Appliances in paradise

We bought appliances for our house and got some very good advice from the very helpful lady who took our order worth sharing with newcomers to Kauai. Much of the process of relocating here has been straightforward, but this these purchased were a good first reminder that things are a little different here. Here's what Wendy said:

It's obvious if you think about it, but modern electronics and sensitive equipment simply do not last long in this tropical environment. Between the humidity, heat, and (near the ocean) salt, circuit boards or fine mechanical instruments can very easily fail here. Furthermore, on an island the size of a small city, there often is no trained service technician here to fix things when they do fail (and they definitely do not fly in technicians to do repairs, obviously). On top of all that, ordering spare parts can be slow and expensive given the remote location. For all these reasons, it may very well pay to get extended warranties on everything purchased unless it is as simple as a hammer.

Wendy went on to explain what often happens both when you do and do not have warranty protection here.

• Under warranty, if there is a qualified technician on the island (which often is not the case), they will fix it of course.
• Under warranty, if no qualified technician (approved by the manufacturer) is on island, you normally get full replacement value refund, enough to buy a brand new appliance. The old appliance is taken out of warranty and becomes "scrap" and either goes to the dump or you may be able to keep it if you want to.
• For out of warranty there are technicians here who will take cash jobs on the side to fix things privately if they can. Use your best judgment hiring as it could be a gamble.

We shopped Costco and Home Depot for appliances: they are right next to each other in Kukui Grove (west Lihue) so it was quick to comparison shop though they had different models to choose from. Generally, Costco had lower prices but they do not deliver: the will help you load the appliance into your vehicle, then you are on your own getting it home and installed. 

Home Depot includes free home delivery (to our area at least) including set up. Our washing machine comes with hoses to hook it up (she checked for us), but some makers don't provide that in which case you can buy what you need there (but not at Costco) if needed. And they had very knowledgable staff like Wendy to help us select a model. (The Costco fellow was friendly but not an expert at all.) They also had a discount that applied as well, so the price difference was small to none if you include delivery and installation service. They even helped fill out the rebate forms for energy-efficient appliance purchase ($50) rebates from KIUC.

After checking models and prices that looked good and that fit in the spaces available in the house we went to the Lihue library where they had recent issues of Consumer Reports to see how they rated.