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Do you love your refrigerator? Hate it? I need a new one.


Lady Florida.
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My refrigerator is on its last legs and I don't want to wait until we're frantically putting food in coolers to have to choose one. It's been almost 20 years since I bought one (I'm aware that a newer one won't last that long) and I no longer know what brands to go for or stay away from.

 

My requirements are-

 

-mid-size

-NOT side by side

-prefer freezer on the bottom drawer style (I currently have a door style freezer on bottom)

-ice maker

-no water or ice on the door

 

I don't cook as much as I used to and I expect we'll be empty nesters some time in the next 5 years so I'm not looking for family size fridge with bells and whistles. 

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I just replaced our 25 year old fridge because I had no choice. It was a basic Kenmore, freezer on top. I loved that fridge.

 

My new fridge is a Maytag French door freezer on the bottom. I only got the French door because it was the only option in the size I needed. Turns out they don't make the size I had as standard anymore.

 

I do like no longer having to bend for the fridge anymore. The clear front fruit and vegetable drawers are helpful for my dh who likes to stare into the abyss in the hopes I meal will jump out at him.

 

I love how cold everything is. I didn't realize just how poorly the old fridge was doing.

 

However, I hate, that this freezer is smaller than my old one. I don't need that much fridge. I couldn't fit all the stuff from my old freezer into the new one. I miss my freezer shelves that made stacking everything easy.

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We have a Frigidaire side by side in the new (to us) house we just bought. Within 2 weeks of living here, the water dispenser just spontaneously started flowing. Luckily, I was standing right there and could pull the thing toward me while DH turned off the water line to the fridge. I have not been impressed. We are saving up for a new fridge, possibly during the Black Friday sales.

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My frig is what you're describing. Bottom freezer with an ice maker in the freezer, not in the door. I sometimes wish for my ds that I had gotten water or something in the door, but I didn't. I LOVE that it's cavernous inside and I despise the french door frigs. So to me if you know what you like, just go get it, kwim? I took everything from my frig in laundry baskets to Sears, put it all in a few, took pictures each time, and then I knew I had the right frig. For me the dealbreaker was condiments. We must use an absurd number of condiments, because a sXs frig just couldn't handle it! 

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The freezer drawer on my bottom freezer holds a ton. Now granted, honestly, I have a stand alone frig and a stand alone freezer in the mudroom, meaning I have some flex. If you want a ton of freezer space, it's not going to be. But I really like the slider drawer aspect. I put in my bags that are opened with partial stuff, scraps, half packs of bacon, that kind of thing, and the crazy thing is just eternal, always accepting a little more, lol. And there's usually room on the top pullout for me to freeze a 9X13 frozen dessert. It works for me.

 

As far as size, if this is your only frig, I would go with the biggest bottom freezer unit that works in your space. Bigger is always better on frigs. LIke I love mind, but it's not that full 36" or whatever. I didn't have it on that wall, so I went smaller, knowing I could. But like at Thanksgiving or when you have a lot of leftovers or need more space for tea for a party or whatever, you're toast. If you've only got one frig, go with whatever the biggest is that will fit your space. Besides, the new ones are so pretty. They're like a destination, with pretty lights and everything. :D

Edited by OhElizabeth
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We have a Samsung with French doors, freezer drawer on bottom. Absolutely love it. Got it six or so years ago and still am in awe.

My only complaint: I wish the ice maker was larger or I had bought the model with a second ice maker. We use a lot of ice. (Live in south)

 

We also have a Samsung with French doors that we bought five years ago and we hate it.  It has a known defect where it freezes up causing one of the drawers to get ice buildup under it and the giant drawer won't open until the ice is removed.  My friend had the same refrigerator and it broke due to the defect after just a couple of years and she had to fight Samsung to get it replaced.  There are other problems, too, but that is the most serious one.  

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We also have a Samsung with French doors that we bought five years ago and we hate it.  It has a known defect where it freezes up causing one of the drawers to get ice buildup under it and the giant drawer won't open until the ice is removed.  My friend had the same refrigerator and it broke due to the defect after just a couple of years and she had to fight Samsung to get it replaced.  There are other problems, too, but that is the most serious one.  

 

Yes! We have two Samsung fridges and one of them has that problem (the other one has a different design without the big drawer).

