Way OT, recommend a good refrigerator...

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Greg_Lewis
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Way OT, recommend a good refrigerator...

Post by Greg_Lewis »

OK, so this is about as off-topic as it gets, but I'm looking for a fridge. I won't bore you with the problems with our current GE one, and suffice to say that I'll never buy another GE appliance. The ice maker in this piece of junk has been a problem for years with five different issues as a result of poor design, and if I knew where the designer got his or her degree, I'd have it revoked. End of rant.

So if you have any recommendations for a good fridge, side-by-side configuration, I'd love to have them. Cost is not an issue. I want one that works. THANKS!
Greg Lewis, Prop.
Eyeball Engineering — Home of the dull toolbit.
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Celebrating 35 years of turning perfectly good metal into bits of useless scrap.
SteveM
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Re: Way OT, recommend a good refrigerator...

Post by SteveM »

You want what doesn't exist.

Virtually all appliances these days are crap with one exception - speed queen.

Too bad they don't make refrigerators.

Biggest problems are the ice makers, so leaving that out improves reliability. Ice cube trays work 100% of the time, and I would personally go that route if my wife and kids didn't mutiny over it.

The water in the door is now not worth it. We just got a new fridge and I paid for the second ice maker, lost half the space on one door and about 10% of the interior room just to get cold water in the door.

Guess what? It's not cold.

To avoid problems with mold-like crap building up in the water tanks, they eliminated the water tanks, so the water in the door is as warm as the water in the filtered faucet we installed. Differences is that the fridge needs its filter changed every few months and the filter on the sink is a commercial model and only needs to be changed once a year.

We got rid of the old fridge and now I'm wishing we had kept it and put it in the basement, as we could use the room.

My dad bought a fridgidaire refrigerator / freezer pair in 1966 and finally had to scrap them around the turn of the century. Those days are long gone.

Steve
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Greg_Lewis
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Re: Way OT, recommend a good refrigerator...

Post by Greg_Lewis »

Thanks, Steve. I agree about the water. Fortunately, we are on a well and the water is good right out of the ground, and tastes great, too. (A qualified "fortunately." We did have to spend $24k on the new well after the old one collapsed. Now we're down to 360 feet @ 16 gpm. But at least the water is good.)

As to cold water, I just fill an old apple juice bottle from the tap and park it in the fridge. A no-fail system.
Greg Lewis, Prop.
Eyeball Engineering — Home of the dull toolbit.
Our motto: "That looks about right."
Celebrating 35 years of turning perfectly good metal into bits of useless scrap.
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BadDog
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Re: Way OT, recommend a good refrigerator...

Post by BadDog »

I can't comment on a good refrigerator. Like most, I despise the garbage consumer appliances. However, I have a few points that have made things more bearable.

1) Minimize electronics. No fancy buttons (touch or otherwise), no time/timer, just the bare minimum to go wrong. My DIL's folks always go for the glitz and features, I don't think they've had a fridge last more than 3 years.
2) No crap in the door. No water, no crushed ice, nothing. Like siad, you want water, get an under sink RO. That's what I have, and I drink a lot of water.
3) I suggest considering a bottom freezer. Lots of room to organize things without an artificial 14" width hard limit. AND, the whole thing pulls out allowing you to fully utilize it front to rear without loosing that nice sirloin into the frozen back until it's completely freezer burned.
4) Glass shelves so minor spills/accidents don't travel covering everything below. Particularly true if you have kids around, or happen to be married to my wife :wink: :lol:

My current fridge has been with us for just over 10 years, with no sign of problem so far. Of course, saying that, now it will be dead next time I got to get something from it...
Russ
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Greg_Lewis
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Re: Way OT, recommend a good refrigerator...

Post by Greg_Lewis »

You are lucky, BadDog. Wifey insists on the ice maker and side-by-side. If you are married, you know how that works.
Greg Lewis, Prop.
Eyeball Engineering — Home of the dull toolbit.
Our motto: "That looks about right."
Celebrating 35 years of turning perfectly good metal into bits of useless scrap.
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BadDog
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Re: Way OT, recommend a good refrigerator...

