$600 and nobody wants to sell me a fridge!

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Cybrvanr

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Well, I spent all this morning searching for the refrigerator I wanted. I looked at several makes for a 16-14 cubic foot fridge that was energy star compliant, and found several models that were...only problem is that nobody carried the models in their stores!

First stop, Best Buy, who was actually advertising a Frigidaire model in their flyer for $449. The flyer even said a free ice machine with a mail in card. Bust! They were out of them already, and couldn't order anymore till mid January, and by then, the free ice machine offer was no more good.

Second Stop, Sears: They had all three fridges I had picked out, GE, whirlpool/kenmore, and the Fridigaire, but none were the energy star compliant model. The sales rep, instead of asking if I wanted to order the model I wanted, just told me to go to Lowe's...so I did!

Third Stop, Lowes: They had a non-energy star whirlpool on the floor in black with stainless-steel doors...looked good :) That one was only $399 and had an ice maker. But it wasn't energy star compatible, and had a bottom coil, not a rear coil. I thought for sure they could order the energy star one, but I waited close to 45 minutes for a sales rep, but nobody seemed to want to help some longhair hippie looking kid in a t-shirt and jeans.

4th stop: Sears Scratch N dent: Well, they had LOTS of refrigerators, again, all three I picked out, in every offered color style avaliable. At least I got to take a good look at the ones I wanted and figure out which ones had the rear coil, but none of them were energy star compliant (some even used more power than the larger 18 & 20 cu/ft models)

5th stop: Home Depot: Total bust! They didn't sell anything between 8cu/ft and 20 cu/ft, and wouldn't order anything for me either.

6th stop: Lakeside Appliance. The good 'ol stanby that's never let me down comes through. I talked to Tammy there, and she answered all my questions. The G.E. model has a bottom coil, not a rear coil, so it was the Frigidaire or the Whirlpool that were left in contention. Both of those were in stock :) I have an ice machine for my old whirlpool I could transfer over to the new one, so we started negotiated pricing. The whirlpool 16 cu/ft was $629 without the ice machine. She was able to get me a Frigidaire 15 cu/ft for $449, and with delivery, and an ice machine, we worked it out to $499. It gets delivered Friday Morning :) :) I have got to install the ice machine myself, but that's no big deal.

She even let me connect my "watts Up" power meter to the store sample model. I saw that the startup surge was only 1600 watts, which means my inverter should be able to run it when the power goes out!

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www.frigidaire.com
 
I know the salesman personaly at sears and he's nice..He bends over backwards to help us..So does the dude at Ace..He's the one who sells me all the appliances for the rental units...

BTW-Why did ya get one with wire shelvs? Because of the price/what you could afford?
 
another reason to shop at your local dealer's store

Your troubles in finding a refrigerator just reinforce my thoughts that shopping at an independent dealer is well worth the trouble. Every appliance in my house has come from a "family" store and all of my electronics from another. I don't even bother to look at the box stores or Sears.
 
I'm actually more curious as to why bottom v. rear coil matters. I actually prefer the bottom ones so you don't have coils on the back of the fridge.

Chad, my curent fridge has wire shelves, and after many years of glass, I actually really like them. The glass ones always either are or look dirty to me. I'll miss them when this fridge goes. My next will be a bottom freezer and I don't think there's any of those left with wire shelves, and the bottom freezer is a better trade-off for me.
 
Message:

We have Glass shelves and i would never have wire shelves again because people in my house who can not keep things upright in the fridge... Like when grams shoves a big bowl of cole slaw in the fridge and she spills coke every place.. Then she never wipes it up...
 
Costco generally has very good prices on Whirlpool-made "Kirkland" brand fridges.

Energy Star is sort of a moving target. This category gets upgraded every few years, and the improvements in efficiency after 2000 are somewhat incremental, at least compared to the consumption of a unit made in the late 80's/early 90's. So a model that is not Energy Star this year probably was for the previous standard, and might still be a good deal and reasonably efficient.

I suppose the rear coil models don't need as much insulation to protect the cooled compartments from the heat that the coils put out. But with a rear coil model, you have to make sure there is enough air circulation behind the fridge so the coils can get cooled. Bottom coil models have fans to move air. Even my '47 GE fridge is bottom coil... and it's relatively efficient (about 350 kWH/yr by my best estimate).
 
Rear mounted coils seem to be one of Frigidaire's signature things. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I remember many of the GM frigidaires from mid-century that had them installed there too.

I've always liked rear coils for a number of reasons. First, they don't get dirty because they aren't down by the floor where the dust and dirt hangs out. Second, because of energy efficiency. A coil on the bottom radiates heat back into the food compartment. Most manufacturers install a fan to minimize this issue, which consumes energy in it's own right. It's a balance of benefits between energy lost through heat radiation, or through the fan motor. This leads to another thing...noise. Without a fan down there, the fridge is that much more quieter :)

The glass shelf factor was one of those things that I was a little dissapointed in. Nobody puts the nicer features on the smaller guys like this. You end up sacrificing energy efficiency for the nice stuff. I've lived with wire shelves on my current fridge and it hasn't been too big of an issue though, as I have relatively neet kitchen habits, so it may not be too big a deal. I imagine too, it may be a factor in the energy star rating, since air circulates better with the wire shelves. I did like the look of that stainless steel whirlpool though, but I couldn't get the SS finish on the energy star compliant model.

