I asked answerctr@exchange.appl.ge.com why GE had been reported as having more than double the Hotpoint incedence of repair. After all, Hotpoint is owned by GE. This was the reply:
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My best guess is that GE bought out Hotpoint but left its manufacturing personnel and facilities mostly intact to gain advantage of the Hotpoint credability. It even let Hotpoint keep its own name and logo instead of imposing its own.
If you can clue me in, please do.
Hotpoint has been a GE division for decades, if not forever. Hotpoint is positioned as a value brand of the General Electric company. That means Hotpoint products are simpler and do not have the bells and whistles of GE branded products. Most Hotpoint and GE products are identical under the skin, its mostly cosmetics and the like that separate the product lines. The main reason Hotpoint products may test out as more reliable is that they are simpler and have less to go wrong, compared to fancier GE products. For example, possibly not as many Hotpoint refrigerators are sold with icemakers as GE refrigerators, and icemakers are a major trouble source with refrigerators.
You will notice the same parallel with other brands. For example, Roper, which is Whirlpool's value brand, usually shows better reliability ratings in Consumer's Reports than Whirlpool's luxury brand, KitchenAide. Simpler products without all the bells and whistles have less go to wrong.
Hotpoint has always be manufacture by GE but they treat each as a separate company.
It is like Chrysler and Dodge same manufacture but sold under different names.
I have found that it is much easier to find models with ice makers than without. Those with are readily found in the stores. Those without tend to be special order. Why anyone but a denmother or committed socialite would want an ice maker is beyond me. The unit and tray take away 1/4 of the freezer in a top freezer unit. Two ice trays take away much less and we raised four children using only two ice trays. Never ran short.
I went to the Hotpoint site and looked at the 18 cubic foot units. All 7 gave the energy usage as 482 kWh/year. It is clear that none would qualify as an energy star and yet the MSRPs are in the energy star range. Where is the value?
I went to the Roper site and looked at the 17.6 cubic foot units. The Roper was not even mentioned in the Consumer Reports graph of top freezer units. At 475 kWh/year the white (link to Silver energy guide got a page not found response) is also no energy star but the MSRP was lower than that of even the sale priced Whirlpool models I found while shopping.
I had never even considered looking for a Roper. I have got to see if I can find a store where the unit can be physically seen in my area. I also have to see if the Whirlpool energy stars w/o icemakers are worth the price difference to us.
Thank you very much
WappRecycler, the value brands are marketed to be less expensive and often sold through different channels than the parent company's flagship brands, ie, General Electric, Whirlpool, etc. Brands such as Hotpoint and Roper often tend to be marketed towards builders, and you'll find them frequenty in new homes and apartments. In order to hold costs down, they may not be built to be especially energy efficient. Their main reason for being is low first cost. The idea for motivating you to spend more money and move upscale to a pricier brand in the manufacturers lineup is to get things you can't find in their cheaper brands, like energy efficiency, more stylish looks, etc. This marketing ploy is what made Detroit -- GM would rather sell you a Buick than a Chevy, for example.
I agree with you on icemakers. I have never owned one since I don't use much ice, but it is extremely hard to find a refrigerator, especially an upper-line model, without one.
We have new arrivals in the USA market from countries that have been much more energy conscious far longer than us. I wrote to Whirlpool requesting a means of decoding model numbers and the response was:
We do not have a Model Decoder, so there is unfortunately nothing we can provide you with in regards to this.
That is the kind of response I can accept from a politician, not a product manufacturer. It was also written that they no longer manufacture Whirlpool refrigerators in Mexico. That may be true but a salesperson in a chain store told me that a Whirlpool model that I was considering was made in Mexico. I take this to mean that, even if Whirlpool has stopped manufacture there, the models made in Mexico are still on the market. This is important to me because I had problems with 2 in-line on/off switches made in Mexico. The problem was solved by buying one made in China. I am not one to buy a refrigerator made in a country that cannot be relied on for an on/off switch.
I think I should research imports for which Consumer Reports did not a give frequency of repair rating.
Tags: hotpoint, same, Consumer Reports, energy star, Hotpoint products, made Mexico, bells whistles, Consumers Union, cubic foot, cubic foot units, foot units, General Electric
