Since early to mid 1990's kitchenAid is now made by Whirlpool, so if you buy a KitchenAid you buy a Whirlpool.

I have a Kenmore but made by Whirlpool dishwasher and I love it. Quiet. There's a small tv adjacent and we can watch with normal volume level while the dishwasher does its thing. Got the stainless INTERIOR, not exterior, so it dries without using the heated dry cycle and there is no interior staining. It gets things very clean when run right after using the dishes. There is a prewash cycle to keep things moist if you wait a day or two to fill the thing. Many adjustments possible for large and small items. I bought it 2 years ago and it ran about $800 at the time, but was well worth it. Holds more than the Asko that was sold at that time. Good luck with your decision.

KitchenAid no longer carries washers/dryers (except a very expensive frontloader pair), or top-freezer 'fridges.

Got a new Consumer Reports today and they have free standing and some slide in ranges but it shows the reliability according to a survey of 91,000 ranges bought between 2001-2007 and GE had only 5%bad ones VS KA that had 15% bad ones. Microwaves were 20,000 bought from 2003 to 2007. They were Frigidaire 4% W/pool-6%Maytag-7%Amana-7%GE-7%Kenmore-7%KitchenAid-17%. Washers were front load--W/pool-9% W/pool Dryers5%.This was for Washers/Dryers from 2003-2007 for 113,000 washers and 80,000 dryers.

I have never been able to figure out how for example a Kenmore d/washer beats a W/pool by several points but then they are almost identical machines. Same with the reliability. KA is the premium one but made with the parts like the Sears and W/pool but then the KA has to have more service. Why is that?

I had a GE dishwasher several years ago and it was great but that was when they used plenty of water! I have thought that I might like a W/pool since the silver basket is in the door and out of the way plus more loading in the bottom rack--but then KA has that top rack silverware(like Miele) now so I think that would be great also.

My thought is that percentages can sometimes be deceiving. Say you have two refrigerators made essentially by the same company under different brand names. One is a little plainer than the other but the one with additional features costs more money. Overall sales will favor the lower priced unit.

Ok, say you have a similar part failure whether it be a door that simply disintegrated around the hinges (Kenmore Elite a few years back and was replaced with a brand new higher grade frige for no charge) or an electrical or cooling part. If you have one failure for every 100 units sold your failure rate is 1%. If you have one failure for every 25 produced your repair rate is what, 4% (no math genius here but you get the point).

I've noticed that high end appliances always have a higher repair rate. They also seem to have a lot more features. The more features you have on them or the more an appliance can do, the more that will probably go wrong with them. Coupled with the higher costs and lower production runs, the repair rate should also be higher.

This is particularly true with ovens and electronics. Heat and electronics are not a good match. There will be many more failures with a sophisticated electronically powered oven/appliance than one with has simple rheostat controlled dials for the heating elements. Sometimes I think that is still the way to go. We got along without the fancy stuff for a very long time.

Just my observations.

On the brands, I had Kenmore products and liked them. Quiet and reliable. When we had a new house built, we went pretty high end appliances (Dacor, Bosch, DCS). Refrig is a GE Profile Arctica because of the sizing and the Precise Fill feature.

My convection microwave is by Sharp. They manufacture that same unit for Dacor and others and you won't pay the higher premium price for somebody else's name on it.

Have some trouble with oven but that is being handled with the service folks.

Honestly we have had no real issues with our Whirlpool appliances. There are the usual maintenance issues because sadly things just aren't made like they used to be. My parents had thier Kenmore Avocado W/D for over 20 years, can't say things last that long anymore with some exceptions of course. The only "issue" I have had is with my Whirlpool Gold white electric cooktop. I keep getting burned goo on the burners every time I cook and can't figure out why. It is a real pain to clean unlike what I have heard. When we build I am going with the induction cooktop.

We have a Whirlpool side by side, SS, refrigerator/ freezer. Absolutely no problems. In our previous house, we had a Whirlpool side by side for 18 years and only one repair.

As for Consumer Reports, take all recommendations with a "grain of salt." Their ratings are based on subscribers input in their annual surveys. We fill ours out every year and send it in.

Enjoy the journey.

eal51 in western CT

I have a GE Profile Arctica SXS Fridge; having cooling problems and had service in today. Thought it was a loose connection; we shall see since it is still 41 degrees on the top shelf and its been a couple of hours since he left.

I asked him about brands and his 39 year experience reply was for fridges KitchenAid and Whirlpool. They supposedly have the least complexity so fewer repairs are seen. His opinion, not mine.

I also have a GE profile dishwasher that is a couple of years old and have had zero problems with it and it is very quiet, sometimes I hear it and have to think what the noise is from :Have a brandnew Whirlpool Trash Compactor which is a piece of junk; the pedal is already broken and the thing just doesn't compact the way my old beat up Kenmore did. Looking to replace it with a KitchenAid model that has the extra-pak feature.

My other appliances are Electrolux and Futuro Vent Hood so can't help you out with those.

Good Luck; someone offered to me that purchasing of appliances is like a lottery, you win some and lose some. I'm kinda believing that with the issues i am having with more than half of the new ones!

I am in the middle of my kitchen redo (all planned and organized by litle old me with no experience); so, when it came to choosing new appliances and getting confused with reports from CR, JD P&A, etc, I found that the best way to find out about their reliabilities was to call appliance repair services listed in my yellow pages. As they repair more than 1 brand, they can tell you (without bias) which brand and even model they have to repair the most. I also called my American Homeshield and asked the same questions from their sales reps, their cust service and yes, even their purchasing dept. I am glad I did and chose GE for my appliances because of the least amount of repairs recorded with these service companies.