The Most Overpriced Kitchen Appliance Brands, According To Customer Reviews

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Kitchen appliances are some of the largest purchases you can make for your household, so it's reasonable that they'd be relatively costly. But when you pay as much as you do for your fridge or dishwasher, you expect them to last at least for a few years before they need maintenance or repairs. When you run into trouble after a few months of use, with bills for repairs and parts that go beyond your warranty, it's hard not to feel like you've been tricked into buying overpriced appliances that have turned into money pits.

Every brand promotes itself as the most dependable appliance company in the business; nothing else moves merchandise, obviously. But the experience of actual customers who've run into issues early on tells the truth about which appliance brands people regret buying. Some of the luxury brands are obvious, but there are some surprises among the overpriced brands that could make you reconsider your trust in some of the best-known companies on the appliance circuit.

If you're in the market for upgrading your appliances or starting from scratch, it's important to know where your money is best spent. A helpful guide detailing the most overpriced kitchen appliance brands is just the thing for getting you shopping in the right direction. Read on to find out how some of the best-known names in the appliance industry are less than ideal when it comes to providing cost-effective machines for your kitchen.

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Every keen home baker either has a KitchenAid stand mixer or covets a KitchenAid stand mixer; they are the Cadillac of countertop appliances, built to last and handed down through families. These pieces start out in the affordable range, with simpler mixers available for $150, though they get higher from there and top out at over $800 for special editions. You've likely heard that a KitchenAid mixer lasts generations, too; it's one of the reasons KitchenAid mixers are so expensive.

But if the price predicts a long life thanks to a powerful motor, there's also a need to fix the motor which, well-made as it is, can still wear down with regular use. It's enough to inspire a Facebook group where owners and mechanics share repair tips. If you're not prepared to buy a high-priced mixer that might need future repairs despite its sterling reputation, maybe try a cheaper brand so repairs or replacements are less painful.

The company makes more than mixers, too, with less than stellar results. Depending on where you shop, KitchenAid fridges can be priced at up to $13,000, but they tend to break frequently; one customer posted on Consumer Affairs about having to replace theirs three times in seven years. Maybe that's why the company gets a 1.2-star average out of over 1,200 ratings on the Consumer Affairs website. If you drop a stack like that on a fridge, it's not too much to ask for it to last.

Life may be good as the LG motto goes, but the company's kitchen appliances are a little too high on the price scale for the quality they present. Prices for the company's fridges range from $1,000 to $8,000 and higher, while microwaves start at around $200 and head north of $1,000, and a traditional oven can cost between $1,000 and $4,000. And once you have them installed, it seems that they start malfunctioning almost immediately, an irritating bonus you didn't know you paid for.

To warn others who might be tempted to pick up the high-tech LG kitchen suite, customers who know better have taken to Reddit to attest to the frequent breakage that happens with every item in the LG collection. One customer called for fixes to a fridge and freezer issue three months after moving into a new house. After paying for a $400 replacement part to get the fridge working properly, the dishwasher started throwing repair codes. Other LG customers report that repairs can be expensive even when the warranty is still in play. And the defective linear compressors in LG fridges was troubling enough to cause a class action lawsuit.

What seems to be the issue here? Electronic components appear to be a frequent culprit, with motherboards in particular. It's even possible for the same appliance to require motherboard replacement on a near-regular basis — four years between incidents, according to one Redditor. Sometimes, the parts aren't being made anymore, complicating the issue to the point of utter frustration.

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You've likely seen SMEG appliances in the form of the glossy, rounded refrigerator that gives home kitchens a sleek retro vibe. SMEG also applies its kitschy mid-century aesthetic to countertop appliances like electric kettles, toasters, and coffee makers. The company's most noteworthy offering: A stand mixer that attempts to go paddle-to-paddle with KitchenAid with an over-$500 price tag that would be a green flag for a trouble-free purchase, if the world of appliance shopping was fair and kind. But you know just how rough it can be out there. 

Then you find a listing for the ultimate in ridiculously overpriced kitchen items, a SMEG cooler shaped like a classic car trunk that goes for an unjustifiable $14,000. When you circle around the company's website and see a cross-promotion with Porsche, you understand that you're paying for status and style here. Whether your appliances work as well as they spruce up your kitchen seems to be a secondary consideration.

