Important Facts About Modern Household Appliances

It's Not Your Grandma’s Appliance Anymore.

Start the conversation off right by asking how long the expected life expectancy is and what machines require the least amount of maintenance on your part. Be sure to inquire as to the best ways to get the most out of your machine, both in performance and longevity. Then, find one of those machines in the color you're looking for.

Not all features are created equal, and not all of them are a good idea. One company came out with a very popular refrigerator design back in 2015 with a coffee maker built into the ice and water dispenser. It was very popular with the customer base and well received but had 1 glaring problem!

It turns out that putting a rapid water heater inside a compartment that's meant to keep food cold is a bad idea. Not only was this water heater having to contend with contradicting temperature issues, but if the filter became clogged and slowed water flow, then it had a chance to overheat.

The thing had 4 different pressure safety valves on it, and if any of them failed, then you usually had to replace all of them due to them getting damaged. Sure, they have most of the bugs worked out now, but that's 10 years later.

There are plenty of features that are a great asset to your appliance, though. If you know what to look for (please see the individual sections for each appliance for more details.) A good example is when a washer has an access panel that lets you clean the drain filter easily. Or having a temperature control function for its crisper drawers. Just make sure to go over all the pros and cons of each feature with a qualified representative before you purchase.

Everyone loves a bargain, right? Bogo! Buy one, get one free. 50% off. Black Friday deals. A sale for every holiday we have names for. Stuff is on "SALE" almost as often as not at this point. You have been conditioned, trained even, to get excited when you see that little red tag, which implies that a good deal is available. Unfortunately, this is just another layer of misdirection.

Can you go without having a refrigerator? Not for long, and the manufacturers know that. They have also read the surveys. There are entire product lines of appliances that are budgeted, designed, and then built specifically to go on sale because they have just the right amount of life expectancy for the kind of customer that just has to get a deal out of the purchase.

You can still buy a washer for $319.99 in 2025; just don't expect it to last more than a year or two, and that's if you're real gentle with it. It's roughly $500 for the ones that will last you 7 years. But if you want a decent washer that can still last 15, maybe 20, years, then you’re looking at $800+. High-end washers start at $1,100 and go up to $2,700. That's not for a commercial one either. A residential washer.

(You don't always get everything you pay for, but you never get anything more than what you pay for. Not really, not unless you bought a winning lottery ticket.)

The Energy Star rating is a throwback to simpler times, a bygone era that ended in 2007 when the second wave of new high-efficiency regulations went into effect. In many cases, they give you the option to save power by reducing or outright shutting off a needed function of your machine.

For example, if you've ever owned a French door refrigerator, then you have most likely seen that thin panel attached to the left side door, which seals the gap between the two when you close the fresh food doors. That panel has a heater in it, and its whole job is to prevent that panel from becoming cold enough that air moisture condenses on it.

That's because such condensation would then drip down onto the floor or into the freezer when you open it. There are models where you can shut off that heater as an energy-saving feature.

Oddly enough, the best way to avoid this pitfall is to talk to people face-to-face. Now I can already hear the suffering wails of a thousand introverts, but hear me out. It's a lot harder for someone to lie to you about their experience with a particular brand, make, or model of appliance in person, especially if you know them and where they live. These people have, even if only tangentially, a vested interest in you being reasonably successful. Ask your neighbors, your family, your friends, and that random dude that always insists upon talking to you on the commute to work. See what's worked for them and how their appliance works before you commit to purchasing something you're going to be dependent on for the next 15 years. Don't just look up some stranger’s opinion. Ask people you physically meet what their thoughts are. Maybe one of them is kind of cute, and you've needed an icebreaker or an excuse to talk to them.

Fake it till you make it has become a slogan for too many things as it is. Don't let it be the slogan for how you use your appliances too. Yes, there are an absurd number of variations, styles, and approaches to how each and every one of your appliances performs its intended function. (More details on this can be found on the individual pages for each appliance.). Links at the top of this page.) So, you're going to want to know a little bit about how your appliances do their job so that you're not standing there lost in your own home wondering, 'What went wrong?'.

