Seeking totally off topic, non A/V buying advice again…. Anyone gone fridge shopping lately that might have some buying advice to share????

Looks like it’s time for a new fridge……. Mine died and I can’t find anyone within 300 miles to check it out. I’d have close to a grand in travel expenses alone, plus whatever parts / labor ended up being to fly someone here to check the stupid thing out. So now I’m looking at refrigerators. I’d much rather be looking at power tools or A/V gear or photography gear, but oh no……I have to buy a fridge.

These new fridges with the reefer on the bottom look cool. I always did hate my side by side unit as it just didn’t hold much. I have to have an ice and water dispenser and can not be wider than 36”. Other than that, I’m clueless. Oh, it needs to be stainless to match my counters and the rest of the appliances.

Sorry to hear about your fridge, Michael. Not sure how much advice I can offer up but I spent some time looking at new fridges with my neighbour who's wife insisted they replace a perfectly working one with a more "updated" one. Anyway, we have a couple of local Sears Clearance/Liquidation outlets, so that is where they started to look. They decided on a "counter depth" Kenmore refridgerator with the freezer on the bottom(swing door, not pull out). I can't speak for all Kenmore fridges, but this particular one was made by Samsung which has virtually the same unit under their own name.

As far as stainless goes, there are different types. Some are "no marr" where others seem to leave a lot of finger prints, so that might be something to keep in mind. Counter depth fridges CAN be more expensive than regular depth fridges, but if your limited to width you might want the extra depth of the standard fridge.

Although you've probably ruled out another side by side, I've heard some complaints about certain brands(LG? I think it was) in that the seals on each door rub together when they close, thereby wearing out the seal prematurely(in this case, only 1 year).

Also make sure if you choose a bottom freezer, that it has some room in it. I've noticed some of the pull out style are very restricted spacewise.

If you are not going side by side then freezer on the top are generally more efficient. (Cold air falls ya know). But you must weigh convience.

I have a friend has one that has the freezer on the bottom. It shure is a hastle having to get down on your knees to get ice cubes out of it.

I love the side by side unit that came with my house. It’s the first one I’ve ever owned. The freezer section holds more than any standard size over/under model I’ve ever had and it’s way easier to get things in and out of it with all the shelves, including in the door. Maybe it’s the side by side model you have just has a small freezer section?

Otherwise I’d go freezer on top as having it on the bottom would IMO be a pain.

I wouldn't want the freezer on the bottom either. Ours has some age on it and if I were in the market I think I'd be looking at a side by side.

You need a fridge this time of year??

Well, he does need to keep some things warmer than freezing, one assumes.

Bingo.

We have friends that have one of those. It's a really nice fridge, and having the frozen stuff on the bottom is fine. Except, of course, for the ice cubes. While it's not quite the case that you literally have to get down on your knees, but you do sort of have to bend over and root around to get ice cubes.

We had a really bad experience with a GE refrigerator. From the fridge's problems and the way GE treated us in simply trying to get a working fridge, we now shy away from GE products in general if we can help it. In a nutshell, we paid $1,500+ for a "premium" fridge. It never worked correctly and GE was incredibly uncooperative in trying to resolve the problems. Too cold, too hot (multiple occasions of a fridge full of ruined food), ice maker quit, touchpad quit. It required four service visits from rude GE repairmen the first year while under warranty. GE always conveniently "lost our case file" between the fixes (even when given case #'s, names, dates, invoices, etc) , so they refused to acknowledge or believe that it was simply a lemon.

Three months after the one-year warranty expired, it ceased working again. The repair estimate was $600+ to replace (another) failed logic board. At that point, I was done.

The best day in that fridge's life was when a local appliance store gave me $100 trade-in allowance for it on a new fridge. We bought a Frigidaire that has been quietly doing it's job, day-in and day-out, for the past five years.

michael_d,

We have a Fisher and paykel french door fridge which we have been really impressed with.

The freezer is down below in a drawer fashion with continuous ice. The top two doors open into the same cavity at the top. It has a water filtration system built in too.

We have found it fits the bill. Their after sales service was top rate too.

Thanks guys. I definately do not want to be rutting around for ice. Whatever I end up with with have a dispenser in the door. I just read that Samsung makes refrigerators. Who woulda thought....

Ya, Peter, I don't want everything frozen. I'm using my grill for a freezer at the moment.

This sucks. So much for my new receiver.

Maytag owner here. Same fridge going on 20 yrs.

I have to say when we bought here that the side by side fridge and freezer looked like it was going to be a beautiful combination. I have since taken that back. It just makes the fridge side narrower. Like just the width of a pizza box narrow.

That's my two cents worth.

Bren R.

We've owned all 3 configurations in this order: Freezer top. Freezer Bottom. Side by side w/water & ice in the door.

By far, we enjoyed the freezer on bottom the best. Tons of room for large platters, and not bending over for everyday items. Everything is right there at eye level infront of you. We actually still own it, but it's been sent to the garage. I have the nicest beer fridge on the street.

