Refrigerator brands - love? hate?

[Lady Florida.]

Again last night our ancient 20+yo Amana was making scary noises. We've had it limp along for a while and the last time it was repaired the repair man told me to expect it to go at any time. I keep putting off refrigerator shopping because they're so expensive and there are too many choices but I think I need to seriously be ready to replace this one before it becomes an emergency and we lose food.

What I want - French door style with bottom freezer. Ice maker. 

What I don't want or would only buy if the price made it foolish to ignore - ice and water dispenser.

I want ice always available but I don't feel the need to have it conveniently on the door. We don't use it often enough for that. Also, we have a water dispenser because our city water tastes awful. 

ETA: I also don't need a large one. 

Edited December 10, 2018 by Lady Florida.

[Carol in Cal.]

I bought a new fridge last year.

What I learned:

1.  Ice makers are very slow, reportedly.  They take a long time to make any ice, and to START making ice.  So I figured that the newish ones would not keep up with our desire for it.

2.  They are also noisy and unreliable.

3.  Ice and water handling on high end, quiet fridges take up a ton of internal space.  That is a problem for me as I have a constricted fridge area.

4.  All fridges are underpowered right now, to save on energy by avoiding cycling and running a lot of the time as well as by not keeping stuff as cold as I am accustomed to.  That also contributes to them being somewhat unreliable.  So avoiding running them in a very warm room is more important now than it ever used to be.

5.  There is no Speed Queen equivalent reliability brand for fridges.  (Or dishwashers, unfortunately.  Hence the reason we are keeping our old noisy one that sound like a garbage truck that is seriously ill.)  All fridge brands have about 10-15% lemons, and the rest questionable long term reliability, even the high end ones.  The quiet ones are all electronic, which has reliability issues of its own.

6.  Conclusion—I needed a ‘beater’ fridge in the basement for inevitable loss of reliability.  Solution—dented, returned but new $200 noisy ugly one from Lowe’s.  And I needed a quiet fridge without water handling for the kitchen.  Solution—Samsung fridge with the top compartment being adjustable between fridge and freezer temperatures, and no water handling or ice making installed.  I mostly used the basement fridge for frozen stuff since it’s more reliable (not electronic, and in a colder space) so things are less likely to spoil there.  That way I can use the upstairs one to make ice in trays in decent quantities.

7.  Codicil—I use covered ice cube trays except when I’m making a ton of ice at once.  That way the ice lasts in the freezer despite the unavoidable defrost cycling.  Also, since the Samsung is underpowered, it has a ‘power cycle’ setting that whooshes more cooling into the compartments than normal, and I put that on in the freezer compartment whenever I’m making a lot of ice at once.  

[PrincessMommy]

I have a Samsung I'm very happy with.  French Door, bottom freezer, ice maker but not an ice dispenser (those always break on us).  I love it.  Just wish I could have fit a bigger one in kitchen.   It has a water filter/ dispenser on the inside door of the fridge.

Edited December 10, 2018 by PrincessMommy

[Carol in Cal.]

PS. I really wanted a French door style with a bottom freezer and a wide fridge drawer with adjustable temps, but those took up so much room with water and ice handling that I abandoned that desire.  Also, the ice makers are so slow now that you can’t turn them off overnight and expect to get ice in time for lunch the next day, and I didn’t want the noise overnight, so I abandoned the desire for ice making in the bottom freezer as well.  YMMV, but for me the noise factor was significant.

[Lady Florida.]

Just now, PrincessMommy said:

I have a Samsung I'm very happy with.  French Door, bottom freezer, ice maker but not an ice dispenser (those always break on us).  I love it.  Just wish I could have fit a bigger one in kitchen.  

That sounds exactly like what I want and I don't even need a big one. When I look online every one I see with an ice maker has the dispenser. 

[PrincessMommy]

1 minute ago, Carol in Cal. said:

PS. I really wanted a French door style with a bottom freezer and a wide fridge drawer with adjustable temps, but those took up so much room with water and ice handling that I abandoned that desire.  Also, the ice makers are so slow now that you can’t turn them off overnight and expect to get ice in time for lunch the next day, and I didn’t want the noise overnight, so I abandoned the desire for ice making in the bottom freezer as well.  YMMV, but for me the noise factor was significant.

