Mansfield toilets (have already replaced one - two to go)

Our original architect (whom we replaced when his design came in 50% higher than the budget we had given him).

Pacific Crest cabinets.

My contractor recommended these, said he had worked with them before and the quality was great. What little I found on here referred to them as higher end.

Well, phooey on that. I got the "painted wood", and all the boxes have these cheesey iron-on laminate strips covering the edges. We had to send several cabs back the quality was so terrible.

I'm pleased with everything - including our Toto toilets - in our new home after two years. No problems.

I had a Thermador under the counter oven I was unhappy with in our last house. The electronic brain went out three times. The third time I decided to just replace the oven. It was easy eough to replace for DH to do the work, but the part was not cheap.

bus_driver

"...I am going to guess that these toilets were regularly used with the "blue crap" in the tank."

Then you would guess wrong. No blue crap. No bowl cleaner. Just plain water. Maybe we just had bad luck.

Hunter outdoor ceiling fans.

They were white - but the blades turned yellow in less than 2 years.

Called Hunter and they are only under warranty for 1 year.

Dacor downdraft cook top vent or any downdraft vent. According to the appliance guy the Dacor is a poor design that allows the grease to flow down it. It shorted out the circuit board which ultimately destroys the engine. We now have to replace the entire vent.

These postings are so interesting. Wolf, Toto, Dacor, Bosch, Thermador, and Pella are all considered to be extremely well-made and of consistent, high-end, quality. The complaint about Toto toilets may well be the first that I've ever seen on these boards in over 2 years. In case someone is reading this for advice on appliances, please do your search on the kitchen or appliance forums! Any company can have a one-off in quality control, look at the whole picture...This thread shows how even the best products can fail or simply not please everyone.

Um. Those brands are all considered to be extremely well marketed. Like Pella. Honestly, is your idea that those are "premium quality" based on idependent unbiased tests or on the many Pella commercials and the higher price than no-name windows?

Peachtree doors or windows! Product and service equally bad!

"Wolf, Toto, Dacor, Bosch, Thermador, and Pella"

Note that the comment about Bosch was that their dishwasher was "a bit of a let down." The comment about Wolf was that it is "very over-rated." Absent further details, neither of those comments would be construed as saying that those brands are lacking in quality.

On the other hand, I've elsewhere read a number of reports of quality problems with Thermador and Pella.

And on the gripping hand (who can find that reference! ;) ), I've read many, many glowing reports from people with Toto toilets.

I didn't say that I disagreed with any posters above. I simply pointed out that the views were interesting and that the companies listed were considered to be well-made (not necessarily by me). I don't fall for marketing ploys...trust me, we do more research on products and materials than almost anyone before we make a purchase...although, I do admit to a certain weakness for red knobs. :)

Let me add Price Pfister to the list. Their Marielle kitchen faucet, to be specific.

I used Pella windows once. But only so prospects could see their distinctive stickers and hopefully be impressed. It didn't matter; and I've used other manufacturers since with varying degrees of satisfaction.

If nothing else, this thread at least demonstrates that we have to be preparred for issues with any product we buy, that no company is 100% perfect.

Pity: one of the major goals for my new house was/is making life easier-- store things as near as possible to where they'll be used, eliminate long hallways, have natural light in every room so I'm not reaching for a light switch every 10 seconds.

I wish I could fing appliances and fixtures that work first time, every time; but its just not possible.

Ditto the Price Pfister faucets. I am in the process of replacing everyone in my home. Cheap and they are hard to get replacement parts for. Also, I have the Moen silestone kitchen sink in ivory that looks dirty all the time and has cracked in two places. Thankfully, high enough that I am not getting leaks, but definitely will need to be replaced soon enough. Also, the Delta hands free eletronic faucet. I paid a lot of bucks for that and it never worked properly. Already replaced. Emtek door knobs. In crystal anyway. All of the locking pins have been lost. They just seem to loosen over time and fall out. Plus, the whole mechanism gets loose inside the door piece. Not happy esp after paying a premium price for them.

