This may cause a bit of a stir with you all, but I’ll discuss it anyway.   Some of you are staunch believers that the best possible part can only be genuine, OE, brand name appliance parts.  I am not one of those people.  Appliance parts is an expense in my business second only to labor.  My rough guesstimate is that I spend about $100,000 a year on parts. If I used exclusively genuine, new parts that figure could easily go up 20%.  Perhaps even more.

Control boards: 

You can go new, genuine, and pay $200 for it +$60 core, or you can buy direct from core centric, an appliance board refursher (or others) for $98, no core charge.  Sounds like a no brainer eh?  Well, its more complicated than just money.

1. The defect rate is definitely higher than new.  I have purchased hundreds, and hundreds of reconditioned boards form core centric.  I would say that 1 in 50 will go bad within 30 days, or be bad out of the box.   I can honestly say that I can’t remember EVER buying a new board from OEM that was bad out of the box. Is this an acceptable risk?

Non-complicated generic parts:

Lets talk about the Direct drive lid switch part # 3949247.  I use at least 3 a week, between COD calls and my shop.  They cost $35.95, I get them generic for $19. That is a savings of over $16!  I have been using this switch for about 10 years, and I have installed a few hundred, at least.  I have had ONE fail me.  It wasn’t even broken, the casting was filled on one of the mounting holes.  If you calculate $16 x the 300 or so I have used so far, you will conclude that I have saved myself thousands.   I can apply the same thing to couplings

Id like to mention one part specifically, GE gas oven thermostat WB20K8.  You can get it at GE for $147, or you can buy it from ERP for about $125. I know, its only $20,  BUT the thing is this:  Both of those parts are made by the same company, Harper Wyman  They are the EXACTLY the same part. one comes in a bag, one in a box.

I have used many hundreds of these parts, and find them to be as good, or better than genuine.  Again, you will get the very rare premature failure, but its more like 1 in a hundred with this stuff.  If you are using this stuff by the dozen, it makes sense for you financially to use it.

Electronic and or complicated stuff like sensors and door locks. 

Quite frankly I don’t use them.  I had a bad experience with some VMW lid locks that were dirt cheap, like $16.  Problem is that none of them worked.  I don’t use that many of them, so the saving is not that much to me.   Ref sensors are dirt cheap for genuine, so I would rather buy those.   I will eventually warm up to them again. It takes time.

Conclusion: 

There is a time and place for generic parts. I genuinely believe that there are some aftermarket companies that truly want to make a good product, and want to end the monopoly that is OEM.   Some companies are out there selling cheap junk.  Every aftermarket part on lorainfurniture.com has already been tested- and proven to be as good, or better than genuine.