Best Time to Buy New Appliances
Did you know that long holiday weekends like Memorial Day, Labor Day and Presidents Day are the best time to buy new appliances? That’s when you’re going to find the best appliances sales and prices.
Plus, if you’ve got an appliance on its last legs, it’s a good time to go online and looking for deals on new appliances. (Note: portions of this article originally appeared on Parade.com.)
Read Reviews Before You Buy New Appliances
Many Americans, myself included, will read reviews online about appliances before they buy new appliances. If you’ve got a subscription to Consumer Reports, that is a great resource for researching new appliances.
As you likely know Consumer Reports does independent research on appliances (plus many other products and services). We always refer to Consumer Reports when buying a new car.
If you’d like to subscribe to Consumer Reports, I strongly suggest you go through Rakuten.com, and then choose Magazines.com. I get all of my magazine subscriptions through Magazines.com because of the generous cash back. Right now it is giving you 40% back on your subscription.
Speaking of Rakuten, install the Rakuten browser button. That way you will never forget to activate it when shopping online. The button will tell you when you’ve landed on a store that participates. This helps ensure you never miss out on cash back.
When I visited Magazines.com via Rakuten while writing this blog post, a year subscription cost $30. That means getting 40% cash back puts $12 back in your pocket or that yearlong subscription deal for Consumer Reports only costs you $18. (A subscription normally costs almost four times that amount.)
The best part about subscribing to Consumer Reports is you will then have access to the digital archives. This will let you search back issues on kitchen appliance reviews, laundry room appliance reviews, even whole house appliance reviews. These also include information on the best time to buy new appliances.
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Why Buying Appliances Online Makes Sense
In the past when we went to buy new appliances, my husband and I would head to our local appliance store, tape measure in hand. That’s because we wanted to make sure that what new appliance we were buying would fit in the space. This was true when buying our new gas oven and our new dishwasher.
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The beauty of buying appliances online is that that product descriptions include measurements. No tape measure necessary.
Take this listing for a Kenmore Elite Double Oven, available on Sears.com. (Sears, by the way, also participates in Rakuten cash back program.)
You have everything you need to know to determine if this new oven would fit in an existing space in your kitchen. It includes:
- Width
- Depth
- Height
- Depth with Door Open
You’ll notice it also includes the weight–275 pounds. Well, there’s the other benefit of buying online–someone delivers this new appliance directly to you and installs it as well. No heavy lifting on your part.
Sure, you can get appliances delivered when you buy in store, but you often have to pay more for this. In many instances buying new appliances online comes with free delivery. And if you know me, free is my favorite price.
Buying a refrigerator at the right time saved us money on home remodeling costs.
Benefit of Buying Appliances Online
So we’ve just determined that buying online provides an ease of determining an appliance’s dimensions. You can also get free delivery.
You can read reviews. And finally the benefit of buying appliances online is the ability to toggle back and forth between online sites as you comparison shop.
Also, if you happen to have Amazon Prime, you can get other benefits when buying new appliances online. Some of these very large, very expensive appliances not only qualify for free shipping, but free two-day shipping.
If you haven’t yet signed up for Amazon Prime, use this link to try Amazon Prime for a 30-Day Free Trial.
Finally, sometimes there are brands that you know you want but they’re not available in your local store. This is often true with certain high-end appliance brands.
We’ve owned both Miele and Bosch dishwashers, and we had to drive great distances to buy them. Now they’re available online.
Use price matching to your benefit
Many stores that sell appliances have price matching policies. This includes:
- Best Buy
- The Home Depot
- Lowe’s
- Target
Check out this article that explains all about price matching.
When It’s Time to Buy New Appliances
That said, if you’re hoping to keep your appliances going for the long haul, there are strategies you can use. For starters, you need to know the typical appliance lifespan so you don’t have unreasonable expectations.
For example, when we bought one of our homes, the previous owners were kind enough to leave behind all of the paperwork from when they bought each appliance. We knew where in that life cycle each of these household appliances was so, for example, when the dishwasher failed three months later, we weren’t too upset. It should have died years ago.
My real estate blog chronicles selling and buying homes.
Life expectancy of appliances
Do you even know what the typical appliance lifespan is? And do you have any idea on what you could be doing to help extend that lifespan?
I’ve put together a list of the six most common household appliances. I’ve also included their average life expectancy and what you can be doing to make those appliances defy all odds and last longer than expected.
1. Dishwasher
Life expectancy
9-13 years
Signs it might be dying
It’s leaking all over the kitchen floor. Water is cold, and the dishwasher is running louder than normal.
Ways to prolong life
Run your dishwasher often. It needs to stay moist inside so all the gaskets and seals don’t dry out.
2. Dryer
Life expectancy
10-13 years
Signs it might be dying
The drum no longer spins or heats up.
Ways to prolong life
Clean the lint trap after each load of laundry. Not only can these keep the dryer running longer, but also it helps to prevent a dryer fire, which is dangerous. “Overloading your washer or dryer – this is one of the main causes of laundry appliance issues Sears Home Services technicians encounter,” says Chris Granger, VP and GM of Sears Home Services.
3. Microwave Oven
Life expectancy
About 10 years
Signs it might be dying
It’s no longer cooking evenly, you smell something burning (and it’s not dinner), or the keypad stops working
Ways to prolong life
Never ever put anything metal in the microwave. That’s a sure way to short-circuit its life span in a jiffy.
4. Oven/Range/Cooktop
Life expectancy
Electric (13-15 years); gas (15-17 years)
Signs it might be dying
You’ll know it’s time when takes forever to heat up and/or food is not cooking properly. With an electric cooktop, coils may have broken.
Ways to prolong life
Cleaning the inside of your oven regularly to ensure it continues to work properly.
5. Refrigerator
Life expectancy
10-13 years
Signs it might be dying
No longer keeping food cold or frozen (in the freezer, of course).
Ways to prolong life
Make sure there is ample breathing room behind the refrigerator, and clean the coils back there regularly. Dirty coils have to work harder, and that can lead to a mechanical failure.
6. Washing Machine
Life expectancy
10-15 years (front-loader tend to die sooner)
Signs it might be dying
The spin cycle doesn’t spin, the washer goes off balance a lot and clothes are coming out soaking wet.
Ways to prolong life
Like the dryer, don’t overload the washing machine. Same thing with running back-to-back loads, seven days a week. It can burn out the motor.
Honestly this is such a helpful post, I love Amazon Home Services. I’ve used them a couple of times now and it was a very easy process. Also, I didn’t realize that washing machines last about 15 years. That’s longer than I had expected.
Thanks for explaining when it could be good to get a new appliance. I didn’t know it could be good to get appliances online because you can read reviews about the product. This seems helpful if you want to learn what others think about the appliance and if they have any tips regarding it.
Thanks for the tip to buy a new dishwasher if it is leaking all over the kitchen floor. This reminded me of my cousin, who moved into a new apartment this week. I will share with her this article and find a place to buy a new one for each of us.
Great article with lots of actionable tips. I’ll emphasize the importance of reading reviews before buying any product. I repeat, any product, even if it’s from your favorite brands. I don’t know how many products/services I didn’t buy because of what I found out after reading the reviews. Thanks for this article it’s a reminder.
The best part of your article for me is when you talked about how you must consider replacing your oven if it takes forever to heat up. My daughter called me today and told me that the oven we have at home is acting up. She noticed that our oven is not heating up properly which can be a time-consuming issue. I will make sure to visit an appliance store as soon as possible. Thanks!