Last updated on June 22nd, 2023
If you’re thinking about taking the plunge into new appliance ownership and buying a new appliance for your home, there are a lot of questions that go through your mind. Is the brand reliable? How much does it cost? Can I get financing? What’s the warranty like? And what if something breaks down after the warranty runs out?
In this article, we’ll answer these questions and help walk you through some other considerations like renting versus buying.
Some well known reliable appliance brands include Fisher and Paykel, LG, Samsung, Electrolux, Simpson, Miele, and Asko. If the brand isn’t well known its reliability is less certain, and it will usually be cheaper, but also more cheaply built, and generally less reliable. This doesn’t always hold true though, new brands coming onto the market who want to build long term trust with their customers will often offer their appliances cheaply even though they are well built to encourage customers to buy therm. Haier is a relatively new Chinese brand that can offer good value as its relatively cheap, but mostly uses the same expensive components as more expensive appliance brands like Fisher and Paykel.
Appliance ownership is as much a right as buying a home or having a child. Customers should have a right to appliance ownership, but for many consumers it is simply not a good fit. With the appliance ownership model you’re not just paying for the new appliance; you’re also paying for all the maintenance and replacement costs that come with it.
The initial purchase price of a new appliance can cost anywhere from several hundred to thousands of dollars, so it’s worth doing your research to find an appliance to fit your needs and budget. Miele and Asko are very expensive but have a reputation for reliability, parts availability, and long warranties. Fisher and Paykel, LG, Samsung, Electrolux, Simpson, and Haier are also great brands, which cost much less than Miele or Asko, but are still relatively expensive. You can expect parts availability for around 5 years at least, and they come with 2-5 year warranties. Then there are the cheaper brands which have OK warranties, and unknown reliability, usually good for at least a few years, with spotty parts availability. Finally, there are the ALDI and Kogan specials – they are usually very cheap with reasonable reliability. The downside here is that if a part breaks out of warranty, in most cases there is no parts availability – at least in this authors experience. The way these businesses typically deals with a warranty repair is either to swap out the appliances, or more often, issuing a refund. So once your warranty is done, if a minor part breaks, you need to bodge it or throw it away, and buy a new appliance. If you’re keen on sustainable appliance ownership, you want to stick with the reliable brands with parts availability and good build quality, otherwise odds are the appliance will have a shorter life and be irreparable if anything breaks.
For older buyers who have had a chance to build a good credit rating finance options may be available or purchasing with a credit card. For younger buyers purchasing on finance the only options may be buy now pay later services such as AfterPay, Zip or Klarna. If you’re considering purchasing an appliance on credit, you should consider renting versus buying, especially if you’re considering either the top end or bottom end of the market, or only need the new appliance for a relatively short amount of time.
Renting vs Buying
Traditional appliance rental is usually a much worse deal than just buying the appliance on credit. It’s usually a contract of 2-3 years over which time you pay double to triple what the new appliance would have been to just buy new. Now let’s compare buying new and renting versus the world of subscription appliances