Comparing new refrigerators

[RichZ]

My wife and I are in the market for a new refrigerator. My wife likes the french door refrigerators with the freezer on the bottom. They have double doors on top. My wife likes 25 cubic foot models by Maytag, LG and Samsung. We can get the best price on the Maytag at Home Depot. I know Maytag had gone downhill recently, but I've been doing a lot of research, and Maytag was recently taken over by Whirlpool, and they are supposed to be a top manufacturer, again. With all these refrigerators, the weak spot is the water and ice dispensers in the door. We don't want water or ice dispensers at all, so that won't be a problem for us. I think they all come with at least an ice dispenser in the freezer, but we won't even hook it up. Anyone have any experience with these refrigerators?

Thanks!!!

 

[whistlepig]

We bought a Whirlpool Gold Series with the French doors and the freezer on the bottom four years ago. We are very pleased with it. All the shelves, including the shelves in the doors, are removable and dishwasher safe. Makes cleanup much easier. We bought it at Lowes.

 

[QRTRHRS]

We have a Samsung french door/freezer on the bottom that we got from Lowes. Ice maker is in the freezer. No issues and we like the unit. Temp control drawers keep food well. Overall easy to live with, certainly better than our side by side we had previously. I did go with an extended warrenty because of some negative comments I read.

 

[whistlepig]

On the Whirlpool Gold the ice dispenser is in the back corner of the bottom freezer drawer and well out of the way. The cold water dispenser is built flush to the inside wall of the refridgerator and also out of the way. We don't use the cold water dispenser that much because we have reverse osmosis water piped to our kitchen sink and prefer drinking that. But we do use the ice maker a lot.

 

[dwost]

If buying from a box store I'd go Samsung. My recommendation If you can swing it get a Sub-Zero, nothing can touch it on performance and service.

 

[whistlepig]

We have bought Whirlpool for decades and have always have had good life and minimum maintenance with Whirlpool. We bought a Whirlpool Gold Series fridge and Gold Series dishwasher 4 years ago. Its a little bit more money for something that works a lot better and lasts a lot longer. Something like paying a few dollars more to step up to the Pro Series with the Stihl chainsaws and weed eaters.

 

[patrick_g]

We have a 3 door unit, side by side refer and bottom drawer (two pull out racks) that has a ice maker in the freezer and a water dispenser inside the refer.

We rarely ever use the water dispenser but use the heck out of the ice maker. We had a little concern when the ice maker glitched and stopped making ice for a week and then started up again just fine bur after we had made a service appt. Repair guy came out and replaced the ice maker for just in case. No problem as it was under our extended warranty.

It is a Kenmore Elite in Stainless steel and it is nearly seven years old. With the exception of the glitch with the ice maker it has run perfectly and we both like it a lot. Whenever it becomes necessary to replace it I want one in the same configuration but maybe with temp readouts on the outside of the door. I would accept an outside water dispenser but wouldn't mind a replacement unit without one.

Choose wisely Grasshopper as refrigerators last a long long time. I tend to lean toward Consumer Reports for appliance information and in nearly 50 years of appliance ownership never got a bad CR appliance recommendation.

Pat

 

[czechsonofagun]

There was a thread here before Christmas to favor Sears for purchases due to their excellent policy towards deployed employees. In our area Sears have the biggest selection too.

Not suggesting anything, just saying

 

[scoutcub]

Choose wisely Grasshopper as refrigerators last a long long time. I tend to lean toward Consumer Reports for appliance information and in nearly 50 years of appliance ownership never got a bad CR appliance recommendation.

We moved last May to our new home and needed all new appliances....so I also got on consumer reports and we ended up with the GE Profile side by side french door with bottom freezer. I believe it's around 28 cu ft, with the in-door ice and water maker. Use them all the time. Great frig thus far. Only problem I can see is the wife complains about cleaning the SS finish - it's hard to get all the streaks off.
Good luck!

 

[Mickey_Fx]

Yes, Maytag is one of the family of Whirlpool appliances as is Amana, Kitchen Aid and a couple more brands. Minor cosmetic differences between them.

Bought a Maytag 3 door model about 2-3 yrs ago. Wife enjoys the bottom located freezer. Hatted stooping down to floor level for reaching the chrispers. I would recommend you go for one of the upper level models that offer solid molded freezer bins. The lower cost models come with wire baskets and what a pain trying to rescue food that has fallen through the bin and thus could prevent door from closing. IMO this is especially true if you go with the ice try in the freezer compartment.

Have had 3 small failures so far. First was the temp sensor, had to call service out and they had to order which took about 10 days to get fixed as was near a holiday. About 8 months ago noticed water coming out from under the frig. On close examination found the plastic drain tray cracked on the bottom. Molded PE tray that should have not cost more than $5 but was $50. They now have a different design which is also a lot easier to replace and cost about $10. Just this past week the part that hold the "pantry" tray cover, the full width one, somehow broke the hinge mounting point thus not supporting the hinged cover. I made the repairs, not difficult and think somehow we played a part in the breakage but couldn't prove it.

Other than these small issues we've been happy with the purchase.

We did a lot of looking and as an old Eng, I almost got **** about research. Had several dealers say parts replacement for the Samsung were difficult to come by. G.E. rebadges the Samsung for their 3 door models. Asked a dealer that sold both the G.E. and Samsung about parts availability and he said G.E. name hasn't done anything to improve the parts situation.

Seem to recall avg life expectancy of latest machines is about 5 yrs and a far cry from the 10+ yrs of a decade ago and the 20 yrs one could expect from older models.

Do believe you and wife will really enjoy a 3 door model.