KwikSet locks. I wish I'd done more research on locks... I would never buy one of these again. The front door lock has been repaired once in 2.5 years and the garage door lock twice.

Price Pfister as well. Crappy kitchen faucet in our previous home and thankfully Lowe's refunded us. We went with Delta & Moen mainly. LOVE our Toto toilets and Bosch dishwasher!

Ditto the Bosch dishwasher. It's not a terrible product, but it is a bit of a let down and I wish that I had gone with a kitchenaid dishwasher instead. But all of the comments here are anecdotal and show that good products can disappoint and some products that are generally considered to be inferior can work out great. The key is to find out which manufacturers stand behind their products. For example, we purchased some Kraftmaid cabinets for a bathroom in our old house. They were defective, but Kraftmaid did fix them. I won't buy Kraftmaid again because I don't have to, but if I was limited to the Kraftmaid price point I would get them again because I think I would ultimately end up with a good product, but it could take some time and inconvenience to get there.

Most any product from home depot.Not because of the product, but because of the run around h.d gives you when dealing with a negative from a product purchased there and the time frame and manner in which it takes to get an issue resolved. In our town,h.d, is the only game in town, so it's deal with them or go out of town, which is sometimes the only solution.

I'll third the Price Pfister. When we were doing our renovation of our townhouse, the contractor told us we could go buy our own fixtures and the plumber would install them, but when we came back with Price Pfister ones, the plumber recommended we return them and buy Delta or Moen. He said they put all their money in the appearance, and they don't last.

Yup...price pfister kitchen faucet, only 3 years, and the finish already looks dirty and stained. Soap dispenser part clogged, too! Soaked in dilute vinegar for a week, STILL not unclogged...sigh.
Our cleaners use the same stuff on everything, and the 3 no-name bathroom faucets are still shiny and new.

Price Pfister faucets.

Kitchenaid large appliances. Ice maker in SxS quit making ice after 2 years, and of course it was out of warranty. The dishwasher cleans ok but the spring mechanism in the door broke twice within 6 months. No issues with their small appliances.

Price Pfister faucet in my last house was white. It worked poorly and looked bad (chipped)after about a year.

The Bosch dishwasher is on my "never again list". Our first one lasted less than a year. The Bosch engineers couldn't design anything to fix its brainboard (they said it was an orphan and that less that 500 had been made). After our vendor really pressured them, they replaced it. The replacement flooded our kitchen and living room after 4 years of use. We now have dishdrawers that really fit the way we live. The Kitchenaid 25 cu ft refrigerator is loud--a sin in an open floorplan. The 3 yr old Kitchen Aid large capacity washer has had major repairs at least once in each year. We have an extended warranty until 2009--but I'm counting the days. So much these days is utter crap!

Bosch convection oven - does not cook evenly. I love my GE Advantium microwave/convection oven except that it is difficult to clean (getting the baked on gunk off is impossible).

Love my Miele dishwasher, it is a dream.

Kohler Memoirs toilet - like Sue36, ours often requires two flushes. The rest of our Kohler toilets are fine.

Bruce Greenwich Pecan engineered flooring - horrible flooring - dents easily and is very easily damaged by even the smallest drop of water (not a good kitchen choice!). Yet, my Bruce Brazilian cherry and Weyerhaeuser lyptus are wonderful.

Kraftmaid cabinets are just okay - I would not buy them again. Very poor wood matching and they refused to correct the mismatches despite the fact that the rep came out and said my cabinets looked "weird".

Franke triflow water filtration faucet is spectacular. Schonbek crystal chandeliers - awesome. Love my Wayne-Dalton garage doors.

Whirlpool Duet front loading washing machine - absolutely awful. The worst washing machine I have ever owned. Does not thoroughly clean clothes, mold develops around the rubber gasket of the door, noisy, just an all around terrible washing machine. The Duet dryer is great though.

suziesnowflake mentioned that her GE Advantium microwave/convection oven was difficult to clean (getting the baked on gunk off is impossible). Try using a Scotch Brite "Clean Rinse Scrubber". Mine is purple and came in a two pack. I bought it at Target. It is wonderful and cleaned my 4 year old Advantium in a jiffy.

