# Chosing new fridge



## chandler48 (Jun 5, 2017)

You seem to have discounted french doors, but we have had a Samsung for years that has been flawless. French doors, bottom freezer, PLUS a mid drawer with adjustable temperature from about 42 to 29 degrees. We use if for meats and cheeses. Plenty of space, LED lighting and twin compressors, one for the refrigerator and one for the freezer.


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## Startingover (Apr 18, 2012)

Just trying to save money. I love French doors.


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## Startingover (Apr 18, 2012)

Always thought little door in middle was for cheese an bacon. Its called a snack drawer. 

Maybe French doors aren’t too much more.


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## diyorpay (Sep 21, 2010)

Not to complicate things for you but Sears never made an appliance. Always contracted out under names like Kenmore. Maybe it had input in the design but that would be it.

To save some money, white color would be best choice, no fingerprints, no upsell in price for 'stainless steel'.

French doors have had a bad gasket design that is frustrating.

Basic old box, no water, ice inside. Ask for floor model deals and even damaged or returned items with a dent on the side that, for you, may not show.


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## Startingover (Apr 18, 2012)

Good to know about gaskets. I heard put a dollar bill in door. Close it and if you can pull bill out easily you need new gasket. 

I don’t use ice and our water is awful so don’t need those two things. I do like SS but in my price range none are smudge proof. I’ve never paid attention to smudges at friends houses. 

Different topic but a girl friend had to shut off her outside on the door ice dispenser cause her dog learned how to use it. 

Daughter ordered a coupon so I have plenty of time to decide while we wait on that.


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## Bud9051 (Nov 11, 2015)

The energy guide sticker on new refrigerators should give you the numbers to compare energy cost vs size and features. Assuming your current one has some years on it all newer ones have improved significantly

Bud


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## Old Thomas (Nov 28, 2019)

I hate French doors. If I have something in one hand I always open the wrong side. I buy old fashioned (usually Whirlpool) top freezer regular door refrigerators. They don’t cost a lot and they are simple and reliable. I have bought 3 in 40 years at my NY house. The one we have now is 5 years old, the previous one is in my shop because my wife wanted black and it is white, and the one previous to that is in the basement of my son’s beach house. All 3 still run. We buy many for rental properties and they are good. If you spend a lot on a fancy model, it will have complex controls that break and you will have so much money in it that you will be married to it.
Our FL house has stainless, it sucks compared to painted.


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## huesmann (Aug 18, 2011)

One thing to consider with French door fridges—they are typically pretty deep, and at least 30" wide. Consider the size of the door you will need to use to get the thing into your house. That may apply to other fridges as well.

We recently swapped from a white French door to stainless, and the fridge had to come in and out through the front door because it was the widest one available, at 36" nominal, and the fridges were around 34-35" deep _with the door handles removed._ Had to come in sideways, since the fridges were 36" and wouldn't fit through the 36" nominal doorway. We even had to take the door off the hinges, since it wouldn't open far enough to clear the entire doorway.


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## surferdude2 (Nov 21, 2019)

I can't imagine how french doors on a refrigerator would be of any added value. I guess they would keep short people from getting in, other than that I wouldn't want to put up with them. My main complaint against them is, they forced the freezer back down on the bottom. I suspect it's mostly a marketing ploy aimed at people who want something different.

I like side by side, don't like top or bottom, like water and ice, don't want/need a digital display or microprocessor control board, ... that's about it. YMMV

SD2


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## Davejss (May 14, 2012)

I was walking through Sears and I happened to pass through the refrigerator department. I looked at refrigerators that cost $800 to close to $5000. Personally, I'd buy the cheapest fridge in the store. From the cheapest to the most expensive they only do one thing: Keep food cold. Period.
If an $800 will keep food cold just as well as a $5000 fridge why on Earth would anyone spend more than necessary? 
I don't ever remember going to someone's house and being amazed by their expensive refrigerator.


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## Startingover (Apr 18, 2012)

Question:

Selected but haven’t order a GE, SS, bottom freezer. According to specs it’s 70” high. According to my measurements my opening is 70” high. 

I have those useless tiny upper cabinets over the fridge. Should I wait till its delivered to see if it fits or go ahead now and remove upper cabinets? I don’t like cutting things close, time wise or otherwise. The soffit is enclosed but I’m guessing the builder put texture on all the soffit before cabinets were hung. Mostly I’ll just expect to need to paint walls where cabinets are. 

I don’t know why its 35” deep but I can’t change that. It will be 2.5” narrower than current fridge. My vertical blinds over patio doors are VERY close but instead of merely sliding them open in the morning I need to angle them sideways to create a smidgen more space. 

