James Conley answers:

Call a second hand appliance store with your model number brand and the age of the machines as if you were purchasing them. They will tell you what they are selling them for. Despite what you were told, people do look at the features and what the machines will and won’t do. Looking in our classified ads most of the machines range in the 150-250 for machines that are less than 5 years old. That being said I sold my maytags for $200 each and they were top of the line. But that was still $50 below what the second hand appliance store was selling the same machines for.

James Conley answers:

Before you commit to a certain brand, make sure you have an authorized repairman in the area. Friends of ours got a great deal on an LG stove, it’s now got major issues and they can’t find anyone to repair it even under warranty. And LG has not been any help in locating a repair facility either. 1/2 the burners don’t work and the other 1/2 turn themselves off when they feel like it. Yeah, the stove look awesome but they are regretting their purchase big time right now.

I have a Frigidaire ceramic top stove and love it! The oven is awesome! I have the convect feature also. Frigidaire ovens have more even heat distribution between the top and the bottom elements for more even baking. The unit I have even has the 5 burner; a warming burner in the middle back. I really didn’t think I would use it much but I do. It’s wonderful for melting chocolate or butter without having to watch it like a hawk to make sure it doesn’t burn. And it keeps anything just nicely warm if you have to hold something.

I cook and bake a lot and the only issue I have with my stove is that the one knob needs replaced; it lost the little metal keeper on the inside. It’s just a couple of bucks to replace; no biggie.

James Conley answers:

To tell the truth, I think the overall quality of appliances in general has suffered of late. I haven’t been able to endorse a Maytag product, for instance, since the Whirlpool buyout. Some Whirlpool products are worth owning, and some Kenmore, but you have to do some research to be sure which one gets your money.

The Energy Star rating only means that that appliance uses less energy than other, comparable models. There are certain thresholds that must be met but I don’t know what they are.

I can say this much: the new, “high efficiency” laundry washers are, in my opinion, crap. All of them. Excessive electronic controls introduce many opportunities to fine-tune a laundry load so no more resources need be used than necessary, but there are also a great many more ways to fail. Remember when cars just had carburetors and an ignition coil, and that was pretty much all you needed? If you could start it spinning, you could make it run. With modern EFI and the myriad sensors telling the computer what’s going on, there are lots of things that can come out of adjustment and make the car run poorly. Same thing with the washers, dryers, refrigerators, etc. The old models might not have been as efficient as the new ones, but they would go and go for decades.

Case in point: my Maytag (pre-Whirlpool) Neptune washer is 14 years old. A fancy electronic control crapped out in a big way. I was able to repair it and keep it going, but before excessive safety controls and monitoring systems, there would never have even BEEN the parts that died. It would just work.

My advice to you is to get over to the library and read up on the appliances you’re shopping for. Find the ones with the best reliability ratings first: that way the money you spend goes into a device that lasts longer. Then shop among those for the best efficiency ratings. Finally, when you’ve made your purchase, keep up with ALL the recommended maintenance to ensure your device works as well as it can for as long as it can.

Good luck with it.