When It Rains..... It Pours !

[billt]

It all started last week when my air wasn't keeping up with cooling the house. So I called the A/C guy and found out I was 3-1/2 pounds low on Freon. $250.00 later the house was cool again. (He checked for leaks and there were none he could find). Then, Mel has been wanting a new canister vacuum, so she could clean under the bed and furniture. Our Dyson upright won't fit. So I walked out of Best Buy $600.00 poorer with a brand new Dyson Canister.

Then, 2 days later my pool pump started sounding like it had stones inside the motor. (The bearings were shot). $800.00 later I had a brand new Hayward pool pump, running smooth and quietly again. Then, to top it all off our icemaker crapped out....... For the second time. The repair guy quoted me $500.00 for a new icemaker, along with a new circuit board that runs it. (It was shorting out). The first time just the icemaker cost me $350.00. It's a Samsung that I paid $1,800.00 for just 8 years ago.

So that was it. No way I was going to put another $500.00 into that dog with fleas. The repair guy told me to stay away from anything Samsung. They are over engineered, the parts are hard to get, and overpriced. (He said 2 weeks to get the icemaker and circuit board). And he said he repairs more Samsung and LG appliances than any other brand. He said he's constantly waiting on parts for customers. He recommended Whirlpool / Maytag. I have a Samsung 55" LCD in our bedroom, that has nowhere near the picture quality my 65" Vizio has in our family room. So needless to say, I'm so done with anything Samsung.

Bottom line... We went to Home Depot and I took his advice. We got a 25 cu. ft. Whirlpool for just under $1,100.00 delivered, installed, and the old Samsung hauled away. So for barely double what they wanted to fix the icemaker.... For the second time in 8 years, I ended up with a brand new fridge / freezer. Now the only thing left to crap out is our dishwasher. It's acting up on occasion. The soap builds up all over the inside of the door, and it's getting noisier when it runs . So I'm sure that will be next on the list. I went through all of this about 8 to 10 years ago. It just sucks that all of this stuff comes up on the end of it's service life all at once.

[Rastus]

Pool?  Icemaker? 

You must be a rich Democrat! 

Man that seems like a lot of money for an icemaker.   I don't have one...but from what I see around 50+ lbs of ice a day is a "standard" for built-in units.  You guys must sell ice, eh? 

Samsung has a couple of lines of TV's so just make sure it's an apples to apples comparison.  I had a couple of old Samsung plasma TV's which had been around for over 10 years doing fine.  So I nabbed a 4K from Samsung for an upgrade and it's great.  Now, as far as their other appliances I would not doubt what you were told.

I had to pick up a new dishwasher and refrigerator last year (yes it is a pain when these things go out at the same time).  I went with Whirlpool on both.  That was based upon the ratings at Home Depot and Lowes...I only searched on units with 4+ ratings and with over 50 ratings....I prefer over 500 ratings so that there is some age to the units.  Regardless, the Whirlpool dishwasher is great....much better than the crappy KitchenAide it replaced or the Kenmore before that.  The refrigerator...it's a refrigerator so cold is cold...but I got it on sale and I got one with the pull out drawer.  The pull out drawer is waaayyyy nicer and more useful than I thought it would be.

The dishwashers seem to have about a 10 year life.  A good refrigerator about 15....however the crappy LG we did have lasted maybe 8-9 years....not to mention I put a couple of replacement parts in it myself to save a few $$$$'s.  I'll never buy an LG unit (or a KitchenAide) again and, actually, I was glad to get rid of the POS LG unit because I did have to repair it several times and I was tired of the thing breaking.

That Whirlpool dishwasher does a great job now it's just a matter of longevity.  They build some of their stuff here in Tulsa so...I dunno where mine came from but that helps figure in.

[billt]

The Whirlpool fridge we bought had 5,065 reviews, and a 4-1/2 star rating. So with that, along with the repairman's recommendation, I felt safe buying it. It has all the same features my old Samsung had, except for the digital temperature controls. So big deal, I'll buy a couple of  $4 thermometers to hang inside.

Until it crapped out, the Samsung made ice OK, but it was slow as hell to dispense it. It seemed like you had to hold your glass under it forever, because the damn auger turned so slow. I'm not sold on this water and ice in the door, but it's just about all they sell now a days. I remember an old Sears fridge / freezer I had back in the 70's. It had a non dispensing icemaker you just reached in and grabbed the ice out of the bin. When it got full a mechanical arm would hit the ice and shut it off. I had to replace it because the ice started tasting bad, and the guy said it was from inferior plastic they used in manufacturing. A replacement only cost me $65.00 installed at the time, and the ice tasted fine after that.

