Tips for buying appliances at Costco that I wish I'd known sooner

We bought our range and dishwasher through Costco last spring and the measuring advice is dead on. I also made a spreadsheet of the cutout widths before ordering anything because our old slide-in was a 30 inch unit and the replacement needed the exact same opening. Took the tape measure to the cabinet gap three times just to be sure.

One thing that surprised me was the return window. We had a dishwasher that arrived with a cracked door panel and the whole process of exchanging it was painless, way easier than the runaround I got from a big box store on a previous house. The delivery crew here did haul away the old units too, which saved me a dump run.

Where I'd add a caution is on the timing. Our delivery date slipped twice, once because the truck was overloaded and once because the range sat damaged in the warehouse. If you're redoining a kitchen around a move-in date, order earlier than feels reasonable. I had my mother-in-law visiting the week we were eating takeout with no stove and she has not let me forget it.

Also check the specs sheet for water line and electrical locations on the wall, not just the box dimensions. Our dishwasher needed the hookup moved about four inches and that was a small plumber visit I had not budgeted for.

Something I didn't see touched on yet is the warranty angle. Bought a fridge there a couple years back and paid with the Costco card, wich tacks extra coverage onto the manufacturer warranty automatically. Didn't have to buy anything extra. Haven't needed it yet, knock on wood, but it's a nice little bonus if you're allready shopping there anyway.

One thing to check before you order a gas range though, they won't hook up the gas line themselves in a lot of areas. I had to book my own plumber to do the final connection, so factor that in if you're switching from electric.

Something to watch for is the model numbers. A lot of what Costco sells is a slightly different version of what you'd see at other stores, same brand but tweaked for them. Made comparison shopping a pain when I was redoing our laundry pair, couldn't find reviews on the exact number anywhere. I ended up looking up the closest standard model and went from there. Also if the price drops within a short window after you buy, they'll refund the difference. Ours went down about two weeks after delivery and I just walked into the warehouse with the receipt. Took two minutes, no arguement.

I gotta push back on the order early advice a bit. I tried that last fall with a washer and it backfired. Costco slots are based on truck routes in your area, so ordering two months out just meant they rescheduled me twice anyway when the route changed. What actually worked was calling the delivery line the week before and asking which days they run my zip code, then picking one of those. The order date mattered way less than the route schedule, at least around here.