What do I need to know when purchasing a refrigerator?

[Ann.without.an.e]

6 minutes ago, Bambam said:

When we shopped last time there was one that had a coffee maker in the door too. I thought that was hilarious. Adding a heat generating device to a refrigerator? That didn't seem like a wise idea to me. 

 

 

When I went shopping with dd, we stopped by an appliance store that had a large returned/repaired section. There were so many of those with the Keurigs built in. I guess they were already failing, being repaired, and sold at a discount. Doesn't seem like a great feature to me. 

[ksr5377]

12 hours ago, Roadrunner said:

So which ones are solid brands?

 

When we remodeled our kitchen 5 or 6 years ago we purchased everything from a small, local appliance store.  Our salesman had been working there for over 30 years.  I asked him his favorite brand and he hemmed and hawed a bit and then said, "Well, I can't really recommend any of them anymore."  As all the bells and whistles have been added and durability has declined drastically.  The only real advice he gave was not to get the water/ice on the door in a French door fridge because you lose so much space to the second ice compressor.  All the online rankings are great for efficiency and features, but none of them can really tell if you'll get a decade out of an appliance or not.  And yes, I was told to hope for 10 years and be happy if we got it.  

[Just Kate]

48 minutes ago, ksr5377 said:

When we remodeled our kitchen 5 or 6 years ago we purchased everything from a small, local appliance store.  Our salesman had been working there for over 30 years.  I asked him his favorite brand and he hemmed and hawed a bit and then said, "Well, I can't really recommend any of them anymore."  As all the bells and whistles have been added and durability has declined drastically.  The only real advice he gave was not to get the water/ice on the door in a French door fridge because you lose so much space to the second ice compressor.  All the online rankings are great for efficiency and features, but none of them can really tell if you'll get a decade out of an appliance or not.  And yes, I was told to hope for 10 years and be happy if we got it.  

When you say no water/ice in the door, does this mean no ice maker in the freezer section at all? We are hoping to order a new refrigerator this weekend and trying to make some decisions. 

[Carol in Cal.]

Energy savings standards have made manufacturers build weak motors that run more continuously into most modern fridges.

Not surprisingly, this wears them out.

The last time we badly needed a new fridge, I concluded:

1.  No water handling.  That takes up tons of room and is the most unreliable feature on most of them.

2.  Trade off—noise vs. electronics.  Only the electronic fridges are dead quiet, but the non-electronic loud ones are possibly more reliable.  I needed dead quiet so I compromised on this one.

3.  About 15% of all fridges on the market, no matter what brand, are lemons.  I feel like that is too high, but the more I read the reviews across all product lines the more clear this became to me.  So I bought an extended warranty, something I never do, on the theory that if there is skin in the game at least I can get a replacement for an early failure.  

4.  Those fridges with drawers and many doors take up a ton ton of room with insulation on all sides of all of them.  Also, some of the doors are so thick that they don’t fit into my opening well enough to open all the way, meaning that drawers cannot be removed unless I pull the fridge out from the wall.  ANNOYING!

 

So, what did I buy?  I really wanted to avoid Samsung, but ended up buying a simple one anyway.

This is because a few Samsung fridges have a freezer/fridge compartment rather than a straight freezer, and that mean that even ice making could be avoided, a feature I badly wanted due to it being so much more quiet that way.  So I bought one of those.  It doesn’t keep food as cold as an older fridge would, but it’s dead quiet and has been reliable so far.  

[Carol in Cal.]

PS. I also bought a chest freezer for the basement, since I don’t really trust the Samsung, and I am so glad I did because during Covid having that extra capacity saved a LOT of semi-dangerous shopping trips.

So while I do use the freezer compartment in the Samsung for a freezer instead of for extra fridge space, all I usually have in it is vodka, ice cube trays (we have room for tons because our major food freezer is downstairs), and an ice cream maker bowl.  Oh, and maple syrup and nuts during the baking season.

[Laura Corin]

We have an unplumbed ice maker in the door.  The water reservoir takes up space but we haven't had any leaks. It's made by LG.

Edited September 1, 2022 by Laura Corin

[YaelAldrich]

8 minutes ago, Laura Corin said:

We have an unplumbed ice maker in the door.  The water reservoir takes up space but we haven't had any leaka. It's made by LG.

