By Paul Smith
Former Head of Test | Kaiwhakahaere Whakamātautau
Consumers have told us if their appliances and devices – from expensive cooktops to cheap-as-chips heaters – are reliable and satisfying to own.
About our survey
In our annual reliability and satisfaction survey, consumers tell us about faults that have left an appliance they own unusable or mean they’ve had to change how they use it. We also ask them how satisfied they are with the appliance. We ask about each product type every other year. We use their data to produce our predicted reliability and owner satisfaction scores.
We use a statistical test to rate the relative performance of each brand. Compared to data we have for all products (of the same type) in the survey, we rate each brand with excellent, good, average, poor or terrible reliability and satisfaction. You can compare the rating of different brands for the same product type (for example, the reliability rating for Miele and Haier washing machines), but you can’t compare the results for different product types (for example, satisfaction of LG TVs and Samsung phones).
We analyse brands that get at least 30 responses in our survey. That means there are some brands we can’t analyse because we don’t have enough data. For those brands, we assume they have average predicted reliability and owner satisfaction.
Predicted reliability
It’s reasonable to expect a new appliance to remain fault-free for at least the first five years. Our predicted reliability won’t tell you whether the washing machine you buy will spring a leak tomorrow, but it does show which brands make models that are less likely to fail.
Owner satisfaction
Satisfaction is important – no appliance should be a source of buyer regret. Appliances with very satisfied owners are more likely to get cleaned regularly and maintained well. Their owners are also more likely to seek repair for faults than look for a quick replacement.