It might seem like a fun spree to decorate your cooking space with retro kitchen items making a comeback in vibrant Technocolor. But those who've investigated and tried the brand for themselves label it "cute garbage" on Reddit, and talk about the SMEG toaster as one of their worst appliances. According to one commenter, the larger appliances are made in Italy, which raises the question: If you're going to spend thousands on an appliance, sturdiness and longevity should be key criteria. Cuteness should never enter the conversation

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Owning top of the line kitchen appliances from Miele means paying top dollar, which should afford you more than just shiny objects to store and cook your food. With fridges that can ring up at more than $10,000 and deluxe, coffee house-level espresso machines priced at $1,799 and up, Miele should be a purchase you can brag about.

Check around the internet, however, and you find out the Miele brand may be upper echelon in the U.S., but outside of the country, it's considered mid-quality at best. Specifically, one customer calls out that the extra bells and whistles on a Miele range seemed unnecessary and drove them into the arms of a GE oven instead. Another Miele owner shared issues their mother had with both a Miele over-range hood fan that couldn't be fix without great pains, and a dishwasher that conked out just after the five-year warranty expired. Yet another customer had issues with a Miele appliance that took months to fix and ended up being scrapped for a replacement.

A common theme through many customer complaints is the lack of helpful service. If a company expects its patrons to pay through the nose for its appliances, the very least it can do is supply prompt and proper assistance when the machine grinds to a halt. Without this obvious necessity, Miele is selling overpriced kitchen appliances that could ruin your meals while draining your bank balance.

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The Samsung that makes phones and tablets to keep you tapped into the web also make appliances that go for a small fortune. With some of the company's fridges are a financial drain at more than $3,000 and dishwashers soaking customers at upwards of $1,000, you might assume you're getting top-notch contraptions to help you make oven-baked dinners the whole family will love. For that kind of money, why wouldn't you?

But the poor quality of the Samsung fridge is well-known by repairmen, who get repeated calls to fix the fridges made by this world-renowned operation. Many times, repairs are impossible, and the products are tossed instead. From dishwashers that stop working to ice makers that give up the ghost, it appears that nothing kitchen-based from Samsung can be depended upon for long life or easy fixes. The company may be great at telecom and internet-ertainment, but it leaves much to be desired when applying its know-how to the appliance sphere.

So why does the company keep their items at such high price points? AI and the interconnected capabilities of smart appliances are a presumed source of the elevated costs. There may be an element of convenience offered by this 21^st century twist on kitchen machinery, but it's nowhere near necessary enough to make unsuspecting buyers spill their piggy banks on overpriced appliances that end up in the scrapyard.

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Whirlpool used to be one of the most dependable names in the kitchen appliance business. Just about every home in America had some form of the company's appliance, whether it was a sturdy refrigerator or a well-built range. You could usually depend on a workhorse Whirlpool piece giving you little trouble, whether it was a fridge that kept running into the future or a dishwasher that didn't know when to quit — except when the cycle was over, that is.

But now? Not so much. Look no further than the 1.2-star average covering more than 2,100 ratings for Whirlpool fridges on the Consumer Affairs website, where one customer complained that their purchase lasted only five days before the compressor bombed out. Another customer received the runaround from three repair people who came out in the first six months of the life of the fridge.

If that doesn't convince you of Whirlpool's overpriced nature, take a look at the 1.07-star average spanning 1,500 ratings the company holds on the Better Business Bureau website. Many patrons describe having received damaged goods after their delivery date was pushed back repeatedly, encountering slip-shod customer service in the process.

Chatter on Reddit points out that rising prices for Whirlpool in recent years haven't been matched by dependability, functionality, or proper service when repairs or replacements are needed. You can save a ton of money and a lot of heartache by putting your funds on appliances from a less-pricey, more customer-friendly brand.

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If you're looking for the best coffee maker that isn't Keurig, go ahead and scratch overpriced Breville machines off your list before you start shopping. This familiar brand delivers its supposedly superior coffee contraptions for between $300 and $3,000; even a piece as simple as a stand-alone milk steamer costs $200. You're already paying a fortune for the coffee and the milk. You shouldn't have to go broke buying a glitzy machine that's just going to break at some point.

