What this Frigidaire vs Maytag comparison is based on#
Two components sit at the top of both of these records. They are simply in a different order, and by very different margins.
For Frigidaire the leader is the heating element at 45% of 103 CPSC SaferProducts filings, with the control board second at 19% — a gap of more than two to one. For Maytag the control board leads at 25% of 228 filings and the heating element follows at 23% — a gap of 2 points, which on that corpus is a handful of reports. One record has a clear first place. The other has a photo finish.
Why a swapped ranking is not a contradiction#
It would be easy to read the swap as the two brands disagreeing about which part fails. They do not disagree that much. Both columns name the heating element and the control board as their two largest rows, and both put every other component far below them. The disagreement is about proportion: heat is nearly half of what Frigidaire owners filed about and a little under a quarter of what Maytag owners filed about, so the same component can lead one column and share the lead in another.
The measured gap on that row is 22 points, and it is the widest on the page. The board runs 6 points the other way. Between them, that is the whole of the difference in the two records' top halves.
The row where Maytag's record is genuinely different#
Below those two, one row separates the corpora more sharply than its size suggests. Wiring or the power cord is named in 13% of the Maytag reports — 29 filings — and in 4% of the Frigidaire ones, which is four. That is 9 points, and unlike most small-row gaps in this comparison set it is backed by real counts on the larger side. Maytag's record has a third substantial component; Frigidaire's does not.
What is left, and what the page cannot settle#
The remaining rows are quiet and close. The motor is 1% for Frigidaire against 3% for Maytag. The water valve or line is 2% against 1%, and the thermostat or sensor is 1% in both columns, which the table records as no measured difference. On the Frigidaire side these rest on one or two filings out of 103; on the Maytag side on three or six out of 228. Neither set carries enough weight to move the comparison.
None of this ranks the brands, and the closeness of the two records makes that unusually clear: two columns can lead with the same components and still say nothing about which machine fails more often, because neither has a count of machines underneath it. What they support is a prior about the next report — for a Maytag, a board or heat complaint with a wiring complaint a real possibility; for a Frigidaire, heat first by a wide margin.
Frigidaire vs Maytag 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. Maytag: CPSC SaferProducts incident reports for Maytag dishwashers, 2011-2026, n=228. A difference no larger than one report on either side is marked "within one-report noise".
| Component mentioned | Frigidaire | Maytag | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Heating Element | 45% (46 of 103) | 23% (52 of 228) | 22 points more often for Frigidaire |
| Wiring or Power Cord | 4% (4 of 103) | 13% (29 of 228) | 9 points more often for Maytag |
| Control Board | 19% (20 of 103) | 25% (57 of 228) | 6 points more often for Maytag |
| Motor | 1% (1 of 103) | 3% (6 of 228) | 2 points more often for Maytag |
| Water Valve or Line | 2% (2 of 103) | 1% (3 of 228) | 1 point more often for Frigidaire (within one-report noise) |
| Thermostat or Sensor | 1% (1 of 103) | 1% (3 of 228) | no measured difference (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.
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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.
| Component mentioned | Share of reports | Reports |
|---|---|---|
| Heating Element | 45% | 46 of 103 |
| Control Board | 19% | 20 of 103 |
| Wiring or Power Cord | 4% | 4 of 103 |
| Drain Pump or Hose | 2% | 2 of 103 |
| Water Valve or Line | 2% | 2 of 103 |
| Motor | 1% | 1 of 103 |
| Thermostat or Sensor | 1% | 1 of 103 |
Shares of reports, not failure rates — see the corpus note above.
Maytag dishwashers: the reported component split#
Maytag dishwashers — every share in this table is a share of: CPSC SaferProducts incident reports for Maytag dishwashers, 2011-2026, n=228.
| Component mentioned | Share of reports | Reports |
|---|---|---|
| Control Board | 25% | 57 of 228 |
| Heating Element | 23% | 52 of 228 |
| Wiring or Power Cord | 13% | 29 of 228 |
| Motor | 3% | 6 of 228 |
| Thermostat or Sensor | 1% | 3 of 228 |
| Water Valve or Line | 1% | 3 of 228 |
Shares of reports, not failure rates — see the corpus note above.
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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.
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