I pulled current one out a few inches to visualize what 35” deep looks like. 

Current size 20.8 cf. New 21 cf


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## user_12345a (Nov 23, 2014)

Avoid fridges with electronic controls.

Don't need digital thermostats, separate refrigeration circuits for fridge/freezer, inverter compressor, etc. Food just needs to be kept cold, not "comfortable". 

Mechanical controls are generic and you can still buy defrost timers and thermostats for 30 year old fridges.

Good luck finding a reasonably priced circuit board for a new fridge out of warranty.

Even with mechanical controls nothing will last as long as before; if you want something reliable and still energy efficient buy a 15-20 year old one off kijiji, honestly. They haven't gotten much more efficient in the last 20 years - most improvements were made in the mid to late 1990s.

Or if your existing fridge has no problems hold on to it.


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## Mystriss (Dec 26, 2018)

I had a white Whirlpool side by side for ages... bought it when I was 16 and hauled it to two or three different homes. Only reason I even got rid of it is because we happened across a 48" wide viking. 

(We had to disassemble the back sliding glass door and roll the entire single place trailer into the house to get it into the kitchen heh)


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## Janefromherz (Aug 9, 2018)

When I was looking for a new washing machine and dryer I looked at Maytag. At the Maytag store they had a section of the store where the parts used in the machines ere displayed showing what parts were used in Maytag and in other companies products. Maytag beat them all. Being doubtful, I checked the other companies products and found the Maytag display to be correct. If I were you I would check this out. I recently had to buy a new fridge for my kitchen. I had a 26 inch stove and wanted a 30 inch. This made my refrigerator area smaller and I had to settle for a smaller fridge...I got the only one that would fit and I hate it. I now have to figure out if I need to redo my cabinets to fit the one I really should have gotten.


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## beechers (Jan 28, 2013)

Here is my 2 cents: we have a Whirlpool side by side with water/ice access in door. We have had to have the dispenser fixed once. The lights inside the unit started flashing like strobe lights. I researched (and confirmed with repair guy later) that to fix requires replacing a whole LED unit for over $200. So I fixed it by putting duct tape over the buttons that let fridge know that the door is open. I also hate the fact that with the side by side, I am always having to take things out to get to the thing that I need at any moment. So when this one dies, I am probably going to get a bottom freezer type without french doors. However, we have a small kitchen with an island only 31 inches from the outside edge of the current refrigerator which may not allow a regular door.


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## Calson (Jan 23, 2019)

The bottom freezer section makes it very hard to find things as half the stuff is on the bottom half. Neighbor just replaced her refer and went with a new side by side. 



When looking for any new appliance I look at the owners' reviews on Best Buy, Lowe's, and Home Depot, and get a good idea of which brands or models to avoid.
Then I try to buy an appliance from Best Buy and avoid buying one from Home Depot. Best Buy is the easiest to deal with if there is any problem with a new appliance and Home Depot is terrible and best avoided. 



Much better to rely on 50 reviews from these three websites by people who have bought and used the appliance and possible dealt with a repair call or a warranty issue, than it is to go by a reviewer from someone at Consumer Reports.


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## Nik333 (Mar 1, 2015)

I was always taught that a side by side freezer door lets cold air fall out more than the bottom freezer. 



So, if you're prone to stare into the freezer, wondering what to make. . . go with the bottom freezer.:wink2:


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## huesmann (Aug 18, 2011)

I loathe side by sides. The freezer section is just too narrow if you want to put something wide in it.


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## Dave Sal (Dec 20, 2012)

Nik333 said:


> I was always taught that a side by side freezer door lets cold air fall out more than the bottom freezer.
> 
> So, if you're prone to stare into the freezer, wondering what to make. . . go with the bottom freezer.:wink2:


I had a bottom freezer refrigerator a few years ago. The freezer drawer was made of a large wire basket (not sure how to describe it) so that when you opened the freezer, all of the cold air would dump out onto the floor. Made no sense to me, as I thought that a solid base would work to hold all the cold air in. 



Got rid of it one day when it started smelling like smoke. The interior bulb was also not working and you couldn't plug it in (I unplugged it) or the smoke smell would get worse. Bought a new side by side and had the delivery guys take the old one away. After a day or two I started researching possible causes for the smoke smell and learned that there was a known issue with that model with the interior light where it would stay on with the door closed and overheat, eventually melting the housing. I could have replaced the housing and cleaned the interior and that would have been the end of the problem. Live and learn.


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## surferdude2 (Nov 21, 2019)

huesmann said:


> I loathe side by sides. The freezer section is just too narrow if you want to put something wide in it.


