"maybe the more expensive brands are better?"

Nah.

CR's survey data has tens of thousands of respondents, so reasonably accurate as far as it goes. Which may not be all that far, though, for the reasons Dadoes just pointed out.

CR just does not give any breakout on what categories of problems are occurring. For example, it is something of an article of faith here that water dispensers and ice makers, particularly through-the-door units, can be problemmatic. CR's survey results do not distinguish those problems from others such as control boards or compressor failures. You can shut off water lines and ice makers and still have a functioning fridge. Can't do that with a failed compressor or control board.

That said, the fact that there may be a lot of operator errors or installation problems does not mean there are not serious problems, though. The prevalance of those kinds of problems could reflect bad design.

But the data from CR just does not tell us what we might want to look for or avoid.
Reminds me of the old joke about Microsoft's help desk: what they tell you is absolutely true but absolutely unhelpful. :>)

Some brands also have been prone to freeze-ups in high humidty conditions. Many fridges have a circuit to address that. Others, like some of the recent Samsung models, do not have that and, instead, need periodic 24 hour defrost to keep the evaporater channels open. (I have several friends who have discovered this with their three to five year old Samsungs). The Samsung problem is, to my thinking, a bigger problem than somebody who does not know they need to turn on the "humidity control" function.

Since CR's surveys do not usually report for the likes of Miele (an example of one of your "more expensive brands") you might think those brands are more reliable. No such luck on data. The reason data for more expensive brands does not get reported by CR is simple. The market share is too small. CR gets too few survey responses from its members to have what they regard as a statistically significant example.

About all you can do with this data is look for the outliers.

You also might have a look at the Yale Appliance web site where that company, which has a large service department, periodically reports on its call rates for premium priced and major brands.

Do you know anybody in the appliance service business? Asking them can be helpful.

FYI, maybe it's just me, but an entire post in all bold is hard to read.

I have both read and responded to CR's survey. Any service call, including installation errors and user error, are included in trouble reports. Most models of most major brands are going to be pretty reliable, and all models of all brands will have some units that need repairs. My laundry pair have never failed me, but I did have a service call because they couldnn't answeer my question on the customer service telephone line. It was under waranty, so they sent someone out. CR would report that as a failure because it was a service call. SInce then, I have ordered a repalcement lint screen through Amazon -- less than $20. That's all my pair have needed in 8 years.

The best you can do is to look for trends -- keeping in mind that reviews are more likely to be posted by folks who are unhappy. Doesn't make it a lot easier, but if you look and read as much as you can, I think you get a sense of what folks are happy and unhappy about (like the one star review cus the installer left a hand print or smelled like cigarette smoke). You have to weed those out and focus on the units themselves.

Whirlpool is generally on the higher end for refrigerators and some of the laundry units -- though they have had some stinkers (Calypso). You don't' say what models you have had or what you are unhappy with, so it is difficut to know what you might like beter.

I think LG sits pretty solidly in both those categories. I have LG front loaders -- about 8 years now, and only wish I had gotten them sooner. My sister haad LG top loader and dryer in her last house. Has Electrolux now, but barely 2 months. Loooks nice, but a bit early to tell you how she loves it long term. My utility fridge is a bottom freezer single door LG that has been great. Nothing fancy (though we did hook up the ice maker with is a splurge on a second fridge -- but occasionally very nice to have and it works well).

Everyone has a favorite brand. Sometimes features and value make your decisions easier. What's important to you? I would focus on that -- the things you use every day, more than the possibility of ever having a service call.

I have a Whirlpool french door refrigerator, 25cf, Model GX5FHDXVY04. The bottom freezer has never worked that well, at times the drawer gets out of line and won't shut completely, leaving a gap at the seal on one side. After a couple of service calls I learned that I have to pull the freezer drawer all the way out and slam it as hard as I can several times to fix it. It gets out of line if you don't pull it open from the exact center of the handle. So weird. Also, it just seems the freezer doesn't keep things as frozen as it should. Ice cream gets ice on it, lots of freezer burn, even when the drawer seems to be fully sealed. I have a Whirlpool Duet w/d, a discontinued model, but I never felt the washer got my clothes very clean, and I've had lots of code errors, several service calls. I'm happy to replace them. I'm actually looking at LG, a friend of mine has an LG w/d and refrigerator, she is very happy with them. I was considering a Samsung refrigerator which is on sale, but it does get humid here, the comment above about Samsung's problems with humidity concerns me. I'd rather not get the ice/water in door, don't have them now, but DH wants it, so I'm considering it. Just seems like another potential problem. I've been reading the reviews on the store websites on various appliances, and every one of them seems to have so many bad reviews! I guess you just pick the one with the least bad reviews, and buy the extended warranty.

I agree that most major brands are pretty good overall. They have to be. Viking has had a stinker reputation for years now, but they have new owners who have a good enough reputation in Europe (and who we speculate didn't really understand how bad it was when they bought). They've been stuck in the mud they bought, and there isn't enough info on what's new to know if they're turning it around.

The only company I can think of that is at least better than good to excellent on all the appliances that people talk about here is Miele. BSH (Bosch/Thermador/Gaggenau) are more variable, but still good+ to excellent. Electrolux is usually at least good. Whirlpool/KitchenAid/Jenn-Air (one company) is usually middling to good+, though I don't know enough about their current ovens.

There are other companies who make good appliances too, but many don't excel in all categories, or even enter all categories. Builders buy appliance packages from single makers so they can get truckloads of full suites at a steep discount. This should not be taken as a style cue for a custom kitchen. We encourage people here to choose each appliance for it's function and choose the individual unit for how it best suits your needs, budget, style, etc., as well as its relative importance to you. For instance, ovens are the most problematic and variable, but some people use ovens so little that they're bought more for wok storage than cooking, and a cheap, inferior oven is adequate to their needs. Others will buy the most basic fridge from the scratch and dent store so they can buy the very best oven available. Unless you have a particular obsession with matching badges and handles that makes it impossible for you to comfortably buy anything but a set, I encourage you to do more research and make each choice to suit your particular needs.

"FYI, maybe it's just me, but an entire post in all bold is hard to read"

Ooops. sorry.

I typed that response on a smart device. Trying to learn how to use the thing. Could not tell that bold was on for the whole post. I have edited the post and fixed the bolding from a real computer.

I can't answer for the current models, but my Whirlpool side by side is 12 years old and going strong. Yes we had problems with the ice dispenser and the in-door water dispenser but they were cheap to fix. It is now a dice roll, but I would get the one you want and hope for the best. I do believe that the more complicated the device the more chance for something to go wrong. I would buy a surge protector for any appliance that has a control board these days. Or, you could get a whole house surge protector. Most of those are not sacrificial.