Frigidaire Gallery series--any good?

[chet everett]

The consolidation of brands in the appliance business continues to make for some tough calls on reliability and quality -- some firms have outsourced one model line and kept another built in their own factories or plants they've acquired through merger. I know that the refrigerators with Viking brands on them are built with tooling that used to be Amana...

Fridgidaire is pretty much a "builder grade" appliance and even their "Gallery" lines are mostly just cosmetic changes. If you like / need the cosmetics to match it is probably worth the up charge. If you want / need a higher performance set of appliance you are sorta stuck spending a whole lot more or at least shopping like a madman at all the "scratch & dent" outlets. Of course if a particular retailer has a mess of scratch & dents I don't think I'd feel real good about the care / skill of the installation crew...

[mirjaja]

We have the glass top stove and the fridge. We bought a different brand of over-the-stove microwave and a Bosch dishwasher.

The stove is fine, my only real complaint is that it takes forever!!! to heat up (plan on 20-25 minutes for it to preheat to 350*). We've not used the so-called convection part yet. No problems with the fridge except I am finding it really hard to clean hardwater marks off the plastic in the water dispenser.

As far as the microwave - the guy in Lowes told me that a lot were being returned, so we went with another brand.

Dishwasher - I'm a die-hard Bosch fan. Once you have one (with a stainless steel interior), you'll never want anything else. They are so quiet that you won't know they are on (which is a huge bonus in an open concept house)

[fallingwater]

This thread was started in 2009. I am sure the OP has made a decision by now but there might be someone interested in the info.

I have the gas stove and over head microwave. They were not cheap. My opinion is... Meh. If I could do it over, I probably would have went with a different brand. Although the stove is snazzy looking and I love the feature where the bottom rack is attached to the door (when you open the oven door the rack slides out) I find the burners are a bit fickle. Sometimes they don't light right away and when they do, a burst of flame shoots out. The center burner is pointless but I do love the full grate across the top.

The overhead microwave just pisses me off. Its loud for whatever reason. The controls on it are ridiculously overly complicated and when something is done cooking the microwave beeps non stop until you open the door. Doesn't seem like a big deal unless you are doing something and can't run over and open the door. Not sure why this is even a necessary feature as you can't over cook something if it stops.

I will be needing a new dishwasher soon and stupid me, I didn't research them. The dishwashers by Frigidaire get horrible ratings. Since Frigidaire uses a special coating on their appliances, they are obviously darker than other brands. Its almost like a dark gray and don't seem to blend well with others. I think GE is about as close as one can get. So if someone is looking to match this brand with others, you might be disappointed.