Refrigerators

[gregkl]

I too prefer the bottom freezer configuration. I don't like bending down to look in my fridge when I open it. And since I open the cool part 80% more than the frozen part, it makes sense for me to have the freezer on the bottom.

We have owned two fridges in the last 22 years and as far as I know the first one is still doing fine for the people who bought my last home. It was an Amana. The Kenmore we have in our current home is only 8 years old so I can't comment on how well it will hold up but I expect it to last as long as we live there.

WT, you are doing the right thing in researching but in the end you probably won't find something that is A+ rated, loved by everyone and will last for 30 years. Let me know on Saturday what you bought.

 

[KLB]

I too prefer the bottom freezer configuration. I don't like bending down to look in my fridge when I open it. And since I open the cool part 80% more than the frozen part, it makes sense for me to have the freezer on the bottom.

You can also get more in there without worrying about stuff falling out. Harder to stack stuff in the fridge.

 

[wtburnette]

Honestly I'm pretty confused at this point. I'll probably hit a couple places to see what I can see, as the online shopping and research shows that most of the refrigerators are pretty freaking similar. Might either just roll the dice, or buy two used ones from DD's link and save money.

 

[KLB]

Honestly I'm pretty confused at this point. I'll probably hit a couple places to see what I can see, as the online shopping and research shows that most of the refrigerators are pretty freaking similar. Might either just roll the dice, or buy two used ones from DD's link and save money.

I think if you look hard enough you'll find a lot are made by the same company and just branded differently.

 

[Ingomike]

I think if you look hard enough you'll find a lot are made by the same company and just branded differently.

Or at least share common components…

 

[Ingomike]

Honestly I'm pretty confused at this point. I'll probably hit a couple places to see what I can see, as the online shopping and research shows that most of the refrigerators are pretty freaking similar. Might either just roll the dice, or buy two used ones from DD's link and save money.

It is an unenviable task to decide what to buy nowadays. The performance of 20, and even 10 year old stuff is irrelevant to current production items. We don't know if we can trust reviews or sites. The sales people cannot be trusted and most do not know anything anyway. It is just a sucky job.

Remember the internet was going to make this easy…

 

[tim87tr]

Honestly I'm pretty confused at this point. I'll probably hit a couple places to see what I can see, as the online shopping and research shows that most of the refrigerators are pretty freaking similar. Might either just roll the dice, or buy two used ones from DD's link and save money.

I think they all have circuit boards now. Bought a Kenmore Elite single door top/bottom pullout freezer maybe 3 years ago from Sears, nice quality and $1200 price. Couldn't find that style elsewhere and didn't want the french doors or top freezer. May have been a Sears exlcusive but their business model wasn't

Just bought a garage fridge $1000, Midea brand of which I have a nice newer dishwasher also. Midea may be? a decent brand but quality of fridge is not even close to the Kenmore. As stated I think Midea makes various brands as many others do. Home delivery is nice when I bought from Lowes. I'd guess prices have went up 20 or 30% in the last few years.

As with a lot of things, there's a shortage of appliances from what I know. Have family building houses and can't get the fridge they ordered for a long time. Although they were getting wide rock star fridges where you open up giant french doors and peer inside at a fancy back wall of lights. I asked if it was the Narnia fridge?

I was happy to even get another fridge in the style I liked after looking around at the slim selection. I ordered online and skipped the rat race of shopping. Good luck

 

[N9Zero]

Can't go wrong with a Whirlpool.

 

[Ingomike]

An example of why we cannot use our older appliances experience as the basis for purchases today.

With the government pushing energy efficiency ABOVE all else, including durability, furnace manufacturers kept making the heat exchanger thinner and thinner, and durability less and less. Why? Aluminum foil gets hotter way faster than 1/4 plate steel, so a furnace with a substantial and strong cast heat exchanger takes, say, 90 seconds to get hot vs. a thin sheet metal one that is hot in a couple of seconds.

So by weakening the appliance to heat up a few seconds they save a little energy and achieve an “energy star” rating. Paging @BigRed, they did this without consumer choice by central state edict.

When you see high energy efficiency, there was some cost in durability paid to achieve it…

 

[BiscuitsandGravy]

Honestly I'm pretty confused at this point. I'll probably hit a couple places to see what I can see, as the online shopping and research shows that most of the refrigerators are pretty freaking similar. Might either just roll the dice, or buy two used ones from DD's link and save money.

