Learn me refridgerators

Our 25 year old whatever is making some terrible noises, worse than the rattle it has been making for a few months.  So time to buy a new one with a minimum of pain.  I am supposed to give a E36 M3 about this so please educate me on what brands and features.  

First off, no WIFI, no auto ice maker and no chilled water.  No water line run and it just doesn't work for us.  Top freezer seems to make more sense than bottom, hinges break less than slides but I have no idea.  Just 2 of us so capacity is not an issue, plus there is a 30 year old fridge that works fine in the garage.

So what brands are worth looking at?  Should I consider a service contract?  Are the ones at the big box stores the same quality as an appliance store?

Following because I want to replace my whirlpool which has been a piece of E36 M3 since about 2 years after I got it.  (prepping for another manual defrost cycle tonight)

How do I say this nicely?.....

The days of fridges being quality things that last decades is a thing of the past.  The guy who delivered the new LG fridge to my sister's house told me "she'll be back for another one in 5 years."  He was wrong.  It was only 4 years.

You're on the right track getting zero bells and whistles.  I would say steer clear of any brand that you find in your living room (LG, Samsung) and stay with one of the "old" names.  Kenmore, Whirlpool, Frigidaire, etc.  Appliances are no longer made in-house.  It used to be when you bought a Kenmore, everything was made by Kenmore.  Now, they buy components from various manufacturers and they are just assemblers.  They put the same parts in a fridge and then put one of three or four brand names on it.

I wouldn't shy away from a drawer/bottom freezer.  I have a french door top and a bottom drawer freezer and it has been wonderful.  The slides are super beefy.  For reference, it's a Whirlpool from 2012 which I bought used in 2017.  I like the top fridge because I'm in there 5 times a day and it's at an easy height to see and reach.  Bottom fridges mean that you're always bending over for items that you use time times more frequently than what's in the freezer.  The drawer freezer makes it really easy to get to frozen things without the bacon and the fish fillets sliding out on  your toes.  The only thing I don't like about it is the French door.  If I had to do it over I would have chosen the single door.  Each door is so small (and has big door pockets inside) that you have to open both to really have any access.

Some recent refrigerator chatter...

https://grassrootsmotorsports.com/forum/off-topic-discussion/what-refrigerator-to-buy/195860/page1/

In that thread above my intention was to offload the broken garage fridge and then buy new but put the new in the kitchen and retire the old kitchen unit down to garage duty.  Scared by the price and quality of the offerings I instead spent $100 on a used but smaller unit for the garage and kept the old workhorse in the kitchen.  

Curtis73 (Forum Supporter) said:

The only thing I don't like about it is the French door.  If I had to do it over I would have chosen the single door.  Each door is so small (and has big door pockets inside) that you have to open both to really have any access.

Also the french doors have less closing force so its much easier to accidentally leave the door ajar.

My parent's Amana refrigerator just quit after 11 years last week. It was a basic no frills unit. I expected it to last much longer because of that but nope. I swear they are all designed this way these days. The repairman said they were better off to buy a new one but Dad put his foot down and said to get the parts needed to repair it. 
 

My Samsung has been trouble free for 6 years now except for one thing. The ice maker. Didn't bother to have it fix because of all the online reviews I saw about it being a common failure and it's worth fixing just for it to fail again. 

No matter what you buy, get a service contract. I can't recommend any particular brand because I've tried them all, and they all suck. I probably buy 2 or 3 a year on average. A fridge is the only thing in the world I will pay for a service contract now. Go for the 5 years too. The $160 contract on an $800 fridge is a better investment than buying a $960 fridge.

In reply to ProDarwin :

We have issues with the door being left open  - not a fan but it's whatever the wife wants.  

Just glad a new LG delivered yesterday, the old one was in palliative care and pretty much passed away on Thursday. We were warned they are not long lived capital assets anymore. No water dispenser (pitchers are made for a reason) no ice maker (I cannot conceive a feature more likely to fail). Why LG ? Because we know they're all like Windows, crashing is when not if.

I've found that ice MAKERS (that just dump into a bin) are far more reliable than ice DISPENSERS.  The dispenser in my bestie's Samsung lasted 3 months.  The warranty repair lasted less than a year.  The ice maker bin in my Whirlpool is now 11 years old and still working perfectly.

Mine does have a water dispenser which is also pretty foolproof.  It's just a solenoid valve that actuates when you press the paddle.  I just try to avoid anything with a computer.  It's hard these days, but it seems like a common failure is some circuit board.  A simple digital display to adjust temperature is about all I have, but the ones with humidity monitoring, wifi, bluetooth, or otherwise "smart" are the ones that seem to fail spectacularly.