When we moved and went to stainless, we got a great deal on a side by side. Love the water & ice, but hate everything else about it. Things just don't fit. (And it's a 25 or 26 cubic ft) We're thankful to still have the other fridge when realatives come around at holidays.

Thermodynamically speaking, the freezer on bottom ones make the most sense (at least if the coils are on top...).

We bought a Maytag SS, counter depth, side by side about 3 years ago. Got around the pizza box size thing by buying the 26 cubic foot fridge.
It is plenty big.
Water, ice crusher and cube dispenser that hasn't bunged up at all. The water jet wore out and sprayed water inside the freezer until the tip froze, but the replacement was only $50 and all is fine.

Now ask me about how i will never buy a Maytag dishwasher again...(just got a new Kitchen Aid last week on a wicked deal...fantastic!!)

We really hated our side-by-side. Too narrow on both sides.

Got a Samsung french-door (freezer on the botton, two doors but full width on top).

Love it. More importantly, Mrs. Tuttle loves it.

I use lots of ice cubes and honestly, I don't think it's that bad.

You can get this same config with ice/water in the door, but it costs at least $500 extra and sacrifices quite a bit of refrigeration space for freezer space.

Good luck, Mike.

And this is what several of the appliance guys told me. We're doing a remodel and ended up w/ a KitchenAid bottom fridge. No ice/water in the door because we wanted more interior. It also has an internal water filter which saves us from our monthly Arrowhead delivery.

We don't have it yet but we did do a bit of research. We've had side by side but space is small. You have trouble storing pizza boxes and cakes. The top fridge is probably the most space efficient but for some reason, you don't find high end models. Ours has french doors and steel front, a bit pricey but our local appliance shop is hurting for business and even beat Sears' sales price w/ free delivery. It's a family run shop that's been in business over 40 years. The bottom space is a concern but fortunately, we've got our top fridge going to the garage as a secondary unit. But it does seem that the bottom doesn't have any less space than a side by side would.

You might also check to see if you have a Sears outlet near you. They have LOTS of appliances from their scratch and dent stuff, all below retail and w/ full warranty. If you're lucky, the damage is on the side or back and you save a bunch. One fridge I looked at was about $1K less than the current sale price, but the dent was on the front. My local guy was only a few hundred more so I went w/ him instead.

Beware the Consumer Reports customer reviews. Sometimes people give appliances a really bad rating because of one feature they hate. Then you find that it's a feature you either like or don't care about so the review rating is irrelevant.

What is this I keep hearing about leftover pizza?

Cesar, Consumer Reports doesn't rely on "customer reviews" for its ratings of appliances. The ratings are based primarily on the results of tests in its lab. One area in which customer feedback is a factor is whether repairs were necessary.

My advise is "Don't get a Maytag". Ours needed 4 repairs in three years. The serviceman told me that Maytag had gone to plastic parts and he had to repair them more often than any other brand. His advice was to spend as little as you can, as many of the manufacturers use the same parts.

Oops, I'm about to derail this thread.

Next week I'm going to buy a new dishwasher. I'm thinking about a Kitchen Aid from Lowes that costs $700 + $120 for delivery, install,and cart off the old one, but they drop the $80 something state sales tax when you pay for delivery/etc.

Does this sound like a good idea, or should I just buy a cheap one instead? I'm thinking pay more and get better, although this is not always the case.

Two, almost three, years ago a lot of research into appliances in general led me to believe that at that time, GE had the best bang & reliability for your buck. Of course, a lot could have changed since then. No issues with our GE fridge, dual fuel stove, or dishwasher yet.

We have a Kitchenaid dishwasher. We really like the stainless interior. It is quiet. Very reliable so far. It cleans MUCH better than the builder-grade unit it replaced.

That's no way to talk about your wife!!!

Wow, Murph. I wouldn't be surprised if people didn't start reporting missile sitings out your way.

Yes, you are correct. I just meant that the customer reviews are sometimes sketchy.

Mark is cross threading again. I think it's all the needlepoint he has been doing.

Mike, since Consumer Reports has been brought up, I'll mention their recent ratings. I suppose the question of top freezer vs bottom freezer depends on what you want to bend over for. A highly rated top freezer meeting your size, stainless and ice dispenser requirements was the GE Profile PTS22LHR. The top-rated bottom freezer(French-door)was the Kenmore Elite 7759.

We've had our LG bottom freezer, French door for 5 years now without issue. The seals between the doors are fine and show no sign of wear. The way the shelves move inside and the large, wide, shallow drawer in the base of the fridge part is very convenient.

It's not that bad getting ice out from below, but there is less room in the freezer overall since all the mechanicals are behind the freezer drawer.

Sorry, I don't have any advice on dishwashers as I have never replaced one. My builder grade GE has worked fine for the last six years.