 

[tallyho8]

Shopping by brand name is not the same as it was many years ago when a company made it's own appliances and when places like Sears would order their Kenmores from Whirlpool with their own specifications usually making them better than the Whirlpool brand.

Now, a company may order 10,000 units from the lowest bidder Asian manufacturer and when they sell these they put them out to bid again where they may be built by a different company.

It is not unusual for the same model to be built by two different manufacturers in different Asian countries in one year of varying quality.

 

[MossRoad]

Seeing how I eat ice cream about every night and frequently use ice in water and pop, and seem to make at least one frozen pizza a week, I would want the freezer on the top. :thumbsup:

 

[woodchuckie]

Since I do some online repair work I have my opinion of what I don't work on because they make them so dang complicated. I think they all have the electronic control board or mother board which replaces the defrost timer and controls the fan speeds. But give me a timer and manual temp control any day. All brands can have problems and the best selling ones are repaired the most because there are more of them. One complication I hate is that Samsung and Sub Zero have and extra evaporator for the fridge side instead of being cooled by the freezer side.

 

[dmccarty]

We bought Maytag kitchen appliances for the new house 6-7 years ago. Not real pleasant experience. The dish washer has had problems. Broke within the first couple of weeks and fixed under warranty. We bought a Maytag dish washer from a mom and pop store for our city house. It failed the first week as well.

The current dish washer's biggest problem is the cheap #$%^&* plastic wheels on the basket. They would break and we could not get replacements. We bought the appliances from a local guy who has now retired. Great guy but even he could not get the parts.

Eventually I was able to find brass parts at Lowes to fix replace the wheels and everything has been fine since. Maybe $2 in parts that Maytag could have done it right the first time for a few cents. We have had a few other problems with it as well. It is supposed to be quiet but it is now loud.

But that is a nit.

The fridge's compressor started to go after 3-4 years. Thankfully it was under warranty since it had a 5 year period. It still took them a good week to get the compressor. Which is not excusable in this day and age. The repairman said the compressor's were failing on these fridges and what I read on the Internet backed up what he said.

A new compressor would have cost us $800. In other words go buy a new fridge.

I went down and looked at Lowes. The fridges I saw all had one year warranties. That is NOT good. If you compare Samsung and I think it was the GE Profile fridges they are identical except the brand names. The parts you can see inside and outside of the fridge are the same. The compressor is the key and I do not know if one is better than the other.

We picked Maytag partly because of reputation for reliability and the local dealer. Mainly because the fridge, dishwasher, and range all had features we really wanted but nobody else had.

Hopefully Maytag cleans up its act under new ownership. I will be very unlikely to buy them again. We have an Ikea store two hours away. Yes two hours. They sell appliances and the next time we need a fridge or dishwasher I will be looking closely at what Ikea sells. Maybe they will have better products.

Not real happy with our Whirlpool clothes washer that is falling apart after 10-12 years.

Later,
Dan

 

[k0ua]

I used to work in appliance stores when I was a kid,, (like 40 years ago)
and Maytag was the best brand you could buy, I have owned a couple of old Maytag A107 and A108 washers, they lasted forever, had to give them away to relatives to get something newer, they just kept on working, BUT, the Maytag Refrigerator we bought new about 11 years ago has had several breakdowns both in and out of warranty, I have managed to repair the out of warranty problems myself, but a few hundred has went out the door doing so. It is a 2 door side by side with ice-maker and water in the door.. . I could not recommend the older ones. I don't know anything about the newer models now that Maytag has changed ownership. Perhaps they are OK..but the new LG units catch my eye. We have a new laundry set of LG, and love them.

James K0UA

 

[whistlepig]

There was a thread here before Christmas to favor Sears for purchases due to their excellent policy towards deployed employees. In our area Sears have the biggest selection too.

Not suggesting anything, just saying

If you buy appliances from Lowes and they need service a Sears repairman will come. Sears does all of Lowes appliance service work.

 

[Chuck52]

We bought a Whirlpool from Home Depot (I think) a couple years ago. We got one without anything in the doors because we figured we wouldn't use the dispensers and they'd just be something else to go bad. Plus it saved us a bunch of money. Of course it does have an ice maker and that works fine. We were especially pleased with how much longer veggies stay fresh (or at least usable) in the drawer vs our old firig. The only issue we have is with the pull out basket freezer. You do have to be careful how you stuff things in the freezer to avoid getting something stuck so the drawer won't open/close. We use lots of frozen veggies, and the new bag style tends to pack nicely if you work at it, but if you just dump them in you may have something sticking up too much. Our chest freezer is in the basement, so though it is handy for long term storage, it tends not to get used for those things we'll probably be using soon. Anyway, look at the freezer and decide if it will hold what you normally want to have handy.

Chuck

 

[RichZ]

Thanks for all of the responses. After checking out all of the responses, and doing some research, we just ordered a Samsung French door refrigerator today, from Lowes. Lowes was having a sale for 15% off energy star appliances, so it was a good deal. And J D Powers and Associates gave the Samsung French door refrigerators their top award for the past several years. Plus we read lots of private reviews on it, and they were excellent.

 

[om21braz]

There was a thread here before Christmas to favor Sears for purchases due to their excellent policy towards deployed employees. In our area Sears have the biggest selection too.

Not suggesting anything, just saying

As much as I would like to second that motion, I just cannot. Sears hung to me out to dry on a Bosch range a couple years ago - would not or could not repair it. They attempted for approx. a month. Wound up getting a local repair co. to do it. After much talking/bargaining, I did get them to refund my extended warranty price though - I will commend them for that.