[Startingover]

Guess this decision I need to make myself, but its overwhelming.

I got a new fridge for xmas, ( on paper)

Read Consumer Reports till I was ready to pull my hair out. I live alone so don’t want an oversized one thats going to run up my electric bill. I’m surprised I can’t find a 20.8 cf like I have which is a good size for me. So between going bigger or going smaller Im going smaller. 18 cf.

Next is top or bottom freezer. I don’t need french doors but prefer bottom freezer. It’s narrowed down to between a GE or Frigidaire. Consumer reports on most all of them have some bad reviews which scare me.

The best reviews (my price range ) are Kenmore and I used to trust Kenmore before Sears closed. Now no one carries them around here.

We’re going to the big box stores today.

 

[chandler48]

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.

 

[Startingover]

Just trying to save money. I love French doors.

 

[Startingover]

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

Maybe French doors aren’t too much more.

 

[diyorpay]

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.

 

[Startingover]

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.

 

[Bud9051]

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

 

[Old Thomas]

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.

 

[huesmann]

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.

 

[surferdude2]

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

 

[Davejss]

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.

 

[Startingover]

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

 

[user_12345a]

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.

 

[Mystriss]

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)

 

[Janefromherz]

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.

 

[beechers]

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.

 

[Calson]

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.

 

[Nik333]

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:

 

[huesmann]

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

 

[Dave Sal]

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.