Fridge recommendation?

[Ausmumof3]

Any specific fridge recommendations?  Style, size, brand anything else?  Is there an official Hive approved fridge?

family of 5, semi rural so we don't want to shop too often...

[Spryte]

Not LG.  I can’t say that enough.

 

A $4 part in the back of our fairly new one sprung a pinhole leak.  Slow.  Never visible.  Until we saw the floor warping.  $20K for continuous hardwood.  Ouch.  Using a better quality part (like the one we used to repair it) would have fixed it.  

Ice maker is a pain.

But it’s pretty.  And huge.  

[Ellie]

2 hours ago, Ausmumof3 said:

Any specific fridge recommendations?  Style, size, brand anything else?  Is there an official Hive approved fridge?

family of 5, semi rural so we don't want to shop too often...

As long as the freezer is on the bottom, the rest is up to you. :-)

Mr. Ellie and I look at fridges all the time, because ours is 20 years old, and when it dies, we want to be ready to buy one. We do not want water and ice in the door--I've read too many comments here about leaky water lines. o_0 Most bottom-freezer models now have french upper doors; I'm going to have to ponder that, because usually the doors are quite thick, with storage on them, so that the inner shelves are necessarily narrower than the shelves I have in mine. I keep flour and sugar in Tupperware Modular Mates in my fridge, so I need to be sure there will be room on the shelves for them in the new fridge.

Some bottom freezers have a couple of pull-out, shallower drawers in them. I want those. I think it would keep that freezer drawer--and I love the freezer on the bottom--from being too much of a black hole.

I probably have no really good reason, but I'm going to stick with Frigidaire or Whirlpool models. I'm just a little creeped out by LG and Samsung, lol.

[Carrie12345]

We're on fridge # 3 or 4 in 13 years. (I lost count.) Different brand each time.  I don't think any one is automatically more reliable than the next.

We've never messed with a water line.  At least two of ours have come with one (internal ice makers, no dispensers) but our kitchen wasn't already set up for one, and I'm grateful we didn't decide to make it.  However, the kids accidentally turned an ice maker on once, and we thought that yet another fridge was dying b/c of the horrible sounds it would make periodically!

I am devoted to bottom freezers, but I do have to keep barking at the kids (even the teens) to quit leaning on it while it's open.  I've even found myself putting too much weight on it while pondering dinner.

[SamanthaCarter]

I’m in the market for one. I don’t care about freezer top or bottom, but I absolutely do not want side by side. I hate it as much as I hated my minivan . ?

I do want counter depth, ice maker but probably not water/ice dispenser on the front. That’s what’s causing most of our troubles with current fridge. There’s a drip down the front of the door. 

Essentially I want the largest capacity I can get in a small footprint.

Ideas? 

[Ausmumof3]

23 hours ago, Spryte said:

Not LG.  I can’t say that enough.

 

A $4 part in the back of our fairly new one sprung a pinhole leak.  Slow.  Never visible.  Until we saw the floor warping.  $20K for continuous hardwood.  Ouch.  Using a better quality part (like the one we used to repair it) would have fixed it.  

Ice maker is a pain.

But it’s pretty.  And huge.  

Well this is helpful!  We had a good run with an lg washing machine.  So was considering looking at them.  Good to know.

[Ausmumof3]

22 hours ago, Ellie said:

As long as the freezer is on the bottom, the rest is up to you. ?

Mr. Ellie and I look at fridges all the time, because ours is 20 years old, and when it dies, we want to be ready to buy one. We do not want water and ice in the door--I've read too many comments here about leaky water lines. o_0 Most bottom-freezer models now have french upper doors; I'm going to have to ponder that, because usually the doors are quite thick, with storage on them, so that the inner shelves are necessarily narrower than the shelves I have in mine. I keep flour and sugar in Tupperware Modular Mates in my fridge, so I need to be sure there will be room on the shelves for them in the new fridge.

Some bottom freezers have a couple of pull-out, shallower drawers in them. I want those. I think it would keep that freezer drawer--and I love the freezer on the bottom--from being too much of a black hole.

I probably have no really good reason, but I'm going to stick with Frigidaire or Whirlpool models. I'm just a little creeped out by LG and Samsung, lol.

I really like the look of the freezer on bottom with a French drawer fridge but they probably won't be in the budget.

[Ausmumof3]

18 hours ago, Carrie12345 said:

We're on fridge # 3 or 4 in 13 years. (I lost count.) Different brand each time.  I don't think any one is automatically more reliable than the next.

We've never messed with a water line.  At least two of ours have come with one (internal ice makers, no dispensers) but our kitchen wasn't already set up for one, and I'm grateful we didn't decide to make it.  However, the kids accidentally turned an ice maker on once, and we thought that yet another fridge was dying b/c of the horrible sounds it would make periodically!

I am devoted to bottom freezers, but I do have to keep barking at the kids (even the teens) to quit leaning on it while it's open.  I've even found myself putting too much weight on it while pondering dinner.

Ugh!  Ours is 8.5 years old. They say average is 13 but other than the really old fridges it doesn't seem like many last that long.

[Ellie]

11 minutes ago, Ausmumof3 said:

I really like the look of the freezer on bottom with a French drawer fridge but they probably won't be in the budget.

You might be able to find a bottom-freezer fridge that *doesn't* have french doors on the top for about the same price as a top-freezer model.

Or were you thinking of a side-by-side as being less expensive?