I buy appliances like I buy cars... used.  Something that still looks new-ish, but also something that the googles has had enough time for owners to post on Fixya or appliance repair forums with their problems.  It's like if you were one of the people who lined up to buy a brand new WRX back in the day only to discover that head gaskets fail at 60k versus the guy (like me) who picks one up for pennies on the dollar three years later knowing that the internet has come up with a bulletproof fix.

French doors are out, it is in a corner and the right side door would not have clearance to open.  Bottom freezer is out 'cause the wife said so.  The oven is a POS also, but it has the 80s feature of a small oven on top and main oven on the bottom which is NLA and the dishwasher is over 20 so looks like a full package is happening.  Big box shopping today, local appliance store tomorrow.

The good news is we found a half dozen banana muffins in the freezer, and the unused apple pie from Xmas gets thawed and baked today!

Following because the one in the basement got underwater.  Buying used, how do we know the new one is any better than the old one?  Are there field tests?

Our 35 year old Whirlpool finally died. We had room for a 36" wide fridge, but didn't have the depth for the single door to open before hitting the wall in its crappy location and I hate side by side fridges. We bought a shallow cabinet 26" depth French door LG because it was the fastest one we could get from Best Buy. It came without water or ice and has been running great for three years-so far. It also comes with a door is ajar beeper which goes off after about 30 seconds. The worst thing about it is that it cost $1700. A full 36" depth one only cost $1200 but wouldn't fit.

914Driver said:

Following because the one in the basement got underwater.  Buying used, how do we know the new one is any better than the old one?  Are there field tests?

I looked at used, there's a repair/used appliance store close by (near Coombs Country Market - goats on roof) they test and refurbish used appliances and prices run approx 20% of new. I'd search for used appliance dealers locally and check them and operation in person and see if they pass the scuzzy test.

Well... E36 M3. This thread just made me realize that our kitchen layout forces us into a French door type of refrigerator (which came with the house). I'll be increasing my maintenance efforts to keep this one going as long as possible. 

clutchsmoke said:

Well... E36 M3. This thread just made me realize that our kitchen layout forces us into a French door type of refrigerator (which came with the house). I'll be increasing my maintenance efforts to keep this one going as long as possible. 

Why? Got a photo?

On a related note to all of this, where is the best place to go to for service info on a particular model.  Frige prices right now are eye watering, so if I can replace the door seals and get my defroster properly operational (coil keeps freezing up), it would save me some serious coin.

In reply to ProDarwin :

You'll find that seals are very expensive when they are available. They also seem like the first part they discontinue. eReplacement parts or Repair clinic are my go-to sites. Sometimes its just to find the correct part number and see what Bezos has to offer.

If your coils are freezing up and seals are good there is a heating element that is on a timer. Could be either part is bad.

jgrewe said:

In reply to ProDarwin :

You'll find that seals are very expensive when they are available. They also seem like the first part they discontinue. eReplacement parts or Repair clinic are my go-to sites. Sometimes its just to find the correct part number and see what Bezos has to offer.

If your coils are freezing up and seals are good there is a heating element that is on a timer. Could be either part is bad.

Right, seems like heating element (defroster), the timer, the defroster thermostat, or the control board could be the culprit.

The seals don't *look* bad, but I don't know if I can tell 100%.  Sometimes the doors dont have that satisfying *pop* of breaking suction when you open them.

So after day 2 of the search we have some winners.  Maytag, fridgidare, whirlpool, and maybe LG.  LG actually has the best warranty, FWIW.  All are top freezer, under a grand and basically look like our old one but nicer.  Buying from a local appliance store, they have their own service department and pricing is competitive.  All are under a grand and should live longer than me.  I did price a new compressor for the old one, 700 bucks!

I had a Whirlpool last 13 months, another needed a new fan in the freezer at 9 months. Just lost a Maytag at about 3 years old.

I have an LG at home that just had the compressor replaced under warranty at 8 years old.

ProDarwin said:

Right, seems like heating element (defroster), the timer, the defroster thermostat, or the control board could be the culprit.

The seals don't *look* bad, but I don't know if I can tell 100%.  Sometimes the doors dont have that satisfying *pop* of breaking suction when you open them.

In related news, I just put it into manual defrost mode and the defrost cycle on ran for maybe a minute (should be like 30-45 mins).  So I guess next step is to verify the bimetal defrost thermostat operation.  Just need to take everything out of the freezer to work on it :(.  Probably a project for later this week.

I would say timer, but I can't seem to find one for this model - I think the timer is integrated into the control board?

One I found interesting but wife rejected was a GE garage rated fridge.  Nice basic top freezer with an operating range much bigger than normal ones.  I think it was like 20 to 115F.  To me that means more durable motor/compressor but who knows?  Maybe it is sized to hold cases of beer more efficiently!