A good dishwasher today will cost you upwards of $500, or will it?
I grew up being taught that when you spend more money on a product, especially a product known as a “durable good” (something that is meant to last a while), that it would last longer and serve you well. What I have come to learn is to scrap that whole idea because it no longer exists. My family lives in an area where the locals serve the “rich & famous”. Even though I do not lack education, if I want a job that pays well, I had to clean the homes of others and here is what I learned.
If you pay more and buy a very expensive dishwasher, upwards of $1000, such as Asko, what you actually get is higher repair bills and an appliance that doesn’t work as described when you bought it. However, I learned this from Frigidaire, GE, Whirlpool and Maytag as well.
Thankfully, I being a mere scrub in life, I didn’t have a kitchen with 2 side by side headaches. Nope, I only have 1 dishwasher that seems to never work. This summer, our dishwasher broke for that last time and I bought the cheapest piece of crap I could find to just do the damn job, but I learned something, this cheap dishwasher? It does what it says. There is no hype or expectation that this is going to do a million things to make my life better. NO it simply works.
So are we as people expecting too much from a product that companies are lying to us so that we think we’re getting what we want? My meaning is I bought this cheap dishwasher and it actually washes the dishes and dries them, while it did come with a disposer in it I’ve never actually expected it to work, but it does.
I have lived in this house for 25 years and we have had 5 dishwashers. That means that the life of a dishwasher is 5 years compared to the 10 years I was taught durable goods should last. I truly believe the existence of a durable goods is extinct. If you pay $500 for a dishwasher you are paying $100 a year for the privilege of using it. That doesn’t set well with me. I bought the extended warranties with these appliances, but they aren’t really worth the paper they’re printed on and here is why.
Most products come with a 1 year parts warranty. So you’re actually paying for 4 years after the original year. Added to the price of a $500 dishwasher that’s a minimum $600. Then you have to use the service people the warranty company approve of, meaning no one quick. NOOO you’re going to sit and wait up to 30 days for your now $600 dishwasher to be serviced. THEN these people don’t carry actual parts so you’re going to have to wait for the part to arrive and another 30 days for them to schedule your service again. If this happens even once a year you can take 2 months per year off of the life your dishwasher…Are you seeing the pattern? So the actual time you will have with your durable good dishwasher is actually closer to 4 years. And let’s not forget the person who kept telling me I was loading the dishwasher wrong. Meaning, scraping and rinsing weren’t good, nope you should wash and dry a dish before you put it in the dishwasher. Yep, I’ve got a bit of pent of anger here (Just wait until I get to refrigerators).
Of all of my dishwashers I’m actually liking my $200 Frigidaire Dishwasher best of all right now. I load it, put in the soap and *KABAMMMM* my dishes come clean. The plastic doesn’t dry but the dishes do. The glasses don’t have spots and they don’t have crud left in them. Pots and pans are clean, yep I’d pay $200 over $500 for this any day.
With so many of us working to leave a lighter carbon footprint on this earth, we need to look beyond our aluminum cans, plastic jugs, and glass bottles and look at these manufactures who want us to purchase a new appliance every few years and make them do better. In other words, I don’t care how much recycling you do you’re not helping matters buying a new appliance on a regular basis. Until we stand up and point them out, companies will not do better. As consumers and hard working class people we deserve to be treated better by companies and it’s time for them to step up to the plate.
So today I ask you to tell us about your dishwasher. Share the good and the bad as well as the brand so that we can make educated purchases and endorse companies that will sell us a good product.
Disclaimer: I have NOT received money, appliances or anything for this post except aggravation.
I had a very expensive dishwasher that lasted three years and was going to cost a fortune to repair so we ended up getting a really cheap frigidaire one that actually washes better than the expensive one!
Julie, That’s the point we go to too. I scrimped and saved for each dishwasher and appliance only to be disappointed. So I went back to what I wanted clean dishes, and that was achieved with just a basic dishwasher.
We have FOUR dishwashers in our home! That’s right; they are my two hands and the two hands of my husband. LOL…I know some people love their electric dishwashers, and there are days I do wish we had one, but I don’t mind doing dishes by hand (usually), and I generally prefer my dishes to be hand-washed. When we’ve had electric dishwashers I have usually re-done so may dishes by hand that it seemed silly to not to just wash them that way in the first place.
Our fancy ‘dishwashers’ definitely cost less than a Whirlpool or Maytag, but I do sometimes wish they’d come with a warranty. 😉
Heather! That’s so funny! Yes, we do a lot of hand washing too, but now it’s usually just pots and pans. I wish I could say that we’re willing to do with out a dishwasher but I get so tired of dishes stacking up and the mess. You are fortunate your husband helps you. I think if mine did I wouldn’t mind hand washing nearly as much. We all seem to be running off and working and things get so far behind.