at www.consumerreports.org -- I've used their ratings for years, and they've never let me down.

The online subscription (that lets you see all of the details of the ratings) is $30 per year, or $6.95 for one month. A small investment to make a wise decision.



FYI -- I have no financial interest in Consumer Reports -- I'm just a satisfied customer.

the different features or aspects (Noise level, for example) you should consider in buying.

As far as refrigerators go, you should take a good look at how you use your refrigerator and freezer. You will have to choose door styles and whether you want the freezer on the top, bottom or side. I've had all three types, and they all have advantages and disadvantages.

Often, a major company will make the same model unit under the Kenmore brand name for Sears, so it's worth checking to see if you can get the same unit for a lower price.

You don't mention if you have small children, but if so, beware! My youngest attempted to climb up the door shelves to reach the butter and broke one the first day I had a new refrigerator!

Also - check your delivery/installation costs and the cost of disposing of your old units. that's part of the entire deal.

especially fingerprints, worse than white. I had to buy new appliances last year and I stuck with white - a friend strongly advised against black because it shows every tiny speck of dust as well as fingerprints (I also went with white because stainless steel and black are currently trendy, and trends go away. White will never go away). I got the appliances at a local store that sells overstock models on sale - got some good deals. Stove is a Frigidaire, dishwasher is a Bosch. So far they work fine. Kept my old fridge because it still worked, and even if I'd got a new one I'd also have avoided all the plumbing hassles that go with the water/ice maker contraption.

Might consider that again

&, perhaps because it had a matte, textured surface, it didn't seem to show dirt easily at all. I now have stainless steel & I'm sorry to learn how much work it is to keep clean. One touch on the surface & the smudge mark can be seen across the room. When you have to buy a cleaning product specifically for stainless steel, that's a clue that it's not low-maintenance cleaning. I don't mind the cleaning, though, because it does keep our food & drinks cooler than the traditional finishes.

I do recommend the bottom freezer -- you'll love it! It gives the top half more space for platters & large casserole dishes. (Saw your post down-thread about the bottom freezer.)

in the scratch and dent or open box areas. You can get a pretty good discount. Make sure they have a good consumer rating first.

You have to install yourself. Most of the time I am the queen of refurb stuff

The local appliance repair shop installed our fridge and stove for @ $65. I got top of the the line appliances for a song since they had significant dents in the sides which are completely invisible as my appliances are set into the cabinetry.

This was a while back but I'd explore the local appliance repair shop's rates and check out the Sears shop for a comparison

The fridge and washer were installed by them and the dishwasher we installed ourselves. We got the fridge and dishwasher at Lowes and the washing machine at HH Gregg. We also got a small freezer at Best Buy. There may have been a delivery fee but we were ok with that.

Our next one will have a stainless interior, for sure.

http://www.ehow.com/list_6653548_advantages-stainless-steel-interior-dishwasher.html

go through to get there. Don't forget to measure depth and height as well as width. The size of the slot will narrow your choices somewhat, especially if it's an odd size.

For the dishwasher: do you need it to be quiet, or do you need it to be fast? Generally, it seems like the quieter ones have a longer cycle. Look at the racks and see if the stuff you have will load easily or be a daily struggle. If your dishwasher connects up to a disposal or other drain via a rubber hose, now's probably a good time to replace it.

For the fridge: in general, simpler models will have fewer repair woes. Freezer on top is usually a little cheaper than freezer on bottom and both are definitely cheaper than side by side models. We'd never had a bottom-freezer model until our current fridge, which came with the house. I was afraid I'd be standing on my head to get stuff out of the freezer, but it's really not a problem. If I need to do an extensive freezer loading or reshuffling, I simply sit on the floor or a low stool.

You say the fridge is dying without giving any symptoms. You might be able to repair it. Google your symptoms and/or try a site like repairclinic.com. I fixed our fridge some years ago when cool air suddenly stopped coming up to the fridge but the freezer was iced over. It was some sort of thermostat that I ordered and replaced myself. I don't remember the details anymore but we were able to keep the fridge cool while waiting on the part by manually defrosting the freezer every day or two.

It's any ugly color and I hate side by side. I'm getting freezer on the bottom. My friend has one and I really like it. Plus it's easier to find fridges without the water/ice setup in those styles

icemaker, which is a huge space hog as well as being something likely to break. Happy hunting.

appliances or the specific appliance and your city or even discount appliances and your city

it worked for me -needed a new stove badly and I found my dream stove for about $750.00 (stove top grill/griddle and convection oven) from a very reputable appliance warehouse in my area, for my budget I didn't think I'd find one that had both

Good hunting

I love the industrial look of stainless steel appliances. We've had ours for almost 8 years now and they still look stylish to me (but I'm a 50 year old guy with a pony-tail nearly down to my ass so what do I know about style? lol)

They even make a stainless looking surface now that resists fingerprints but I'm not sure I like the look of it. I love my Stainless steel fridge and stove and microwave and dishwasher though. We got a great deal on a matching set a while back - Fridgidaire - no idea what the Consumer Reports rating is for them but they have been virtually trouble-free except for a circuit board that went bad in the stove last year - the company sent us a new one and a guy to install it for free so I figure that was a pretty good deal. (I don't remember if it was warranty or they did it just to be cool but it was cool to me).

