Refrigerator shopping-do you have one you love (or hate?)

[teachermom2834]

Another moving issue! The only thing my new house needs asap is a fridge. It has to be stainless steel and I know I want a bottom freezer drawer. That's all I know. 

I have decision fatigue. Help me at least get started on this one.

French doors or one door? What are the issues here I should consider? I have a hard time envisioning how kitchen items will work in real life until I actually have and use them.

[mommyoffive]

I hear everyone say stay away from Samsung.

[teachermom2834]

Just now, mommyoffive said:

I hear everyone say stay away from Samsung.

I have heard that about their washer/dryers. We have had a couple repair guys tell us that. Thanks! That helps to narrow the field. 

[mommyoffive]

I have heard it regarding for fridges.  Everyone says tons of problems.

[cintinative]

I heard the same thing about Samsung.

If water/ice in the door is not a requirement, the ones without it have less repair issues. 

I personally prefer the top or bottom freezer to the side by side because of large items.  

If you have a favorite appliance repair group, they might be willing to share which manufacturers to stay away from.  😃

[teachermom2834]

5 minutes ago, cintinative said:

I heard the same thing about Samsung.

If water/ice in the door is not a requirement, the ones without it have less repair issues. 

I personally prefer the top or bottom freezer to the side by side because of large items.  

If you have a favorite appliance repair group, they might be willing to share which manufacturers to stay away from.  😃

Thank you for mentioning the part about the water/ice through the door. I always say I will never have that because I have had repair issues and known more than one person who had to replace all their flooring from leaks from ice through the door...yet here I am buying a nice new house and looking at refrigerators and starting to covet the ice through the door...and along you come as the voice of reason. LOL

Now, I also know a whole bunch of people are going to follow on and say they LOVE their ice through the door and have never had a problem so there is also that. 🙂 

[cintinative]

Just now, teachermom2834 said:

Thank you for mentioning the part about the water/ice through the door. I always say I will never have that because I have had repair issues and known more than one person who had to replace all their flooring from leaks from ice through the door...yet here I am buying a nice new house and looking at refrigerators and starting to covet the ice through the door...and along you come as the voice of reason. LOL

Now, I also know a whole bunch of people are going to follow on and say they LOVE their ice through the door and have never had a problem so there is also that. 🙂 

My parents' fridge is interesting. It has a bottom drawer freezer, but water and ice in the door of the top part. The ice maker barely makes ice. My brother's amateur theory is that it just doesn't get cold enough, because it is up against the fridge, which is much warmer.  Anyway, over the course of the four weeks after my dad's knee surgery, I was running a countertop ice maker and filling their in door ice compartment over and over and over because my mom uses so much ice and I can tell you flat--it's not worth it IMO to have an ice dispenser.  😃  

[prairiewindmomma]

I bought a GE about two years ago and have generally been happy with it except I have to shake the ice maker every other day or so or it will jam. It was at the height of the appliance shortage and I didn’t have many options.

Avoid Samsung. 

[desertflower]

So far I like my LG. Have had it for two months though. Freezer on the bottom. Huge refrigerator on top. Have ice maker.
 

Really nice since my last one was the cheapest one can get. 😆 

[teachermom2834]

8 minutes ago, desertflower said:

So far I like my LG. Have had it for two months though. Freezer on the bottom. Huge refrigerator on top. Have ice maker.
 

Really nice since my last one was the cheapest one can get. 😆 

An ice maker but not a dispenser through the door? I am looking at an LG from Home Depot that looks like it can be delivered when we need it and it has an ice maker but not dispenser. I do know I want the freezer on bottom as I have that now and I like it. 

I don't think I've ever bought a refrigerator. I think I've always inherited whatever was in the house and it was never anything nice at all. 

[Grace Hopper]

Things change over the years so I hesitate to share a brand name. I’ll just say that I love my French door style fridge and would never go back to a freezer in the top. 

