Nothing is as good as it used to be, and it seems no one cares! (IMO)

It's so disappointing when the old reliable brands don't live up to their reps.

You are right. most products don't last as long as they should or used to. I'm sure the companies are doing this intentionally. It is called built0in obsolete. Sad but true. Dottie

They're probably all being made in China. Huge mistake.

On the same topic of my original post, does anyone recommend a particular model of bread-machine?

I would look at the zojirushi brand of bread machine. I don't have one..my old Oster died..but if I were to replace it..I'd look at the Z's....I've just started using my Kitchen Aid and doing it "by hand".

Black and Decker was (maybe still is) owned by General Electric. I thought they were a good brand.

GE isn't a good "brand". It is an amalgam of various companies that they have bought over the years, some good and some bad. Some with good names known for product reliability that have had the products completely eviscerated by the parent company into a piece of junk.

The Zojirushi bread makers have gotten good reviews. You might want to check out Consumer Reports and other product review sites.

I agree with JASDIP. The junk is being made in China, Thailand, Mexico or some other 3rd world country. This also did away with a lot of jobs for the US.
Leslie

I usually stick to KitchenAid and Cuisinart products for the kitchen. I don't have a breadmaker, though. I have been really impressed with both of those brands.

I have a Cuisinart food processor that I bought when they first came out about 25 - 30 years ago. It still works like a charm. I too like Kitchen Aid and Cuisinart for small appliances.

While I agree "they don't build 'em like they used to" I think we have to realize a couple of points:

First, in the broad sense, "we" don't want them to be built like they used to be. We want luxury, opulance, pretty and whether it does the function it's supposed to is secondary.

Second, in the broad sense, "we" won't pay to get it like it used to be. We want raises but will we pay more for the items? When I think back to 29 years ago when I bought my washing machine, I paid $220 for it and it was heavily discounted being a floor model, last year's model and had some chips on the paint, and it was avacado green! What is that in today's dollars? Well let's see, back then a new pickup ran about $4,000. Today, $25-$30K. But a cousin of mine bought a basic washer and dryer a year and a half ago and paid about $200. Now,do I expect it to last 30 years? Nope. But then again, in converted dollars all it needs to last is a few years.

People want new things all the time. They want to change the decor. That avocado refrigerator has to be replaced, not because it doesn't work, but because the COLOR doesn't work. And somehow, today, people don't understand the concept of painting appliances. So it's off to the landfill. Why make it last longer? In many ways, make it cheaper and replace it. And save the money.

Americans couldn't build a car that Americans would buy so Americans went elsewhere for their cars. We couldn't build a reliable TV set and we wouldn't buy the American made junk so everything is made overseas now. We won't pay the price so the appliance manufacturer can build the appliance here, and pay the wages we demand, even if we could build it so we'd buy it. So they outsource it to other countries and we suck it up like an old fashioned shopvac. Sad isn't it?

We won't pay the money to have people make the clothes; We prefer to buy from Walmart, getting stuff from Kathy Lee's Children's Daycare Camp in Peking. However, we will go and picket the Walmart to complain that they're non-union while our spouses go in and shop while we picket. We carpool occasionally at least.

If people quit buying by name or price and bought by value, we'd all be a lot better off.

(sigh) OK, end of rant. End of frustration. End of the world???? Well not quite. Sorry for getting OT.

I really shouldn't talk about breadmakers because mine is old. It works great. It's an Oster and I didn't pay much for it at the time. But I'm sure they're not built the same today so going by brand isn't good.

Which brings up another point. Who makes what these days? Kenmore has never made appliances. They have them made by Whirlpool, GE, Frigidaire, Panasonic and others. Maytag is now owned by Whirlpool and Amana was owned by Maytag, so they're now owned by Whirlpool, however, some Amana products are made by Samsung, under the Amana name, owned by Whirlpool. GE makes some appliances, but some are made for GE by LG and Frigidaire. Frigidaire makes appliances for the Gibson name. Confused? Me too.

KitchenAid is an interesting example. They used to be top-notch. And they gained a huge reputation on their mixers. But they too have become well, to many they're "garbage". But for the average consumer, they'll work fine. I find it interesting that now they rate them by how many cups of flour they can handle. When they were Hobart-made, you could fill them to the top and it wouldn't matter. And although I am a fan of Whirlpool, they've done an injustice to KitchenAid mixers.

Craftsman tools aren't what they were. Years ago they changed the warranty on them so it's not lifetime on all of them anymore. Let's not even go into computers.

Well, no sense going on since I'm already confused. I guess it's a roll of the dice. Sometimes you'll get something good and sometimes you'll get junk. And there's an old addage that has become a joke: "You get what you pay for". I laugh when people say that. It's so untrue in a vast majority of cases. It's usually used by people trying to rationalize a ridiculously expensive purchase. Really, does that $8,000.00 washer and dryer do a better job on your clothes than my old workhorses do on mine? I don't think so. When someone says YGWYPF to me these days, I usually respond with something like, then obviously you must have bought Kmart's do it yourself home lobotomy kit on sale with a coupon and rebate... But not always. Because maybe they DID wind up getting what they paid for!