 

My other complaint is that the shelves and drawers are made of flimsy plastic. We have duct tape holding some of the shelves together because they have broken from regular, every day use.  :glare:

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I have a counter-depth french door  GEprofile.   dh complains it's not big enough - but it replaced a 29cf SxS.  that thing stuck so far into the room, I hated it.

 

make sure any interior "half-width" drawers will open with only one door open.

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Yes! We have two Samsung fridges and one of them has that problem (the other one has a different design without the big drawer).

 

My other complaint is that the shelves and drawers are made of flimsy plastic. We have duct tape holding some of the shelves together because they have broken from regular, every day use.  :glare:

 

Yes, we have so much trouble with one drawer and the flimsy plastic.  Ours hasn't broken yet, but we have to maneuver it a certain way at times and try not to put stuff in there that the kids will want because it gets stuck to the point where you can't close the refrigerator.  It's too expensive of a refrigerator to have to deal with that!  

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We moved into our new house about a month ago with a side-by-side.  I hate that thing.  I'm already looking at early Black Fri sales.  

 

At the old our we had a Samsung French door with ice/water on the door.  The ice maker broke probably 2 yrs into owning it.   We got a scratch and dent, so in order to get ready to sell the house I bought another French Door but with the ice-dispenser in the freezer.   I actually missed having the water available on the door, but I can't find any models that have water without an ice dispenser.  

 

The things I  do like about the side-by-side I currently have is that the dispenser seems pretty solid (could be wrong), and it's easy to grab ice out of the fridge if you want a lot of it fast (or you're trying to be quieter about getting ice).   It's a GE profile.   

 

So I'm toying with biting the bullet and getting another French Door with ice/water on the door.  I'll be getting a GE Profile this time as I think they are better made than the Samsung.

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We have a Samsung with French doors, freezer drawer on bottom. Absolutely love it. Got it six or so years ago and still am in awe.

My only complaint: I wish the ice maker was larger or I had bought the model with a second ice maker. We use a lot of ice. (Live in south)

 

 

We have a GE Profile, which is exactly the same as the high end Samsung (same manufacturer, different cosmetics).  We've had it about 8 years, and I love it!  The ice maker just bit the dust, but it's easy to change it out (I just haven't done it yet).  

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I had a whirlpool side by side that I loved but when it died I replaced it with the newest version of the same fridge.  Which was awesome because I could take some of the extra door shelves from the old fridge and put them in the new fridge.  I have tons of condiment, milk/juice space.  Plus the shelves are wide enough that I can fit an entire half of a sheet pan on any shelf or I can set it on the extra braces in to the wall and make an additional shelf.  Love this fridge.  Sadly they have made the drawers of out the new clear plastic and this stuff does not hold up to use.  All the connectors broke and the drawer fronts came off.  I actually bought new drawers (which aren't particularly cheap) and duck taped them before putting them into use but they've still managed to break again.  And they no longer make a side by side that is this big (mine is 31 cubits).  So I'm hunting around but I absolutely hate those pull out drawers for freezers (not to mention I have an island right across from it so to open the drawer fully I would have to stand off to the side).

 

I'm currently eyeing the Samsung flex doors (where one of the freezer compartments can be a fridge or a freezer but there have been quite a few reports of problems with the water/ice unit that I'm leary.  I may end up with my broken drawers for another year with the hopes they will introduce some better options in the next year.

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My frig is what you're describing. Bottom freezer with an ice maker in the freezer, not in the door. I sometimes wish for my ds that I had gotten water or something in the door, but I didn't. I LOVE that it's cavernous inside and I despise the french door frigs. So to me if you know what you like, just go get it, kwim? I took everything from my frig in laundry baskets to Sears, put it all in a few, took pictures each time, and then I knew I had the right frig. For me the dealbreaker was condiments. We must use an absurd number of condiments, because a sXs frig just couldn't handle it!

You did WHAT???? Seriously?

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One regret that I have with our newer fridge (Kenmore) - It has a bit of a gap in the back of the shelves. Sometimes things fall off the back of the shelf and get lodged behind the vegetable drawer. I have to get into contortions to remove the items that fall. I didn't notice the gap in the store, because new and shiny, lol. 

