Quality appliances can be manufactured anywhere. If you want to know which appliances are actually built to last, ask a repairman when he is looking at your current broken one. Or, better yet, ask him which one he would buy.
We bought a Maytag set about 40 years ago when we first got married. Lasted 30 years. We replaced it with a new Maytag set and the washer just made it out of warranty and it was going to cost more to repair than to purchase a new one. I asked around on the this forum and wound up with a GE. It was an HE unit but not Energy Star. Old school mechanical timers instead of PC boards. The repair tech (independent contractor, not associated with a manufacturer other than authorized to do warranty repair work) recommended an LG (Korean model). They actually get top ratings across the board in terms of value, reliability, dependability, kind of like Maytag USED to.
If the actual VALUE is there, by all means try to buy American. I am not going to buy an expensive piece of junk just because it says "Made in America" anymore than I will buy a cheap piece of junk made in China just because it's cheap.
BTW, most of this stuff is being made with machines, not people, no matter where it's being made. The cheap foreign labor excuse may still apply for shoes and some clothing but the bulk of the stuff is being produced in highly automated factories, both here and abroad. Not Rosie or Robbie the Robot machines, small dedicated units which do one thing only and usually do it quite well. The flaws in the US appliance are more engineering and quality issues along with an actual conscious decision to make the product as cheap as possible with little or no concern for quality other than it makes it to the warranty.
And, I'm not about to venture into her department.