I sure can't make you get something you don't want or need but I love the water out of my fridge. I replace the filter about once a year and that's about 30 bucks so it is a consideration but it's cheaper than bottled water and the filter makes my usually shitty city water taste better than bottled. And I like the shape of the ice cubes it makes. They fit nice in my rocks glasses so my liquor doesn't have to fight for room.

No water line near the fridge so just not worth the hassle. I am fine without.

we got the appliances during a complete kitchen renovation so everything was already torn out and it was easy to have the plumber run a line around to where the fridge was gonna be. I probably wouldn't have done it if we hadn't already had everything torn out.

... especially if you live in a place with expensive electricity or hot water.

In some places utilities will give large rebates for energy efficient appliances.

I wouldn't buy a refrigerator with any extra crap on it. My brother bought one with all the latest gadgetry and it was nothing but trouble. It had a frequent repairs in warranty, but waiting at home for the repair guy cost him. Past warranty my brother just stripped off the fancy bits as they failed until it was an ordinary refrigerator again.

Most modern dishwashers are crap. I wouldn't waste money on an expensive dishwasher; I'd rather have a common one with easily available and inexpensive parts. Our previous dishwasher had these stupid plastic wheels on the racks that tended to get brittle and crack, but I bought a box of them on the internet for about a dollar a piece and they were easily replaced. That diswasher died when the main motor failed.

I was in a "fuck dishwashers" mood but my wife's mom bought us a plain old Kenmore which is actually nicer than the one we had because it's not so noisy.

Ordinary machines made in the U.S.A. (or Mexico, in my neighborhood) are a good idea. It's easier to find parts and/or service people who know what they are doing.

aka, the guys that fix them. They know how well they hold up and what tends to fail the most.

Strange, I know, but they frequently have excellent, floor model machines at deep discount.

6 years ago, the washing machine died hard. I replaced it with a then high end front loading whirlpool for less than the cost of the low-end top loader. (I think I spent about $400). I've only had one problem with it, and that was a stupid user error (underwire escaped bra, got sucked into extractor.)

Dishwasher went about 2 months ago. We ended up with an $1100 Bosch that is amazingly quiet and effective for $350, which was the same price as their bottom end cheapie, and was cheaper than anything Lowe's had.

If you can live with not immediately matching finishes, every appliance manufacturer sells replacement fronts. So if you find the perfect fridge but the dishwasher wears something else, you can fix it pretty easily.

(If you're within striking distance of central Indiana, I have a nearly new, stainless steel, bottom freezer, french door fridge that I'd be happy to make a deal on. PM if that's at all interesting.)

As you might expect the higher the number the better the specs get and the higher the prices go, but even their 300 series are damn quiet and do a wonderful job getting dishes clean.

I can spend about $1300-1400 tops on both the dishwasher and the refrigerator. I have found some good quality product out there to achieve that goal but unfortunately Bosch is out of my price range.

Plus the only Refrigerators I'm finding with Bosch have the water/ice contraption in it and that is something I do not want.

the appliance (in my case, washer and dryer set). I could search by my price range, then read the reviews and narrowed down my choices. Checked the same with sears.com, and read the reviews by people who had already purchased. Then once I had narrowed it down to 3 choices, I looked all over for the best price, including looking in person at Best Buy and similar stores.

I ended going with "Roper" brand because it turns out it is actually made by Whirlpool, so it's a Whirlpool at a lower price point.

but General Electric makes a damn good appliance.

I checked Lowe's website. You can buy a top-freezer GE fridge for around $700, and the super deluxe GE dishwasher for around $600.

The other brand I'd recommend is Whirlpool. Theirs are about the same price.

You can get a Bosch dishwasher for $600 but it's the bottom of their line.

We got a "nearly new" GE dishwasher last fall. By nearly new, I mean that it was returned-still-in-box by a building contractor (wrong model) at a local used-and-new appliance store. We paid about $150 less than retail for a mid-grade model that works wonderfully and is covered by the manufacturer's warranty for a year, IIRC. We have been very pleased with this dishwasher's function over the last nine months...

The Sears outlet option is also a good one. Do inquire about what manufacturer produced the model year you're interested in. Sears contracts out the manufacture of it's in-house Kenmore brand yearly. One year model may be by Whirlpool (a long standing partner with Sears's appliance dept.) and the next, it may be by Samsung or Maytag... They switch contracts to other manufacturers if they have too many returns and/or repair calls for a certain appliance for that year's model. Last I heard, Samsung has become the most repeated contractor for the Kenmore appliance line over the last several years (particularly for clothes washer and dryer units)...

Multiple problems with new refrigerator and dryer. Poor design issues.