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I do not recommend an LG. The only reason we got it was because it fit in the space that we had and I have been very disappointed. The freezer door will come open. Shelves have broken. I am dreaming of redoing my kitchen so I can get a new fridge.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Edited by ealp2009
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We have a Samsung with French doors, a drawer underneath the fridge that can be refrigerator or freezer space, and a freezer drawer on the bottom.  I love the freezer, I like the middle drawer, but other than that I hate my fridge!  It's only 3.5 years old and I can't wait to get rid of it.  The stainless steel exterior shows fingerprints and water drops and they are difficult if not impossible to remove.  There was a sticker that went across the top of the fridge that I've never been able to completely buff out (no one would notice but me, but I see it).  The ice maker is terrible---sometimes it makes ice, and most of the time it just freezes a big chunk of water that has to be chipped away and removed.  To make that matter worse, it's difficult to remove the ice box.  The water and ice dispenser on the door is also a big thumbs down.  It is awkwardly shaped, slow, and our ice dispenser will dispense a shot of water (probably a few melted cubes of ice) into your cup before it dispenses ice, so if you are drinking something other than water, it will water down the drink.  Also, it's not tall enough for most water bottles, and the ledge isn't deep enough for a bottle to sit on it, so you have to hold the cup or whatever.  I can't count on ice to be available, so I buy ice and it takes up precious space in my bottom freezer, which is sad considering that I have an expensive fridge.

 

Once inside the fridge, there isn't enough tall space for milk, tea, etc.  There are lots of shelves but I do so much rearranging.  The crisper isn't large enough for a fridge this large.  The door shelves are nice and deep, which is great.  But the spring on the door is messed up (we don't know what happened, it just literally quit working) and it was expensive to fix, so my dh fixed it, and it held up for about a year and now it's messed up again.  So you have to shut the left side before the right side because the spring is messed up.  

 

In our previous home, we had a Kenmore Elite and it was wonderful.  It was practical.  There were these awesome bins on the fridge door that held fruit for easy access and we loved that.  The ice maker and water dispenser were amazing.  I could press a button to have the fridge dispense a certain amount of water in ounces or cup measurements.  It was deep enough that I could place any of my cups/glasses and one of my pitchers on the ledge beneath the water and leave it to dispense the proper amount of water.  If you had a tall container, the dispenser would pop out and you could fill something tall.  Never had a problem with it.  The fingerprints buffed out much easier than on my Samsung.  I would have loved to have taken it to our next home, but it became part of the negotiations of the house and so we bought a new one.

 

I am the kind of person that would gladly keep using something for a long time until it fell apart.  I don't have to have the best and the latest things.  But this fridge has brought out my inner brat, and I am so ready to get a new fridge.  

 

People that come to my house love my fridge and we've had so many oohs and aahs over it.  I try to hide my disgust so that I won't seem ungrateful.  I told my dh that it is a great party fridge---it can hold lots of drinks, a giant cake, and trays of food, and it looks cool, but it is NOT a good fridge for everyday use.  

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My frig is what you're describing. Bottom freezer with an ice maker in the freezer, not in the door. I sometimes wish for my ds that I had gotten water or something in the door, but I didn't. I LOVE that it's cavernous inside and I despise the french door frigs. So to me if you know what you like, just go get it, kwim? I took everything from my frig in laundry baskets to Sears, put it all in a few, took pictures each time, and then I knew I had the right frig. For me the dealbreaker was condiments. We must use an absurd number of condiments, because a sXs frig just couldn't handle it!

This is cracking me up. :lol:

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When we move back into our house I've picked out a kitchenaid that I love. Haven't used it yet but it gets rave reviews. I fell in love with in the store. It is French door on top. The middle drawer is split into two exterior drawers for produce, yogurt, hummus, etc--quick items to grab without opening the stupid drawers all the time. The bottom freezer has three layers of storage. The shelves are all adjustable to fit taller items when necessary. It has measured fill (program a cup or a liter or whatever and push the button and walk away).

 

It's this one:

https://m.lowes.com/pd/KitchenAid-25-8-cu-ft-5-Door-French-Door-Refrigerator-with-Ice-Maker-Stainless-Steel/50413062

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I cleaned out my fridge today. I’m thinking I should have gone smaller to avoid losing things. Still even after purging for freshness, my door is storing an obscene amount of condiments. 4 shelves full and one empty one waiting for fresh replacemtnts. They need their own one-jar-deep mini-fridge contraption. It could hang on the wall like a picture.

 

I have got to get better about food waste.

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The next fridge I get is going to be a French door one, with only 3 compartments.

I like the idea of the separately accessible/separate temperature 4th compartment, but when I saw how much room you lose what with the doors and top, bottom, and insulation, it's not worth it to me.