That is interesting.  My ice maker isn't noisy and I'm pretty sensitive to noise.  Ours seems to make ice pretty quickly and I have to turn it off because it makes way more than we use in a normal week.  I'll turn it back on when it starts to get low.  

[Kassia]

We have a Samsung stainless steel french door refrigerator and hate it.  Ours has a known defect (which we didn't know about when we bought it) and the drawers are cheap plastic and get stuck.  I'm not a fan of the pull-out freezer drawer either, but that's not Samsung's fault.  

 

[Lady Florida.]

1 minute ago, PrincessMommy said:

That is interesting.  My ice maker isn't noisy and I'm pretty sensitive to noise.  Ours seems to make ice pretty quickly and I have to turn it off because it makes way more than we use in a normal week.  I'll turn it back on when it starts to get low.  

I'm looking on Samsung's website and there are more options, including what I'm looking for. I had been going to appliance sites and review sites instead of brand specific sites. Consumer Reports, who I don't always trust after an issue over their Nook vs. Kindle reviews years ago, says LG and Samsung are the brands to buy. OTOH, I've heard I should stay away from both of those. Sigh. That's what makes it so hard. 

I guess I think I'm buying something that will last 20-25 years even though I know that's now how long appliances last anymore. 

[Carol in Cal.]

Pro tip—go on the Lowe’s website and read the reviews of any machine you’re seriously considering.

Also, just in general, we are considering adding insulation to the sides of our Samsung since it is in an enclosure, but are concerned that this will mess with the needed ventilation despite adding insulation to keep the interior cooler.

[Carol in Cal.]

8 minutes ago, PrincessMommy said:

That is interesting.  My ice maker isn't noisy and I'm pretty sensitive to noise.  Ours seems to make ice pretty quickly and I have to turn it off because it makes way more than we use in a normal week.  I'll turn it back on when it starts to get low.  

Don’t you hear the ice crashing down into the containers?  I’ve never been around an ice maker that didn’t make noise then, but maybe they exist!

[PrincessMommy]

Just now, Lady Florida. said:

I'm looking on Samsung's website and there are more options, including what I'm looking for. I had been going to appliance sites and review sites instead of brand specific sites. Consumer Reports, who I don't always trust after an issue over their Nook vs. Kindle reviews years ago, says LG and Samsung are the brands to buy. OTOH, I've heard I should stay away from both of those. Sigh. That's what makes it so hard. 

I guess I think I'm buying something that will last 20-25 years even though I know that's now how long appliances last anymore. 

I know what you mean!    

But, I have to change what I said... I thought it was a Samsung but that was the fridge at our  old house. I loved that fridge except the outside ice dispenser, which broke.  What I have currently (which I described) is a *Whirlpool*.  I got it only because the previous owner had just updated all the appliances with a particular type of grey from Whirlpool and I wanted it to match (the fridge was a side-by-side, which I loathe).  Anyway, this is the one I have:

https://www.lowes.com/pd/Whirlpool-25-2-cu-ft-French-Door-Refrigerator-with-Ice-Maker-Fingerprint-Resistant-Black-Stainless-ENERGY-STAR/1000257809

I still recommend Samsung - I just don't recommend an outside ice dispenser as we've never ever had any luck with those. We've have a couple different brands with that feature.  They always broke within 2yrs.   Those are loud too...which is really annoying when someone wants to get ice either early in the morning or late at night.  

 

 

[PrincessMommy]

Just now, Carol in Cal. said:

Don’t you hear the ice crashing down into the containers?  I’ve never been around an ice maker that didn’t make noise then, but maybe they exist!

yes, I guess there is that sound...but I don't notice it - even at night.  It also makes the noise when it's filling up with water.   

[May]

We have a Whirlpool Gold. It was bought because we have another Whirlpool appliance, it was in stock and they could deliver within two days. We had company coming and had no backup frig. It is now 7 years old. The ice maker has had to be replaced and we’ve had one other repair. The repair guy said ice makers usually last between 5-7 years, which was good to know. Ours is a French door, with an ice and water dispenser. DH hates that feature because he thinks the ice gets contaminated and it’s a leak ready to happen. We’ve known 2 families that had expensive damage to flooring and bottom kitchen cabinets caused by a leak in the dispenser. I love the feature because I like ice and find myself drinking more water. Good luck😊

[Carol in Cal.]