Oh, yeah; your high-priced Breville is likely to malfunction. The word is that they sometimes go on the fritz within the first six months of use, thanks to poor manufacturing in China. A description on Reddit that says they're not as well-made as other espresso makers can make readers wonder why they'd ever bother paying so much for a sub-par coffee station. Even the Breville site contains one-star reviews where customers describe having issues after less than a year of use; apparently if the grinder goes, the brewer won't function, which renders the whole machine useless.

The variety of options in the Breville catalog means not all machines will give the same poor performance, of course. The people who love this brand's overpriced coffee makers seem to be coffee aficionados who fancy themselves baristas and relish having a shiny, java-brewing toy in their home kitchen. If this doesn't sound like you, shop on. There are more budget-friendly buys for you out there.

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Another legacy company, Frigidaire is one of the brands most indelibly linked to high-quality refrigerators. There's more than a century's worth of keeping food fresh and cold for customers to tap into, a reputation that should be bulletproof by now. Considering the company created the first self-contained electric refrigerator, the pedigree could easily convince customers to spend whatever is necessary to have a prime piece in their kitchen.

Alas, nothing cold can stay, and Frigidaire has slowly thawed into another operation that can't live up to its former glory. Customers have shared horror stories of malfunctioning ovens that don't respond to repeated repair attempts, resulting in not a refund but a replacement oven, presumably just as prone to breakage. Induction stoves seem to have their own problems, with electronic components lasting about three years before requiring hundreds of dollars in repeated repairs. And word of poor customer service only adds insult to financial injury.

It's a shame that you can't count on a stalwart like Frigidaire to keep its trajectory when matching price to quality in its appliances. It seems that maximizing profits may have driven the manufacturer to lower the bar on its parts, resulting in a definite disconnect for customers who've come to trust what the name means. Now, the company appears to be just another overpriced appliance brand with a track record you should steer clear of. 

This deluxe brand is the home design influencer's answer to otherwise-boring appliances. With matte finishes and interchangeable handles available in designer tones, it's the GE glow-up that aims to introduce chic machines that blend seamlessly with your décor. The idea sounds nice, and even a little like a concept whose time has come. But then you find out the commercial-level ranges and fridges run between $4,000 and more than $10,000 (not to mention the $129 toasters), and the idea starts to feel like an overreach. By the time you discover the company has a signature line from actress Kate Hudson, you start to realize you're perhaps paying for style and status instead of substance and stability.

Customers have encountered issues with their entire selection of Café kitchen pieces, from dishwashers that need TLC to induction ovens that require replacements to refrigerators that sound like they're on their last legs. Even serious cooks confess that they can't be swayed into paying this much for a stove. And that matte finish that looks so luxe? Apparently, it's prone to scratches and dents, according to customers who left one-star reviews at Lowe's. 

There's no chance that you've been using your stove all wrong just because you haven't made sure it matches your cabinets and countertops. Café would like you to think the light-up back panel that makes the interior look like a nightclub is worth the extra cash you'll pay, but you're smarter than that.

This elite appliance producer boasts more than a century of adding luxury machines to the modern kitchen. Naturally, keeping up with the latest in large-scale gadgetry means Thermador is one of the most expensive brands you can buy. But don't let the sheen of these ultra-contemporary fridges, ovens, and microwaves dazzle you into financing a high-priced machine that ends up being no more dependable than lower-priced appliances.

The illusion of above-average quality has resulted in the need for repairs with every piece in one customer's four-appliance collection. Another customer dropped an extra $500 to fix a microwave, only to learn the new part caused additional damage that will cost another $700 to fix. So beyond being overpriced initially, Thermador's prices actually included hundreds extra in unforeseen replacement parts and service calls. That makes these machines over-overpriced.

You might think you'd at least get sympathetic customer service for what you pay. But patrons report that asking for assistance is like walking through a labyrinth of frustrating dead-ends and poor treatment. Before you get your heart set on anything Thermador makes, consider the brand one of the most overpriced of all and look elsewhere to get your kitchen in shape.