LG Appliances - My Review and Complain

I bought my LG stainless steel appliances almost five years ago. Those were the first items I bought when I first began thinking about renovating my kitchen. Yeah, I did it kind of backward, the appliances were right there in the kitchen even before I started to paint the cabinets or to extend the kitchen island. I still remember how I protected them while in the middle of all those projects. I didn't want a single little scratch on any of them! :)

Well, the time has passed and they still look great! I'm still in love with stainless, even though many people complain about the fingerprints and issues to keep them neat and shiny, that's not a big issue for me.

Just two months ago I did a review on how to keep stainless appliances spotless and that has been an easy way to keep them shining like this.

But back to my review, one of the major things I decided to go with LG appliances was because of their look, their streamline. At the time, when I compared them to other brands, they were relatively similar in performance and price but LG was a winner in my eyes because of their looks.

Comm'n, I simply adored those knobs! The stove range has been working nicely, I have no complaints whatsoever about the oven or the burners, they work nicely. What I don't like about my range is the cleaning of the grates (they are HEAVY), and the drip pan, they get gross easily. :/

However, my precious knobs, the thing I loved the most about my range were the ones who surprised me when they just began falling apart. Their front still looks OK, but the plastic connectors to attach them to the stove began disintegrating!

A bit over a month ago one of them broke.

Then, the other, and then, one more! The fourth one is ready to break.

And I don't even want to take off the fifth one!

The dishwasher, just the same as all the other appliances, looks nice on the outside but its performance hasn't been that great. 

There's been always issues with this dishwasher not cleaning the glasses and dishes properly. I've tried to deal with that issue the best I can, trying to rinse everything well, not overloading it, and changing the detergent we use in hopes of it doing a better job. 

The liquid detergent has been somewhat better than the powder one.

Now, even for the dishwasher, things went from bad to worse during these last couple of months! 

One morning I woke up to unload the dishwasher and when I pulled the top rack, the upper spray arm fell. :(

Once again, one of those plastic components that kept the arm attached to the rack broke!

It's amazing to me that even before five years of use these things are happening. I remember my old appliances were still in good working condition when we supposedly -upgraded- to these ones.

And can you believe the freezer stop freezing for an entire week, three weeks ago?! I was fuming! :(

We went ahead and turned things around, cleaned it up and down and somehow it began freezing again.

After reading some online reviews, it looks like we've been lucky with them not having problems for the first four years of use.

The beautiful knobs besides having that lousy plastic part that brakes easily, are prone to get burned when the oven door opens and the heat from the oven reaches them.

The problem was there, so looking for a solution I search for the knobs at Sears appliance parts and sure enough, they have them. Almost $50 apiece! Incredible. :/

I also found some similar knobs at Amazon at a much lower price.
There's even a retrofit you can buy to replace the plastic part on the knobs for a metal piece.

The dishwasher part I need is this:

Well, only the small flap, the arrow is pointing at, was the one that broke, but the whole arm needs to be replaced. Its price is not so bad.

However, before placing an order, I decided to call LG to explain the issues I've had with my appliances and to know if they were willing to replace those parts.

After a quite long time explaining the problems I had, and asking why on earth they're still using cheap plastic parts on their appliances (without receiving any good answer), the guy helping me put me on another quite long hold while he talked things over to the supervisor.

Long story short, they were willing to replace all the parts if I have the receipts or proof of purchase of the appliances.

They sent me an e-mail with a "Proof of purchase upload portal", you cannot reply to this e-mail, you're only allowed to upload three pictures.

Boy o' boy, I was happy to be this organized!

All my big item receipts are taped to the back of their respective manuals. So, I immediately sent a copy of the receipt and began waiting for the parts to arrive.

Six days later and without a word from them,  I, again, called the 1-800 customer service number to make sure they got my files and to check the status of my complaint aka if the parts were already delivered.

Well, they haven't shipped them yet. The lady who took the call said, those part replacements take time and only the knobs were approved. Somehow the supervisor didn't approve the replacement of the dishwasher part.

That happened this week, so I had to wait 7 to 10 days to receive the knobs. And believe me, I'm crossing my fingers for that to happen, because yeah, my fingers are the ones getting hurt by turning on and off that stove!

I still keep on asking why o' why LG continues using cheap plastic materials on their appliances. Reading all the online reviews about malfunctioning LG appliances makes me even more nervous. I was hoping for these appliances to serve us for at least 10 years like the ones before did.

How long have you had your appliances? Are you happy with them? What brand do you recommend?

I'll update this post if the knobs arrive. ;)

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As promised, I'm updating this post to inform you that the knobs arrived today, Feb.19, exactly one week after this post was published.

Thanks to Brittany-Pretty Handy Girl, who forwarded this post on Feb.13 to LG Electronics USA -Facebook Page- I also received the dishwasher part, even sooner ;) --> yesterday!

You can read the things I learned from this experience right HERE.
And we found a way to protect those plastic connectors on the knobs, right HERE.
Thanks so much for all your comments and good wishes!