PS. The Samsung feature that lets you switch temperatures in one area is called ‘Flexzone’ and I love it.  It is what reconciled me to having a top freezer, because I can use it as a fridge space when needed.  Since I don’t keep anything in it permanently, I can set it as a fridge area and put a cookie sheet sized tray across the whole thing, just like one of those fridge drawers.  I can make 8 trays of ice at once if it’s set on freeze.  I can plunk a whole IKEA bag of fridge groceries in it if I don’t have time to stash them properly if I set it on fridge.  I really wanted a bottom freezer but this has worked out beautifully.

[Momto6inIN]

I have an LG and  years later it's still the best present I've ever received! Seriously, at least weekly I catch myself saying, "I love my fridge!" because it just fits so much stuff in it! I do have one of the huge ones, but they had smaller models too. It's French door style with freezer on bottom and ice and water dispenser. I don't think the dispensers cut down on space much at all.

[Lady Florida.]

11 minutes ago, Kassia said:

We have a Samsung stainless steel french door refrigerator and hate it.  Ours has a known defect (which we didn't know about when we bought it) and the drawers are cheap plastic and get stuck.  I'm not a fan of the pull-out freezer drawer either, but that's not Samsung's fault.  

 

This is what drives me batty but I still want to hear it. One site says X is the best, one says it's the worst. One Real Actual Person says I love my X brand, another says I hate it and will never buy another one. Ack!

6 minutes ago, PrincessMommy said:

I know what you mean!    

But, I have to change what I said... I thought it was a Samsung but that was the fridge at our  old house. I loved that fridge except the outside ice dispenser, which broke.  What I have currently (which I described) is a *Whirlpool*.  I got it only because the previous owner had just updated all the appliances with a particular type of grey from Whirlpool and I wanted it to match (the fridge was a side-by-side, which I loathe).  Anyway, this is the one I have:

https://www.lowes.com/pd/Whirlpool-25-2-cu-ft-French-Door-Refrigerator-with-Ice-Maker-Fingerprint-Resistant-Black-Stainless-ENERGY-STAR/1000257809

I still recommend Samsung - I just don't recommend an outside ice dispenser as we've never ever had any luck with those. We've have a couple different brands with that feature.  They always broke within 2yrs.   Those are loud too...which is really annoying when someone wants to get ice either early in the morning or late at night.  

 

 

I haven't looked much at Whirlpool but plan to. My stove/oven, microwave, and dishwasher. I read a lot of negative reviews about Whirlpool but we've been happy with all three of those appliances and would buy them again. We bought all three plus my Speed Queen washer (thank you Hive!) at a local family owned appliance store. (I didn't buy my dryer from them but I'm not picky about dryers and just wanted a simple cheap one, so I went to Home Depot).We have both Home Depot and Lowe's and this store manages to do a good job at staying competitively priced with them. Plus you get amazing customer service. Anyway, Whirlpool is one of the main brands they sell so I'm hoping they can tell me if there's a model I'll like. They won't try to sell you something you don't want or need. I still plan to check the big box stores and maybe even Best Buy if we can get to one any time soon. The internet is all well and good but I want to put my hands on the doors, look inside, etc. 

 

[Pawz4me]

We have a basic Kenmore that's going on 13 years old. I dread the day that it dies. I don't like the ridiculously huge refrigerators nowadays with all their expensive, breakable bells and whistles.

(Grumble, grumble)

[prairiewindmomma]

46 minutes ago, Kassia said:

We have a Samsung stainless steel french door refrigerator and hate it.  Ours has a known defect (which we didn't know about when we bought it) and the drawers are cheap plastic and get stuck.  I'm not a fan of the pull-out freezer drawer either, but that's not Samsung's fault.  

 

Kassia, what's the known defect? We have a similar model.

[prairiewindmomma]

Our Samsung has a 10 year warranty on the compressor (the part that failed on our last two whirlpools) and we bought an extended warranty through Home Depot. *fingers crossed* we'll be ok.  We bought ours in 2015.

