Not Home Depot: This Big Box Store Tops JD Power's 2026 Appliance Satisfaction Study
Home Depot is probably best known for tools and home improvement, but the big-box store is also a popular home appliance retailer. It's also a good one, with the retailer topping JD Power's list of most satisfying home appliance retailers in 2025. That's changed in 2026, however, and JD Power's 2026 U.S. Appliance Satisfaction Study sees Best Buy take the top spot for customer satisfaction.
Best Buy jumped two spots in JD Power's rankings, improving significantly on its third-place finish in 2025. The retailer swapped places with Home Depot, which came in third for customer satisfaction. Costco sits in between the two retail giants in second place. For what it's worth, all three retailers' scores were fairly close, with 726, 718, and 714 points, respectively, on JD Power's 1,000-point scale. Keep in mind, JD Power's study specifically measures customer satisfaction for appliance retailers — not retailers in general.
That means, based on the data, shoppers are happiest when buying major appliances from Best Buy. It's great news if you're thinking of buying a TV from Best Buy, but it doesn't mean much if you're looking to buy a power sander or bulk toilet paper.
Customer satisfaction has increased overall
JD Power's 2026 U.S. Appliance Satisfaction Study surveyed more than 28,400 consumers who purchased a home appliance between April 2025 and April 2026. Compared to its 2025 study, the institution found that customer satisfaction with appliances is up overall — six points for products and a whopping 23 points for retailers.
That's especially notable given the current economy and higher prices across the board — JD Power found the cost of an average appliance increased by $54 since 2025. Despite that, customers report finding it easier to shop at appliance retailers like Best Buy and Home Depot, with 87% of surveyed consumers saying they had no issues buying their new appliances. In addition to retail experience, the study measures customer satisfaction with specific appliance brands, including metrics like durability, which also increased by eight points this year.
The study also ranked brands' performance across various appliance categories, which is useful since one brand might make better dishwashers than washing machines, for instance. Traditional big names like Maytag and KitchenAid top some categories, as do more general tech conglomerates like LG and Samsung. This is just one study, though, and the market is fickle. Despite Samsung earning the top spot for refrigerators in this JD Power study, an equivalent ACSI study found that Whirlpool refrigerators ranked highest for customer satisfaction in 2025.