Frigidaire vs GE dishwashers: an incident-report comparison

What this Frigidaire vs GE comparison is based on#

Most pairs in this database disagree about which component matters. This pair does not. Run down the Frigidaire column and the GE column side by side and the order is the same all the way through: heating element, control board, wiring or the power cord, then the small rows. What differs is not the ranking but how steeply each column falls away from its own top.

The evidence is two sets of CPSC SaferProducts filings between 2011 and 2026 — 103 naming a component on a Frigidaire [dishwasher](/blog/repair-or-replace-dishwasher), 433 doing the same for a GE. Each report is a submission somebody chose to make, read for which part it names, and nothing else feeds either column.

The same order, at two different slopes#

The heating element leads both. It appears in 45% of the Frigidaire reports and in 33% of the GE ones, a 12-point difference that is the widest on the page and still leaves the same component in first place on both sides. The control board follows in both columns, at 19% and 17%, which is 2 points apart — close enough that the two corpora are effectively saying the same thing about it. Wiring or the power cord is third in both, at 4% and 5%.

Three rows, three agreements about rank, and no reversal anywhere in the table. That is unusual enough in this comparison set to be the page's main observation.

Where the difference actually lives#

If the ranking agrees, the difference has to live in concentration, and it does. Frigidaire's top row takes almost half of its corpus and its second row takes under a fifth: a steep drop. GE's top row takes a third and its second takes about half of that: a shallower slope with more of the corpus distributed below the leader.

That shape difference is what a 12-point gap on a shared leader looks like from the inside. It does not license the claim that Frigidaire heating elements fail more often — the denominators are filings, and the two corpora differ in size by a factor of four — but it does mean that within its own reports, heat is a larger share of what Frigidaire owners filed about than of what GE owners filed about.

What the small rows do and do not add#

Below the third row both columns run out of evidence quickly. The motor is named in 1% of the Frigidaire reports and 2% of the GE ones. The thermostat or sensor is 1% against 0%. The water valve or line is 2% against 0%. On the Frigidaire side each of those rests on one or two filings out of 103; on the GE side, on one out of 433. The table marks the closest of them as one-report noise, and the sensible reading is that the two corpora are silent there rather than that they differ.

For anyone using this to plan a repair rather than to pick a brand, the shared ranking is the practical part: for either machine, a heat-related complaint is the most common thing in the filed record, the board is second, and a cord or wiring complaint is a distant third. How often a given machine reaches any of those states is not in this data, and no arrangement of shares will produce it.

Frigidaire vs GE dishwashers: what the reports mention#

Both columns are shares of their own corpus, and the corpora differ in size. Frigidaire: CPSC SaferProducts incident reports for Frigidaire dishwashers, 2011-2026, n=103. GE: CPSC SaferProducts incident reports for GE dishwashers, 2011-2026, n=433. A difference no larger than one report on either side is marked "within one-report noise".

About the corpus: these are CPSC SaferProducts reports — incidents someone chose to report, not units sold — so the shares on this page are shares of the reports and never a failure rate. The corpus is weighted toward safety events: 12,007 of its 20,581 records (58%) are fire, smoke, burn or melt reports, which over-represents the components that burn and under-represents the ones that merely stop working.

Frigidaire dishwashers: the reported component split#

Frigidaire dishwashers — every share in this table is a share of: CPSC SaferProducts incident reports for Frigidaire dishwashers, 2011-2026, n=103.

Shares of reports, not failure rates — see the corpus note above.

GE dishwashers: the reported component split#

GE dishwashers — every share in this table is a share of: CPSC SaferProducts incident reports for GE dishwashers, 2011-2026, n=433.

Shares of reports, not failure rates — see the corpus note above.

How to use these numbers#

What this comparison can settle: which components the reported incidents of each brand actually concentrate on, for this appliance. What it cannot settle: which brand fails more often. That would need units sold, and no public source states it. Use the component split to plan for the repair each brand is most reported for, not to rank the two.