We have a GE 26 cu. ft A 12" pizza lays down flat. Plenty wide for anything we ever have. I suspect a 23 ~ 24 cu. ft. might mean that a 12" pizza would have to stand up on edge... I can see where that wouldn't be good... all the topping would likely fall to one side!! :surprise:

SD2


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## Startingover (Apr 18, 2012)

Excited about New SS fridge being delivered yesterday. I haven’t kept old one stocked in preparation for new one. And my stomach is uncomfortable today. I took most contents of old fridge to someones house since I read it takes 24 hours for new fridge to cool. But all the leftovers I decided to eat along with 1/2 carton of ice cream. Then fridge wasn’t delivered. 

It came off truck and sides are dark gray. Not what I expected. My daughter got here and called Lowes and was on the phone quite a while. The description did not say 2 tone and this model was not in any store. We sent it back, to do research, since delivery men were in a hurry. 

Now we learn most SS fridges have different sides. We had no idea. 

No new fridge, no food and my stomach hurts. We rescheduled delivery for next Friday.


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## Bud9051 (Nov 11, 2015)

LOL, that is one of Murphy's laws, "if anything can go wrong, it will".

You may need to focus on the thread about eating out.

Now cross your fingers that the next delivery isn't the same one you returned but after being on the truck for a week .

Bud


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## Startingover (Apr 18, 2012)

Bud, i thought about it bouncing around all week on truck


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## huesmann (Aug 18, 2011)

Yeah, our fridge is only stainless on the doors, and glossy textured grey on the cabinet.


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## raylo32 (Nov 25, 2006)

IMO, no layout is ideal... unless you maybe have room to have a completely separate refrigerator and freezer. But for me the "french door" style with wide and high double door upper refrigerator and lower freezer works best. The freezer is a bit difficult to access and can get disorganized (they all do that) but 90% of the time you are going into the upper anyway. So much nicer not to be constantly bending trying to see what is below an upper freezer. And forget about side by sides. Ugggh.


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## surferdude2 (Nov 21, 2019)

I can see where the shorter french doors would be good, even needed, in some situations.


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## taylorjm (Apr 11, 2013)

What you really need to look at instead of brand, size or type is who will service it? We have always bought from the local maytag store only because they have their own service department and a 5 year extended warranty. Most places will call some local repair shop and sub out their repairs to almost anyone and you have no idea if they are qualified. We had a maytag induction range that the top control board kept blowing up. After 3 repairs they replaced it with a kitchenaid model that was more expensive. It's not a matter of if you will have a problem with an appliance today, it's a matter of when. They are not made like they were used to when they would last 20 years. Appliances are made to last 5-7 years now.


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## Old Thomas (Nov 28, 2019)

Top freezer is the simplest. The freezer freezes and cold spills down to the refrigerator. I buy basic top freezer models, a fridge is there to keep stuff cold. It does not make a fashion statement.


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## huesmann (Aug 18, 2011)

Nah, what you really need are an all-fridge, and a separate all-freezer, both with French doors. :biggrin2:


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## raylo32 (Nov 25, 2006)

That's what I want and will have if I ever build a house custom.



huesmann said:


> Nah, what you really need are an all-fridge, and a separate all-freezer, both with French doors. :biggrin2:


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## huesmann (Aug 18, 2011)

We compromised and have the French door fridge/freezer combo in the kitchen, and the full size (but alas, single door) freezer in the garage, which is just a step outside the kitchen. We also have an old side-by-side fridge in the basement for overflow (like if we need to keep stuff cold for a party, or for beer).


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## raylo32 (Nov 25, 2006)

I believe you and I have the same brand and model Sammy.



huesmann said:


> We compromised and have the French door fridge/freezer combo in the kitchen, and the full size (but alas, single door) freezer in the garage, which is just a step outside the kitchen. We also have an old side-by-side fridge in the basement for overflow (like if we need to keep stuff cold for a party, or for beer).


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## huesmann (Aug 18, 2011)

Had.  We replaced it with a stainless GE. Trying to sell the Sammy on CL now.


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## raylo32 (Nov 25, 2006)

Not sure what my next one will be but my Sammy has been very reliable going on 10 years... except for the dim LEDs on the control panel that I replaced. The Sammy replaced the failed 15 year old GE top freezer unit that I specified when the house was built. Whatever I get will be a french door style... unless they come out with something better. Alls I have seen since I bought mine is some minor twists on the theme but no major changes.



huesmann said:


> Had.  We replaced it with a stainless GE. Trying to sell the Sammy on CL now.


