May 2007
Most & least reliable brands
950,000 readers tell which products really last
Viking gas ranges are promoted as the way to go if you want to cook like a pro, and this chichi brand carries price tags to
match. But our exclusive survey data reveal something Viking is unlikely to advertise: Its gas ranges have been among the
most repair-prone, according to our readers.
That’s not the only surprise you’ll find in this report. Thanks to our Annual Product Reliability Survey, in which readers
like you have participated for some 35 years, we know which products in a host of categories have developed serious problems
or needed repairs. In 2006 alone more than 950,000 readers told us about their experiences with 30 kinds of products. Because
many readers own more than one item in a category, that translates to more than 1.3 million vehicles, 1.2 million electronic
gadgets, and 2.5 million appliances and lawn machines. That’s about 5.1 million products in all.
Equipped with this reliability information from the Consumer Reports National Research Center, you may be able to avoid products
that are likely to develop problems or to go before their time. We’ve included from our surveys some brands that have been
reliable as well as those that have been more repair-prone. Other findings:
- Certain brands, such as Sony for electronics and Whirlpool for appliances, have tended to be reliable across product categories. Some brands are more of a mixed bag, and others tend to be consistently problematic.
- Pricey brands have often been repair-prone. Among them: cooking appliances from Dacor, Jenn-Air, Thermador, and Viking; dishwashers from Fisher & Paykel; and refrigerators from Sub-Zero
- Some entire product categories tend to need more repairs than others. For example, when we looked at repair rates for three- and four-year-old products, laptop and desktop computers, side-by-side refrigerators with icemakers and dispensers, riding mowers, and lawn tractors tended to need more fixes. By contrast, picture-tube TVs, digital cameras, and electric cooktops and ranges gave consumers relatively few headaches during that time frame.
Of course a product’s performance might change when its design or manufacturing process is altered, and models within a brand
may vary in reliability. However, we have found that choosing a brand with a consistently good history improves your chances
of getting a reliable model.
Our repair histories show the percentage of each brand’s products that have been repaired or had a serious, un-repaired problem
during the past year or last few years. We’ve presented repair charts for those products where the brand differences are most
notable. In other cases, we’ve simply described our findings in the text.