[Spryte]

19 minutes ago, Ausmumof3 said:

Well this is helpful!  We had a good run with an lg washing machine.  So was considering looking at them.  Good to know.

 

Glad it was helpful, I hated to just throw out a negative “don’t buy this” type of post.  

We didn’t choose ours, it came with our house and was almost new, so of course we didn’t replace it.  

But the repair guy (for the fridge) and the water mitigation guy both said they see a lot of problems with LG, so ... I probably wouldn’t buy one again.

I hope you find a great new fridge!

[Ottakee]

Just never, ever, never get a side by side.  I have disliked mine since the day I bought it but we had very limited space and wanted ice/water in the door (2 major leaks so that is no more either).

[Carol in Cal.]

There are a couple of Samsungs now that have a compartment that can be switched between freezer and fridge temperatures, called a Flexzone.

That sounds really attractive to me, since I like to have a lot of produce around, so I could imagine setting up the two produce drawers AND half the freezer space for produce.  This is the one I have been impressed with, if only it came in a 32 or 33 inch width!  https://www.build.com/samsung-rf23j9011/s1128594?uid=2709513&source=gg-gba-pla_2709513!c1056341489!a53525213922!dc!ng&gclid=EAIaIQobChMI_qiNlf2Q2wIVxkCGCh27YAvnEAQYAiABEgKkrvD_BwE

However, I do not kid myself that this will be reliable, because these days none of them are.  It is, however, very quiet (I checked.)

I was all ready to get this one, until I read the reviews.  https://www.homedepot.com/p/Samsung-21-1-cu-ft-Top-Freezer-Refrigerator-with-FlexZone-Freezer-in-Stainless-Energy-Star-RT21M6213SR/301367477

It's the right size, has no water handling junk, even the ice maker is optional, and the freezer (which is on top) can be set at Fridge temperatures.  The only real drawback that I could see was that the produce drawers are basically both at floor level.  But it turns out that this baby does not maintain cool fridge temps consistently.  Um, that's a no.

[Ausmumof3]

23 minutes ago, Carol in Cal. said:

There are a couple of Samsungs now that have a compartment that can be switched between freezer and fridge temperatures, called a Flexzone.

That sounds really attractive to me, since I like to have a lot of produce around, so I could imagine setting up the two produce drawers AND half the freezer space for produce.  This is the one I have been impressed with, if only it came in a 32 or 33 inch width!  https://www.build.com/samsung-rf23j9011/s1128594?uid=2709513&source=gg-gba-pla_2709513!c1056341489!a53525213922!dc!ng&gclid=EAIaIQobChMI_qiNlf2Q2wIVxkCGCh27YAvnEAQYAiABEgKkrvD_BwE

However, I do not kid myself that this will be reliable, because these days none of them are.  It is, however, very quiet (I checked.)

I was all ready to get this one, until I read the reviews.  https://www.homedepot.com/p/Samsung-21-1-cu-ft-Top-Freezer-Refrigerator-with-FlexZone-Freezer-in-Stainless-Energy-Star-RT21M6213SR/301367477

It's the right size, has no water handling junk, even the ice maker is optional, and the freezer (which is on top) can be set at Fridge temperatures.  The only real drawback that I could see was that the produce drawers are basically both at floor level.  But it turns out that this baby does not maintain cool fridge temps consistently.  Um, that's a no.

I just put a thermometer in the fridge and it's running at 9degrees Celsius.  Should be between zero and four.  That probably explains why our produce hasn't been lasting

[milovany]

We have had a fridge-only fridge (no freezer) for eight years.  I love it.  So much space and it's running strong.  If I recall correctly, it can be switched to freezer only, so when we were ready to purchase a new freezer, we bought the same/similar thing from Sears online and run it as freezer only.  I wish I could fit them side by side in my kitchen, but I can't, so the freezer is in the mudroom.  Have I mentioned that I love my fridge-only fridge?  Love it. 

[bethben]

I have a GE 27 cu ft French door fridge with no water dispenser.  It’s huge, the lighting is great and I can do my grocery shopping at Costco with no thought to “can I fit all this in the fridge”.  It does have an internal ice maker in the freezer but we didn’t hook it up.  Love the space.

[6packofun]

21 hours ago, milovany said:

We have had a fridge-only fridge (no freezer) for eight years.  I love it.  So much space and it's running strong.  If I recall correctly, it can be switched to freezer only, so when we were ready to purchase a new freezer, we bought the same/similar thing from Sears online and run it as freezer only.  I wish I could fit them side by side in my kitchen, but I can't, so the freezer is in the mudroom.  Have I mentioned that I love my fridge-only fridge?  Love it. 

 

OK, I must learn more.  Can you show me your model or one like it?  Can they be found at Lowe's or Home Depot, etc.?

[milovany]

On 5/19/2018 at 9:19 PM, 6packofun said:

 

OK, I must learn more.  Can you show me your model or one like it?  Can they be found at Lowe's or Home Depot, etc.?

 

Sorry, just saw this.

This is not the model we have but is available at Sears (where we purchased ours) --> http://www.sears.com/kenmore-22052-20.2-cu-ft-convertible-refrigerator-freezer-white/p-04622052000P?plpSellerId=Sears&prdNo=6&blockNo=6&blockType=G6

Here are some options at Lowes --> https://www.lowes.com/pl/Freezerless-refrigerators-Refrigerators-Appliances/4294788929

And Home Depot --> https://www.homedepot.com/b/Appliances-Refrigerators-Freezerless-Refrigerators/N-5yc1vZc3p9