Oh, I can think of some examples where Americans tend to make absolute utter junk compared to other countries. Cars, hummus & felafel, film adaptations of Shakespeare plays...
American made used to mean something, I remember the same dishwasher as a kid from when I could open my eyes until 5 or 6 years after I moved out of the folks house. I remember it taking about an hour for bone dry dishes, no such thing as "energy star" or chemical rinse aid. I rented forever and never paid attention, but as a new homeowner in 2014, I got a nice lesson from LG, GE, Samsung, and now Whirlpool / Maytag.
LG Washer and Dishwasher died, nothing catastrophic, just wouldn't work. It's not LG's belief that dishes can be dirty. Dishwasher wouldn't dry dishes.
LG Dryer settings never worked, always had to use the time dry function.
GE Dishwasher didn't dry with both heated dry functions selected. It was a lake inside. With both dry settings, it took 5 hours and 8 minutes to NOT DRY.
Samsung double oven / range still smells of the chemical coating after 3 years, won't heat to temp, will not heat within 75 degrees with oven divider in, won't light burners half of the time. Display needs replacing.
Maytag dryer smelled of chemicals for a month. Just for fun, I called tech support. Was told to check the vent for a dead rat. Kids... Had to have it replaced with a Whirlpool after the replacement Maytag also smelled of chemicals, albeit not nearly as bad as the first.
Whirlpool dryer has a "touch screen" that doesn't respond half the time, won't dry evenly, takes well over an hour for a few towels. (I clean the vent twice a year).
Whirlpool washer "clean washer" function only cleans the bottom 6th of the tub, as selecting deep water isn't allowed.
Maytag dishwasher doesn't dry with "long power dry" setting any better than with no dry setting. It's a little less than a lake inside, but was advertised as able to dry without rinse aid. It doesn't have fold down tines, which makes zero sense.
I had a service call for the Samsung double oven for the temperature issue, the tech said it was useless to use the divider, meaning there's no point in buying a double oven. A fresh pizza, like Papa Murphy's, takes 40 minutes or so. During his visit, I asked him about LG. He said his shop doesn't touch them at all. They flat out refuse. Now, if a repair shop that is getting paid by me or by the warranty simply refuses to touch an entire brand, that says something.
None of this is common sense "pull your head out" user error situations. It's the "Energy Star" garbage. I asked GE customer service how it saves energy if it takes more than 5 hours compared to my parents that took an hour in the 80's... The rep, probably born in 2000 or so, said the dishwasher "spaced out the energy over the 5 hours instead of concentrating it."
I didn't even argue. I just said "Thank you, goodbye", and then realized we are completely screwed.
