put out a annual review of brand repair frequency and are candid that they have dropped some brands because of poor quality.
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Just as a side note, Speed Queen sold out. Quite a few lamenting that they were one of the last holdouts that had any quality. The current units aren’t as good per various buyers in forums who loved them. Sad.
 
I don't get why they have WiFi anyway? I have to go move the clothes from the washer to dryer, why do I need to remote start it? I guess then Samsung can know how many loads of laundry I do haha.
 
The last thing I want to be involved in around here is appliance selection. That's her call. One thing I would note, however, is that getting these things repaired can be hard, so the availability of a repair person for the specific brand you buy ought to be pretty far up on the list.
 
RalphInCA said:
RESIST the fancy settings, WIFI connectivity, and other bells whistles.

After the newness wears off you will rarely, if ever use them. Go for basic functionality.
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I’ll partly disagree. Our previous washer dryer had a connection where the washer would tell the dryer what the cycle was and it would automatically pick the correct dry cycle and time. We really missed that feature going to the new ones. Not like it’s too big of a deal, but it was really nice.
 
Bosch dishwashers are awesome. We have the Whirlpool Cabrio washer and dryer and they work great, too. Huge capacity, and fast.
 
Washers: avoid HE washers! Maytag and Speedqueen are the closest to non-HE.
The Maytag commercial "hotel or laundromat style" are the only ones that are truly non-HE.
Many will try to tell you they are not HE but they still don't: fill very much/use stupid soap/don't agitate vigorously for 10 minutes/don't clean clothes!

Dryers; there is very little difference between them so buy the cheapest; expect a few years then um. rinse & repeat.

Dishwashers: do people really use these still? Maybe if you are a family of 5 or 6?
 
Why oh why did you poke the appliance gremlin? Yesterday I get a yell from the laundry room ... "THE DRYER IS BROKEN!"
damn damn damn grumble grumble - because my email is full of "the database is broken" from work (in the middle of migrating hundreds of databases to Cloud and have been working stupid hours. I'm no longer able or tolerant of the one man band working 3 shifts any more)

turns out it popped the breaker. Anything popping a breaker makes me nervous, since I rewired the house and upgraded to a 200 amp main panel on the last remodel and got rid of the aluminum wiring (except the dryer and a/c ... now realizing serious screwup on my part there - but the dryer was gas at that time, and the a/c I just forgot).

So, I reset the breaker and went back to the databases, and she finished the load. An hour later, another "it's broke again" (the dryer, not the databases).
This time requires investigation before resetting the breaker. Turns out that the dryer just about finished the cycle before popping the breaker, so not an immediate indication of a shorted heating element. Pulled the cord - shiny clean connectors, no indication of hot wires. Pulled the outlet, everything tight and clean (not counting the anti-oxidant coating I put on during the dryer installation when we switched back to electric). I checked the breaker connections and they're the same - clean (with anti-ox), tight, no heat indications.

This Whirlpool dryer has some automation features but is fairly simple compared to today's computerized units. Manual time, auto time, 4 heat settings, Wrinkle guard and end of cycle alerts. She runs it on auto time, and mostly Medium heat. So, troubleshooting has a few permutations but not overwhelming. Starting with manual 60 minutes, medium heat, no wrinkle guard, no end of cycle alert. Started it up and watched the draw at the breakers, showing 24 amps and 85°F on A and 25 amps, 90° on B legs, with draw dropping to 0 amps on A, 4 amps on B as the heating elements cycle. And it ran for 60 minutes to completion and dry clothes.

Second load was Auto time, medium heat, no wrinkle guard, no end of cycle alarm. Same results and a flashback to Navy VIDSMAF signoff A-799 "Unable to duplicate" came to mind.

So, out of clothes to dry and out of time to continue to troubleshoot. Cover is off the service panel, tools scattered all over, and here I am fixing databases at 5 am on a Saturday. Stay tuned for round 2 and hoping I find the Wrinkle guard or end of cycle has some bad component causing a short.
 
denverpilot said:
Weird.

Dishwasher I’m impressed with Bosch. Still not the tank / beast this 80a Maytag is, but we have two at the office d that get the holy crap kicked out of them two to four times a day and zero issues. People put insanely caked on junk in them and everything comes out clean.
Click to expand...

Worked at an appliance store (remember those) and did some appliance repair while in college. Maytag's we frigging tanks and very seldom would we need to replace any major part -Maytag repair man commercials was truth in advertising.. Most of the repairs were from broken belts, the water level sensor getting gunked up (hard water), or the heating element going out on the electric dryer.. Anytime the call was for a Maytag, we would pack those parts and go.. other that that, the only other thing built better is a Sherman tank.. The ones now-a-days are using plastic parts where they use to be metal..

Bosch dishwasher... I second the recommendation. Our's is going on 15 years and still running strong with a load every other day.

As for all the gimmick krap they are putting into these things.. remember these things are around water, and what can water do to a circuit board.. I tore into our Whirlpool front load and was surprised to see only a piece of plastic coated cardboard protecting the electronics :(

Stay away from LG and Samsung. After 20 plus years of service on our Whirlpool front loads, and a few repairs... I replace them with LG due to Consumer Reports... Did they get this one wrong? Neighbor got a set of Samsung W & D... they too have had the repair guy out a few time.