Post by BadDog »

Yeah. Sorry, you're SOL... :wink: :lol:
Russ
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Ken Schroeder
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Re: Way OT, recommend a good refrigerator...

Post by Ken Schroeder »

Greg,
We bought a new refrigerator a couple years ago just because Judy wanted a new one, you probably know how that is. The local appliance store owner told us that none of the new refrigerators would last more than 7 or 8 years no matter what we bought. Our old one was a side by side but she wanted one with the bottom freezer and I thought you are crazy, that would be really unhandy and hard to use but as it turned out it was a great decision and I find it far more convenient to find stuff than in the cramped side by side. The other thing this one has is a door with-in a door which is a great idea for things you use most often, better than trying to find a jar of jelly behind a half dozen other things in the frig.

At the time we bought the refrigerator our freezer had been making a strange noise and thought that was what we needed to replace. The appliance store guy told me to not worry about it and that it would probably last longer than if we bought a new one, 25 plus years old and still going.

Ken
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Harold_V
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Re: Way OT, recommend a good refrigerator...

Post by Harold_V »

Greg_Lewis wrote: Wed Jun 17, 2020 3:51 pm <snip> Now we're down to 360 feet @ 16 gpm. But at least the water is good.)
I envy you your flow. Our well is also 360', but we get only 7 gpm. We have a 1,000 gallon storage tank for those times when it's not enough.

Ice.
Well, it's pretty simple. If one wants ice that doesn't taste like the refrigerator, a separate maker is pretty much mandatory, and it should make ice by flowing water over a platen, not by using a form (ice tray). The formed sheet is harvested and cut by a wire grid to cubes. The water that flows over the platen carries away contaminants, and is discharged when the sheet is harvested, replaced by fresh water for the next sheet. Beautiful clear, tasteless ice, assuming one filters chlorine from treated water. That isn't necessary for us, thanks to our untreated well water.

My personal choice is to NOT have either cold water or an ice maker in our refrigerator.

H
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liveaboard
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Re: Way OT, recommend a good refrigerator...

Post by liveaboard »

We bought a new fridge recently; I agree, they sure don't last like they used to.
My OH had one requirement; it had to be red.
After much search, there was only 2 red refrigerators available here. a Bosch with a red option for $800, and a Jacel [??] for $230, free delivery.
Since I've had a Bosch fail recently and I'm no longer impressed with that firm, we went for the mystery fridge.
NOT because I'm a miser who thinks $800 os way too much for a fridge.
It seems just fine.
10 years from now, I'll let you know what I think of it.

Freezer is below.
SteveM
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Re: Way OT, recommend a good refrigerator...

Post by SteveM »

Electronics were SUPPOSED to make things more reliable.

Turns out the electronics is the primary failure point.

A friend is a service advisor for a small midwest chain of appliance stores.

A typical conversation goes like this:

We will send a tech over this afternoon. He will get the information and we can order the part. We will schedule another service when the part comes in.
Can he bring the part with him?
No, we don't know which part to bring.
But I gave you the make, model and serial number.
Doesn't matter. We can't tell what revision until we see the board.
Can I book the second appointment now?
No, we don't know when or if the part will come in.

How about that for a thankless job?


Steve
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Re: Way OT, recommend a good refrigerator...

Post by rrnut-2 »

Yup. Ordered a part 11 months ago for our old refrigerator, still haven't seen it. 4 months ago we bought a new refrigerator.

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Re: Way OT, recommend a good refrigerator...

Post by EOsteam »

Our first refrigerator is still going strong after 25 years. It is a side by side Kitchen Aid and weighs a ton. The ice maker has been replaced three times in that time period but the fridge itself just soldiers on. However, wife unit number one wanted a new fridge to match the new kitchen decor. The owner of our appliance store in whom we trust recommended we stay with Kitchen Aid. She did remark that nothing is built as well as it used to be so we should not expect the new fridge to last as long as the first one. This one has the freezer on the bottom which allows much more room in the fridge itself. The only bugaboo is it being a bit more awkward to clear the occasional jam up in the ice maker.
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