We have an unplumbed ice maker in the bottom freezer in our french drawer GE.  We got it three years ago and it is great!  Bought at Costco so gotan additional year of warranty (1 yr to 2 yrs)

[Roadrunner]

I am also intrigued with models that have two separate units - one fridge and one freezer. Sort of like this one,

https://www.appliancesconnection.com/forte-1466159.html?ref=GoogleShoppingPhysicalStock&gclid=CjwKCAjwsMGYBhAEEiwAGUXJaeyNOtiPg6h-RbnLKuua1NJc9Sy8Hubs6NteUNqXdunC7RINwFElnxoCZp0QAvD_BwE

 

[Ann.without.an.e]

5 minutes ago, Roadrunner said:

I am also intrigued with models that have two separate units - one fridge and one freezer. Sort of like this one,

https://www.appliancesconnection.com/forte-1466159.html?ref=GoogleShoppingPhysicalStock&gclid=CjwKCAjwsMGYBhAEEiwAGUXJaeyNOtiPg6h-RbnLKuua1NJc9Sy8Hubs6NteUNqXdunC7RINwFElnxoCZp0QAvD_BwE

 

It looks like it would take up a lot more space than normal? If so it wouldn’t fit in a standard space? Maybe it looks bigger than it is 😅

[Roadrunner]

13 minutes ago, Ann.without.an.e said:

It looks like it would take up a lot more space than normal? If so it wouldn’t fit in a standard space? Maybe it looks bigger than it is 😅

In our case it’s the depth that matters, so this isn’t too deep. We don’t have cabinets on the wall where fridge is located, so it’s fine. They also seem fairly basic. I don’t know. I think I am going with this. 

[vonfirmath]

18 minutes ago, Ann.without.an.e said:

It looks like it would take up a lot more space than normal? If so it wouldn’t fit in a standard space? Maybe it looks bigger than it is 😅

Yes. It is twice 28"

We have a 36" spot so were looking at 36" refrigerators (I did look at top freezers, but it meant giving up a LOT of space we've gotten used to having because none of them are 36" wide)

[ksr5377]

2 hours ago, Just Kate said:

When you say no water/ice in the door, does this mean no ice maker in the freezer section at all? We are hoping to order a new refrigerator this weekend and trying to make some decisions. 

He was specifically referencing french door fridges. If they have ice in the door then they usually have two ice makers, one in the freezer drawer and one up in the fridge door.  I was told to avoid that.  You lose a lot of space in the fridge and as someone else mentioned, the second smaller freezer in the door dispenser seems to have a lot of problems.  An ice maker in the freezer drawer alone was not considered an issue.

[vonfirmath]

44 minutes ago, ksr5377 said:

He was specifically referencing french door fridges. If they have ice in the door then they usually have two ice makers, one in the freezer drawer and one up in the fridge door.  I was told to avoid that.  You lose a lot of space in the fridge and as someone else mentioned, the second smaller freezer in the door dispenser seems to have a lot of problems.  An ice maker in the freezer drawer alone was not considered an issue.

Most of the French Door freezers I were looking at last night did no appear to have a icemaker in the drawer -- even when they did not have one in the door. The only one that did had two freezer drawers and the ice maker apparatus was not readily see-able. I wonder if this is something I just missed or it has been removed?

 

ETA: Looking at the fridges on Home Depot -- looks like some pieces were missing from display fridges. Interesting.

 

Edited September 1, 2022 by vonfirmath

[73349]

We have a freezer on top model and removed the ice maker in order to have more freezer space. We chill our water in pitchers rather than using ice (and even before my friend's kitchen was ruined by a leak from her fridge's water line, those didn't seem like a good idea to us). This one is a Frigidaire, made at an Electrolux plant in Mexico. I don't like the way the interior shelves are set up--and there's limited ability to move them around--but it does chill just fine.

The one that failed on us after a couple of years was a Whirlpool Gold with the freezer on the bottom. We had bought the extended warranty (Lowes), but they said they had to try 3 times to repair it before they'd replace it. But there were *no* parts available to replace the part that the technicians believed broke. We insisted on a replacement... they didn't have any in stock, and it was days before one arrived, and then they had to schedule delivery. Plus, the warranty would pay for repair/replacement *or* replacement of the ruined food, not both. In all, we were sixteen days without it, including Christmas and two of our birthdays. We aren't going to bother with an extended warranty again.

