New appliances breaking down sooner, experts say

Repairman Sidney Karam says new models of ovens and other household appliances are breaking down far sooner than they should.

“There is pattern,” said Karam. “These appliances are fairly new. They’ve only been making appliances in the past 20 years. Their specialty was car parts and cellphones, so they entered the appliance industry and they haven’t perfected their problems.”

Karam said some of the worst appliance manufacturers are LG, Samsung, and Bosch. He recommends, GE, Maytag and Whirlpool.

Experts say the decline in quality is not a coincidence.

“They’ve marketed a message that newer and brighter is better and repairs are not the way to go, so a lot of this has been driven by marketing,” Ed McHugh, NSCC business and marketing instructor.

Karam said he finds more people are throwing their appliances away instead of repairing them.

“They end up in landfills with lead components, electrolytic capacitors, and other harmful chemicals,” he said.

Sidney Karam repairs an oven. (Source: Hafsa Arif/CTV News Atlantic)

Design flaws in some newer appliances also contribute to early breakdowns, Karam noted. He pointed to self-cleaning ovens as a common culprit.

“When people use the self-cleaning, it causes extremely high temperatures, which gets into the electronic boards and extreme temperatures causes a lot of current as well and boards tend to fail,” he said.

McHugh said manufactures often use cheaper parts to cut costs and increase profit margins, knowing there are few regulations to hold them accountable.

“If they can cut corners every now and then, and buy component parts in the product that are cheaper, they will. There needs to be a push at both the federal and provincial level to look at this and really start protecting the consumer,” he said.

France has already introduced policies to address the issue, including stronger appliance warranties and legal guarantees of compliance. McHugh said consumers will need to advocate to government.

The Retail Council of Canada told CTV News Nova Scotia ranks among the provinces with the weakest consumer protection laws.

A survey from Canadian Consumer group Protégez-Vous found repairing appliances is often more cost-effective than replacing them. For example, most stove repairs cost between $45 and $345 – significantly less than the price of a new appliance.

Karam recommends people refrain from certain features like the self-cleaning oven. He hopes consumers think twice before tossing their broken appliances away because more often than not, he said they just need parts to repair it.