Frigidaire vs GE washers: an incident-report comparison

What this Frigidaire vs GE comparison is based on#

Every other washer comparison in this class that involves a small corpus ends the same way: the small side carries the big percentages. This page is the one where that stops being true. The CPSC SaferProducts database holds 46 incident reports naming a Frigidaire washer, filed between 2011 and 2023, and 181 naming a GE washer, filed between 2011 and 2026 — and the two widest rows in the table both lean toward the larger corpus.

The usual caution still applies to both columns. These are filings, not inspections; the database counts what was submitted and publishes nothing about how many washers of either brand were ever sold or installed. So the numbers here are shares of complaints and cannot be converted into anything else.

The bigger corpus holds the bigger shares#

The control board is named in 13% of the GE reports and 9% of the Frigidaire ones — 23 filings against 4. The motor is named in 7% against 4%, which is 13 filings against 2. In both rows GE has both the higher share and, by a wide margin, the greater number of documents behind it.

That combination is worth pausing on because it is rare in this set. Almost everywhere else, a wider share is the fingerprint of a smaller denominator, and the counts underneath run the other way. Here they agree. When a share and its raw count point in the same direction, the row is telling you something about the composition of the record rather than about the size of the divisor.

The whole page fits in four points#

Nothing in the difference column exceeds 4 percentage points. After the board and the motor come four rows the table itself marks as noise: the heating element at 4% for Frigidaire against 2% for GE, the lint trap or vent at 4% against 6%, the wiring or power cord at 2% against 4%, and the water valve or line at 2% against 1%.

Four of those seven Frigidaire entries stand on a single report each. At 46 documents, one filing is worth about two points of the column, so a two-point difference is exactly the width of one piece of paper. The table's noise marking is not politeness — it is the resolution limit of the smaller corpus stated out loud.

Different windows, different depths#

The Frigidaire record here ends in 2023. The GE record runs to 2026. That mismatch means the two columns are not observing the same period, and the last three years of the window are represented on one side only. It also means the comparison cannot speak to recent production on the Frigidaire side at all.

Depth differs as well: ten components appear in the GE list against seven in the Frigidaire one, including a condenser and a drain pump or hose that show up once each. Those single-filing entries exist in the GE column because 181 documents leave room for them, and their absence from the Frigidaire column is not evidence that the parts never fail.

The practical read#

Both corpora put the control board first, so that is the shared starting point. After it, the GE record gives a second name with real weight behind it — the motor, on 13 filings — while the Frigidaire record gives nothing above 4%, and each of its entries at that level is two reports.

Neither of those observations says which brand needs more repairs. They say what the people who filed reports were describing, and one of the two groups was nearly four times the size.

Frigidaire vs GE washers: 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 washers, 2011-2023, n=46. GE: CPSC SaferProducts incident reports for GE washers, 2011-2026, n=181. 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 washers: the reported component split#

Frigidaire washers — every share in this table is a share of: CPSC SaferProducts incident reports for Frigidaire washers, 2011-2023, n=46.

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

GE washers: the reported component split#

GE washers — every share in this table is a share of: CPSC SaferProducts incident reports for GE washers, 2011-2026, n=181.

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.