New fridge experiences?

[sciphi]

The wife and I are looking at getting a new fridge to update the kitchen, getting automatic ice, and for future family expansion. Nothing wrong with the current one yet, and it's been a decent fridge.

We're looking at 4-door bottom-freezer models from Kenmore and Samsung. Kenmore (rebadged Whirlpool): Kenmore Samsung: Samsung It seems that both of them are about the same in reliability.

Any recent experiences with either brand? Or others in that price range we should look at?

 

[hattaresguy]

Samsung is doing well lately, I have done three kitchens with their appliances and they have so far worked great. We just put that fridge in a house, IDK if I'm wild about all the doors vs the regular one but its a nice set up.

Pretty much all the volume cheap fridges are the same.

 

[Jarlaxle]

They're all pretty much disposable...whatever you get, expect to replace it (or at least, spend plenty to fix it) in ten years or less.

 

[crazyoildude]

most of the junk like frigidaire are engineered to break in under 8 years...TOTAL JUNK!

 

[Tdbo]

We just bought a new Whirlpool this summer.
We bought a Stainless side by side, the model with the full icemaker in the door.
Ended up going with the Whirlpool after talking to two different repair people.
Both stated that parts availability for Whirlpool is better than any other brand. I know that they are better than the Bosch dishwasher we bought at the same time that has already had one control panel on it, that it took them several weeks to get.

 

[69GTX]

I'd go after the most basic brand. More functions = more repairs. All I want is a long-lasting compressor and refrigerant system. That's it.

Now on 25 years for my cheapo GE TBX that cost me all of $275. No ice maker, no nothing. Not a single service call or issue.

 

[sciphi]

It seems like they'll both be about the same. The Kenmore is US-made, which is a bonus in its favor. We also have a Sears service center about 3 miles from my house. If it might be junk, it might as well be made here.

 

[aquariuscsm]

Is there a "Speed Queen" of refrigerators?

 

[Rand]

I know 2 people that had 2000$+ samsung with endless problems.

 

[JHZR2]

My inlays recently bought a bottom drawer freezer Kenmore, and already had a service call for a freeze up and a bad compressor...

Kitchen appliances are about style over substance, unfortunately. Plus some poorly designed circuit boards (we had that on our GE but they did a courtesy warranty install and it was fixed free).

 

[hattaresguy]

Sears service is horrible, takes them about 3-4 weeks to fix anything.

They are also cruising towards bankruptcy so keep that in mind when buying their warranty.


I currently have 9 Sears purchased sets of kitchen appliances in service, all are Frigidaire and so far have been more or less reliable. Except for one fridge that failed out of the box. But their repair services are sub par.

Currently I'm giving Bestbuy with the Geek Squad a try but none of the Samsungs have needed repairs yet. I plan on having about 16 of their kitchens in service by next year so we will see.

Its all the same [censored], I plan on bulk replacement in 10 years, working or not I'll do them all.

YMMV.

 

[crazyoildude]

Yeah sort of ...Its Sub Zero And they usually Start at about $8000.00

 

[stephen9666]

Delete

 

[Lyman]

I just spent about a month doing research on them. Bought a new place and ended up buying a GE french door with bottom freezer. Has the slate finish that doesn't leave finger prints. Picked it up at home depot on sale. So far we are real happy with it. Time will tell but the online reviews were pretty good.
Whirlpool had one of the worst ratings from what I found.

 

[Rolla07]

I got a bottom freezer whirlpool about 4 years ago. A few complaints..cracked handle after a couple years..(cheap plastic parts). The drain in bottom freezer blocked (fixed it myself..) but besides that runs well. I recently bought a house that has a Jenn Air fridge, stainless, ice and water (inside fridge) and I love it. (Jenn Air is made by whirlpool). Not a fan that stainless always looks dirty but seems good quality. I no longer buy water bottles or ice. I used to buy at least one bag of ice per week..so 3-3.50$ per bag of ice multiplied by 52 weeks and bottled water. So i figure in the end it saves me money. When its time to buy another fridge, it will def have an ice maker and filtered water.

 

[bvance554]

Originally Posted By: crazyoildude
most of the junk like frigidaire are engineered to break in under 8 years...TOTAL JUNK!


Mine has doubled its life expectancy then.

 

[tcp71]

13 Years on our kitchenaid side by side with ice/water. Clean the coils and take care of it and it wil last...like your car or anything else.

 

[shiny]

Like others have said, modern refrigerators are junk. I'd recommend buying a used refrigerator from a shop that refurbishes and tests the units and sells them with a warranty. I bought a used Amana side-by-side with no* icemaker for about 1/4 the price of a new one of the same size and design. It was fully refurbished and came with a warranty. It's been great. Basically I can go through four of these for the price of a new one that won't last me any longer than one of them.

* Most people like ice makers but I don't. They take up too much space and cause most of the problems that require repair service.

 

[eljefino]

Got a samsung from Lowes. The ice maker "float" gets stuck, so I manually turn it on and off. This only affect the huge cache of ice cubes, probably 2 gallons of ice at max cap. It will always dispense them if they're there. I can only imagine the flavors an ice cube can pick up in its month of storage.

Also the plastic veggie drawers are brittle and the edges chip and crack so they don't slide smoothly. Always jumping off the track.

It is a miser on power, though. I think it has some variable load/displacement compressor as my kill-a-watt reports only 280 watts being used at times, though it can be up to 500-600. Don't think it's the defrost either.

 

[edwardh1]

Originally Posted By: Rand
I know 2 people that had 2000$+ samsung with endless problems.

I know 3 people that have had in last 3 years major samsung ref rig issues, there is a piece of metal that the factory puts in wrong that links the "cold" coils to part of the defrost system and they got massive freeze ups.

a lowes store would only say "we get lots of samsung returns on refrigerators