Who makes which Sears model of any appliance changes regularly, even mid-model year. The serial #'s designate which manufacturer actually made it, IF a Sears sales person will help you identify which is which.
Whatever you do, DO NOT buy any KOREAN appliances, at least not yet. It took Korean car makers years to get it together. We had a Samsung side-by-side that was great; worked great, great features. It died 3 years later and, after waiting 10 weeks for a new mother board in the middle of the summer, we threw it away and bought a far less nice Whirlpool (18 months ago). I looked at CR for the brand with the least repair calls. Alan got it right, it's Whirlpool---and you can get parts---like, tomorrow!
I called around appliance service companies and got the same response. Korean appliance companies are terrible about parts supply. The service man walked into the kitchen and groaned.
I said, "Hey, I chose those colors!" Seriously though, he looked at the Samsung and said, "At least it isn't an LG."
Oh, no, that'd be our top CR rated vacuum cleaner which has never worked correctly and had to be repaired when a little plastic nub broke that incapacitated the entire thing. The repair guy had to improvise, but it's solid again.
By the way, our Samsung fridge was also CR top rated.
I used to be a bigger CR fan until they named the 2002 Passat as their # 1 pick. I instantly knew that was gonna come back to bite them in the ass and it did. It cost them nothing to change their mind. It cost a couple of friends tons of cash.