Sad, that appliances are now becoming a five year proposition.
 
LG was top of the line for a short period of time (under 10 years). We loved the ones we had in PA but the LG fridge here is junk.

We also have a Bosch dishwasher and love it.
 
Where I live, we had one store that would do in house appliance repair. With the Chinese virus among us they have stopped that and do not plan to resume. So now the nearest repair is 2.5 hours away, and comes with a $125.00 service fee.

My old washer/drier has been repaired many times, and parts are still available. Next time it quits it will be replacement time due to the fact no one does repairs anymore.
 
denverpilot said:
I have this bad feeling I need to order the Bosch before they realize they overbuilt them and drop down to the lowest common denominator of their counterparts.
Click to expand...

Too late. They do that once people are consistently saying good things.
 
bflynn said:
Washing machine, Dishwasher and dryer and all making new weird noises today.

I took the dryer apart and couldn't find any simple reasons for the noise, the bearings are all good and none of the spinny things are making noise. They're all 15 years old, I guess I'm going to spend tomorrow buying new, installing and disposing of the old units.

Does anyone have suggestions?
Click to expand...
All at once!!?? Check the neutral coming into your house Off the main line. Could be a power fluctuation thing going on. I was getting some intermittent power surges occ. light would get just a hair brighter on and off.
called a bud whose an electrician and he knew immediately. Called local power company and sure enough a truck with dump up rugged wire a few weeks ago But didn’t think they did any damage. Turned out it pulled the neutral line out of the box on the pole.
 
Home appliances are about the easiest thing to fix if you are at all mechanical. Youtube is your friend. Having said that they tend to price the components in such a way that they are about 1/3 of the cost of buying new so when it breaks people generally decide to buy new. They also have planned obsolescence. For example they connect parts of dissimilar metals and put them in water.
 
Bosch still the dishwasher of choice?

Any particular models or features worth the extra bucks?
 
Matthew said:
Bosch still the dishwasher of choice?

Any particular models or features worth the extra bucks?
Click to expand...
Third rack, above glassware, for silverware gets cleaner and easier to load. Bosch won’t melt your plastic or dry anything completely.
 
Matthew said:
Bosch still the dishwasher of choice?

Any particular models or features worth the extra bucks?
Click to expand...
CrystalDry is the latest most recent feature from Bosch. Supposed to dry plastics better. Seems to be some sort of re-usable desiccant.

Their metal 3rd rack seems better than the plastic one.

The Info-Light is kind of lame.
MCIM00601070_D6476_BO_RotesInfoLight.jpg


The Time Light seems more useful:
MCMI024076_B5D11E020.jpg
 
masloki said:
Third rack, above glassware, for silverware gets cleaner and easier to load. Bosch won’t melt your plastic or dry anything completely.
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thx. I saw that yesterday and wondered if that 3rd rack was usable or a gimmic.
 
Matthew said:
thx. I saw that yesterday and wondered if that 3rd rack was usable or a gimmic.
Click to expand...
It is for small bowls that don't have stabilizing ring on the bottom for water to pool (or those that have a drain slot in the stabilizing ring). Also useful for spatulas and other utensils.
 
RudyP said:
I know I’m responding to an old post but huh? We have 4 dishwashers and use 3 regularly. Do you hand wash everything? That sounds really annoying.
Click to expand...

Don’t have one; handwash everything.
Last dishwasher i had anything to do with kept pouring water on the floor; 2 visits by the plumber did not fix it (brand new) - it was easiest to a abandon it. No one missed it.
 
Matthew said:
Bosch still the dishwasher of choice?

Any particular models or features worth the extra bucks?
Click to expand...

I think I'm on year 7 or 8 with the Frigidaire Gallery Premier model I installed when I bought my home. No complaints really, it does it's job and is pretty quiet. Haven't had to throw any parts at it. I only used it once every week or two for the first year or two since it was just me in the house. However, once I got married and had kids, that thing has run at least twice per week for the past 3-4 years.
 
Ours is a 20+ yo GE. It has a few hitches and rotting racks, but no leaks. Looking to be proactive with replacing it before it dies or needs repairs. I’m not going to fix some of the detergent dispenser issues because I would have to take the door apart, and I think that will cause more problems at this stage.
 
masloki said:
Third rack, above glassware, for silverware gets cleaner and easier to load. Bosch won’t melt your plastic or dry anything completely.
Click to expand...
To each their own, but I couldn't disagree more. Third rack is a waste of space for us, and we took that dishwasher back to get the two rack Bosch. For us (house with teens), our MUST HAVE is a good macerator. Our house is big and kitchen is at one end, so I couldn't care less about noise, although the Bosch is so quiet I can't hear it run.

And I seriously don't know how people like my parents make due without a dishwasher. We run ours up to 4 times a day. If we had to wash by hand, it would take hours. Too much time on your hands!
 
Dishwasher / washer / dryer failures are extinction level events around here. Dishwasher got replaced with Miele, W/D got replaced with LG.
 
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