 

I'm going to order one without an ice maker, and not install the water dispenser.  Our water here tastes bad and has a lot of calcium in it, so I don't want to drink it anyway.  I'm going to buy a stand alone ice maker that you fill manually each time you use it, and make ice with good water whenever we need it.  This is the one:  https://www.lowes.com/pd/NewAir-28-lb-Portable-Ice-Maker-Stainless-Steel-and-Black/1000207639

 

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The next fridge I get is going to be a French door one, with only 3 compartments.

I like the idea of the separately accessible/separate temperature 4th compartment, but when I saw how much room you lose what with the doors and top, bottom, and insulation, it's not worth it to me.

 

I'm going to order one without an ice maker, and not install the water dispenser.  Our water here tastes bad and has a lot of calcium in it, so I don't want to drink it anyway.  I'm going to buy a stand alone ice maker that you fill manually each time you use it, and make ice with good water whenever we need it.  This is the one:  https://www.lowes.com/pd/NewAir-28-lb-Portable-Ice-Maker-Stainless-Steel-and-Black/1000207639

 

Usually the water is filtered.  They have filters you have to change every so often (couple of years depending on usage).   I prefer filtered water from my fridge over tap water too.

 

Are you concerned the calcium will clog the line eventually?

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A friend of mine warned me to stay away from the French door fridges that have a wide door inside the French doors. She has to open both her French doors to pull out her meat and deli drawer and she hates it

I love my wide drawer. It holds so much.

 

But we usually open both doors anyway, unless we're just grabbing something out of the door.

 

I have a Kenmore french door with water only (and an ice maker in the freezer) in the door. I love it, but it is huge, so probably not what OP is looking for.

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Get one on Craigslist.   There are many perfectly fine fridges being sold because people are moving and the fridge isn't a part of the house sale.   Price difference is huge.  

 

I do hate the side-by-side.   I like to make chocolate chip cookies with butter.   If I could put them on a small bar pan with the balled cookies into the fridge they wouldn't flatten so much.  But I can't fit any of mine in there.  

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Usually the water is filtered.  They have filters you have to change every so often (couple of years depending on usage).   I prefer filtered water from my fridge over tap water too.

 

Are you concerned the calcium will clog the line eventually?

Yes, it is also why I don't have a drip watering system.  You should see the bottom of my teakettle--every so often I pour in a quart of white vinegar, let it sit overnight, and try to get all the white stuff out.

 

But also, just in general, our water tastes terrible, and a simple filter doesn't fix that--it needs a more complicated system with reverse osmosis and several filters, like Rayne.  Instead, we bring 3 gallon jugs of water back from our trips to the Sierras or I fill them at my office with Alhambra water for drinking.  So getting a water dispenser hooked up in our fridge has never appealed to me, and even the ice cube trays get limed up unless we use that jugged water, releasing white flakes into our cold drinks, ugh.

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Thanks everyone. I'm going to start looking at different brands/models and pricing them, and will keep your responses in mind. I told dh I don't want to be in the situation we were in with our washing machine. It broke and I was going to the laundromat while we decided on a replacement. 

 

 

I hate hate hate my side by side. Never ever again. It was the only fridge with an ice maker that would fit in the opening I had.

 

I had a side by side once. That was one too many times. Never again.

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I have loved my fridge.  It is an Amana and is 26 years old - I have definitely got my money's worth!  It is avocado green and missing the original door handle (DH made a replacement out of pvc).

 

We have to replace it as part of our kitchen remodel this winter as it won't fit in the new space.  So I went to look at new fridges and the Amanas are - well - flakey.  The plastic bits were thin and the ice maker takes up a huge amount of the interior space (much more than in my 26yo one!)

 

So currently I am fridge-shopping again - no side-by-side for me and freezer below too.  But thanks to this thread, I am going to look for gaps behind the shelves and hopefully a light in the back!

 

ETA: I read to DH the post about taking everything in laundry baskets to see if it would fit in the fridge.  He thought that sounded like a Great Idea!

Edited by AK_Mom4
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I have loved my fridge.  It is an Amana and is 26 years old - I have definitely got my money's worth!  It is avocado green and missing the original door handle (DH made a replacement out of pvc).

 

We have to replace it as part of our kitchen remodel this winter as it won't fit in the new space.  So I went to look at new fridges and the Amanas are - well - flakey.  The plastic bits were thin and the ice maker takes up a huge amount of the interior space (much more than in my 26yo one!)

