A refrigerator that recommends what you should cook tonight. A dryer that pings your phone the second the cycle ends. A dishwasher with artificial intelligence built in.
You probably suspected all this gadgetry was making appliances more likely to break. Turns out, you were right.
J.D. Power recently released the first edition of its U.S. Appliance Reliability and Service Study, and the headline finding belongs under “things your grandparents already knew.” Connected appliances — the ones with built-in Wi-Fi and Bluetooth — break a lot more than their old-school counterparts.
How much more? Try this: Appliances with connectivity features averaged 87 problems per 100 units in their first three years. Appliances without those features? Just 63 per 100.
That’s roughly 38% more breakdowns just for the privilege of letting your fridge talk to your phone.
What J.D. Power found
The study surveyed 12,755 appliance owners about products they’d bought in the last one to three years. The overall average across all appliances was 69 problems per 100 — smart ones dragged the average up, dumb ones pulled it down.
It gets worse for the true believers. Among people who actively use the smart features on their connected appliances, the problem rate climbs to 92 per 100. People who own a connected appliance but never bother with the app fare better at 80 per 100.
Translation: The more you use the technology, the more it breaks.
“They don’t make them like they used to,” said Michael Taylor, senior managing director of retail practice at J.D. Power. He agreed with the assessment, adding that today’s appliances pack in more technology than ever, and every added feature creates more potential failure points.
The breakdowns are also costing manufacturers something more valuable than service-call revenue: loyalty. Of customers who hadn’t had problems, 52% said they’d “definitely” buy the same brand again. Of those who had problems? That number cratered to 32%.
Among the worst-performing categories in the study:
- Front-load washers: 89 problems per 100 — the worst of any appliance type.
- Side-by-side refrigerators: GE topped the category but still posted 52 problems per 100.
- Dishwashers: Even the best brand (KitchenAid) saw 63 problems per 100.
The standouts were clothes dryers and cooking appliances (ovens, ranges and cooktops), each averaging 56 problems per 100. Still not zero — but a lot closer to “set it and forget it.”
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Why nobody should be surprised
There’s no mystery here. The reason smart appliances break more isn’t sinister — it’s math.
A traditional dryer has a motor, a heating element, a timer, and a drum. A Wi-Fi-connected dryer has all that, plus a circuit board, a wireless chip, a software stack, a companion app, and a server somewhere that occasionally goes down.
Every added component is one more thing that can fail. Every line of code is one more thing that can glitch.
Taylor told USA Today that the irony runs deeper: Some owners don’t even want the smart features. They just want a dryer that dries. He himself owns a connected dryer with a steam function he doesn’t use and can’t figure out.
Sound familiar?
What to do about it
If you’re shopping for an appliance soon, the takeaway isn’t “buy junk.” It’s “buy intentionally.”
A few rules I’d follow:
- Skip the connectivity surcharge. Manufacturers often charge a premium for the smart version of an appliance you’d be fine without. If you’re not going to use the app — and most people don’t — you’re paying more upfront for something that’s also more likely to need a repair.
- Check the reliability data, not just the star ratings. J.D. Power’s study is one source. Consumer Reports’ brand rankings are another.
- Time your purchase. The best stretch of the year for washer and dryer deals is April through Memorial Day. Black Friday weekend and the September-October window when new models arrive also tend to deliver real discounts.
- Buy a brand with good service, too. Things break. The question is what happens next. GE topped J.D. Power’s service-experience rankings at 778 out of 1,000, followed by Samsung at 768 and Whirlpool at 765.
- Think hard before paying for an extended warranty. With smart appliances breaking more often, that warranty pitch at the register is going to feel more tempting than ever. Read more on whether they’re worth it before you sign anything.
- Don’t fall for the “future proof” pitch. A smart fridge today is a paperweight in 10 years when the manufacturer stops supporting the app. A regular fridge is still a fridge.
The pitch on smart appliances has always been convenience. The fine print, it turns out, is that convenience comes with a 38% breakage premium.
Now you know.
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