Best bet is to plan to buy a 5 year extended warranty and hope you don't need it. We've found the costs aren't excessive (usually less than 10% of purchase price). Manufacturers have no business incentive to design an appliance to last 20 years when it comes with a 1 year warranty. There aren't enough consumers willing to pay for an appliance designed to last 20 years. GE, Whirlpool, and Frigidaire have had to compete with lower cost imports from LG and Samsung. Frigidaire is now owned by Electrolux and GE by Haier. You can buy a Miele or Wolf/Sub Zero which should have a better repair network but those too have reports of problems.

Realize that people are much more likely to complain than to praise a product. Sure some people have issues with the products they buy but the number of problems are not nearly as large a percentage as reading online reviews would lead you to believe.

One thing to remember about extended warranties. They are there to make the company offering them money. They are a huge profit center.

I used to feel the same about extended warranties. Then I had to throw away a 2 year old dishwasher that was going to cost $700 to repair. Now I get extended warranties for appliances. I don't think they are making a lot of money on them these days.

When you say "gas oven", do you mean a wall oven? Or do you mean a full range with burners, an oven, and possible a warming drawer or storage drawer? Or a bigger range?

What's your budget? How much do you cook? How big is your family? How big is your kitchen? How much do you entertain?

If the companies were not making huge profits on the warranties they would simply raise the price of them.

Not doubting you but having to throw away a 2 year old appliance is very, very far from typical. Usually major systems are covered for longer than 1 year. Plus your credit card will double the manufacturer warrant.

A business professor at Penn State University says the typical profit margin on these products is 15% to 20% but businesses realize a more than 200% profit on the extended warranty.

I was looking at a gas range..So far I have decided on the following options based on the many reviews found here...

Range - BlueStar™ Sealed
Burner 36 in. 6 burner Gas Range or similar..

Washer /Dryer from Speed Queen

French Door Fridge- Looking at 27 cu.ft -32 cu.ft. Budget under $3,500. Viking, subzero is above my price range. Not sure which brand is the most reliable. So far I am leaning towards Whirpool.

Dishwasher - Budget under $1,500. I was about to go for Miele or Bosch. But both now had bad reviews from users under 3 years. Not sure if I should just buy a $400 Whirpool Gold that has 5000+ reviews with extended warranty.

Usually major systems are covered for longer than 1 year.

James May - what do you mean by major systems? Where can I find these wondrous ranges and DWs with warranties longer than a year? The only one I know is Miele which will double the warranty if you use their certified installer. Miele appliances are very expensive, and the certified installation is a large upcharge.

Plus your credit card will double the manufacturer warranty.

That depends on the credit card, and expect a lot of paperwork and delay if you have to invoke it with your credit card company.

The profits on the extended warranties are like any insurance. When you buy home insurance, the profits are similar. It's unlikely your house will burn down, but if it does, you want that insurance don't you?

James May - you haven't taken into account the severe deterioration in appliances quality which makes the need for the additional warranty much more likely than it was five years ago. When you are slapped with an $800 bill on your 2-year-old appliance, you will be thrilled to have the extended warranty. Plus, they're not that expensive. Go online and price them at places like Square Trade.

My Jenn Air Dishwasher warranty - Years 2 - 5 Jenn-Air will pay for factory specified parts for the following components if
defective in materials or workmanship: dish racks, all parts of the wash system, drain motor, electronic controls and heating element.
Replacements parts will also be provided if there is rust including the exterior cabinet and front panels.

Lifetime - Jenn-Air will pay for factory specified parts and repair labor for the following
components to correct defects in materials or workmanship that existed when this major appliance was purchased: stainless steel tub
and inner door liner.

So you are correct when it comes to the range. I just checked the warranty on my new Samsung range it is exactly 1 year.

If it takes a lot of work to file a claim with your credit card you are using the wrong card. It took me all of 5 minutes to file claims with American Express. They took care of everything and quickly issued a refund.

There is a huge difference between Home Owners Insurance and an Extended Warranty. Are you really trying to compare the two? Lets just remove the fact that if you have a mortgage you are required to have home owners insurance. Lets look at the potential impact and liability. Let's also look at the percentage of cost vs. coverage.

Stan Susan, all appliances have bad reviews because as someone else said, people are more likely to come on and give a bad review than a good one.

My sister has a Miele DW and really likes it. I've heard the majority like it, and Miele stands behind their product. I'm buying a Miele DW.

Awesome..Thanks..However the frequency of bad reviews will help us deter from a certain product.

Let us know what you pick and why.

Refrigerator - Sub Zero

Gas Stove - Blue Star

Dishwasher - Miele

I'm doing an integrated Bosch 36" french door fridge, the Miele DW and a Bosch induction cooktop. I've cooked on gas and electric and tried induction. For cleanup alone, I'm switching to induction.

I am looking at buying the Blue Star 36 inch sealed burner series range. Cleanup is easy.

"Porcelain Enamel Top: New black enamel top provides a sleek cooking surface that resists scratching to stay looking new for years. This easy-to-clean top complete with full motion grates is the perfect cooking surface for any home chef.

http://www.bluestarcooking.com/cooking/ranges/30-sealed-burner-series/

I've had sealed and unsealed gas burners.

The induction cooktop cleans up with just a wet rag (and if greasy a bit of dish soap) because nothing can bake onto it like with electric or gas. If you never have anything boil over or splatter, then yes clean up with gas is very easy, but I tend to be a slob and have things splatter and boil over at times, so I'm looking forward to being able to wipe up my spills immediately. That's the beauty of induction. I won't even have to wait for the cooktop to cool down to wipe spills, since the cooktop doesn't get hot.

I asked an appliance repairman we've used in the past about brand recommendations for a fridge and his response was "don't buy one now, wait 3 or 4 years". He feels the manufacturers are struggling with issues related to complying with energy standards and that all of the brands have reliability problems. I'm talking about medium level brands (GE, Whirlpool, Kitchenaid, LG, Samsung) and not the high end brands. He said if we are set on buying one he'd recommend an american made brand like the Whirlpool family of brands or GE due to better parts availability and also recommended buying a 5 year warranty on it.

I finally decided on GE (fridge stove and microwave) and found that Lowes has the lowest price on a 5 year warranty. Actually bought from a different vendor (local appliance store) that matched total price including the 5 year warranty on the fridge.

DW: Miele, not a problem and cleans great and very quiet ..

cooktop: induction, simply the best in my book and like CPartist said, "the cleanup alone is worth it. we have it and would never go back to gas or electric and we have had both....

Frig: we have Liebherr and its been flawless., love it...!!

I hear people make this claim all the time. Buy an American appliance. Parts availability is much better. You will have trouble getting parts for LG, Samsung, etc.

The only appliance I have ever had issues getting parts for was a Frigidaire. My appliance repair guy who I trust has never complained about lack of availability of parts. Or when I mentioned I was looking at brand X he never once said don't get it. I can't get parts for it.

I would think it would be harder to get parts for a high end European import, because there aren't many units sold. Barring what the Hanjin bankruptcy might do to worldwide shipping in the short run, I'd think that ordinary replacement parts for the Korean brands you mentioned, which are sold in great quantity in retail stores, would be stocked by local parts distributors because there are so many units out there. OTOH, if you need a dohickey that rarely fails, getting that might take awhile, like the Europeans. But then, I think a lot of parts that go into American builds are foreign made as well, so even though an American brand might have a parts depot that's a few truck days away, the dohickey might still be coming from Korea.