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Originally Posted by Chrismitch  It is scary to hear the service problems that can occur, what happened to the old appliances that never saw a repairman? My Mother had a 35 year old Westinghouse fridge in her home that she had bought new, it never ever saw a repairman. |
These industries heard about "planned obsolescence," is what happened. See, if you sell an appliance that never breaks, you don't get to sell something to that customer again, get it? So you make something that will wear out in X years, deliberately.
My parents built a house in northeastern Vermont, back of beyond, 35 years ago. They bought a fairly standard solid Kitchen-Aid brand dishwasher. At that time, that was a Hobart, actually. Now about two years ago, it suddenly had the hiccups and started spilling its water, so we had the repair guy in. He pulled out two cherry pits that my wife had allowed in, and then it was fine. Still is. Why? Because at that time, they built the things to last. Nowadays, good luck buying any dishwasher that lasts more than 10 years: they're not built that way.
If you're planning to turn the house over soon (good luck in THIS market!), get a Viking -- sexier name, and you won't see the repair problems in a year. If you're planning one day maybe who knows, get a $700 drop-in by somebody like GE or Frigidaire or whoever. You want top-of-the-line but without frills. Look for it: every line from people like this has a break-point. Below X line, you get X without something, for economy, and oh heck if it breaks, who cares. Above X line, you get X with some extra piece of useless gimcrackery. Buy X, and it'll cost about $700, I betcha.
Installed separate range and oven is primarily cool and worth doing if you can mount the oven in the wall, like on TV. That's saleable, provided you have granite countertops. You're aiming at the "wow, great kitchen!" market. If it's just going to be installed separately at normal level, don't bother -- you'll make less, or anyway no more, than what you pay for the separate installation.
If you're doing complete redo, where you're doing the granite countertops together with the range and the oven all together, then separate starts to make sense. Just put the oven in the wall somewhere, about 2 feet above where it would normally rest, and you're gold. Make sure the range is inset in the granite, and get sealed burners. At that point, you might consider a Viking oven for the name and a less ritzy range for the actual utility, unless of course you're planning to flip the house in under a year. If the latter, be sure to get 6 burners and one of those multi-section grating top things that make the whole range flat, like an imitation flattop.
And remember to bake some bread and make some fresh coffee when you show the house.
