<p>Thumper, thanks for the tip about White Ice. Those are very, very nice!</p>
<p>As long as you never have any guests over that can see your kitchen you should be ok with mismatched appliances.</p>
<p>Ours holds magnets as well - if it’s not true stainless, you’d never know - except for the magnets.</p>
<p>We have a mostly white kitchen, but just replaced the range with black. The tiles have black trim (sort of subway tile look) so I think I can get away with it.</p>
<p>It’s just so much easier to keep black looking decent. (#notthegreatesthousecleanerintheworld.)</p>
<p>We have swithched our fridge because I always hated the old one. My goal was 2 door stainless with bottom freezer drawer(s).<br>
Since we swithced fridge, we felt like changing other appliances to match. Ther are NO good dishwashers on a market. None, zero. The dishwasher in our first house 30+ year ago was the best. It had 15 min. cycle and we could pile up there and we never rinse dishes before we put them in. The reason for this is the old dishwashers were actually using water, not the drips of it but the correct amount. Now we have to use the over 2 hrs cycle, rinse everything and god forbid to pile there, no cannot do that. I guess, this is called “saving” of water and other resources. It looks like a huge waste of electricity, our time and yes, water while rinsing. Anywy, since you cannot buy good quality, we went for the quetest one. We were told that at the time we bought it, the quetest was Electrolux. It is vey quet, but getting a bit louder over time.
The oven and microwave were easy. We wanted only electric and the top had to be all flat and MW had to match in looks.<br>
Since then we have discovered that not only functionality of mechanics went down the drain over time, but also the functionality of all plastics. Apparently the recycled plastic is junk it doe not hold, it cannot perform the funciton. The door on the drier breaks off by just openning it, the shelf holders in the fridge are not capable of holding the weight of the refrigirated food and plastic that covers the lamps inside the fridge melts from the heat of the lamps.
So, when replacing your appliences, do not expect them to last long and perform as well as your old ones. If your current old appliences are working, hold to them for as long as you could, otherwise you will be very dissapointed, promise, including the all top brands that out there.</p>
<p>I’ll second what Miami said.</p>
<p>Wow, you all sure are negative about modern appliances. I had Kitchenaid dishwashers for years–they were fine–but I LOVE my Miele dishwasher (now four years old). And it does a great job. Its shortest cycle is 22 minutes (and cleans stuff that’s pretty much clean) but the pots-and-pans cycle (1 hour 42 with 30 of that the low-energy dry) cleans everything and no rinsing at all. And it’s really really quiet.</p>
<p>^I will try Miele next time, maybe that one will match the loving memories of the very ancient KitchenAid that so far have had no match in our kitchen.</p>
<p>Then there are people like me. We have a black dishwasher, black microwave and mostly black stove. Our fridge is beige which looks the best in our kitchen. And I feel the whole thing works. Do what you like.</p>
<p>Miami, you’ve got that right @ crummy modern dishwashers. In the 3 years we’ve had our fairly expensive dishwasher, we’ve had to have it fixed twice. And no, it doesn’t clean the dishes at all. I basically wash them first, and use the dishwasher to sanitize. And it takes 2+ hours to do that.</p>
<p>One of the techs told me that the problem with the new dishwashers is that today, consumers demand quiet models. Sound insulation helps, but most of the noise reduction is due to water pressure reduction. To quote him, “Old dishwashers used to blast the water at the dishes. New ones splash the water at the dishes.”</p>
<p>But then, none of my new appliances work as well as the older ones did or last as long. Buying the expensive dishwasher was wishful thinking on our part, that maybe if we paid significantly more, we’d at least get better quality. No such luck.</p>
<p>re ~ modern appliances. We had to replace our dishwasher a couple of years ago. We did not want to spend a lot, plus I don’t need as many buttons as the space shuttle to wash a load of dishes. So we went with a lower end GE. I hated it at first because of course it needed to be loaded differently than my old one based on the configuration. Plus it was not getting the dishes clean. I was really frustrated. Then I changed from liquid dishwasher detergent to the Finish Powerballs. What a difference! I can load dishes, especially bowls, very close together and they come out clean. I had no clue that the detergent would make that big a difference! </p>
<p>We also replaced our refrigerator about 2 years ago when we had storm after storm that kept knocking out our electricity for days on end and killed our old one. Because of the size of the opening within the cabinets, we were limited in our choices. We bought a lower end LG and we absolutely hate it. The interior is not nearly as roomy as the previous one, even thought the cubic space is the same. You have to push the food in the freezer back so much farther than the previous one or the door won’t close. The plastic on some of the shelves has already cracked. Just hate it. But as we are planning a remodel now, that is one of the things that will be replaced. </p>