What is going on with the 'beer fridge'? What make/model is it? We have a generic Amana BX21 and when it started to have issues, I just replaced a few parts via some yt videos and all was good.

New appliances same as new cars are built around 'planned obsolescence'.

Same with our old Maytag washer and drier. Just keep them going with parts. The new 'efficiency' stuff is junk.

YMMV.

Old man out!

 

[wtburnette]

What is going on with the 'beer fridge'? What make/model is it? We have a generic Amana BX21 and when it started to have issues, I just replaced a few parts via some yt videos and all was good.

New appliances same as new cars are built around 'planned obsolescence'.

Same with our old Maytag washer and drier. Just keep them going with parts. The new 'efficiency' stuff is junk.

YMMV.

Old man out!

Temp fluctuations. We had a case of pop explode because the temp fell for no reason. Could just need the coils cleaned or something, I don't know. Since it was free and it's lasted a decade, I thought replacing it with my current main fridge would make sense as it's getting older as well.

 

[Jaybird1980]

Temp fluctuations. We had a case of pop explode because the temp fell for no reason. Could just need the coils cleaned or something, I don't know. Since it was free and it's lasted a decade, I thought replacing it with my current main fridge would make sense as it's getting older as well.

Where is your beer fridge located? Conditioned space?

 

[jkaetz]

I can only offer anecdotal reviews on two LG refrigerators and one Whirlpool.

LG #1: Purchased in 2006, had the ice maker tray replaced under warranty as it would splash water into the ice bucket when filling causing the cubes to stick together. It was still going with no issues when we sold the house 12 years later.

Whirlpool: Gold model, inherited with the new house replaced at 8 years old in 2020 because it was leaking refrigerant and had already had one evaporator coil replaced before we inherited it.

LG #2: Purchased to replace the Whirlpool primarily because it offered almost 30 cubic feet of fridge space laid out in a reasonable configuration but partly because the previous LG worked well for us. No idea how it will do long term.

Third hand knowledge, my dad has two or three LG refrigerators in his house and garage. All three are > 5 years old and have not had any issues.


IIRC Samsung and LG still make their own stuff. Whirlpool, Kenmore, Kitchen Aid, and most of the the others are made by only two or three companies with different badges stuck to them.

 

[wtburnette]

Where is your beer fridge located? Conditioned space?

Yep. I have a long pantry area between the garage and the kitchen. The fridge sits in a large area to one side of that pantry with plenty of space around it. More space than a fridge normally has in a kitchen.

 

[xwing]

I have Whirlpool & KitchenAid and am reasonably satisfied with them. (Whirlpool makes Kitchenaid, Amana, Maytag, Jenn-Air, and a bunch of others.) Honestly though they're all about the same (regardless of brand), and are more likely than not to fail in a decade or less.

 

[Jaybird1980]

Yep. I have a long pantry area between the garage and the kitchen. The fridge sits in a large area to one side of that pantry with plenty of space around it. More space than a fridge normally has in a kitchen.

That's good, we put our old fridge in the garage when we got a new one and it doesn't work when the temp drops below freezing.

 

[wtburnette]

That's good, we put our old fridge in the garage when we got a new one and it doesn't work when the temp drops below freezing.

I had that issue when I had a beer fridge in my garage when I lived in MN. The first year all of the beer I had in there had exploded all over the inside of the fridge. I was not a happy camper...

 

[jkaetz]

I had that issue when I had a beer fridge in my garage when I lived in MN. The first year all of the beer I had in there had exploded all over the inside of the fridge. I was not a happy camper...

This is physics. The refrigerator can only remove heat from the inside and release it on the outside. To keep things from freezing in sub freezing temps it would have to run in reverse and heat the inside. The fridge insulation will slow the heat loss once temps drop below freezing, but eventually the temperatures will equalize and you'll have one giant garage freezer.

 

[KLB]

That's good, we put our old fridge in the garage when we got a new one and it doesn't work when the temp drops below freezing.

They make fridges for use outside. We've had one in our garage for years.

 

[Jaybird1980]

They make fridges for use outside. We've had one in our garage for years.

Yeah I know, we weren't looking for one for the garage. We just moved ours out there after buying a new one for the house. Just didn't work out as planned, so we only use it until we can't.