Who builds the Frigidaires? Are those Electrolux designs, or WCI designs? I've seen White Westinghouse fridges that are pretty much identical to Frigidaires, but I always thought Frigidaire was an Electrolux of Sweden division now.
 
They might have kept some of the design aspects of the WCI era---a sort of hybrid. The Frigidaire top-loading washers are a bit like that; they changed some aspects but kept the WCI Franklin transmission.

And the coils do stay cleaner on the back, mounted vertically.
 
I went to my (great)independent appliance outlet in the next town and got a similarly great deal on a comparable fridge a couple of years ago.

The only thing is, the dealer talked me into spending $10 more on a Whirlpool rather than the GE I wanted.....the problem is not the $10, but the Whirlpool, which I HATE (I have the only fridge that, on setting number one, freezes random items of food SOLID in the refrigerator compartment-ever dealt with a head of lettuce, frozen rock solid, an hour and a half before serving dinner?)

The glass shelves are unwieldy, and placement is neither flexible nor easy to adjust. The controls are conveniently located but take up too much room, and, again, the thermostats are not reliable. It is also noisier....

Once again, I will have to reconsider Frigidaire as a brand on my list if I move.....I'm very dissatisfied with the new Whirlpools, the Maytags are AFAIK now made by Daewoo and not great, and some people have CONVULSIONS when I bring up GE....

Our Sears stores here are relatively good but they push their high-end stuff....
 
Rear coil condensor VS bottom coil condensor

From what I've seen in refrigerators, with bottom mounted condensors with fan forced air flow to cool them:

*The cabinet insulation is increased to allow for the heat from the compressor and condensor.
*No energy consumption penalty
*The refrigerator can be installed into a tight spot because there is little need for clearance or air space around the cabinet.
*in many cases, they are quieter in operation because the compressor, condensor and condensor fan are fully enclosed.
*require periodic cleaning to maintain peak efficiency

that said:

*rear condensor models are simpler, no condensor fan motor, blade, brackets & wiring.
*easier to clean condensor
*in some climates, may not have enough capacity to deal with high heat, humidity and/or usage.

Sudsmaster is correct, there is only a small difference in energy consumption among various current models called out as E-star or not.
 
Do not forget the Little Ole local guys

My frigi TL came from a little family owned furniture store, they also sold for less than Best Buy, We hauled it ourselves, in/out in 25 minutes. win/win.
 
Our Kenmore Fridge works well, but makes a lot of noise however it is energy star compliant.. I piad $800 with delivery... It includes an interior water dispenser.. But i hated the shelves.. I got sears to exchange all the shelvs for the lower end non slide out shelfs, however, they sent me all 4 to accomdate a deli drawer.. They also sent me a new deli drawer, so i have 2 deli drawers in my fridge and 2 crispers..I love this.. But i will not ever have another top freezer..I hate the lay out, and i don't like the control placement and i want a water and ice dispenser, all items i would use regulary.. I almost bought an $899 Kenmore 25 CU Ft SxS and wish i had.. I know it was not energy star compliant, however, i feel that it would have been worth the extra money.. Also my family (esp. grams) is a stuff and shove kinda person, so it's not orginized. At all.. Plus i do not like trying to fit a ham or something inside it... I like GE fridges, but CU says there not great...
I really wish i had looked at Frigidaire more and gotten a Frigidaire.. I think that i would have liked that the best even with the interior water dispenser with filter.. Sears had one for like $55 more.. I even had a second chance to get what i really wanted and did not, as Sears orderd the wrong Fridge.. But i did not

Ok enough of my ramblings
 
Yeah, Chad, you've got my fridge (apparently Kenmore rather than my Whirlpool, but identical except for water dispenser, which I wouldn't need)......

It froze my iceberg lettuce! (Sob....)
 
It froze lettuce? Yours must have an issue.. This is the fourth one I've had almost idenitical to this one.. Grams had a slightly smaller verson of this in her house, one place i lived had a new one of these, when the GE broke in my trailor the land lady put a new one in like this..All of course with out water dispenser..

But i've never had an issue with it freezing anything, or being a general pain..

It is worth the $50 a shelf to upgrade (yes it's an upgrade, the slide out shelves are cheaper) to these non sliding shelves.. And it's worth it..

But they are very noisy and the energy savings is very little in my book, esp with mine as you must open the door to get water (i use that alot)..What was i thinking? Not much.. LoL

BTW, Still wanna know all the uses for crisco..... Besides frying and baking
 
alr2903--- I couldn't agree more; I always buy from a local independent dealer. Service is great and while the price is usually a bit higher than a Big Box Store, it's worth it.

I accidentally dropped and cracked the softener dispenser on my new Frigidaire TL'er. I called my dealer and asked him to order a new one. It was there in 3 days and he gave it to me free of charge. He winked and said "It's under warranty."

Tell me they'll do that at Home Depot.
 
Frigilux, the problem we have here is that there are few independent appliance dealers left....

To make matters worse, most don't advertise much, so you very much have to take what's there at the moment if you want a good price....

I'm in agreement with you, but it's getting more and more difficult to find them (in addition, many people want to at least consider Kenmore, and then succumb to buying something from Sears, once there...)
 

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