 

So currently I am fridge-shopping again - no side-by-side for me and freezer below too.  But thanks to this thread, I am going to look for gaps behind the shelves and hopefully a light in the back!

 

The one I'm going to have to replace is an Amana and I love it. It's about 20 years old and was actually my mother's. When she passed I took it from her house and put mine there before we listed the house. I wasn't sure though if Amana is still a good brand because I know those things change, especially if one company gets bought by another. Your post confirms my suspicions. :(

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My LG isn’t going to be what you want (it’s a large sized top freezer model), but I like it fine in its layout and size. However, I can tell they cut corners in quality — not as sturdy plastics, the seal on the freezer isn’t the strongest (we’ve had it replaced once already, and we’ve only had it a few years, and it’s still not spectacular). It works, but I don’t know that I’d go with another LG. Then again, the Amana bottom drawer freezer we had before that was a pain in the neck too, and it was a much higher end model. Maybe none of the refrigerators are “Tonka Tough†enough for us anymore!

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A friend of mine warned me to stay away from the French door fridges that have a wide door inside the French doors. She has to open both her French doors to pull out her meat and deli drawer and she hates it

 

I have a French door fridge, and opening both doors for the deli drawer was a non-issue for me. I use one of the smaller drawers for meat, the other for fruits/veggies, and use the long meat/deli drawer for cheese and deli. I love having the wide space.

 

What was a problem with my first GE French Door fridge is that the seal between the doors cracked, and the replacement was very pricey. That one also only lasted about 8 years, compared to my old (harvest gold) Tappan fridge.  

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I have loved my fridge.  It is an Amana and is 26 years old - I have definitely got my money's worth!  It is avocado green and missing the original door handle (DH made a replacement out of pvc).

 

We have to replace it as part of our kitchen remodel this winter as it won't fit in the new space.  So I went to look at new fridges and the Amanas are - well - flakey.  The plastic bits were thin and the ice maker takes up a huge amount of the interior space (much more than in my 26yo one!)

 

So currently I am fridge-shopping again - no side-by-side for me and freezer below too.  But thanks to this thread, I am going to look for gaps behind the shelves and hopefully a light in the back!

 

ETA: I read to DH the post about taking everything in laundry baskets to see if it would fit in the fridge.  He thought that sounded like a Great Idea!

 

Hey, I'm still rocking a 1973 harvest gold Tappan range in my kitchen! When I first moved in I hated the color and was determined to replace it. I didn't have the funds so I waited, then I watched as my friends all bought new ranges and had loads of trouble with them. Some of my friends have had three in the 25 years since I've lived with this one. Plus the gold has grown on me. One of these days I'll get around to replacing it...

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One thing I would caution about the french door fridges... make sure you get a brand where either door can open or close separately.  It's really annoying when we go to a relatives home and cannot open or close the left door without first opening the right.

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I do not recommend an LG. The only reason we got it was because it fit in the space that we had and I have been very disappointed. The freezer door will come open. Shelves have broken. I am dreaming of redoing my kitchen so I can get a new fridge.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

We bought an LG fridge (freezer on the bottom, but large capacity) about 3 years ago. It's been problematic the entire time, I've seen the repair people more than I've seen my mother. I'm glad we bought the extended warranty. We're already looking into replacing it.

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A few further things:

1.  The last time I asked about this, people here wanted me that some of the newer electronic fridges do not reset themselves back on if the power flickers off and then on.  I asked appliance store guys about this and they more or less admitted that that can be a problem, but suggested surge protectors to reduce the electrical impulse impact and maybe help prevent this.

2.  On the other hand, the non-electronic fridges are cheaper and much more noisy, which is unacceptable in a great room.

3.  So, we are between the proverbial rock and hard place for our cabin.  Finally I decided to buy a newer electronic one for our house, accepting that it might mean occasional total losses of food, and take our old reliable pretty quiet one up to the cabin where it will be truly appreciated.

4.  However, transporting a fridge all that way is not trivial.  We will probably break it.  :(  But we are going to try our best.

5.  We have a spot in the garage where we used to keep an old fridge, unplugged, for overflow use.  Since we don't have one that works right now, I am seriously considering buying an older but quiet one on Craigslist and putting it out there for a while to make sure that it works well before bringing it inside.  Hopefully that would enable us to evaluate it without too much disruption.

 

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