Expensive fridges are dying, leading to fraud claims

> Repairmen only see the failures

Sure, that's the value of their advice. You want the appliances that they rarely see.

All of our Samsung appliances, including the fridge, have needed multiple expensive assemblies that have molded-in non-replaceable components, turning repairs that should have cost ~$20 for a part into >$200 multi-hour DIY jobs.

Our $1500 Samsung fridge, which ended up in the landfill after less than 5 years, was one of the lucky ones involved in the class-action lawsuit because it doesn’t properly de-ice the coils. The actual de-icing consists of a tiny heater connected to a 1-inch-wide aluminum Z-shaped “finger” that sits in the middle of the drain below the coils at the back of the fridge, inside. What happens is this finger can’t keep up with the ice buildup and it goes into a runaway state where more and more ice builds up since the near-freezing water can’t drain away. You’re left with a giant brick of ice at the back of the fridge, inside GLUED-DOWN STYROFOAM inside of a thin plastic cover which is also secured solely with adhesive. The styrofoam breaks apart when you try to remove it. We ran it for a couple of months with a few 120mm PC fans circulating air through the coils (as the fan assembly is also integrated into the formed styrofoam as air channels to route air around the fins of the foils, and one of the characteristic signs of this situation is the stock fan grinding on the ice buildup). Samsung advises to NOT use a blow dryer to attempt to de-ice, as this also deforms the styrofoam; they say that in order to remedy this, one must completely empty the fridge and freeze and leave it unplugged with the doors open for about a week to allow 100% of the ice to melt. The problem with that, of course, is that since this is a design flaw, the same thing will inevitably happen again after another week or two. I suppose you could buy two Samsung fridges, and move everything back and forth depending on even/odd weeks so the unused fridge can thaw.

We had to pay a junk company to come haul it away to the landfill and now we have a GE Profile which has never had this problem.

Tiny, 1-2mm bits of hard water mineral buildup clogging the non-serviceable water sensor impeller of the dishwasher and the quarter-turn water assembly that falls off with the lightest bump from a large pot / pan etc in the left side of the dishwasher causing a flood of water under it is a story for another time.

Samsung makes badly-designed products that the uninitiated public believe are well-designed because they look cool. They’re priced as premium products with the build quality of budget junk. The only Samsung things I’ll touch these days are their SD cards and SSDs, which I only have good things to say about.

If all that isn’t enough, read up on how corrupt the Samsung family is and how they basically control a big part of politics in South Korea.

I swear by GE Appliances. Yes, they got bought out by Haier, but their stuff is still crazy reliable, or at least it has been in our experience. We bought a GE fridge for our old rental (whole house; didn't come with appliances). That fridge was AWESOME. I still think about it, especially since the Whirlpool fridge that came with our current rental (whole house) is fine, but definitely showing its age (16yo).

That said, I'm a huge fan of Samsung and LG displays. We bought the Samsung S95B based on it having the highest rating for TVs on RTINGs. It was a great TV (though it blows out colors with its default calibration) that breaks incredibly easily because of how thin the casing is at the top of the screen.

Absolutely LOVE our Blendtec blendeer. That thing can chop up almost anything! My only regret is not getting the variant that came with a heating coil for making soups.

More concerning to me is that there isn't anything better out there to buy anyway.