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Expensive fridges are dying, leading to fraud claims

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61–70 of 191 posts

Re: Expensive fridges are dying, leading to fraud claims

#61
post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I also bought a house with an ice maker in the refrigerator. I can confirm that it gave us constant trouble until it gave up the ghost. I use ice cube trays in the freezer.

> I use ice cube trays in the freezer. We'll probably go this route when this thing inevitably dies. This is the way to go unless you're a big ice consumer, which neither me nor my wife are.

If it’s acting weird, just shut it off and kill the water to it. Ours was doing the same thing and one day we came down to probably 10 gallons of water on our wood floor and the ice maker just spewing water. We bought a GE Opal instead and it’s great.

Re: Expensive fridges are dying, leading to fraud claims

#62
post #7

Worked in an appliance warehouse. We had two types of fridges coming back as carry-outs for new purchases: ancient models that were probably as old as I was, and models from a few years before the pickup date. Very little middle ground. Also, without being an engineer or technician, it did always seem to me that fridges were like cars in that you had "luxury" models that were standard frames with fancy (often less-th…

This just sounds like an ordinary bathtub curve.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bathtub_curve

Re: Expensive fridges are dying, leading to fraud claims

#63
post #32

Don't buy korean (LG and Samsung). Personally I only buy Bosch whenever I can.

That's too bad, because the software and apps for them are far and above anything non-Korean. Not too important for a refrigerator, but it's important on ovens and microwaves.

One tiny example: my brand-new JennAir wall-oven has remote start through it's phone app. Guess what? You have to enable "remote start" on the oven itself before the app works. Every single time! You can't just enable remote start on the oven once and then use the app. You must enable it every single time -- in advance of using the app. And to enable it requires 20-30 seconds of "turn oven on, wait for animations to complete, click through this menu, that menu, and another menu". It makes remote start almost useless: I leave the house at 7:00 AM and have to remember to do this every single morning if I want to use remote start for the oven to be preheated when I arrive home.

Remote start on LG and Samsung? It's a breeze. These are companies whose have software as a core competency. JennAir? Not so much.

Re: Expensive fridges are dying, leading to fraud claims

#65
post #13

We're currently living through a race to the bottom in everything: technology (degradation of platforms like Google and FaceBook — Google has become practically unusable; proliferation of bots, SEO junk, AI junk; also the degradation and over-complication of hardware, e.g. these fridges: overly-complicated smart appliances that don't last long; "they don't build things like they used to"), society (social media, pola…

Centralization and reliance on 3rd parties will do that. Next they will deanonymize, and it'll be over. Build your websites, resurrect the cool internet of the 1990s!

Re: Expensive fridges are dying, leading to fraud claims

#66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What are some of the brands that you’ve seen that have those implemented-to-a-higher-standard features? I’m in the market for a new set of everything and would appreciate the insight.

https://www.mieleusa.com/e/refrigerators-and-freezers-102212... has few bells and whistles but is a superpremium brand. I bought some of their stuff used and while expensive it has very high quality materials...

Note: Miele just rebrands Liebherr fridges. At least in Europe, guess the US is no different.

Re: Expensive fridges are dying, leading to fraud claims

#67

LG and Samsung are both notoriously awful for this. Even when they come with crazy long warranties, parts will never be available. The irony is that cheaper models are still crazy durable - less circuitry, less moving parts, less "economy" features, more off-the-shelf components. If you actually want appliances that last forever, think like a landlord and buy yourself the boring products.

My LG fridge compressor lasted 3 years. Manufacturer warranty was 10 years, but only covered the cost of the part. Labor to replace it was $700 (called the different places). Needless to say, I went and bought a boring fridge for $1000, and it's already lasted longer than the LG did.

Re: Expensive fridges are dying, leading to fraud claims

#68
post #29

It's not just fridges. Most appliances (most things in general?) I've seen at any price point are fairly awful. I've taken to, when at all possible, buying machines that are older (20 years or more) because those tend to work well, can be reasonably repaired, and lack those crazy undesirable features that seem to be implemented instead of implementing quality.

I looked into dryers, and the consensus seemed that there is only 1 brand in the USA for homeowners made to a standard of quality: Speed Queen. Otherwise the approach is to buy old as you do or buy a commercial version. This is true of a lot of other stuff- the commercial version has to actually hold up under lots of usage. You are probably looking at spending 2x but you get something that will likely last more than 2x the consumer version.

I think the main issue holding back quality is that people move so often. If you buy a quality appliance and then sell your home early on in the life cycle the buyer probably won't value the quality appliance and is instead hoping to see new appliances.

Re: Expensive fridges are dying, leading to fraud claims

#70

our LG fridge died within two years they replaced the compressor (only due to a class action suit compelling them to), but I expect it will die prematurely again anyway I keep thermometers in the fridges and check them all the time an independent appliance repair guy told me changing brands won't help much, they are all junk now and he mostly does installations instead of repairs I responded..."even Bosch dishwashers…

Well the plural of anecdote may not be data, but I've really liked my Bosch dishwasher that I've had for the last 5 years or so. Cleans really well, reasonably quiet, and the UI works fine. I'm redoing the kitchen and considering getting a Bosch induction range and maybe a fridge.

Reviews on their 600 CFM range exhaust hoods, though, are all over the map. Smaller bits like that seem even harder to get a good read on.

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