<p>I have been reading this thread diligently regarding color. I really don’t want stainless as many people have said how difficult it is to keep it looking clean. I don’t like the new “stainless look” as it looks too gray and institutional for me. Our cabinets are a very dark brown (not black) and since we are trying to lighten the kitchen a bit, I don’t want to go with a black refrigerator (even though dishwasher and cooktop will be black). White just seems too harsh as the new countertop will be a cream colored background. So I really am thinking of going with bisque. I have always liked that color and it seems softer than white. It will limit my choices of refrigerators, but Kenmore makes a French door in bisque that looks like it would work.</p>
<p>So maybe it will end up looking like Onward’s kitchen, lol!</p>
<p>The difficulty at my house is that H dislikes white and I am not at all excited about having a black fridge. Too dark. If you want a ‘medium’ tone, you have to go with stainless (which I don’t want) or ‘stainless look’ aka a silver color ( which holds the magnets) or bisque. Current fridge is bisque or off white, but I don’t like that for the stove.</p>
<p>Maybe mixing colors is the way to go for undecided, picky people like me.</p>
<p>I thought people here really liked their Bosch dishwashers? Our old one, gasping but still more or less working after 20 or so years, was made in TN in the ‘Factory of the Future’. Whirlpool. I wonder if they are still producing them there? i am in love with my stackable washer dryers by Whirlpool. Decisions, decisions…</p>
<p>Do they still make refrigerators that have frames for cabinet doors? I liked that in my kitchen, you didn’t even notice the fridge.</p>
<p>They now also have fridges with glass doors. If you could keep the inside clean those would match anything.</p>
<p>kitty- I will take that as a compliment. I find my kitchen to be bright and sunny while still feeling warm. We ended up ordering our fridge online from Sears. It is a Kenmore. I wanted the French doors but dh had to have a crushed ice dispenser in the door. BTW, guess what isn’t working well these days… But the fridge itself is great. And they would delivery with no extra charge on a Sunday which worked great for us.</p>
<p>I LOVE my new Bosch dishwasher. I also love my glass flat top whirlpool stove and my GE Profile French door fridge (which was the lowest rated in consumer reports…but all of the counter depths were poorly rated). All white, and they look great in our kitchen.</p>
<p>I also love my Bosch. I’ve had it 9 years with no problems. We’re building a new house and will use Bosch again.</p>
<p>I kind of miss the refrigerator magnets with the little kid drawings and pictures. When I was in junior high, I drew a caricature of my dad as a chocoholic pig/doctor and it hung on the fridge for 10 years or more. He saw it every day and that made me feel good.</p>
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<p>Absolutely Onward! And that is hopefully what ours will end up resembling. That’s funny, I just sent DH a link to a Kenmore French door fridge in bisque. This one does not have the ice dispenser in the door which is good because I did not want it in the door! What color are your cabinets? That is my concern because mine are dark. We decided not to replace them because they are a very nice design and great quality so it really made no sense. I guess the only reason I was considering it was because they are so dark. But we decided if we went with a cream based countertop (which has flecks of dark in it to tie into the cabinets) that will lighten the look considerably. And the bisque fridge would tie into the cream of the countertop. Interior design is not my thing and I find it so difficult!</p>
<p>My parents bought all new appliances in 1969ish… harvest gold. They were still working well in 2009 when my Mom passed away and we sold the house.</p>
<p>We have an Ammana (sp?) fridge we bought in 1993. It has been moved across the country three times. It is now our backup garage fridge, and still chugging away.</p>
<p>Our kitchen fridge is around seven years old. The icemaker has had to be replaced in the last year. The teeth on the cog that dumps the ice into the holder ARE MADE OF PLASTIC! And over the years they broke until there weren’t enough teeth left to turn the cog. Our repairman said he sees the same problem, day after day on every brand.</p>
<p>All of our kitchen appliances are black. I get tired of seeing every kitchen around here with the same stainless appliances, same granite countertops, same cabinets.</p>
<p>I have a stainless fridge and stainless built-in oven/microwave, and a black dishwasher and black cooktop. Was thinking of updating the dishwasher, but based on what everyone here is saying, I will hang on to that sweet thing til it absolutely dies. We’ve had some issues with the fridge freezer line freezing up, but now know how to fix it ourselves so dont have to have the repair guy come any more (they did it twice-- we’ve done it now wtice as well). It is getting old (12 years or so) and they dont make that style any more (freezer on top with water/icemaker in it) so we will limp along with it too.</p>