Old and new? We just bought 2005 super c motorhome. Decent price with low mileage. We’ve been doing some updates to make it more lovable. One of the items that we replaced was the...

GreenReaper

We just bought 2005 super c motorhome. Decent price with low mileage. We’ve been doing some updates to make it more lovable. One of the items that we replaced was the microwave/convection oven. It was a 2003 Amana, couldn’t find one so we ordered a Sharp through Home Depot. Unpacked it and we’re looking at the install instruction and various parts. Lo and behold the only difference between the new one and the old one was the name! Anybody else run into this situation? Asking for a friend!

nicksr1125 Loc: Mesa, AZ

That’s a rather obvious item. There are only 3 car/truck battery manufacturers in the U. S.: East Penn Manufacturing, Johnson Controls, & Enersys. It just depends on whose label gets slapped on the battery when they get to the distribution center. Johnson Controls makes Interstate batteries. Enersys makes Odyssey batteries & X2 Power batteries marketed by Batteries Plus Blubs. East Penn makes batteries for a lot of the auto parts & big box stores.

Don W-37 Loc: Bangkok, Thailand

nicksr1125 wrote:

That’s a rather obvious item. There are only 3 car/truck battery manufacturers in the U. S.: East Penn Manufacturing, Johnson Controls, & Enersys. It just depends on whose label gets slapped on the battery when they get to the distribution center. Johnson Controls makes Interstate batteries. Enersys makes Odyssey batteries & X2 Power batteries marketed by Batteries Plus Blubs. East Penn makes batteries for a lot of the auto parts & big box stores.

Huh?!? What's that have to do with microwave/convection ovens? I don't get it.

Manglesphoto Loc: 70 miles south of St.Louis

GreenReaper wrote:

We just bought 2005 super c motorhome. Decent price with low mileage. We’ve been doing some updates to make it more lovable. One of the items that we replaced was the microwave/convection oven. It was a 2003 Amana, couldn’t find one so we ordered a Sharp through Home Depot. Unpacked it and we’re looking at the install instruction and various parts. Lo and behold the only difference between the new one and the old one was the name! Anybody else run into this situation? Asking for a friend!

I would consider myself lucky that it fit without any BS and that there were no changes in the operation.

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

I find that surprising. It seems that every time I buy a microwave (not that it's that often) the controls are different.

There is a factory in China that makes virtually all the microwaves sold around the world.

John N Loc: HP14 3QF Stokenchurch, UK

jerryc41 wrote:

I find that surprising. It seems that every time I buy a microwave (not that it's that often) the controls are different.

There is a factory in China that makes virtually all the microwaves sold around the world.

Why do they do that?

SteveR Loc: Michigan

But yours is new.

davidv Loc: salt lake city utah

I love the new and improved, put in an extra drop of something in the product and it’s new and improved.

LXK0930 Loc: Souh Jersey

GreenReaper wrote:

We just bought 2005 super c motorhome. Decent price with low mileage. We’ve been doing some updates to make it more lovable. One of the items that we replaced was the microwave/convection oven. It was a 2003 Amana, couldn’t find one so we ordered a Sharp through Home Depot. Unpacked it and we’re looking at the install instruction and various parts. Lo and behold the only difference between the new one and the old one was the name! Anybody else run into this situation? Asking for a friend!

I am surprised that the microwaves from 2003 and 2022 are the same, given the advances in technology. Are the features the same, or just the mounting specs?

BrianFlaherty Loc: Wilseyville, CA

In the early 1960's, my brother-in-law (while going to college during the day) had a night job at the Folger's Coffee plant in San Francisco. He came on every night to work from 10 PM to 6 AM. They handed him a stack of labels to slap on the coffee cans moving past him on an "assembly line." He got 10,000 labels per shift: 2,000 Yuban labels; 2,000 Folger labels; 2,000 Maxwell House labels; 2,000 MJB labels; and, 2,000 "house brand" labels for Safeway's "private" brand coffee. Same coffee went into each can! The only thing different was the price on the shelf at the super market! [Yuban, in those days, was considered the Best Premium brand. . .And, cost as much as 50%-75% MORE than Folger's or Maxwell House!]

Just Shoot Me Loc: Ithaca, NY

Don W-37 wrote:

Huh?!? What's that have to do with microwave/convection ovens? I don't get it.

There are only 3 major manufacturers of microwave ovens and one of them is not in the USA.
Certain specialty brands such as Bosch etc. manufacturer also but only for their own brand name.
What he is saying is that it is not odd to find the same microwave with a different name on it.
Certain brands will require a different look or different features but it's all coming from the same place or two.

Ron

Just Shoot Me Loc: Ithaca, NY

davidv wrote:

I love the new and improved, put in an extra drop of something in the product and it’s new and improved.

Yes but did you ever wonder how something can be "new an improved" at the same time?
If it's new then it is new. If it's improved then it's not new.

Ron

wrangler5 Loc: Missouri

Well, if they just changed the button locations but not their function it could be called "new." If they left the buttons as is but added more functions to what they did, it might be "improved." If they change the button locations AND added more functions, it could be described as "new AND improved."

See how simple advertising is? ;-)

nicksr1125 Loc: Mesa, AZ

Don W-37 wrote:

Huh?!? What's that have to do with microwave/convection ovens? I don't get it.

Everything & nothing. Almost every product you buy these days comes from 1 of just a few manufacturers. Just as there are only 3 car/truck battery manufacturers in the US, most household appliances come from just a few plants. For instance: Whirlpool manufactures Whirlpool, Kitchen Aid, Maytag, Amana, Jenn-Air, & Consul. It's quite likely that have a lot of parts in common. If you shop for a car battery at Sam's Club, you'll find Duracell. They're not manufactured by Duracell. Along with some of the auto parts store brands, they're manufactured by East Penn Manufacturing.