Refrigerators

Is there a go-to brand preferred? Every year at tax time I upgrade something in my house and this year it’s time to replace my 9 yr old Frigidaire “professional series” refrigerator that came with the house when it was built. Makes a ton of weird noises, the latch system doesn’t work, continually gives me power fail alarms, tons of ice buildup inside, but overall happy it’s made it 9 years I guess, as things just don’t last these days. Tell me what you like and don’t like!! Somebody on here has got to have some knowledge on the subject… Would consider getting an entire appliance if deal is to be had if that matters.

I have a GE side by side freezer on the bottom. Ice and water inside left door nothing on the door not even a TV. Its not hooked up to wifi. It just does its thing. I've found from all my years of experience that fridges work the best when full of beer.

Frigidaire here, going on 20 years, fingers crossed.

gary_in_neenah said:

Frigidaire here, going on 20 years, fingers crossed.

Click to expand...

Same here

Look into garage ready refrigerators they are the toughest built to last along time work in unheated garages extreme lows and extreme high temps.

I don't want to take anything away from Frigidaire, or GE for that matter, but, when it comes right down to it none of these are made to last anymore. The most one can reasonably expect out of todays major appliances is 7 to 10 yrs. I have lived in my home for 35 yrs now & I have been through 3 refrigerators. The first was a Kelvinator which was in the house when I bought it, family got larger, needed more Fridge space, so I bought a size larger GE. It crapped out in 7 years, compressor sh_t the bed. So, bought another GE, this time a french door thought I was getting an upgrade, turned out to be the worst one. The freezer on the bottom is in my opinion the way to go though. Current fridge is a Whirlpool, been very good so far, though I have had to have the control panel replaced, other than that, no other big issues. I have steered clear of the fridges with the icemakers & water dispensers in the door, I've seen too many issues on the insurance side of things with failed water supply lines wrecking floors & sub-floors. LG seems to make fine products, but, you have to choose size, price & quality. Major appliances are not cheap, in fact, they are pricier than ever, of course what isn't anymore. If you can fix what you have, fix it, if not, hunt for the best for the price. Nothing like having a refrigerator crap out & lose all the food in both the fridge & the freezer, especially when your gone for the week-end.

gary_in_neenah said:

Frigidaire here, going on 20 years, fingers crossed.

Click to expand...

Probably built like a tank and will keep going another 20.

I have found Consumer Reports pretty good for this sort of thing. Their 2023 buying guide (I could send you a PDF if you like) has 10 pages on this subject depending on size (width) and style (top or bottom freezer, french door, side by side, etc.). They pretty much like LG in most categories but it looks to be model dependent. Or go to cr.org/refrigerators . I think Amana, Maytag and Whirlpool are made in Iowa. GE may be Kentucky, not sure. For example:

Ours is a Fridgidaire, Legacy series, not sure on its age, 20 plus years? Top freezer, bottom fridge, as that is what was recommended by my old friend who was in the appliance business. I also have my uncles Whirlpool side x side in our garage. He bought it new, at the scratch, dent, blemish Sears Warehouse over 50 years ago. Will replace them when necessary.

Been in my house for 15 years bought 3 GE refrigerators, never again.

Ohh and I’ve bought many sets of washer dryer sets. LAST SET OF GE lasted 3 years, never again.

Stuff isn’t made to last but gotta like the look and size/price.... may try LG next

My wife and I hate our Samsung fridge, for that matter, most of the Samsung 4 pc set (fridge, range, micro/hood, dishwasher) we bought from the big blue store in 2018. Part of it I'm sure is "get what you pay for", the whole set maybe was $3000-$3500 after sale and multi-piece discount.

The fridge is a side-by-side french door up top, with pull out freezer drawer on bottom. Has an icemaker in the top left corner of the fridge that feeds ice and water through the door. That icemaker isn't sealed well, damp air from the fridge seeps into the icemaker housing, and the coil/ice tray/maker unit frosts up into a huge chunk of ice, rendering the icemaker useless, and darn near have to break the slide out drawer pulling it out to access the frozen chunk and heat gun thaw it all out, just to get another couple months before doing it all over again. I gave up on it a year or two ago, turned the icemaker off, for all I know the ice chunk is even bigger now and I may never be able to take it apart without thawing the whole fridge (I don't think the refrigerant coil that is in the bottom of the ice tray gets turned off when the ice maker is turned off). There is lots on the web about this frost-up issue, maybe even a class action law suit.

The fridge is loud! Has been from day one. High pitched/whining compressor noise. Delivery guys dropped the first one off, and we noticed it right away. Had a tech come out, he said "you'll get used to it". Nope. Had Lowes come back out and take it back, and give us another one within the first week. No different. We weren't smart enough to return the whole sh!t right then, that first couple of days.

The icemaker/water dispenser in the fridge drips all the time into the drip tray, dried water crust looks hideous. Even with the ice turned off (still use for water). Samsung recommends raising the front of the fridge higher so it's not level, did that, got better, but still drips.

Very few good things about this fridge. It does have a second icemaker bin in the pull out freezer drawer! That's about the only plus.