[BeachGal]

We had a French door Samsung that was okay for about a year. After that it began to have problems with freezing up and then thawing to the point that it began leaking on the kitchen floor. If you look Samsung up online, you can find many complaints about this. It's not easily fixed. Even on YouTube, there are people who repair them who advise staying away from them.

We now have a GE French door counter depth fridge that works well but I don't like the weird shapes and ridges in the pull out drawers. Also the shelf brackets make it difficult to store containers beneath them.

[teachermom2834]

Also we do need counter depth. I know that. 

[Scarlett]

I gave a Whirlpool, French door, bottom freezer, ice baker but not in the door.  It has been great. 
 

My mom has a Samsung and she hates it. 

[Scarlett]

1 minute ago, teachermom2834 said:

Also we do need counter depth. I know that. 

Oh well that makes it much more expensive 

 

[Bootsie]

9 minutes ago, BeachGal said:

We had a French door Samsung that was okay for about a year. After that it began to have problems with freezing up and then thawing to the point that it began leaking on the kitchen floor. If you look Samsung up online, you can find many complaints about this. It's not easily fixed. Even on YouTube, there are people who repair them who advise staying away from them.

We now have a GE French door counter depth fridge that works well but I don't like the weird shapes and ridges in the pull out drawers. Also the shelf brackets make it difficult to store containers beneath them.

We had a Samsung with exactly this problem--Samsung said it was a known problem and their solution was to unplug and defrost the unit for 2 days every six months (for a supposedly frost-free freezer)!

[Kassia]

1 hour ago, mommyoffive said:

I hear everyone say stay away from Samsung.

 

8 minutes ago, BeachGal said:

We had a French door Samsung that was okay for about a year. After that it began to have problems with freezing up and then thawing to the point that it began leaking on the kitchen floor.

We have this problem.  Either it leaks or the deli drawer in the refrigerator freezes up to the point where it can't be opened because there's an entire sheet of ice in there (the drawer is the whole width of the refrigerator.  Sometimes the sheet of ice will come out in pieces or it will come out in sharp pieces.  It's a disaster, but we feel really lucky that it's lasted this long.  People I know with the same issue had theirs stop working quickly. Oh yeah, sometimes we get huge puddles IN the deli drawer.  And we do get the water on the kitchen floor frequently leaking from the refrigerator.  

[Bootsie]

I do not care for French Door refrigerators.  I find something is always in the "middle and needs both doors opened to get in or out.  But, the most important thing is to check your kitchen layout and make sure that there is enough clearance to open the doors of any refrigerator you are considering.  We moved into a house once and realized that the door of our existing fridge hit the island cabinet whenever we tried opening it.

[Just Kate]

We recently bought a whirlpool with a bottom drawer freezer. The ice maker is in the freezer (pull drawer, use scoop for ice) and there is a water dispenser inside the refrigerator. I really wanted the ice and water, but kept hearing about that causing repair issues. I figure if one of them breaks and we don’t want to pay to repair, it’s not on the front of the refrigerator so it will go unnoticed. 

[Bambam]

I thought I wanted a freezer on the bottom last time I had to go refrigerator shopping, but the fact those were $500+ over the basics we wanted made me change my mind.  I've also wondered if I would lose things in there - like I did with a chest freezer? 

Yes, be sure to check dimensions on getting that door open. We also have a enclosed (? not sure that is the right way to describe it - but cabinet on top, plain panel to one side, cabinet on the other side, and island so many feet away in front) place for our refrigerator, so trying to figure out if we could easily push it in/slide it easily.

We also add an extra inline water filter before the in-frig on so we just change the external in-line one. Of course, this only applies if you have an automatic ice maker (one of our requirements!)

I might be tempted to take a picture of what I have in my frig right now, and then go down to the store and open several and compare that with you normally have in yours at home. 

[desertflower]

32 minutes ago, teachermom2834 said:

An ice maker but not a dispenser through the door? I am looking at an LG from Home Depot that looks like it can be delivered when we need it and it has an ice maker but not dispenser. I do know I want the freezer on bottom as I have that now and I like it. 

I don't think I've ever bought a refrigerator. I think I've always inherited whatever was in the house and it was never anything nice at all. 

