We have had our Staber for 5 years and in the past two years we have experienced a series of problems that have consumed a lot of time and have left our washer unusable for weeks at a time. The first problem, within one year of ownership, was a broken controller board. We sent that one in and it was replaced free of charge (although we paid for the shipping). The second problem 4 years later was malfunctioning motor, which we troubleshooted with the help of Staber support person. I took the motor out and sent it in for a reaplacement (it was an expensive part, cost several hundred dollars). After installing the new motor, the washer sounded much louder than before during high spin cycle. After four months the belt slipped off during a wash cycle (this had never happened before). I have been unable to get the belt to stay on (it slips off after a few turns). I have called Staber and they were very unhelpful so far. The lady I spoke with did not come across as very knowledgeable and walked me through a useless checklist. Once it was clear that the problem was the one I said it was, belt slipping off, she had no ideas. She said she would call me back but so far no one has.

For the few people on this list who love their Stabers, my only comment is the following: you got lucky and wound up with one of the few units that did not experience multiple failures. The level of reliability of components in this machine is insanely low in comparison to all other major competitors. It is ridiculous for a controller board to fail in one year, a motor to fail in four years, etc. These are very mature component technologies that should last 10 years easily. The fact that the machine is designed to be easier to repair by the end user does not justify the fact that it requires repair so frequently. Given all of the high-quality horizontal axis washers available from Europe and Asia, it is not worth going with the only US company (who hasn’t gotten their act together).

I should add that my machine did not experience problems with corrosion, rust, etc. as some have reported. I can imagine that this would only compound any existing problems, but in my case the problems were strictly the result of poor manufacturing/design choices leading to frequent component failure.