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My husband and I are in the market for a new refrigerator and this whole process is driving us nuts!
We've narrowed it down to wanting a freezer on the bottom, but are not sure whether to go with french doors or a conventional door that for our purposes will need to be switched over to left hinge/right side handle. We don't want an ice maker or water dispenser (though most of them come with at least an ice maker) I've been reading a bunch of nightmarish complaints on consumeraffairs.com and it looks as though NONE of the top name brands are any good.
I would love to hear from others about their refrigerators--both bad AND good--especially when it comes to service repairs and/or what brands to stay away from. It seems that there are 3 U.S. brands--GE, Frigidaire (no freezers on the bottom) and Whirlpool which makes about every other brand of refrigerator on the market.
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
TIA
Last edited by Daisy Grey; 09-06-2008 at 06:21 PM..
Reason: more info
We won't be buying anytime soon (I HOPE) - but I do NOT recommend what we got, a GE w/icemaker, etc. - side-by-side. Next will be a freezer on the bottom and french doors above. (The motor or whatever went out w/i days after the warranty, naturally - paid to replace it - it is guaranteed for 5 yrs. but for some reason the original part wasn't....hmmm).
Does it matter to you whether you have french doors or one? Actually doesn't to me - but I do know - I'll never buy a side-by-side again (and NO icemaker, etc.)
Last year, we got a Maytag 25 cu ft bottom freezer, top single door, at Lowes with one of the 10% off coupons while it was on sale. Never hooked up the icemaker in it. Other than my needing to recess the wall in back of it so that it doesn't jut out into the kitchen, we love it. We had to have the door reversed on ours as well. Be sure that you kitchen will accomodate the swing of the top door, ours just misses the island bar by about 1/8th of an inch. Stick your hand on the wrong spot on the door and swing it wide, and ouch.
I bought a Hotpoint two years ago. I love it to pieces and often hug it. True. (I'm a Cancerian and the delights of food matter a lot ot me, and I do a lot of chef-style cooking, so a very cold fridge and a very cold and stable freezer really matter to me.
This is my first Hotpoint. Since GE owns and manufactures Hotpoint, those two brands, plus Kenmore from Sears, were my top choices. I chose this because it had everything I ecstatically wanted at the lowest price of the three. I love my fridge I love my fridge...
Don't forget that Sears will do maintenace and repairs on any brand, not just Kenmore.
The home I'm renting now has a lower freezer. I dislike it intently. My dad had one previously. After about 6 months, he came home to find that stepmom put the 6 month old $1200 model outside on the curb with a sign that said "Free". She wasn't gentle when she did it and she didn't even empty it out first. It took some determination as she's all of 5'2 and over 50. Dad said the carpet smelled like ranch dressing for months.
Years ago, we had a side by side. Hated that too - we ended up replacing it with a conventional frig.
(BTW - don't pay the store additional $$ to switch the door for you. It's a simple thing that takes minutes and no skill at all - instructions are in the manual. Same thing with dryer doors.)
that reminds me of when I dragged my husbands recliner out onto the curb when we moved. It was gigantic, he never sat in it, it was broken, but he didn't want to get rid of it because we paid "good money" for it.
Well, I dragged that thing out of the guest room (we didn't have any other place for it and it didn't even fit in there), out of the house, and down the looooooooonnnnnnnnnnnggggggggg driveway.
Someone picked it up in minutes and it took my husband a few days to notice it was missing.
But it felt great.
You would be astonished at the physical feats a woman can accomplish when hell bent on getting rid of something.
Well, it looks like we'll be putting our fridge buying on hold--my teenage daughter hit a pothole while driving home from her college classes and lost a tire and severely damaged the front end of her car....
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