Yes. It has an ice dispenser. Cubed ice or crushed ice along with water.

It has depth too. And French doors on top. 
 

At the time it was one of the top of the line fridges. 

[Katy]

I used to like my Samsung counter-depth French door with bottom freezer drawer… until DS6 grew old enough to stand in front of it with the door open so long he melts the ice in the ice maker. Which re-freezes and jambs up. Never again with Samsung. 

I’ve heard Whirlpool, Maytag, Viking, and Bosch are usually easy & cheap to repair. 

[LuvToRead]

It might be worth finding what brands are serviced in your area.  We buy from a local mom and and pop shop and they service every appliance they sell. 

I am boring, lol, but I follow the "the more features, the more things that can break" rule.  I avoid extra features when I can.  We have a plain ole GE fridge, the only feature it has is an ice maker.  DH ruined a coffee pot because when he touched the electric panel to turn it on, he zapped it through static electricity. 

I have no experience with Samsungs, but I have a friend with the same exact problem as mentioned above, and no one in our area can fix it.  Now she is stuck with an appliance she hates until she can save up for something else.

[Ting Tang]

Yes, during the pandemic, no refrigerators that would fit in our space were available except a Samsung.  It's finish is horrible, dents easily, and plastic has already cracked after just a few years.  I hate it.  I wish it would stop running, and we'd get a new one.  It does refrigerate. That's all I can say about it.  lol

[vonfirmath]

3 hours ago, teachermom2834 said:

Another moving issue! The only thing my new house needs asap is a fridge. It has to be stainless steel and I know I want a bottom freezer drawer. That's all I know. 

I have decision fatigue. Help me at least get started on this one.

French doors or one door? What are the issues here I should consider? I have a hard time envisioning how kitchen items will work in real life until I actually have and use them.

I love our new fridge. (Well. its about a year old now) It has water in the door (ice is in a drawer)  French doors on top. TONS of fridge space. The bottom freezer drawer does mean freezer space is a little limited. But we love having the two drawers on bottom -- putting convenience stuff in the top drawer (with the ice) and the meat and such in the lesser used drawer below.

(I have noticed the auto ice maker seems to die really fast so was really not interested in having it in the door but my husband wanted water in the door. I am hoping that not trying to keep frozen water in the refrigerated compartment will make the water maker work longer before it has issues)

Edited September 13, 2023 by vonfirmath

[Lady Florida.]

3 hours ago, Grace Hopper said:

Things change over the years so I hesitate to share a brand name. I’ll just say that I love my French door style fridge and would never go back to a freezer in the top. 

 

2 hours ago, Just Kate said:

We recently bought a whirlpool with a bottom drawer freezer. The ice maker is in the freezer (pull drawer, use scoop for ice) and there is a water dispenser inside the refrigerator. I really wanted the ice and water, but kept hearing about that causing repair issues. I figure if one of them breaks and we don’t want to pay to repair, it’s not on the front of the refrigerator so it will go unnoticed. 

Ours is a GE which we've had for 3.5 years and are happy with it. The filtered water dispenser is inside which can be an issue if you have a lot of people opening the refrigerator often to fill water cups. We all use large water bottles even at home so it's not a problem for us. The filter is inside at the top and doesn't really take up a significant amount of space.  French doors, bottom drawer freezer, ice maker inside. The only issue we've had with the ice maker is I don't think the sensor is sensitive enough and it can overfill with ice if we don't keep an eye on it. Not a deal breaker for us.

Dss and ddil had a Samsung and had the same issue people here posted about. 

The one type of refrigerator I had only once and never want again is a side by side. There was never enough room in either the freezer or refrigerator. I hate side by side.

This is ours. We had to get a specific size to fit in the built in spot but it comes smaller and larger. 

https://www.geappliances.com/appliance/GE-ENERGY-STAR-27-0-Cu-Ft-Fingerprint-Resistant-French-Door-Refrigerator-GNE27JYMFS

[Lynn in al]

I agree with others, stay away from Samsung.  We stick with whirlpool and Kenmore(if they are still around). Our fridge is 22 years old and never had an issue.