Whirlpool oven and convection microwave that came with the new house. Nothing wrong with the way they work. It's that there is no number pad for the power or time. Instead there are up/down arrows for hour/minute/second. So to do 40 seconds I have to hold the seconds button down for EVER until it gets to 40 instead of just pressing 4 and 0. Also the timer only does hours/minutes, nor seconds and I have something to time every morning for 2 minutes and 30 seconds.

Over time, this is exceedingly annoying.

If my little phone has a number pad, couldn't they have fit one somewhere on my large microwave and oven? Sigh.

Kitchen Aid appliances. I've had them all serviced within the first year of purchasing them. I've contacted KA and they did nothing and were quite rude. The microwave didn't even last a week. The compressor on the refrigerator went out within six months. The range has been serviced twice and the dishwasher needed a new touch keypad after a year.

Also Price Pfister fixtures. I had PP lights in my master bath. They were brushed nickel and rusted in under six months.

Ok, after trying to clean our Grohe Geneva 3-Port Diverter Trim (Chrome), and Tub spout (Chrome), I have decided I will never buy their products again. After initially purchasing the Tempesta Trio Hand Shower set, and finding that it was mainly made of plastic, I decided to send them back. (That was my preference to have brass metal for my shower parts, I understand not everyone feels that way.) So after I returned those I went to our local plumbing supply and asked what I could replace them with. The salesperson said that Grohe's chrome finish is not as good as some other competitors, and I finally decided on Rohl. However she did say that Grohe's valves are very good, so I decided to keep the diverter and tub spout. Well, now I can't get the spots off the chrome. The Rohl products are not having any problems, as well was the Porcher tub filler for my clawfoot tub.

So I give them two thumbs down on their chrome finish. Don't have any experience with their other finishes.

Joan

We bought a front loader Kenmore washing machine mostly due to the energy savings, but it had some drawbacks, and the door seal failed in less than a year. To their credit, Sears gave us a full refund towards a standard model. The drawbacks? I work in a machine shop, and it just didn't work well on greasy clothes. I had to pre-soak my work clothes (something you can't do in the washer) prior to washing them. We also bought an American Standard kitchen sink which is a plastic imitation of a cast iron one. Looks terrible now!

Crane Nostalgia extended bowl wc. It's the look we wanted, but shares the poor performance of many of the low-flow wcs.

i used a sub zero 650 bottom freezer in our last home. never again. three maintenance calls on the (plastic) ice maker. you don't always get what you pay for.

Weathershield windows. When the product is good, it's very good. But their service is dreadful - we had a serious issue and it was like pulling teeth to get anyone in the company to pay attention.

Sort of a hijack, but:

I'm mortified to read all the negatives on Price Pfister. Using several of their 'Ashfield' faucets, wondering if any of these complaints relate to this model specifically.

orubis - I can't speak for those, but I have the Marielle pull-out faucet for the last 3 years and mine is still in great shape and looks new and I've not had any problems with it.

An coffee maker that hangs under the upper cabinets. The damn steam from the coffee maker completely ruins the finish of the cabinet above it...and in some instances it will cause the veneering to de-laminat or causes the door corner joints to open up.

Kraftmaid would never be considered by me (returned my entire shipment). Very poor "quality". Got custom cabs (locally) instead.

Grohe soap dispensers. We bought three and all three have had issues. They allowed me to return the first two and replaced them, but once again, I have to call.

We had issues (smell) with the Bosch DW, but that's been remedied. Very good cleaning and sound.

I think there will always be some "lemons" with every brand, and price does not always mean you're getting something that works as we've seen on the board.

Been happy with everything else we chose.

I would never buy another Thermador product again. We were informed that you cannot buy a part for a Thermador double oven 7 years after the product comes out....I was just left hanging having to buy a complete new system.