They had fridge / freezers at Home Depot that were over $3,500.00! They had LCD screens on the door. You can install an app. on your phone that will allow you look inside your fridge from the grocery store, to see if you need anything. I thought that's what grocery lists were for? These people buy into this overpriced crap, then they are forced to keep repairing these expensive units, because they've got so much tied up in them, they can't afford to junk them out. If I get 10 or so years out of this new one without any repairs, and it takes a dump, I'll just replace it again. For just $1,100.00 that's not so bad...... $3,500.00, you gotta' be nuts!

[Timothy]

Pool???

Ice maker???

A/C???

Dyson?

Bite me!!

LOL

stay away from LG...

[billt]

Pool?.....

Pool???......

Out here pools are a lot like boats. The 2 greatest days of owning either, is the day you buy it...... And the day you sell it. In between is a big, expensive PITA. My pool hasn't been too bad. I put it in back in 1999. Mine is Pebble Tech with a Caretaker system, and a waterfall that runs off a separate pump. Pebble Tech is very maintenance free. And with the Caretaker cleaning system, I only vacuum it twice a year. It has revolving cleaning heads that pop up and blast a jet of water along the bottom. That stirs up any dirt, and the skimmer carries it off to the filter. My pool is always crystal clear. Without it you have to constantly vacuum it, or else buy one of those crawlers. They're a PITA and always break. And they run over $1K for a good one. If there even is a "good one". Every time I go to the pool place to buy chemicals, there is always some guy either dropping off one for repair. Or else picking one up.

We just don't use our pool that much anymore. We did last week when it hit 122F here. The water is around 92F. They don't really add any value to your home. But they do make it more sellable. Assuming they are in good working order. That said, I would never own another one. What I would have instead are one of those portable spa's. For older people they're better, and require less maintenance. In the Fall you just drain and cover them. Then in the Spring you just fill them up and jump in. We might get one next Summer. We still haven't made up our mind. What turns me off is it's just something else to maintain and repair. The older I get, the less I want to deal with in that regard.

[Sponsor]

[Timothy]

Yea, my folks put a pool in when I was about ten.  I joined the Navy so I could stop cleaning the POS!!!

I'll never own another!

[PegLeg45]

Dang....I need to start replacing pool pumps for folks....... 

We replaced our Hayward 1 hp with a 1.5 hp three years ago for $160.00 shipped from Amazon. The pump and motor were already assembled, so it was four bolts and two hose connections and done. I already had it wired to handle the current for the 1.5.
The guy at an area pool store that we buy some stuff from said about five years is average for a unit. The one we replaced was the original and was ten years old.

[TAB]

1.5 is tiny for a pool pump. you can drop 2 grand on a good pool pump np.

[billt]

1.5 is tiny for a pool pump. you can drop 2 grand on a good pool pump np.

True. The cheapest variable speed pumps run in the $1,500.00 range. I have a 1.5 pump that just runs my waterfall. They are trying to code variable speed in my area for all in ground pools. More of the whole, "energy saving" band wagon they're all jumping on. It's bull$h!t because with my Caretaker System I only run my pump 3 hours a day max. And my water is crystal clear.

Besides variable speed won't work as well with a Caretaker, because it's dependent on high water pressure to operate efficiently. These forced regulations they put on people, do absolutely nothing to improve anything. I remember when I had my pool put in, Glendale forced me to install an automatic closure system on my backyard sliding glass door. Kids drowning in pools, and all of that. I told them I had no kids, and wasn't having any. No matter. No closure system, no final inspection buy off. No water in pool. I had to do the same for my backyard gate.

There was only one company in the entire Valley at that time who installed automatic door closers on sliding glass Arcadia Doors...... $400.00. After I put it in, the building inspector signed off on my pool. The problem was the damn door was so hard to open, my wife couldn't even open it. So I took a pair of dykes and cut the wire, thereby eliminating the closing operation. $400.00 for nothing. Same with the back gate. I couldn't take out the trash without 2 people. (At least with that I could unload the spring). All of this stuff is nothing but, "feel good" ordinances. More kids are drowning in Phoenix swimming pools today than ever before. I put all of this stupidity into the same class as gun control. Stupid parents with kids are no different than stupid people with guns.

[tombogan03884]

A friend of mine ran his filter line through a copper coil in a barrel stove he built. turned his above ground pool into a huge hot tub.
It got so hot he had to cut out half the coils, but when he got it right he was swimming in January, outdoors, in NH.  LOL