Black Friday appliances: is the discount real, or just the list price?

Black Friday is three weeks away, and appliance product pages will soon fill up with red percentages. We at PortosEunostos repeated today, 7 November, the same check we ran on 22 October on two pairs of twin appliances, a fridge and a dishwasher, sold under the Bosch and the Siemens brand on the same online store. In sixteen days the Bosch price rose by 14 percent, with the same 30 percent discount printed next to it both on 22 October and today. The Siemens price fell by 11.8 percent, and the printed discount moved from 15 to 25 percent. The percentage, on its own, does not tell you whether you are paying more or less than two weeks ago.

What we rechecked, and when

On 22 October, in our comparison Bosch or Siemens: the same machine at two prices, we compared thirteen pairs of appliances sold under two different brands but with an identical EU technical sheet, in some cases on more than a hundred fields out of a hundred. Today we went back to two of those pairs, the Bosch KIR81VFE0 and Siemens KI81RVFE0 built-in fridges, and the Bosch SMH4EVX08E and Siemens SN73EX06VE fully integrated dishwashers, and read the price and the crossed-out list price straight off the product pages again.

This is not a random sample: these are pairs where the Bosch and the Siemens product declare the same capacity, the same energy class and the same noise level in decibels. If the price moves, it moves because of a retailer decision, not because one model is genuinely worth more or less than the other. That is exactly what makes the comparison useful in the weeks before Black Friday: it isolates how the price behaves from how the product behaves.

Prices read on the product pages of the Bosch KIR81VFE0, the Siemens KI81RVFE0, the Bosch SMH4EVX08E and the Siemens SN73EX06VE on OpportunityCommerce.

The Bosch that costs 14% more under the same discount as before

The crossed-out list price, the one the store calls the recommended price, rose by exactly the same percentage as the price actually paid: 14.0 percent on the fridge, 8.0 percent on the dishwasher. The printed discount stayed at 30.0 percent on both because the calculation is always list price minus 30 percent: if the list price goes up, the paid price goes up with it, and the red number stays exactly the same. Anyone looking only at the minus 30 percent sees no difference between 22 October and today. Anyone looking at the price does.

The arithmetic, taken straight from the product pages, is simple: €1,258.64 times 0.70 is €881.05, today's price. On 22 October the list price was €1,103.74, and €1,103.74 times 0.70 is €772.62, the price back then. On the dishwasher the mechanism is identical: €914.01 times 0.70 gives €639.81 today, against €846.31 times 0.70 equals €592.42 three weeks ago. In both cases the list price went up, the discount did not, and the result is a higher price under an identical label.

The main limit of trusting the badge is exactly this: a discount percentage that has not moved in weeks does not measure how much you are saving, it only measures how that store calculates the price it shows that day.

The Siemens that really dropped, and why that is not written anywhere

On the Siemens models, the list price has not moved by a single cent: €1,248.57 on 22 October and again today on the fridge, €930.00 on both dates on the dishwasher. What changed was the discount tier the store applies, from 15 to 25 percent, the exact same shift on both products of the brand. It does not look like a coincidence limited to the two models we picked, but a move that covers the whole Siemens catalogue on that store. Here the price actually paid did fall, by €124.85 on the fridge and €93.00 on the dishwasher, 11.8 percent on both.

The same arithmetic applies here: €1,248.57 times 0.75 is €936.43, today's price. The same list price times 0.85, October's discount tier, would still give €1,061.28. On the dishwasher, €930.00 times 0.75 is €697.50 against €790.50 in October. The list price is the exact same number on both dates: only the discount tier moved, and this is the one case out of two where the declared saving matches a real saving.

The practical advantage of checking the price history is exactly this: a Siemens showing minus 25 percent today really is cheaper than three weeks ago. A Bosch showing minus 30 percent for sixteen days straight is not.

Three checks that matter more than the badge

Before buying an appliance in the weeks around Black Friday, we at PortosEunostos check three things, in this order.

• Today's price against the price from a few weeks ago, not against the list price in the red box. If you have not tracked it yourself, a comparator such as SniffaPrezzi shows whether other retailers carry the same model at different figures.

• The technical sheet, not the brand. The two fridges in this comparison are identical on a hundred and eight fields out of a hundred and nine: same capacity, same noise level, same yearly consumption. Before letting the lower price decide for you, check that the cheaper model is not genuinely missing a feature you need.

• Availability, not just price. In October, nine Bosch twins out of thirteen were ready to ship, zero Siemens were. A discounted product that arrives in January is not a good deal if you need it before Christmas.

Tips from PortosEunostos

What to check in the product: the technical sheet (capacity, energy class, noise level) should match a model you already know, do not stop at comparing brand names.

How to judge the seller: a discount percentage that has been fixed for weeks is not information about how much you save, it is information about how that store calculates the price it shows. What matters is the absolute price, tracked over time.

Mistakes to avoid in the appliance Black Friday

• Choosing the brand with the higher badge instead of the product that fits: the twin comparison proves it, same appliance, different printed discount.

• Trusting a discount that has not moved in weeks: it is almost always a sign that the store is shifting the reference price, not the price you pay.

• Buying a model that is out of stock while thinking only about price, not about the delivery date.

• Forgetting that OpportunityCommerce and SniffaPrezzi play different roles: the first shows one store's commercial listing, the second compares several retailers. Neither certifies that a price is the lowest in absolute terms, only what you see that day on that site.

The Portos take

It makes sense to buy now if you have already picked the right model and today's price is lower than what you have seen over the past few weeks, as with the Siemens in this comparison: waiting for Black Friday does not guarantee a better price than the one you see today.

It makes sense to wait if you are still comparing different models, but keep tracking the price over time, not just on the day the badge shows the highest number.

There are more sensible approaches when you are chasing the percentage alone: stop for a moment before deciding. As the Bosch in this comparison shows, a badge that holds steady at 30 percent can hide a price that, in the meantime, has climbed 14 percent.

If your current fridge already has a few years on it, before looking at discounts read when it is actually worth replacing it: sometimes the real comparison is not between two discounted brands, but between repairing and replacing.

Sources

• Prices verified directly on OpportunityCommerce product pages on 22 October and 7 November 2026 (links in the text).

• Technical data for the four models: Bosch and Siemens EU information sheets, already cross-checked field by field in our comparison Bosch or Siemens: the same machine at two prices.

• SniffaPrezzi, for an independent price check across other retailers.

• Portos guides: how to choose a fridge and how to choose a dishwasher.