We do have a mini-fridge now (where we keep water) as a small back-up.

I wish they had modular interior design so that we could put shelves and drawers where we want them. And a digital thermometer to show the temperature in at least one place.

Edited September 2, 2022 by 73349

[livetoread]

We have had a Whirlpool for about ten years now no problems and I hope to get many more. My only complaint is the produce drawers get stuck often as they don't slide well and sometimes come off their track. Other than that, I love it. The outside is smooth (white) and super easy to keep clean. It is as basic as you can get - top freezer, bottom fridge, with no ice maker anywhere. I dread when it goes because trying to find something like that again is going to be hard, if not impossible.

[Spryte]

This thread is anxiety-producing. We have an almost 10 yr old LG side by side, ice maker in the door. Knock on wood.

Following along for tips.

Our repair guy also recommends against LG, this is just what came with our house.

My main suggestion is to, unless it’s non-functional, keep the old fridge as a back up. Of course, if it can be easily repaired maybe you wouldn’t replace it!

We have a back-up basic fridge (fridge on bottom, freezer on top) in the garage, as well as an upright pandemic freezer. I use the garage fridge for larger items and extra groceries, and we rotate food into the house fridge. 

[KungFuPanda]

Our freezer-on-top fridge is 33 inches wide. We never installed an ice maker but use trays because they take up less space. Dh is the only one who really uses ice anyway. 
 

If I’m honest, we might be better off with a smaller fridge. It’s big enough that we can put so much in there and sometimes forget about things. I hate when we waste stuff like that. I really try to stay on top of planning everything but sometimes it gets away from me. 
 

I just informed my family I’m not cooking again until they eat the perfectly good stuff in the fridge. There are three of us and we had at least 6 lunch choices; some with multiple servings, in there. I think I’m off the hook for dinner too if I can keep up my  I Mean Business tone. 

[Tree Frog]

Also, check to see if your area has enough appliance repair companies for the brand your looking for. 

Everyone knows not to buy a Samsung, but when we needed repairs, there was one company in our city of 1.5 million people who were authorized to do Samsung repairs. It was a terrible company to work with if you were one of the lucky ones to get through and actually get an appt. Samsung won't sell parts to non authorized companies, so everyone was forced to go through them. 

We bought a Bosch. Dh loves it. I'm not sure it's much better than our previous Samsung, though it is maintaining the temp. However, it's incredibly loud, very much the opposite of out Bosch dishwasher. 

[MagistraKennedy]

On 8/31/2022 at 3:19 PM, prairiewindmomma said:

We have bought two in seven years. Expect that whatever you buy, it will only last 5-7 years.

THIS! A repairman told me that the less bells and whistles the better. They are NOT made to last. Ours is limping along, but it's definitely at the end of life. 

 

[MagistraKennedy]

On 9/1/2022 at 10:18 AM, Bambam said:

When we shopped last time there was one that had a coffee maker in the door too. I thought that was hilarious. Adding a heat generating device to a refrigerator? That didn't seem like a wise idea to me. 
 

This ranks right up there with the fridges that have TV screens on the door. Why? Do I want my children or husband standing in front of the screen? NO. 

[Soror]

We did have a Maytag. It was repair after repair on it. It finally died at 7 yrs old. I think it was just a lemon, tbh. Our other Maytag appliances have had great longevity.After that we got a Whirlpool. It is a French door with freezer in the bottom. The bottom freezer is divided with a top drawer and bottom and then side to side. It is quite easy to keep it organized. (I also have a upright freezer that I've had well over 10 yrs). Our Maytag was a side by side and I hated the lay out. The French door is much more similar to the old school frig with the freezer on the top. I would have got the freezer on top if I could have found one. Ours has an ice maker in the bottom freezer, not in the door.  It did stop working. I honestly can't remember when, we've had no other issues or repairs on it. We just use ice trays now and put it in the same spot as the ice maker. It is plain jane without any fancy features (most of which I don't see a need for). When this one dies I'll again look for one with a freezer on top and with the way it has done so far I'll probably look for another Whirlpool.

[history-fan]

I need to replace mine soon as well and have been looking at Big Chill and Northstar.