[Selkie]

40 minutes ago, Kassia said:

We have a Samsung stainless steel french door refrigerator and hate it.  Ours has a known defect (which we didn't know about when we bought it) and the drawers are cheap plastic and get stuck.  I'm not a fan of the pull-out freezer drawer either, but that's not Samsung's fault.  

 

Our last two fridges were french door Samsungs and I grew to despise them. Cheap, flimsy plastic shelves that broke and had to be held together with duct tape, a defect with the door-closing mechanism, and another defect that caused water to leak beneath the "Pullout Pantry" and then freeze so it couldn't be pulled out. Ugh. I went on the forums at gardenweb/houzz and read several hundred fridge reviews and basically everyone that had a Samsung hated it and was having the same problems. 

Our new fridge is a french door GE and I love it. The layout of both the fridge and freezer is so much better and makes it easy to see everything that's in there. The shelves are sturdily constructed and made of a much higher quality material than the Samsung shelves. We got the fingerprint-resistant slate gray and it looks great with our white cabinets.🙂

[Lady Florida.]

48 minutes ago, May said:

Ours is a French door, with an ice and water dispenser. DH hates that feature because he thinks the ice gets contaminated and it’s a leak ready to happen. We’ve known 2 families that had expensive damage to flooring and bottom kitchen cabinets caused by a leak in the dispenser. I love the feature because I like ice and find myself drinking more water. Good luck😊

I agree with your dh especially about the contamination part. Mold is always an issue in my climate and that concerns me, even though I never thought about it back when I had a fridge with ice and water dispensers. That was so long ago (late 90s) that they probably improved since then but it still gives me pause.

Water is my beverage of choice but I hate the taste of my tap water and filtration systems don't help improve it. We were buying so much bottled water and felt guilty that we finally bought a dispenser and use 5 gallon bottles that get returned. That and the fact that we don't really drink much that needs ice (we mostly do drink water and our dispenser has hot and cold)  makes a dispenser almost completely useless. I want an ice maker for the times someone does need/want ice. Currently I use old fashioned ice cube trays. Often when we go to get some ice cubes we find that they evaporated. That's how seldom we use ice!

26 minutes ago, Pawz4me said:

We have a basic Kenmore that's going on 13 years old. I dread the day that it dies. I don't like the ridiculously huge refrigerators nowadays with all their expensive, breakable bells and whistles.

(Grumble, grumble)

Yeah, I don't need all that smart home stuff even if I think it's really cool (outdated expresson? lol). They add to the cost and they just add more things that can break. 

One of old refrigerators that I hated - side by side - had ice and water dispensers. It also had a sensor that told you if the door wasn't closed properly. The sensor went bad and would beep at all hours including the middle of the night. We had the gaskets and everything checked. It was in fact the sensor and was ridiculously expensive to have fixed. One of us would always have to go open and close the door several times to get it to stop beeping. 

Edited December 10, 2018 by Lady Florida.

[AbcdeDooDah]

Following.We have a Samsung french door that is going to go any minute now. The vents in the back of the fridge keep icing over. 

[Bootsie]

52 minutes ago, Kassia said:

We have a Samsung stainless steel french door refrigerator and hate it.  Ours has a known defect (which we didn't know about when we bought it) and the drawers are cheap plastic and get stuck.  I'm not a fan of the pull-out freezer drawer either, but that's not Samsung's fault.  

 

I got a Samsung last year (when our fridge went out the week of Christmas. I hate it because:

the ice dispenser on the door has a known defect that causes it to drip (the solution from Samsung is to turn off the fridge for several days every six months!)

It makes a lot of noise (crackling sounds) with the automatic defrost cycle

The drawers are not removable (for cleaning) when the refrigerator is in place and the trays are on the doors.

There are areas between the shelves and the drawers that are unaccessible if something spills.  We have tried taking things apart to clean after milk spilled and there are some areas that just cannot be accessed.  

The shelves are not very sturdy; the shelves are not very adjustable.  A bar is always in the way.  A "slide out feature" lets the front half of a shelf move back, but it gets knocked and slides back too easily.  The mechanism also blocks a major part of the storage on the shelf below.

I like the pullout drawer freezer.  I am not crazy about the french doors.  I find that I am almost always opening both doors to access anything.

[73349]

It was a freezer-on-bottom Whirlpool Gold that broke on us after 18 months and could not be repaired. We went back to a freezer-on-top style.

