14 y.o. Refrigerator -- Try to Repair or Replace?

[Purple Cat]

My refrigerator is 14 years-old. It came with the house. It had problems while still under the home owner's warranty, and now, about six-months later, it is having major problems again. The ice maker rarely works. The refrigerator recently stopped keeping cool. The previous owners did little to no maintenance around here. I vacuumed huge amounts of dust and lint from underneath the refrigerator. That helped the freezer work better and marginally improved the refrigerator cooling. Now, water is condensing inside the refrig and dripping into the bottom of the refrig. Part of the seal on the side of the refrigerator is totally off.

 

We're on a tight budget. Is 14 years long enough for a refrig that I should simply move on and buy a new one? Any tips to try to fix it cheaply or easily? Any recommendations on the brand of refrigetator to buy? I'm a new home owner, so most of this is new to me.

 

Thanks!

[Lawana]

I vote for replace. One thing to consider is that newer models are much more energy efficient, so part of the replacement cost will be defrayed by lower energy usage. We have a Maytag that has served us well for the past 4-5 years.

[Princess Peach]

Maybe look on Craigslist for a used one (that is newer than yours, of course).

[happi duck]

We were in the same situation and I thought the old fridge was not perfect but passable. We finally had the chance to buy a new fridge...the difference is amazing! Produce is lasting much longer and frozen food is better too. I hadn't realized how much the temps were fluctuating and 'killing' our food before its time.

 

For us, replacing has been great. We found a good deal at a store that offered free delivery and zero interest for 18 months.

 

hth

[Krista in LA]

Another vote for replace. A guy we know who does appliance repair recommended Whirlpool when we asked him about refrigerators.

[KatieJ]

well, I vote to replace too, however.

 

Our fridge is about that old and was constanting dripping into the fridge. DH the wonderrepair man that he is, looked it up on the internet and found a free fix. Our fridge was manufactured with a built in flaw. The drain line ( from the freezer) is too cold to the cooling coil in the back and it freezes up. The fix was to thaw the fridge completly and run a copper wire up into that line..I am really not sure where that copper wire was connected to, but the end result is the line no longer freezes and my fridge works fine again. I am not saying that is what is wrong with your's, but if you really can't afford a new fridge, you could research this issue.

 

Sigh. I was dreaming about a new fridge for a while.