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## surferdude2 (Nov 21, 2019)

My grandma had a window box freezer/refrigerator! I forget what type of door it had. :biggrin2:


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## raylo32 (Nov 25, 2006)

I believe my grandmas used to get ice from an ice man!



surferdude2 said:


> My grandma had a window box freezer/refrigerator! I forget what type of door it had. :biggrin2:


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## Calson (Jan 23, 2019)

Unless you go to a coffin freezer all upright freezers will dump air when opened as will refrigerators for that matter. The trick is to avoid having a lot of empty air space and to keep the fridge and freezer as full as possible, even if it means having gallon jugs of water inside. 

Frozen meat is good for up to 6 months and iffy after that. We only have at most a 60-day supply of anything in the freezer and a 2-week supply of whatever is in the fridge section. If you want to store half a cow in your freezer then buy a coffin freezer and put it in the garage.


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## surferdude2 (Nov 21, 2019)

It may be of some consolation to know that the air lost from opening the freezer or refrigerator door doesn't represent much of a load on the system to re-cool it. Air only has roughly 1/4 the specific heat content capacity of meat or water respectively.

The bulk of the load comes from heat conducted through the doors and walls of the cabinet and the load from the door frame heaters. Then there is both the _specific_ and_ latent_ load imposed when freezing water to make ice. The latent heat load when moving from 32° water to 32° ice (change of state process) is 144 times the load from of a single degree change that doesn't incur a change of state. A similar process takes place when water is boiled and steam is produced.

Putting product that is well above the freezer or refrigerator's normal operating range can impose an abnormally high load on the system. That's what is called a "processing load" and by comparison to the air loss load when the door are opened, the processing load has that same ratio mentioned earlier, or roughly 4 times greater than the air loss load.

Forgive me for this rant but commercial refrigeration was one of my careers and I rarely get to bore anyone with these kind of details. :smile: I built very large holding freezers and processing freezers. The latter required 4 times the compressor and cost much more. When some customer tried to use a holding freezer for processing, he learned what I have outlined above the hard way. lain:


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## Startingover (Apr 18, 2012)

STILL don’t have my new xmas fridge. Scheduled for 12 hr time slot. Emptied my old one (again). After many calls they can’t locate mine. I was ready to say forget it. But at Home Depot it was $500 more compared to pre xmas price. 

New delivery date Feb 9th.


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## Bud9051 (Nov 11, 2015)

I guess as long as the old one is working waiting isn't that bad.

Will this one be the same colors as the previous one? Will it be the same one?

Probably sitting in their warehouse filled with beer. 

Once you get it and all looks good, send them an email and ask for some compensation. It doesn't hurt to ask and how they answer helps you judge how good of a company they are.

Bud


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## Startingover (Apr 18, 2012)

Bud, honestly even a $10 coupon will make me happy. Its a nuisance taking all my food over to daughters then having to go get it 3 times. They gave me a 12 hour window last 2 times with a 5 minute notice first time. So yesterday I wasted whole day sitting here. Next time they said I will only have a 4 hour window of delivery time. 

One friend said it’s probably cause I refused it first time. 

Yes same SS with gray sides. 

I viewed new vacant houses online just to look at fridges. Now that I know sides are different I could tell in all those houses the sides of fridges were 2 tone. 

This will be my first new fridge since I was 20 yrs old. All others came with the house.


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## Bud9051 (Nov 11, 2015)

Is the delivery company a local business where you could stop in and talk. Explain that the problem originated with the company you ordered from to take the blame off of you.

If it is a local warehouse your frig may be sitting right there.

If this is a delivery company selected by the store where you purchased it, calling that company to see if they can push the shipping co, they have more leverage.

An email might be better to have a paper trail.

Bud


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## raylo32 (Nov 25, 2006)

Back around 2010 when the local power company (PEPCO) decided that profits were more important than reliability we lost power for a total of about 35 days in a one year period, once for 9 consecutive days. This is what we did when we couldn't use the refrigerator.


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## huesmann (Aug 18, 2011)

Rent a U-Haul, tell the delivery/warehouse company you're gonna show up on Day X and Time Y for your fridge, and that they're gonna have a couple guys load it into your U-Haul, follow you to your house, unload it, and set it up in your house (if that's part of the arrangement).


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## Startingover (Apr 18, 2012)

A little detective work and I found a Corporate number. Yes, I was sweet as pie and factual. My key point was daughter paid for this end of November. So is accruing interest with a promised delivery date of Feb. The manufacturer is out of stock. So they couldn’t locate ‘any’.

This guy will get back to me in a few days if any coupon or compensation is possible. 

Lol, very curious if I get a response.


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## Bud9051 (Nov 11, 2015)

You did good. Keep notes, date, time, who you spoke to and what they promised. The people above him won't be happy if he doesn't follow through.

Bud


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## premend01 (May 16, 2019)

Nice. thank you for topic.


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