Good reliable refrigerators in 2022?

[dustin92]

My mom and I are moving within the next few months, and will be purchasing a new refrigerator for the new house. Budget around $1200. Looking for a side by side or bottom freezer unit, most likely in white. No water hookup will be available so no ice/water. Does not need to fit in a specific sized cabinet or recess, just looking for something that may last more than 5 years.

Or we could keep our 22 year old basic top freezer GE.. It's been good, completely trouble free but how long will good last? It's only been moved once in 22 years.. Afraid another shutdown/move may finish it off if it's close.. Would a new unit be any more efficient than a 20+ year old one that's working fine?

 

[qsd-dan]

Sadly, we're in a very bad place at the moment in refrigerator design and reliability. Your 22 year old GE is probably a better bet than a new anything right now. Also, since that ref has been around a long time there's most likely parts all over Ebay for it. Parts availability for some newer refs are sketchy right now.

I'm still interested what's considered reliable at the moment. I love old refs but will probably never own one, so it's nice to know what's good, just incase.

 

[vacerator]

In the low to medium price field,

both GE and Whirlpool offer no frills models which are older designs and reliable.
They may have an ice maker, but no dispensers. One Whirlpool thin doored 22 cu.ft. SxS does though, at about a grand.
Our GE profile 24 cu. ft. model from 2007 was about $1700, and today is priced just $100 more.

 

[sudsmaster]

That may be a tough call.

If your GE is working well enough, I'd leave it be. I suppose eventually something mechanical (compressor or ice maker if any) could go bad, but... if it ain't broke...

When I bought this place 15 years ago it had two GE fridges - a SxS in the main kitchen and a top freezer in the enclosed patio "kitchen". Both were on their last legs, and probably somewhat more inefficient power-wise than modern stuff. So I replaced both with Kitchenaid numbers. The SxS in the main kitchen has been quite good. The top freezer in the patio kitchen, not so much. The main problem with that one is the attractive curved doors soon caved in (as soon as the warranty ran out). