With Samsung it's almost always caused in my experience by either the use of plastics that are not up to the stress requirements of the application, or the use of electronics that are not capable of standing up to the use duration.
Samsung appliances that I have had have always had either broken plastics or fried circuit boards.
And they've got to know that these things break because there are always replacement parts for the specific ones that break, but if you're not a DIYer you will pay 70% of the cost of the original appliance to install the part that broke.
Samsung washing machine spider arms are very clearly designed to corrode to failure just outside the warranty period. You can tell because every other metal bit exposed to the water will still be shiny and pristine. They literally make a critical structural part out of the stuff you'd usually use for a sacrificial anode.
You say that, but my experience is different. After my Samsung washing machine failed, I took it apart and found blatant evidence of planned obsolescence. If the units elsewhere are good, then the ones in the US aren't just the same things with defects, but rather ones with spider arms cast from an entirely different metal alloy.
Less regulations means more shortcuts. Another example is Hyundai/Kia. Why do the Kiaboyz exist only in the US when Kias are sold all over the world? Because itβs only in the US where they sold cars without immobilizers because they werenβt required to.
If there's only one country that uses 110v, you have to make an appliances for that country specifically. If that country has really shitty consumer rights laws, why not also make the appliances shitty?
The main manufacturing of Samsung appliances takes place in South Korea, with a washing machine manufacturing plant also located in South Carolina, USA.
For sure, their are model numbers specific to regions. Sometimes you see US Products available for various manufacturers and some say not for sale in Canada, which could be distributor rights or maybe won't pass canadian electric standard or warranty requirements
The main manufacturing of Samsung appliances takes place in South Korea, with a washing machine manufacturing plant also located in South Carolina, USA.
Even as an iPhone guy, Iβll say that their consumer electronics are just fine. Very good, even.
But their appliances are crap. Apparently, they used to be quite good, but once they got a bug up their ass about sticking a bonkers amount of tech into them, they started cutting costs on build quality, so they just donβt last more than a few years before parts start crapping out.
Companies like LG and GE are much better at balancing tech, quality, reliability, and price points.
I can't stand "fancy" electronic appliances. I hate all the musical beeping and half the time the panels don't even recognize my finger taps. It makes doing chores more frustrating than it already is.
We recently bought a fixer-upper and have had to replace a bunch of old appliances. I told my husband the simpler/cheaper the appliance is, the better. Knobs over digital displays.
The only time I like the newer digital versions is with microwave ovens.
I hate to break it to you, but even with the knobby versions, itβs still electronic under the hood. But I know what you mean about the annoying bleeps and bloops. Again, though, the Samsungs were always the worst offenders in that regard, omgβ¦
GEs make little noise, and LGs are pretty low-key. Whirlpools and Maytags just beep a couple of times.
When I bought my house it came with an induction stove.
I thought it was pretty great being able to boil water in 2 minutes.
It was a GE profile, and it just suddenly mysteriously failed on me. Kind of sucks, it wasn't that old of a stove, maybe 5 years.
The board that it needed to have replaced cost $1,700.
So I said fuck that, I went and bought a Whirlpool induction stove. $900.
It has worked really well for the last year and a half, but the one thing that I truly and honestly despise about it is that the controls are capacitive touch and that means instead of flicking your wrist and setting it on medium heat you have to hit a button to turn on the stove and then hit a different button three or four times to adjust it down to medium heat and it doesn't always respond to the button touches.
If I end up having to buy a stove again in the future, it's got to have a knob on it. It's such a tiny thing but it's so fucking annoying.
Iβll say this about GE appliances, until they were bought by Haier in 2016, they sucked too. But once they were bought out by Haier, their quality improved remarkably, and so did their customer service. Theyβre pretty great now.
Iβve had exactly two dishwashers completely stop functioning in my entire life. Both were GE post Haier and within the last 6 years. Also had a Haier made GE microwave completely fail.
I replaced the microwave (and the matching stove) with Samsung and havenβt had one bit of trouble with either.
I thought I had just gotten a lemon, but three separate failures within a couple of years has really soured my opinion of them. I was a lot more worried about the Samsung appliances I bought, but theyβve been a dream.
Note: I am not recommending Samsung appliances, at all. I got an amazing deal and fully expected them to fail shortly after the warranty was up. I've had to repair several of my friends and familyβs washers, dryers, and refrigerators. Samsungβs poor reputation is well earned, I just got lucky
Of course they've been electronic for decades, but lately it seems they have overdone it so the thing actually becomes less convenient. Kinda like in cars.
My entire Samsung appliance experience is one dishwasher but it was so shit that I was happy when it broke after 18 months and I will never buy another Samsung appliance. Didn't clean things and smelled like death if we didn't manually clean it once a week and run it empty on sanitize and never leave the door closed. Searching the internet told me it was widespread and people were considering class action lawsuits.
The only Samsung products I have never had not fail on me is RAM and ssds, and the only reason the ssds have not failed on me is that I've not bought their latest ones that have sudden mysterious failure issues.
Every single Samsung product I have ever owned has broken, and almost always when it's not actively in use. I go out of my way to tell people about this and to attempt to dissuade them from using Samsung products because of this.
Ironically just repaired my samsung dryer. Two drum felt gaskets, and the belt since it was disassembled. Front gasket failed and tore out. After examining all components, the torque of belt drive pulls on one side of drum, this puts extra pressure one one set of the drum rollers (Rh side). The rear one is near the hot air duct so it gets more extreme working conditions.
bearing has worn shaft slightly and plastic wheel was partially fatigued, so looks like that rollet was dragging and so belt pulls down more front of drum pinching seal from extended weight and torque. The paint was worn off the housings in this section so felt gasket had more friction in that zone.
The rear roller near the heating generator duct is a bad design. especially since it hangs off the back housing which is quite flexible in that area.
Thankfully the repair was simple, other than completr disassembly , but not convinced it will last long.