Remain calm; the situation is under control.

And it's not as bad as you might think. Sure, there are multiple different approaches out there, but at the end of the day, the end goal for these machines is roughly the same. Sort of. It gets complicated, but that's why we at MD Appliance Service are here to help. This site is just the tool to help you better understand what you will need to know to navigate the fun world of your modern appliances.

Every appliance manufacturer out there is primarily in the business of selling you, their product. Their secondary objective is selling you parts to fix the product. While the tertiary goal is to subvert their competition. This used to mean offering the best product at a competitive price, but that focus shifted with the rise of globalization because, frankly, not all of the manufacturers are playing by the same rules. Take copyright law for instance.

Now when both companies are in the United States, it's a relatively quick process of smacking the offender down for breaking this rule, and they learn their lesson, for a while anyway.

When the offending manufacturer is in a different country, however, then things get messy. Sure, the original manufacturer can sue the offending party that made cheap knockoffs of the new motor design. But such claims get stuck in the red tape of international claims court for 8 to 10 years. Not only that, but have you ever tried to call the CEO or board member of a company outside the United States? Not happening. When the people in charge of American companies piss you off, they have to worry about you calling them at 3 in the morning.

(I know.). I nearly lost my job over one such customer making such a phone call, but that's another story.)

This is exactly what happened when a New Zealand company came out with their new direct drive motor design. This motor design would ultimately revolutionize the appliance industry, and most of the modern motors you see are some variations of its original design. However, just like any good TikTok or YouTube video. If you make a good thing, then someone is going to shamelessly pirate the s*!& out of it and offer the original creator no credit whatsoever.

Worse, they did a bad job of pirating the technology, and for years these rip-offs had numerous problems and would break down often. So why don't we see a lot more of the New Zealand products, you might ask. Easy. That company made their machines to be durable and long-lasting, while their competitors did surveys and gave the public exactly what they asked for. Fashionable appliances and have catchy features that regularly had SALE tags on them.

Together we can hold the manufacturers of our appliances responsible for providing dependable, cost-effective, long-lasting, and beautiful products, but that all starts and ends with us,the people, having our own priorities straight. Because, at the end of the day, they're just giving you exactly what you asked for. Not what you tell your friends that you want, not what you proclaim on some ballot or during an election, or even what you proclaim to the technician. But what do you ask for with your time and your money?

Let them know that what motivates you to spend your time and money is an appliance you can depend on, and they will happily build it.

By the same token, if all they have to do to earn your money is keep you in the dark and offer you s*!& then they will be just as happy to treat you like any other mushroom, because it’s easy to provide for a mushroom’s needs.

Nothing says you are just fine. being sold a cheap disposable P.O.S. is like a complete disregard for what it takes to maintain the appliance after you've got it. Many manufacturers have come up with devious ways to penalize the customers that ignore the maintenance needs of their appliances, and the best example of this is the modern condenser coil. It's the part that releases the accumulated heat from the sealed system and should be cleaned once a year on many of your modern refrigerators.

If you don't clean them, then there are many models that will straight up overheat anywhere from 2 to 5 years after you've purchased the unit. Old-fashioned refrigerators may have used more power, but they could overheat, stop cooling, have their condenser coils cleaned, and go right back to cooling. Most of your modern compressors break down if they ever overheat just one time.

Then you need a compressor replaced, and that's going to run you anywhere from $770 to $980 in 2025 on a mid-grade refrigerator. High-end refrigerators cost a bit more to repair. That's not a great life expectancy for a $3000 machine before its first major repair. But the manufacturer will just shrug and call it customer neglect.

But if you stay on top of keeping that condenser coil cleaned, that same machine will likely last you 15 to 20 years with no problems. Yes, modern appliances require more maintenance than they have since the days of the ice chest or the wringer washers, but whining about it isn't going to help anyone. (Regardless of what this website may sound like from time to time.)