I can't speak to their fridges, but living with a Samsung dryer that plays Schubert every time it finishes a load (did I mention our laundry closet is 10 feet from the school table?) and needed a major repair after only a few years would make me hesitate to invest in something else of theirs. I can go to the laundromat easily, but there's no fridge/freezer storage service in the neighborhood.

My BFF and her family traveled for a month the summer before last. While they were gone, the line to their ice maker broke, causing many thousands of dollars of damage to the floor, cabinets, walls, etc. Whatever kind of fridge you get, if you leave home for extended period, consider disconnecting and draining before you go. (We haven't been able to find a fridge the right size without an internal ice maker, but we choose not to hook it up. We never need more than an ice cube tray's worth of ice, and seldom that much.)

[Selkie]

15 minutes ago, AbcdeDooDah said:

Following.We have a Samsung french door that is going to go any minute now. The vents in the back of the fridge keep icing over. 

Same here. After the vents had been icing up for a few weeks, it started making a loud grinding noise (not the ice maker, because we didn't have that hooked up). At that point, there were so many things wrong with it that we didn't even make the effort to have it repaired, we just unplugged it and got rid of it. 

[AbcdeDooDah]

13 minutes ago, Selkie said:

Same here. After the vents had been icing up for a few weeks, it started making a loud grinding noise (not the ice maker, because we didn't have that hooked up). At that point, there were so many things wrong with it that we didn't even make the effort to have it repaired, we just unplugged it and got rid of it. 

Yikes. The kids kept telling me that I kept buying rotten milk lol.  It wasn't keeping temperature. We defrosted it completely for several days and lived out of ice chests. Plugged it back in and have gotten three more months out of it so far. The ice in the vents is back but so far it's staying cold. For the cost of this thing we should have gotten more than 4 years out of it. 

[AprilTN]

We have a Samsung and I HATE it.  I hate it for small reasons and big reasons.  We've had so much trouble with the ice maker that I BUY ICE.  I resent buying ice for a $2200ish fridge that is only 4 years old.  The french door spring doesn't work and it has been fixed a few times, but after a while it breaks again.  So.... We have to shut the left door first or the seal will not fold in and it won't shut.  So fun.

 

[Kassia]

2 hours ago, prairiewindmomma said:

Kassia, what's the known defect? We have a similar model.

 

 There is an inherent design defect that causes ice buildup on the evaporator coils.

1 hour ago, Selkie said:

 and another defect that caused water to leak beneath the "Pullout Pantry" and then freeze so it couldn't be pulled out. Ugh. I went on the forums at gardenweb/houzz and read several hundred fridge reviews and basically everyone that had a Samsung hated it and was having the same problems. 

 

 

Yes, that is our problem!  DH has to yank that drawer out regularly and clear out all the ice buildup.  It's a major PITA.  Sometimes huge sheets of ice will just fall out when we pull the drawer out - I always worry one is going to fall on dd's foot - they are sharp!

 

 

 

[AbcdeDooDah]

7 minutes ago, Kassia said:

 

 There is an inherent design defect that causes ice buildup on the evaporator coils.

 

Yes, that is our problem!  DH has to yank that drawer out regularly and clear out all the ice buildup.  It's a major PITA.  Sometimes huge sheets of ice will just fall out when we pull the drawer out - I always worry one is going to fall on dd's foot - they are sharp!

 

 

 

Oh, yes! We had that happen a couple of times, too. They are junk, really.

[Tree Frog]

Wow! We have a 6 year old Samsung french door/bottom freezer and haven't had all the problems mentioned here! We have both a water dispenser/ice maker on the top and an ice maker in the freezer. We don't use the top ice maker because it's too slow and loud, but we use the water dispenser frequently. We use the bottom ice maker for ice. We've had no problems having enough ice, even in the summer when we have company.

