Our tests tell you which appliances perform best and which are easiest to use. But they can’t tell you how well they’ll stand up to everyday use. That’s why we survey our members each year to find the brands you can rely on.
In 2016 we surveyed 14 different appliance types. We received 8714 responses, which gave us information on more than 31,000 appliances. Our thanks to all who participated.
We asked members about appliances they’d bought new since January 2011. We wanted to know the brand, the year it was bought and whether it had ever needed repair. We also asked respondents if they were satisfied with their appliance.
Satisfaction and reliability are different. Reliability measures how many appliances have needed repair, while satisfaction depends on the consumer’s expectations of product performance and continuing function. It is reasonable to be satisfied with a product that has needed repair.
We only analyse brands that got more than 50 responses in a category. For each brand, we calculate our reliability score as the percentage of appliances that have never needed repair.
Earlier surveys
Where we haven’t re-surveyed a particular product, we’ve included the reliability data from our 2015 survey. In 2015 we asked members about appliances they’d bought new since January 2010 and about mobile phones they’d bought new since January 2012.
The rest of the content on this page is for our paying members only. To read more, become a paying Consumer member or log in.
