Shop Products
Houzz Logo Print
llaatt22

Fagor Appliances Bankrupt

llaatt22
10 years ago

See link

Here is a link that might be useful: Fagor

Comments (16)

  • SparklingWater
    10 years ago

    I feel most sorry for the workers. Spanish economy is not good.

    I once saw a Fagor wall oven's internals (the back had been removed). Wires, wires every where with little room to spare. I had my doubts. Maybe this is a blessing, and the company will consolidate and rework their appliance designs.

  • lee676
    10 years ago

    Just after I put one of their side-opening ovens in our kitchen. Hopefully someone will take over the design and continue sales and service. They are also the only providers of tall, thin refrigerators and 240 volt combination washer/dryers selling in the US. Would be sad to see them go.

  • sjhockeyfan325
    10 years ago

    Lee, I have a Fagor oven sitting in my living room uninstalled! I have to keep it - it was the only oven that fit well with our induction cooktop. Hope it works!

  • xedos
    10 years ago

    Lee- lots of choices for tall narrow fridges given that it's not a huge category to begin with :

    LG
    Avanti
    Summit
    Liebherr
    Blomberg
    SubZero
    FisherPaykel
    Bosch
    Miele
    Gaggenau
    GE Monogram
    Whirlpool

    all make fridges 65+" tall and 24 - 30" wide.

    Additionally,

    LG
    Haier
    Summit
    Equator
    and a no name firm I cannot remember
    offer all in one combo washer/dryers.

    That market is so small it's almost immeasurable.

  • lee676
    10 years ago

    How many of those 24" wide fridges are 80" tall so as to yield usable inner space despite a narrow, shallow footprint? Not LG, at least in the US. Summit yes, but that's a (nosier) model intended for "commercial" use.

    All of the washer/dryer combos mentioned run on 120 volt power and thus take a long time to both heat the water during the wash cycle and dry your clothes in the later dry cycle. The Fagor runs on 240v and has a 2-1/2 times more powerful internal heater, so it finishes youur laundry considerably faster, a major consideration when you can't wash and dry two different laundry loads at the same time.

    I'll miss Fagor for the side-opening ovens too. Yes, there are others - Gaggenau (much more expensive), Frigidaire (not as good), a few upscale range brands with French doors. I just bought one and it's certainly a great buy for not much money; I've written about it in other threads.

    Fagor also makes the more upscale De Dietrich brand.

    So far it's evidently only the Polish cookware and white goods division that's in bankruptcy, but it seems likely to spread through the company very soon as they've been hurt in the EU economic downturn and their parent company Mondragon (the world's largest worker co-op) doesn't think they'll become profitable even given the cash infusion and thus that they're not worth saving.

  • writersblock (9b/10a)
    10 years ago

    >Summit yes, but that's a (nosier) model intended for "commercial" use.

    Do you mean the FFBF28 series? Those are not commercial models, although summit does have several other that are. Those are rebranded Vestfrost models from Denmark. I'm not sure about the new FF1935PL, but I don't think that is, either.

    EDIT And I agree, a great pity this is happening to Fagor.

    This post was edited by writersblock on Mon, Nov 4, 13 at 9:45

  • lee676
    10 years ago

    I think both of these Summit fridges are residential, but they are wider, shorter units (27" and 30"w respectively) and there are plenty of choices in those wider sizes, 30" anyway. And the latter is a top-freezer fridge, a configuration I've always found inconvenient. Who but Fagor offers an affordable 24"w, 24" deep, yet nearly 80" tall bottom-freezer fridge that puts ample storage in a tiny space? Frustratingly, LG sells one in Canada, but only a shorter version with a smaller fridge section in the US. Even in small apartment kitchens or a kitchenette in a larger home, there is usually space to expand upward..

    This post was edited by lee676 on Mon, Nov 4, 13 at 10:59

  • writersblock (9b/10a)
    10 years ago

    Oh, then the FFBF171SS doesn't work for you? That's 24x24x77, although I don't think it's as nice as the Fagors I've seen. From the energy usage stats on the summit I expect it's also a vestfrost.

  • lee676
    10 years ago

    Didn't see that one (have to click on "full size refrigerators" on their site) - that would certainly work (though what's the deal with a wine bottle rack for 4 bottles where an extra shelf would me much for useful? Even for wine drinkers like myself). What I really want is that Canadian LG though, which is a nicer design. They've only sold the shorter version in the US, and even that one's not on their website anymore though it's still on the floor at my local Best Buy.

    Meanwhile, more on Fagor: they're trying to secure a cash infusion from US hedge funds or private equity groups - they need $200 million - to avoid a full bankruptcy declaration later this week (right now they're only bankrupt in Poland, not their native Spain, or France where they also have some factories). This isn't sitting well with parent cooperative Mondragon, where routine workers can vote on corporate strategic direction, and they don't think a unit that's been losing money for years and whose outlook looks bleak given the housing-construction bust in Europe should get special treatment.

