NEVER buy appliances at a box store (Home Depot, Lowes, Best Buy) they only use "builder" quality parts. Manufacturers sell "builder" quality versions of appliances at a lower cost to box stores who buy in bulk. Margins stay the same and the manufacturer is whole because the components are cheap as hell.

This is why everyone complains about stuff breaks. So where do you buy appliances?

ONLY buy appliances from a commercial appliance retailer, your town has several. They will sell the exact model you see in a box store but the model # will have a slight variation. This will indicate cast iron components, 5 year warranties (vs 1 year on box store options) all for about the same cost or ~5% more.

I don't blame people who buy from box stores, because 99.9% of people don't know. But now you've read this and YOU (reader) know so I blame YOU (reader) if you continue to buy from these places and your appliances blow dong.

/NBCstar