The only problem we've had was when the fridge started making strange loud noises. We were concerned the fridge was having problems, so I contacted a Samsung repair place. (We went with a Samsung repair place, the only one local, because there was a thread on our local NextDoor that said the Samsung company won't help non-Samsung repair people because they want to ensure the repair is done properly by Samsung trained techs.) Over the phone, the Samsung rep told me how to find an error code, then had a difficult time understanding me when I gave him my address. He kept asking me to repeat my zip code and house number. We set up a service call for my ice maker, but the day they were supposed to arrive, the tech called me and asked for my address. Turns out the rep I spoke with had the wrong zip code, which had the right house number on the wrong street in a city 90 miles away. I was very frustrated!! When the next scheduled service date came, the tech called and said my ice maker hadn't arrived yet. I thought it was strange that no one had even come out to diagnose it, but they ordered parts for it. After the 3rd service call was cancelled (the part still wasn't in), my fridge stopped making the noise and I could no longer get the error code, so I cancelled the entire service. Both of my ice makers still work, so I'm not too concerned right now. I guess my big complaint isn't with the fridge itself, but rather with Samsung service.

[Roadrunner]

On 12/10/2018 at 9:42 AM, Selkie said:

Our last two fridges were french door Samsungs and I grew to despise them. Cheap, flimsy plastic shelves that broke and had to be held together with duct tape, a defect with the door-closing mechanism, and another defect that caused water to leak beneath the "Pullout Pantry" and then freeze so it couldn't be pulled out. Ugh. I went on the forums at gardenweb/houzz and read several hundred fridge reviews and basically everyone that had a Samsung hated it and was having the same problems. 

Our new fridge is a french door GE and I love it. The layout of both the fridge and freezer is so much better and makes it easy to see everything that's in there. The shelves are sturdily constructed and made of a much higher quality material than the Samsung shelves. We got the fingerprint-resistant slate gray and it looks great with our white cabinets.🙂

 

We are dealing with exact same problems with Samsung. I hate it! I will never buy Samsung fridge again.

[Pawz4me]

Spam post by SammySummers reported

[Jann in TX]

On 12/10/2018 at 11:00 AM, Momto5inIN said:

I have an LG and  years later it's still the best present I've ever received! Seriously, at least weekly I catch myself saying, "I love my fridge!" because it just fits so much stuff in it! I do have one of the huge ones, but they had smaller models too. It's French door style with freezer on bottom and ice and water dispenser. I don't think the dispensers cut down on space much at all.

I HATE my LG.  I've had it for 7 years now

It is French-door freezer on bottom.  It runs great (quiet), ice and water dispenser have never been a problem. 

My issue is the CHEAP interior.  Every drawer was broken within a month or so of the 2 year warranty running out.  I recently lost the use of one shelf!  Basically the whole inside is CHEAPLY constructed and not durable.

These should last longer than 2-7 years!

BTW-- there is no way to fix the shelving/drawer issue!

[BeachGal]

We have had no problems with our French door Samsung but our interior ice maker isn't hooked up because we can't run water through our 1940s plaster walls. Interior of them is asbestos and I'm okay with making ice the old fashioned way.

Our interior is all glass except the veggie drawers. Everything's pretty good actually. The fridge is counter depth and we bought it on sale for around $1K or so. It's pretty new. Maybe 2 years old?

[Lady Florida.]

3 hours ago, Pawz4me said:

Spam post by SammySummers reported

I wondered why this old post showed up. I should know by now that almost anytime there's a zombie thread it's likely spam.

Anyway, since people are responding, we ended up with a Whirlpool. As  I said up thread, our stove/oven, microwave are Whirlpool and we've been happy with them. What we did learn is that apparently the standard refrigerator size has grown. Most that we looked at were around 35 -37 inches wide, or at least that was the case with the French door style we were looking at. Our house is older (built in 1969) and the only place for the fridge is smaller. We needed a 32-33 inch fridge. We bought from a local appliance store where we also got our stove, microwave, and my Speed Queen washer. 

This is the one I bought and so far am happy with it, though it's only been about a month. 

[lopitosit]

I don't have any hate. But I have on love - Libher. My parents, I and my granmother have the same firm of refrigerator.

[matrips]

I know this was an old thread, but I read it before fridge shopping this year.  After hearing so many complaints and bad reviews of so many fridges, we decided to buy American made and inexpensive.  If it does need repairs, folks will know how to work on them.  (That seems to be a main complaint with Samsung and LG).  And the money we saved can be used for repairs. We went with a GE French door fridge from the Sears Outlet.  No ice/water in door.  Good condition with only a minor blemish.  Time will tell.