Appliance Repair and General Maintenance, Tips and Advice

[Martin K.]

Hey guys, I have a few rental properties and own an appliance repair company. I had a personal profile on here a while back and this site was very helpful when I was looking to learn and I got great advice and resources from the forums.

I'd be happy to provide suggestions to landlords regarding general property maintenance, and specifically offer help for anyone that has had issues with their appliances. I would highly recommend people look into purchasing an aftermarket warranty or protection plan from a good company, especially if you're buying a property, or even a building that's older. It's probably best to buy it for the first year, as most issues with your appliances will popup in the first 2-3 months.

Apart from that, feel free to ask my any appliance repair or appliance install question you may have, I'm not looking to make money off of you and I'd be happy to provide advice on this forum thread and possibly link you to some youtube video's or other resources I've gathered over the years.

[Martin K.]

Sorry for the late reply here;

Wendy, ya I'd avoid Samsung appliances at all costs, especially their refrigerators, and their washing machines. But you're better off avoiding them in general. LG on the other hand does make decent washers/dryers, the rest of their appliances are pretty bad, esp. their fridges and ovens.

As a landlord you should avoid LG/Samsung appliances in general however, because technicians will charge you more to fix them, and it's difficult to get parts on hand. To a lesser extent, that applies to General Electric as well. If you're chasing the luxury rental market, and want to put in nicer looking appliances, go for Bosch or Miele; there are other high end brands as well but those 2 are solid with parts easily available, long warranty periods and great build quality.

For washers/dryers specifically, if you are not installing coin operated laundry in a common area then stick with the following; either buy Whirlpool Washing machines, preferably front loaded washers as they are a much better build quality vs the top load washers, or get a "laundry center" unit from Electrolux/Frigidaire. Those are the units that have a dryer on top and a washer on the bottom in one enclosure. Avoid all other laundry centers unless you're buying commercial units.

On the other hand, for common areas, but a Speed Queen... they're expensive, but you'll make the money back , a $3000 washer/dryer should pay for its self in about a year or two depending on use frequency. Those machines will last 10+ years without a major breakdown happening.