I am so glad I've never owned most of the brands y'all speak of. I always have had Sears appliances. I don't know who is making the ones I buy from Sears, but I've always had great luck. I made the mistake of buying a Maytag washer because I thought it would be better. Big mistake. It didn't do a good job at getting the clothes clean, was noisy and forever out of level. Sold it used after just 5 years. The Sears front loader washer and dryer I have now are good, but I should have bought bigger machines. Note to susie, you need to keep the washer door always cracked because mold will form due to wetness around gasket. I use my machine so much, mold doesn't have a chance to grow. LOL

So far, everything we've bought for our new home (which is going on 2 yrs. old) is great, but I researched almost every single thing on these boards. At the time it drove my DH crazy, but he is so happy with everything that now he's a believer, as in "hey honey why don't you go check with your boards about that product?"

At the other house, we had GE kitchen appliances which I would never, ever buy again. We replaced the gas cooktop after 7 yrs., the dishwasher after 5 and the built-in oven door kept falling off.

Everything in our new home is great (except for our acid stained concrete floors but that is probably a fluke).

I learned from a remodel done years before: no Frigidaire anything regardless of its upscale look - it's junk. And sadly these days Kenmore is going that route too.

Kenmoore smoothtop electric stove. Harder to clean than anything, need a special cleaner, and surface color wears. Door came apart once, but serviceman fixed. Door came apart again, I fixed. Circuit board went after 1 year.

evans, the circuit boards are built not to last. The circuit board went out on our Magic Chef gas slide-in range 3 years after we bought it and it was going to cost $1,000 for the circuit so we opted to just put the stove on the curb for trash and buy another. We bought the new Magic Chef, but this time purchased the extended warranty which is a very minimal amount of money. Within a couple of years the board went out and they replaced it free of charge. That was 10 years ago and the stove has worked fine ever since.

In case you're wondering why we purchased a second Magic Chef, the reason is the price was much cheaper than the other brands that we could find in a slide in gas range.

When I buy my new range for the new house I'm going to make sure to purchase the extended warranty for that one also. It will be a Jenn Air.

SubZero built-in side-by-side refrig. Continuous trouble for over 10 years. Worst brand repair history in recent years, but they had a solid reputation when we bought it. So much for reputation. Some posters say they are making better products these days.

Moen faucets. My current house is full of them and they are all getting "sloppy": handles wiggle and feel loose despite everything being tight. As far as I can tell a lot has to do with all the plastic in them that just loosens up over time. The kitchen leaked after 3.5 years. I replaced the kitchen faucet with a Franke I bought off E-Bay and absolutely love it. Likewise, I replaced my in-laws Moen with a Grohe I got from e-bay and it too is such a vastly better faucet than the Moen it replaced.

i do not have any specific products, but wanted to comment on my disdane towards the quality of most major and small products available to us today. It seems companies focus on the bottom line more than anything else. Profit, marketing, and greed. Products are made to last 3-7 years (if that) compared to when I was younger (i am only 32 now) and the stuff my folks bought lasted a lifetime. I think this goes for most products we buy today. We need to start supporting (as a society) small business and craftmanship. People that still take pride in the goods they produce.

I couldn't agree with you more. I am working with an Amish builder and it's been a breath of fresh air after talking to so many of the giant corporate builders. His bid on my house was astonishing, (About $100,000 less) given the HUGE difference in quality and finishes in the houses he builds. He handpicks his workmen by the quality of their work and their craftsmanship. They are all extremely conscious of not wasting materials and of doing the best possible job. They have such pride in their work. It's so refreshing to have complete trust in the job they're doing for me. I had just about given up on finding that in a builder after so many bad experiences at the bid stage.

In our last house I had a maytag atlantis washer and dryer, and I was underwhelmed with them. I had incredibly high hopes for the dryer after hearing my SIL rave about her new dryer (not a maytag) and how fast it dried clothes. Even after we had a major clean-out of the vent, it still underperformed. The washer had a smell issue. I never left wet clothes in it, and always left the lid up when not in use. I occasionally ran a cycle with bleach only. Still had a smell issue.

Amy