Sometimes it seems like we just can’t win. Give a brand too much loyalty, and they take you for granted. Give them too little, and they treat you like a number rather than a person, an asset to be exploited rather than an individual to form a connection with. Where is the middle ground, and can one even walk it for any length of time? Or is that road too narrow and takes too many turns? There is no easy answer.

Forming a relationship with an institution or a company is fraught with peril. It's better to form relationships with individuals instead, as this is a far more reliable metric. So how then should you relate to the brand of your appliance? When should you leave one brand of appliance for another? Why should you stay with your current brand if they aren't offering the same things as their competitor?

Let’s look at the earlier example. You and your mother both own brand A and have owned brand A collectively for over 40 years. You have obviously been happy with Brand A because you have owned it for so long. But then another brand, Brand B, comes out with a revolutionary new improvement, like a new motor design that's stronger, faster, more energy efficient, and longer lasting. This makes Brand B's machines seem objectively better than Brand A's. At least for a time.

Let’s further say that your appliance has broken down during this time when Brand B has the seemingly obvious advantage. Is the repair really going to be all that expensive? Let’s just say, for the sake of argument, that the repair is quite expensive, enough so to warrant considering a new machine.

Then you must ask yourself what your priorities are for the new appliance and see if Brand B is focused on providing for those priorities. The manufacturers that took the New Zealand companies motor design and copied it did so poorly.

They then didn't put much effort into the manufacturing process for many of the other components in the machine.

What they did invest in was very shiny cabinets of hot rod red and navy blue. They programmed catchy chimes into the controls and installed eye-catching, colorful lights in the displays.

Those machines sold like hotcakes, and the overall quality and longevity of washing machines across the entire American industry dropped as a result, with at least one company pulling out of the American high-capacity washer market entirely because they refused to lower their quality standards that low.

Before you switch to a new brand, investigate what that brand is focused on. What motivates them to provide for your needs? Not just to make money, but why do they want to help you? Then decide which brand deserves your loyalty.

So They are Smart appliances Now. But are They Really That Smart?

This is something that you probably need to understand about the modern appliance and will most likely change the way you look at the 21st-century appliance. You see, the modern appliance has feelings.

Not emotional ones, of course, but instead the modern appliance often can sense its internal components. Thanks to some clever engineering, your washer can feel how hard the drive motor is working to agitate your laundry, sense when the load is off balance, detect how much water is in the tub, and even whether the laundry is fully saturated with water or not.

The refrigerator senses the room temperature in your house and adjusts how it runs accordingly. Like the washer, it feels how hard each motor is running and how fast, not to mention the compressor. Then there are all the internal sensors to help it know how cold your food is.

The dishwasher has similar temperature and motor sensing capabilities as the other two but with the added ability to sense how dirty the water inside it is. Not only does the modern dishwasher know what temperature the water inside currently is but also takes note of what temperature the water was when it first came in.

Don't even get me started on smart connect capability. And the ovens, ranges, and microwaves have their fair share of sensing capabilities, but these 3 are the forerunners of the appliance industry.

With all this feeling that the modern appliance is doing, it's no wonder that it can also feel pain or rather the machine can sense when there is something wrong with it. This is usually followed by your appliance complaining, sometimes loudly, at you with the only means available to it. Fault codes!

And an unintended consequence of these factors is that some of your appliances, specifically refrigerators, dishwashers, and washers, have become a bit like people in that many of them are whiners that demand extra attention, or they start complaining about their job to their boss. You in this case. And just like any other irate employee... (How did we go from owning a sturdy, dependable machine to managing a delicate piece of equipment akin to managing an employee?) Just like any other irate employee, if you ignore their complaining long enough, then they stop doing their job... sometimes after stomping around while throwing a tantrum.

No need to worry too much. Like an H.R. department that works for you, MD Appliance Service is here to help you manage your temperamental smart appliance so that you get the most work out of it for the least amount of effort on your part...... Huh! Maybe we're not so different from your average H.R. department.