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Shopping for a new refrigerator. As far as I can tell, every brand is now design for early failure, they have been all well engineered for planned obsolescence. With that being said it would be good to have the LEAST trouble prone. They all work pretty well for the first year or two. But how about 5? Or 10? Any ideas?
A couple quick comments. First, ignore any claims of improved efficiency. Efficiency in refrigerators reached about the theoretical limit a few years back. Ones from the 1970s and 1980s, yeah, those were inefficient.
Second, consider your real needs. Once out of south Florida, I never hooked up the plumbing for ice water and ice maker. Those are just a PITA for me, and a source of potential catastrophic flooding. I know how to put a container of water in a refrigerator and I can even make ice cubes in ice cube trays without skipping a beat when I remove the ice I want to use. YMMV
Third, consider that the better basic frost free refrigerators bought by landlords are designed to sell to them as being reliable and low maintenance. Ask a property management company what their best experiences are.
Location: East of Seattle since 1992, 615' Elevation, Zone 8b - originally from SF Bay Area
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None of them are made to last 20 years like they used to be. We loved our Samsung French door with water and ice in the door, but after just 4 years the ice maker died. Fortunetaly it’s easy to replace and only $110 on Amazon.
M
None of them are made to last 20 years like they used to be. We loved our Samsung French door with water and ice in the door, but after just 4 years the ice maker died. Fortunetaly it’s easy to replace and only $110 on Amazon.
M
Look, an ice maker sits in below freezing temperatures for its life and is 90% plastic. There's just no way that one of those is going to last a long time. So, I'm with Harry above.. Stick a pitcher of water in the fridge, and use ice cube trays and there's half your problem solved.
The other problems that you generally run into are sensors and evap fan motors.. so long as you're not buying one of these crazy internet connected models or something. Neighbors a few years back had a nice GE side by side that wasn't cooling.. I got in there nosing around a bit, found a thermostat that apparently had gotten some water in it, which froze and swelled the thing up and broke it.. Ok.. No big deal.. Went to the appliance parts store with it (Worst part was wedging my shoulders in there to get the thing out).. Noticed when they handed me the new part the temperature the thing was designed to open at.. Remember, this is a thermostat in the freezer.. So.. You think it would be designed to open at 32 degrees.. Or, worst case.. Maybe around 80.. No.. It opens at 240 degrees. It was part of the defrost system, but 240 still seems way the hell too high for anything in a freezer.
Evap fan motors have been designed to run at variable speeds now, and.. Even the guy at the appliance store when I replaced mine (Which is a 20 year old Hotpoint.. Standard top freezer) said he'd see me in a few years for a new one.
Compressor failure is the only real part on a fridge that ends its life. It's just not worth replacing in most cases. I suppose if the evaporator sprung a leak, but that's fairly rare.
GE side-by-side with water/ice dispenser in door. Still working well after almost 12 years.
All my kitchen appliances, large and small, are GE -- all have been problem-free for 12 years.
My current front-loader washer is also GE. Unfortunately I bought LG washer and dryer 12 years ago. The washer never worked right and I finally replaced it with the GE one year ago. So far, so good.
Shopping for a new refrigerator. As far as I can tell, every brand is now design for early failure, they have been all well engineered for planned obsolescence.
Sad, but apparently true commentary.
Mother-in-law had one that worked for 40 years. I realize that this was an extreme exception even back in the day, but my first one from Monkey Wards, with all the bells and whistles lasted 20 years. Current Whirlpool upstairs has been going strong for 25.
The "apartment-sized" one in the basement is a different story, even though it's a basic model without all the bells and whistles to foul up. It ran well for four years only. So I research all the smaller units offered by Home Depot and Lowe's and they all have bad ratings.
Maybe the smaller ones are poorer quality because they're targeted to businesses that rent apts. with the knowledge that they'll be abused by renters anyway and in need of replacement.
Don't buy GE Appliances. Get Maytag. My father's 2 year old GE refrigerator crapped out, and I know some other's who had a GE washing machine crap out on them pretty early. Don't overspend for the top of the line models.. they'll all fail after a similar period of time and you'll never get the savings back in supposed energy efficiency from the top of the line front loading washer versus a mid grade one or even a top loader, though front loaders do clean better. Keep in mind if you insist on having a water dispenser with your refrigerator you'll be spending money on filters which they use to pad their profit margin, kind of like printer ink.
Makes me wonder why they never required filters for the ice maker.. after all it produces water, it's just frozen.
Spend $2000 on a refrigerator? Never gonna happen. They know the people who spend that much will spend it again in around 8 years, and they get better profit margin on those models, so you think they'll last longer? As for water filtration, I have a gravity fed water filter I keep in my basement bedroom. (also known as Berkeys)
***If you like ice, don't buy it...makes a handful each day, that's it
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Quote:
Originally Posted by GearHeadDave
Shopping for a new refrigerator. As far as I can tell, every brand is now design for early failure, they have been all well engineered for planned obsolescence. With that being said it would be good to have the LEAST trouble prone. They all work pretty well for the first year or two. But how about 5? Or 10? Any ideas?
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