Laundry equipment cost 5.8% more in August 2026 than it did a year earlier, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Major appliances as a whole went the other direction over the same twelve months, down 1.9%. That split tells you something useful about the best time to buy appliances this fall: the answer now depends on which appliance you are replacing, and the advice you have read a hundred times (wait for the September model changeover, then pounce on a holiday sale) is the least valuable part of the decision.
Two things moved under everyone’s feet this year. The federal tax credit that used to help pay for efficient equipment expired on December 31, 2025. The rebate program that survived in its place is being administered state by state on a first come, first served basis, and at least one state has already stopped taking applications for 2026. Neither of those shows up in a sale flyer.
October is still the best time to buy appliances, just not for the reason you think
The seasonal logic is real. Manufacturers introduce most new washers, dryers, and dishwashers in late summer and early fall, so September and October are when retailers need the floor space and start discounting last year’s version of a machine that is functionally identical to the new one. A 2025 model and a 2026 model of the same dishwasher often differ by a control panel finish and a wash cycle name.
What has changed is the size of that discount relative to everything else available. A sitewide appliance promotion in the fall or over Thanksgiving weekend tends to land somewhere between 10% and 20% off, and it is applied to a price that has already absorbed a year of tariff costs. Treat it as the baseline, not the win.
The tariff showed up in your laundry room specifically
On June 23, 2025, the Commerce Department’s Bureau of Industry and Security added eleven new tariff classifications to the list of steel derivative products covered by the 50% Section 232 tariff. Those classifications cover refrigerator-freezers, washing machines, dryers, dishwashers, chest and upright freezers, cooking ranges and ovens, and food waste disposals. The 50% rate applies to the steel content of each machine rather than the whole invoice, which is why the effect has been uneven rather than catastrophic.
Washing machines carry about 18% of the weight in the government’s major appliance price index and dryers roughly 13%, and laundry is where the increase concentrated. If you need a washer, you are shopping into a rising price. If you need a refrigerator, you are shopping into a slightly falling one. Same store, same week, opposite situations.
The markdown that actually moves money sits in the back of the store
Open box and floor models are the discount nobody advertises because there is exactly one of each. Open box units, meaning customer returns and units whose packaging was damaged, commonly run 15% to 30% off. Scratch and dent pricing runs wider, from around 10% for a scuff to 50% or more when the damage is obvious, according to the appliance warranty firm Consumer Priority Service. Floor models that were plugged in and demonstrated usually sit in the 10% to 15% range unless you ask for more.
Here is the part worth understanding: on a side-by-side refrigerator or a front-load washer, the dent is almost always on a side panel or the back. Once the machine is in its cabinet or against a wall, that damage no longer exists as far as your kitchen is concerned. You are paying less for a cosmetic flaw you will never see again.
And you can push. Consumer Reports found that 67% of its members who haggled got a better price on a major appliance at independent and local retailers. Asking costs nothing.
Run the arithmetic on a real purchase. Say the washer and dryer pair you want lists at $1,798. A 15% holiday promotion takes $269.70 off and leaves you at $1,528.30. An open box pair at 25% off takes $449.50 off and leaves you at $1,348.50. The gap is $180.20, and that is before you ask the salesperson to throw in the $99 delivery or the haul-away of your old machines. The discount you negotiate on one unit beats the discount the company advertises to everyone.
Nobody updated the articles about the federal tax credit
The Energy Efficient Home Improvement Credit, known as Section 25C, covered 30% of the cost of qualifying equipment up to $3,200 a year. It was terminated by the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, signed July 4, 2025, for anything placed in service after December 31, 2025. Put numbers on that: a $2,400 heat pump water heater installed in December 2025 came with a $720 credit at tax time. The identical installation this October comes with nothing from the IRS, which means the same purchase quietly got 30% more expensive without the price tag moving at all.
Plenty of buying guides still list that credit as current, and so do plenty of sales associates working from a training deck written in 2024. Check the date on anything you read about appliance rebates in 2026, and ask whoever tells you about a tax credit which tax year they mean.
Your state rebate portal may already be closed for the year
What did survive is the Home Electrification and Appliance Rebates program, funded by the 2022 law and paid out as grants to state energy offices rather than as tax credits, which is why it was not clawed back. The rebates are income targeted and they are large. Colorado’s published schedule pays up to $1,750 for a heat pump water heater, $840 for an electric range or cooktop, $8,000 for a cold climate heat pump, and $14,000 total per household. Households below 80% of area median income get 100% of the project cost up to those caps. Households between 80% and 150% get 50%.
Now the catch. Colorado’s own program page, updated in August 2026, says the single family program is closed for both of its regions, and that household applications submitted after August 1, 2026 for the second region will not be reviewed. The money ran out because demand was high. Other states are still open, some are launching this quarter, and the amounts and the paperwork differ in every one of them. In most states the rebate flows through a registered contractor who subtracts it from your project cost, so you cannot walk into a big box store and claim it at the register on your own.
Work the arithmetic here too. A heat pump water heater installed at $2,400 in a state with an open program costs a household at 90% of area median income half of that, $1,200, up to the $1,750 cap. The same household buying the same machine the week after the state closes applications pays $2,400. That single administrative fact is worth more than every Black Friday promotion in the category combined.
What to do this week
Do the rebate check first, because it changes what you are shopping for. Search your state energy office’s site for home energy rebates and find out whether applications are open, since the answer determines whether you are buying a water heater off a shelf or a rebate-eligible project with a registered contractor attached. Then call the two nearest locations of whichever retailer you prefer and ask a specific question: what open box or scratch and dent units do you have in this category right now, and what is the price. That inventory changes daily and mostly never appears online. Ask what the discount is, ask whether the manufacturer warranty is intact and whether the clock started on an earlier purchase date, and ask for delivery and haul-away to be included.
If the machine you need is a washer or dryer and it is still limping along, the price trend is against waiting. If it is a refrigerator, you have a little more room.
The best time to buy appliances is still the fall, but the calendar is now the smallest lever you have. The dent nobody will ever see and the rebate window that is quietly closing are the two that pay.
For related reading, see our breakdown of why rent-to-own appliances cost so much more than the sticker price and our guide to weatherizing your home before winter heating bills arrive.
