It's been a somewhat rough spring and summer at the Erickson household. Sometimes we think our appliances coordinate breakdowns just for personal impact. First, our front-loading washing machine gave up the ghost. This was followed quickly by our Samsung refrigerator requiring parts that were not even available anymore. This was surprising, as we purchased this expensive appliance less than ten years ago. The appliance sales and repair company confided that Samsung makes no secret of not making its parts widely available for more than a few years. They said that this is done to help ensure new appliances are purchased to replace the broken ones.
Most recently, we have an Electrolux dryer. It's about a year and a half old, which I would ordinarily still consider new. Repair technician came out last week to replace a broken roller (causing a pile of lint to accumulate within the dryer). When the work was done, he tried to turn it on. Long story short(er), it apparently needs one or two boards that are bad. The total repair cost is almost the cost of a new appliance. Now, I am potentially fortunate, as I am working with a credit card company on an extended warranty protection, but this is still not a sure thing. The card benefits company is calling me almost daily for updates, tells me everything looks good one morning, then someone else calls to demand more information the same afternoon. I won't know how things are going to go until next week at the earliest.
So, this is a refrigerator, washer, and a dryer within a few months. Is this all an example of planned obsolescence? I think that's a good part of it--particularly with Samsung, which I will never trust again for a major appliance. There's more to it, though. While this just based on my experience and those I know, new appliances seem to be suffering from a lack of quality control and pride in workmanship. While companies like Bosch seem to have a better grip on creating quality products, many of the other big players seem to have been forced into creating energy saving devices that are severely lacking in build quality. If you consider the economic and environmental impact of having to purchase "disposable" appliances every couple years, one can't avoid seeing that, while they may be energy saving on one hand, there is nothing remotely positive environmentally speaking of creating..cheap garbage for the American public. Come on Electrolux and Samsung, you can do better!