    I like Mondragon - find me an American company where high-level executives agree not to earn more than 9x what minimum-wage workers get - and Fagor's problems seem to me more cyclical than intrinsic. They have alot of innovative products with features not found elsewhere. The scant appliance lineup sold in the US is not really representative, and are often low-end or last-generation products. Elsewhere, they have, for example, washing machines (both top- and front-load) that let you pour a bottle of detergent in at once, and it will automatically dispense what is needed for each laundry load so you don't have to carefully fill the cap to that hard-to-see line every time. Or their ovens: lots of higher-end ovens have glide-out racks, but do they automatically extend for you when you open the door, and retract when you close it? (the hardware for the auto-slideout racks is also sold as an accessory - looks like it would fit the ovens they sell in the US with drop-down doors too, though you may have to buy it from a foreign source yourself). Or how about this neat little induction cooktop?


    If your kitchen is small enough that you can only fit a 24" cooktop in it, chances it's in a small home with only about 2 bedrooms in it, which means you probably need to cook large amounts at the same time. So instead of trying to squeeze 4 tiny burners into a small space, they give you 3 usefully large and spread-out burners. Why doesn't everyone do it like this? (Miele has one too, though not induction). Even those tiny 20" ranges sold for small apartments have four equal-size burners on them.

    Meanwhile, production at all Fagor factories worldwide has been shut down for the last three weeks....

  • xedos
    10 years ago

    Lee are you a troll or simply an obsessed Fagor fanboy?

    I just don't get the love affair with with a mediocre brand that has very little history in the USA , and even less market share.

    The hedge fund fellas will tell you all you need to know about that company soon enough. If it's really a viable entity in it's whole - they'll infuse it with capital and expertise. If not, any division with value will be dealt to a new owner and the aging, flabby ones will wither and die.

  • lee676
    10 years ago

    Not a troll, just following this story because I just bought a Fagor oven two months ago whose warranty is probably about to become worthless, and had my eye on their 240v combination washer/dryer as well.

    I just read in Consumer Reports that one of their dishwashers (of which they tested two samples) received a rare rating of "Don't Buy" as it has an inherent design problem that can cause it to flood your kitchen, so obviously some of their stuff wasn't very good.

    A true fanboy would prop up anything made by the company as being great without regard to how good it really is, while trashing their competitors. I, on the other hand, noted several instances where this company made several products with unique and worthwhile features not available elsewhere. The side-opening door on the oven is crucial for me because I have back problems and can't lean around or over an open drop-down door easily. I've been involved in several kitchen renovations and plan to do several more, and am bugged that my only choice in side-hinged ovens now is an overpriced (though undeniably excellent) Gaggenau.

    Their parent company and their business ethic is also an interesting one, which is why it's attracted attention even in the US where they're not well known (as in this Economist article). Anyway, the last-minute funding efforts have thus far fallen through.

  • writersblock (9b/10a)
    10 years ago

    I agree with you, lee676. They used to make a radiant version of that three burner induction cooktop for the US (EDIT and with a narrow cooktop it's easier use all the burners in that config than in a standard 24" four burner top), and a five-burner gas cooktop that was only 28" wide. They definitely did have products you couldn't get from anyone else, but mostly they were the first things to disappear from their catalog when things started to go downhill.

    This post was edited by writersblock on Sat, Nov 9, 13 at 10:27

  • lee676
    10 years ago

    Miele does currently sell this 3-burner cooktop in US, and I have to assume it's of high quality, but they didn't really make best use of the available space here. The whole point of having 3 burners instead of 4 (besides theoretically lower cost) is so you can nestle a large burner partly between the two smaller ones on the other side, so your cookware isn't crowded together.

    {{gwi:1481867}}

    I remember years ago seeing this Gaggenau cooktop that fit 3 burners into a 15" wide space. Knobs installed separately in the front panel at the top of the cabinet. It had those awful cast-iron disks they used to use, but still, you could really cook 3 things at once without it seeming too crowded, a great design for small spaces. I wish they'd make a modern ceramic, induction, or gas version of this.

  • lee676
    10 years ago

    Oh and if you want a 28" gas cooktop with 5 burners, Smeg sells them in the US, five of them actually, in three different configurations. Smeg seems to be trying to aggressively expand in America with a new 36" dual-fuel $1,999 range designed specifically for the US market. Now if they'd just bring over their oval window oven want want want.....

    Here is a link that might be useful: 28'' 5-burner cooktops

  • writersblock (9b/10a)
    10 years ago

    Here's the fagor three burner. As you said, a much better layout, and Fagor was quite a bit less expensive than Miele.

  • PRO
    modern life interiors
    10 years ago

    bump