In-laws have an LG french door/drawer fridge, ~15 years old, it's nice, it's quiet, and has only had a minor thing or two go wrong with the icemaker that is part of the fridge drawer. That is my main complaint about their fridge, the door ice maker has very low capacity. And it does not have a second icemaker in the freezer drawer. Their LG dishwasher is really nice too. We will probably be seriously considering LG in the future when we replace it all.

Get what you pay for, that's part of the lesson I learned this last go around.

Our GE that we purchased (9) years ago (along with GE Range, Dishwasher and Microwave as a set) crapped out 4 weeks ago and guess what, replacement parts are no longer available (fan motor went out on the refridge).

Being so cold we were living out of coolers in the un-heated garage until we could get a new one in.... LOL........ We did buy the matching GE that looks pretty much like the old one, so apparently only the parts to make them work are no longer available, but the doors, handles, drawers, etc are still the same.....

wiharley sounds like he has the Fridge from Hell!

We know this stuff can be maddening, about 13 years ago we put a new furnace in the house. It was a rare time that we went with the best of the best, top of the line, bells and whistles, the works. Damn thing lasted about 12 years as the control panel and circuit board were no longer available for replacement. 12 YEARS! And yet the old stuff last 30 and 40 years.

gary_in_neenah said:

wiharley sounds like he has the Fridge from Hell!

We know this stuff can be maddening, about 13 years ago we put a new furnace in the house. It was a rare time that we went with the best of the best, top of the line, bells and whistles, the works. Damn thing lasted about 12 years as the control panel and circuit board were no longer available for replacement. 12 YEARS! And yet the old stuff last 30 and 40 years.

Click to expand...

My advice is to do your research well. Talk to someone who works on the stuff. A retailer will tell you what sells. When our A/C unit gave up the ghost I had recently had talked with a cousin of mine. He had done a complete house remodel of several years. Everything went very well except for the A/C unit. We both use the same A/C Heating contractor. My very good friend who was the business owner suggested replacing my unit with a Lennox. Me know what my cousin went through I told Ray no on Lennox. He then suggested a Trane, the same as my cousin ended up with. The Trane A/C-Furnace has been trouble free now for over 20 years. Don't get me wrong as my son has Lennox units that are performing fine.

gary_in_neenah said:

wiharley sounds like he has the Fridge from Hell!

We know this stuff can be maddening, about 13 years ago we put a new furnace in the house. It was a rare time that we went with the best of the best, top of the line, bells and whistles, the works. Damn thing lasted about 12 years as the control panel and circuit board were no longer available for replacement. 12 YEARS! And yet the old stuff last 30 and 40 year

Click to expand...

old abe said:

My advice is to do your research well. Talk to someone who works on the stuff. A retailer will tell you what sells. When our A/C unit gave up the ghost I had recently had talked with a cousin of mine. He had done a complete house remodel of several years. Everything went very well except for the A/C unit. We both use the same A/C Heating contractor. My very good friend who was the business owner suggested replacing my unit with a Lennox. Me know what my cousin went through I told Ray no on Lennox. He then suggested a Trane, the same as my cousin ended up with. The Trane A/C-Furnace has been trouble free now for over 20 years. Don't get me wrong as my son has Lennox units that are performing fine.

Click to expand...

"nothing stops a Trane"

old abe said:

My advice is to do your research well. Talk to someone who works on the stuff. A retailer will tell you what sells. When our A/C unit gave up the ghost I had recently had talked with a cousin of mine. He had done a complete house remodel of several years. Everything went very well except for the A/C unit. We both use the same A/C Heating contractor. My very good friend who was the business owner suggested replacing my unit with a Lennox. Me know what my cousin went through I told Ray no on Lennox. He then suggested a Trane, the same as my cousin ended up with. The Trane A/C-Furnace has been trouble free now for over 20 years. Don't get me wrong as my son has Lennox units that are performing fine.

Click to expand...

My Lennox Ac and gas heat gave me the most trouble ever imo overly complex furnaces too many electronics. This time next house I put in a complete new Bryant heat and air the best warranty, competitive price and runs like hose no problems. I have 2 units 1 for upstairs and 1 for downstairs so far 4 years trouble free. Imo Bryant is poor man’s Carrier same company.

whitedust said:

My Lennox Ac and gas heat gave me the most trouble ever imo overly complex furnaces too many electronics. This time next house I put in a complete new Bryant heat and air the best warranty, competitive price and runs like hose no problems. I have 2 units 1 for upstairs and 1 for downstairs so far 4 years trouble free. Imo Bryant is poor man’s Carrier same company.

Click to expand...

I like the "kiss" kind of stuff too! Keep it simple, eh. And that's what I like about the Trane units we put in. If we would be snowed in as we were for 3 days last week, I can get it up, and heating the house. Less complicated, less to go wrong?

Oh so true, back when they made things to last,,,,,,,,forever........ and in Harvest Gold and/or Avacado Green no less.......

gary_in_neenah said:

Frigidaire here, going on 20 years, fingers crossed.

Click to expand...

Amana here.....22 years ....fingers crossed also!!
Top fridge /bottom freezer and single doors. No fancy anything.
Not looking forward to replacing with new junk now days.
My mom just bought from VanVreedes fridge and gas stove.....wanted white... have to order those.