[masraum]

Originally Posted by Gogar

I think I read There's only 2 companies that actually manufacture microwaves, sharp being one of them.

The undercounter Wolf is actually a Sharp with the faceplate swapped out.

Something like that is the case with almost all appliances. I don't know all of the relationships, but often times the same part may be the correct part for 5 different name brands.

I do wonder, if certain brands require differing levels of QC/QA and possibly try to build to different levels of quality.

Many years ago, when I was looking to buy my first stereo as a teen, I was, of course, looking for all of the whiz-bang features. My dad taught me that it was better to look for quality than quantity. Get a higher quality unit with fewer fancy features for the same price as a lower quality unit with more fancy features and you'll get better sound and, likely, reliability. I suspect that still applies to some extent to just about anything. I remember years ago, probably 20-25, going into Best Buy to get a dishwasher. There were some that were expensive, then there were some that were cheap but had more features. Many of those cheaper models were only sold at Best Buy. I think they were the super cheap models with an added feature or two. I think we got one and it ended up being junk. I didn't make that mistake again.