[Clarita]

6 hours ago, cintinative said:

My parents' fridge is interesting. It has a bottom drawer freezer, but water and ice in the door of the top part. The ice maker barely makes ice. My brother's amateur theory is that it just doesn't get cold enough, because it is up against the fridge, which is much warmer.  Anyway, over the course of the four weeks after my dad's knee surgery, I was running a countertop ice maker and filling their in door ice compartment over and over and over because my mom uses so much ice and I can tell you flat--it's not worth it IMO to have an ice dispenser.  😃

The problem with these is because they have to port the air from the bottom freezer into the door of the fridge. So many more parts to fail. I like the freezer bottom, but my lesson for next time is not to get one with the ice-maker in the door. 

1 hour ago, Lynn in al said:

We stick with whirlpool and Kenmore(if they are still around).

I think Kenmore is just something re-branded for Sears so you have to be careful with Kenmore. 

[Clemsondana]

Our old fridge started breaking - everywhere that there was plastic (the door shelves, the drawers in the freezer), the plastic became brittle.  So, we had to get a new one back in May.  We got the LG, 2 doors to the fridge on top, 2 drawers for the freezer on bottom.  We love it.  There is a water dispenser, but the ice maker is in the top freezer drawer.  The shelves in the fridge doors are really big, so they accommodate the insane number of condiments that we have easily.  Having 2 freezer drawers that open separately seems to work better - stuff doesn't fall out the back of them so that I have to crawl around trying to fetch it out of the bottom of the freezer.  They were having a really good sale when we got it - I think it was Memorial Day weekend.  

[knitgrl]

7 hours ago, desertflower said:

So far I like my LG. Have had it for two months though. Freezer on the bottom. Huge refrigerator on top. Have ice maker.
 

Really nice since my last one was the cheapest one can get. 😆 

This is what we have, too. The ice maker is in the bottom freezer, not on the door. We've had it about a year, I think. I like it.

[teachermom2834]

18 minutes ago, Clemsondana said:

Our old fridge started breaking - everywhere that there was plastic (the door shelves, the drawers in the freezer), the plastic became brittle.  So, we had to get a new one back in May.  We got the LG, 2 doors to the fridge on top, 2 drawers for the freezer on bottom.  We love it.  There is a water dispenser, but the ice maker is in the top freezer drawer.  The shelves in the fridge doors are really big, so they accommodate the insane number of condiments that we have easily.  Having 2 freezer drawers that open separately seems to work better - stuff doesn't fall out the back of them so that I have to crawl around trying to fetch it out of the bottom of the freezer.  They were having a really good sale when we got it - I think it was Memorial Day weekend.  

I believe this is the one I just purchased! Glad you love it!

[SanDiegoMom]

Our French Door fridge broke right around the five year replacement warranty.  We replaced it with a side by side.  Moved across the country to a house that had a French Door Fridge.  It broke in three weeks.  (Both from the same issue)  We bought another side by side.  We got GE Profile for both of them.  We've had it for three years now (the other one in our rental is four years old)  No problems other than the fact that the crushed ice option pretty much gave up within a year.  So it's mostly cubed now. 

[gardenmom5]

I've been happy with my french door GE counterdepth.  But I don't have a lot of people at home, and I bought it to replace a 29cft SxS.

I've done a repair or two - but it was much cheaper than buying a new fridge and we've been really happy with it.

 

If doing a french door - make sure drawers will open with just one door open.

[Ausmumof3]

Our brand is irrelevant as it’s an Australian thing but the thing that was an issue was all the plastics. Door pockets etc started breaking really quickly. Because the bones are still fine we’ve just put up with it but I’d pay more attention to the quality of the plastic if we bought again.

[Pippen]

GE Profiled French door, freezer on the bottom. No ice or water in the door. No repairs or problems in 3 years and I've liked it. My only gripe about it is if something spills down into the bottom area, it's pain to remove the big bottom deli drawer and get it back on track again.