Refrigerators

[bratch]

I'm shopping for a new fridge.  I'd like to keep it in the $400-800 range.  I want an ice maker and Energy Star and thats about it.  What other features are nice to have and whats just dressing?

[The Rabbi]

My opinion with refrigerators (having bought like 25 over the years) is that whatever you buy it will be good.  They are just well made appliances and seldom give trouble.
I shy away from features because I figure it is just one more thing to go wrong.

I cannot say the same about dishwashers.  There, the more you spend the better it is.

[mtnbkr]

I like rails inside the door that extend all the way down to the shelf so small stuff doesn't fall out.  If I didn't have a toddler, I'd want a filtered water dispesner in the door, but that's a magnet for toddlers.

Chris

[TarpleyG]

7 letters:

K E N M O R E

'nuf said.

Greg

[Brad Johnson]

Have to second Greg on this one. I have a 14 year old Kenmore sitting in my kitchen right now. Not a single problem with it other than a leaky ice-maker last year.

Brad

[bratch]

Mine at this house is actually Kenmore I had to go and look.

Found a Kenmore that meets my requirements but is 5 cu.ft. smaller than a similar priced Frigidaire.

Any opinions on the other kitchen appliances? Dishwasher, cooktop, oven.  Who's good and who should I avoid.

[K Frame]

The Kenmore you bought 14 years ago was made by a completely different company. Kenmore is a catchall name for applicances made by dozens of manufacturers.

[Waitone]

Mr. Irwin is right.  Brands are brands, not manufacturers.  The appliance industry is particularly bad about multiple brands being made on the same line.  Latest confusion is Whirlpool bought Maytag and will shortly close down 3 Maytag plants to make them on Whirlpool lines.

You can google up brand registries to see who owns what brands.

My advice is simple.  The more geewhiz stuff on an appliance the higher the chance of failure and the higher to cost of repair.  You mentioned an ice maker.  Beware some brands power the ice maker off the refrigerator's air circulation fan so when the icemaker fails (and it will) it locks up the circulation fan causing the freezer to freeze up.  Might not be a bad idea to call up an independent repair house and get their opinion of good models and cheap models to repair.  Iffin it were me, I'd but the simplest, most energy efficient fridge I could find.  Don't be enamoured by brands because they are increasingly irrelevant as a measure of quality.

Here it is!  Just found a "Who Makes What" list
http://www.appliance411.com/parts/make.shtml

[charby]

Mr. Irwin is right.  Brands are brands, not manufacturers.  The appliance industry is particularly bad about multiple brands being made on the same line.  Latest confusion is Whirlpool bought Maytag and will shortly close down 3 Maytag plants to make them on Whirlpool lines.

You can google up brand registries to see who owns what brands.

My advice is simple.  The more geewhiz stuff on an appliance the higher the chance of failure and the higher to cost of repair.  You mentioned an ice maker.  Beware some brands power the ice maker off the refrigerator's air circulation fan so when the icemaker fails (and it will) it locks up the circulation fan causing the freezer to freeze up.  Might not be a bad idea to call up an independent repair house and get their opinion of good models and cheap models to repair.  Iffin it were me, I'd but the simplest, most energy efficient fridge I could find.  Don't be enamoured by brands because they are increasingly irrelevant as a measure of quality.

I read that today in the Des Moines Register, I remember when Maytag was a brand you owned for 20-25 years before replacing, seems like everything has gone down hill in the past couple decades. I have a Kenmore washer that is close to 20 years old and runs like a champ. Whirlpool dryer is only 3 years old and going to *expletive deleted*it allready.


C

[garyk/nm]

Look for efficiency of space. This is why I hate SxS fridges.
I'm kind of liking the new 3-door units (double doors on top, freezer on the bottom), but they are not yet down to a reasonable price range.
Slide out shelves are another nice feature; no more "science projects" hiding in the back row.

[doczinn]

To me, the biggest must-have for my next fridge is the freezer on the bottom. Think about it: how often do you open the freezer, compared to the fridge?

[HForrest]

To me, the biggest must-have for my next fridge is the freezer on the bottom. Think about it: how often do you open the freezer, compared to the fridge?

Yeah. We just got a bottom-freezer model and it's a big improvement over the top-freezer design. I don't know how the "freezer-on-top" design came about, and much less how it became an industry standard... it really doesn't make sense at all.

[K Frame]

My Grandmother had a bottom freezer Amana when I was a kid. They all but disappeared in the 1970s and 1980s, and have been making a big come back in the last 10 years or so.

[doczinn]

My grandmother had a 1940's or so bottom-freezer model.

Maybe it was because of TV dinners that the freezer was put on top?

[Art Eatman]

My Kenmore is only 13 years old, but it has survived numerous brownouts and blackouts and restarts at low voltage.  Not bad, IMO.  I'll stay with Kenmore.

An icemaker is just a leak waiting to happen.  When the flow-control valve shoots craps, that's when you find out that  the shut-off valve failed in sympathy.  Fun, fun, fun!

, Art

[K Frame]

Friends had a harvest gold side by side.

They knew it was on its last legs, and didn't think anything of it when the ice maker crapped out.

Until the floor began to buckle.

The stupid ice maker had been leaking for some time, and the floor was rotted behind the fridge. When the supply tube broke, it was just dumping water on the floor, which ran into the cracks and heaved it.

We ended up doing a complete floor replacement in the kitchen.

[mfree]

No icemakers or other water utilities for me, I want a plain big refrigerator with a bottom freezer.

I think the major impetus for the top-freezer evolution was that earlier models had top expansion coils and single doors, hence the freezer was on the inside and generally poorly sealed... cold air would filter down through the rest of the food, instead of pooling about the bottom.

In my garage at my old place, there's a GM "Hotpoint" (?) refrigerator in avocado green. IIRC, it came with that house when my parents bought it in ~1980. As far as I know, it's still running out there, despite being exposed to every element except direct rain and snow. And I did mean to say GM, not GE Last I heard it was still cold enough in that thing to require manual defrosting.

[K Frame]

The GE fridge in my parent's basement, used to keep soda and the like cold, has been in daily operation since my Grandparent's bought it in 1952.

[charby]

The GE fridge in my parent's basement, used to keep soda and the like cold, has been in daily operation since my Grandparent's bought it in 1952.

I bet that thing likes the electricity

[K Frame]

It certainly isn't the most efficient device on the face of the earth, but it's only kept in the high 40s, and the basement is cool all year round.

It's really only a pre-cooler, unless there's a lot of left overs that need additional refrigeration.

My Grandfather used to use it as his root cellar. Kept his apples in there.

[Monkeyleg]

Ditto the comments on side-by-sides. Not a lot of room.

Back in 1992, my wife decided we needed a new refrigerator. Like an idiot, I let her go shopping for it with her mother, and not with me.

Problem #1: it was $1800.

Problem #2: it was so huge that the delivery guys had to remove the doors from the refrigerator, and remove every door from every doorway they were going through.

Problem #3: when it came time for us to buy a new house, we had to pass on several because there was nowhere to put the refrigerator.

Problem #4: when we settled on our current house, I measured the refrigerator cubby, and found that there would be 1/4" clearance on either side. But I failed to take into account the baseboard moldings as well as the outlet on the wall. After ripping out the moldings and slipping the unit into place, I realized there was no place to plug it in. Had to install an outlet in the basement and run the cord down there.

The more bells and whistles, the more that can go wrong. Two years ago, we spent about $400 on new circuit boards.

[mfree]

Monkeyleg, sounds like that falls under "measure twice, buy once" or "measure twice, cut nothing"