epinions.com has been helpful. Thanks for your post. I will check out your sites too.

I found epinions when googling for something. Good to know of others. Good thread. Being a consumer is such hard work these days. We need all the help we can get.

I have used http://www.bizrate.com/ several times.

If you are considering a major purchase then I would recommend subscribing to consumerreports.org. I don't maintain an updated membership but I re-enroll when I want to purchase something major (car, TV etc).

I find it $25 well spent.

chrisdoc,

Have you tried the library?

Several branches of ours carry Consumer Reports.

With most mags, you can check out stale-dated copies.

ole joyful

P.S. Thanks, folks, for the addresses for research.

Thanks also for walking with a light tread upon the earth.

Our grandkids will be rather disgusted with our profligate ways, I think ... for example, making fridges 40 years ago that are still operating ... and making them now that conk out after 10 years or so (and some may add, "if you're lucky").

Seems as though corporate greed knows few bounds.

Corporate concentration scares the hell out of me (and, as a former preacher, I thought that it was people like me that were supposed to do that).

No, actually, it seems to me that many Christian groups have been too much concerned with laying guilt trips on people. It seems to me that we should be pursuing a more positive emphasis. Surely our world could use a good dose of that.

ole joyful

OJ, you just hit another pearl! So true, so true. Anyway, When I'm looking, course it depends on what I'm looking for. I've found a lot of good info in the various GW forums. And when I'm searching the internet, I wind up at epinions a lot but I do a search for, Whirlpool model XYZ dryer +reviews (the + sign indicates it must include that word) and go read the reviews. Places like Amazon, and others I can't think of offhand have customer reviews on their sites.

However, I give a word of caution. Take time and get a lot of reviews. I've been watching info on washers & dryers for a couple years knowing I'd be needing a new one soon and in that time "opinions" have changed. I tend to give a lot more credibility to those who actually *work* on the items than someone who says something like "my mother has had a Binford 6100 refrigerator since 1912 and it's GREAT!!!" For instance, 20 years ago, repair folks would swear by Maytag, today they swear at them. Just because something was great 50, 20 even 5 or 10 years ago doesn't mean they still are today. Brands can be misleading too with the merging of companies. Oh, and yes, there's some bias in the forums and on review sites. Some of the "reviews" I've seen are clearly someone with an interest in making something look good or bad, so again, be a savvy shopper.

And I know a lot of people just love Consumer Reports, but there's a perfect example of a need to take it with a grain, (or a fistful) of salt. They're very limited in their evaluations, only evaluate certain things in certain manners and I've found too much bias to give them any credibility anymore. OTOH, if the eval they give is on the concerns you have and the same model that you're looking at, it has value. My 2¢ worth, and probably worth just slightly less!