How Will Appliance Manufacturers Grow?

By making increasingly unreliable, flimsy pieces of crap. That's the dirty little secret of the appliance industry. They've figured out that if an appliance lasts for 7 to 10 years, the consumer is ready to buy a new one with little complaint. I'm an old crank and I remember when appliances were designed to last 20 to 30 years with minimal maintenance. In fact, I have a Maytag washer and dryer my wife and I bought (expensive $1300 for the set in 1989) when we started our family. We've raised four kids with these laundry workhorses and we've done nothing but feed them dirty clothes, water, detergent, and electricity. I have not had to replace a belt, bearing, transmission, nothing. Nada.

hopefully they will go back to making quality products. and maybe they can even recapture the ability to make a product that lasts more than 5 years.I wonder if they even remember building a refer that would last 20+ years, or a stove that lasts at least 10 years. at an lg appliance training meeting the trainer told of a survey of appliance repair persons. the question asked was what do you feel the lifespan of todays products in years, then they listed all the common household appliances the only one to make a 10 year lifespan was the refrigerator. and that was listed by most with reservations as some brands cant even do that. i guess the world economy has to crash first, that way we will have to make our own products again.