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The Short Answer
Appliances aren't one category with one answer, and that's the thing almost every guide gets wrong. Each type has its own model year changeover, and the discount lands in the weeks before the new stock arrives. For dishwashers, ranges, washers and dryers, that's the fall, which is why Black Friday sweeps them all up at once. Refrigerators change over in the spring instead, so they're the one appliance you buy in May.
The reason this page exists, and the reason its headline calls out April, is that appliance timing only makes sense once you stop thinking about appliances as a group.
Retailers discount a machine when they need the floor space for its replacement. That moment is set by the manufacturer's model year, and manufacturers don't all use the same one. Dishwashers, ranges, wall ovens, washers and dryers roll over in September and October, so the old stock gets cleared through the fall and gets swept into Black Friday, where appliances averaged 35.4% off across the major retailers. Refrigerators are the exception: their new models land between April and June, which makes late spring the clearance window and makes April the single worst month to walk in and buy one at full price.
That one difference explains most of the contradictory advice you'll find on this subject. A guide written by somebody thinking about fridges says May. A guide written by somebody thinking about dishwashers says November. Both are right about their own appliance and wrong about the other one.
So the honest version is a short list rather than a single month. If you're replacing a refrigerator, read our refrigerator timing guide. If it's a dishwasher, we've broken that one down separately too. For everything else, the calendar below is the general case.
The Full Calendar
Every appliance window, ranked by how much you save
Bar widths show how far prices move in each window relative to the best one. Refrigerators run on their own cycle, so where the two disagree we have said which appliance each window favors.
The only window that discounts every appliance at once, and the deepest one for all of them except refrigerators. Appliances averaged 35.4% off across the major retailers, and the fall changeover stock is still on the floor, so the selection is as wide as the discount is deep.
New model years land for dishwashers, ranges, wall ovens, washers and dryers, and last year's versions have to move. This is where discontinued models turn up at 30% to 40% off and floor models at around 15% off list. Less choice than November, but the same machine for close to the same money.
The refrigerator window, and a solid one for everything else. Fridge model years turn over between April and June, so late May is when last season's stock gets cleared while every retailer is already running a holiday sale. If you're buying a fridge, this beats Black Friday.
The opening act for the fall changeover. Rebates and financing offers are often better here than the headline discount, which matters more on a $2,000 machine than a percentage does on a $200 one.
A genuine appliance sale weekend that most people forget about, and the only decent window in the first half of the year outside of the fridge cycle. Selection is whatever survived January.
Full price, full confidence, no reason to negotiate. April is the worst of the lot because the new refrigerators have just arrived and the old ones are already gone. If you can wait six weeks for Memorial Day, wait.
A dead fridge is a genuine emergency and a dead dishwasher is not, so treat them differently. You can wash dishes by hand for a month and buy properly. For the fridge, buy the best available machine now and accept that you paid for the timing.
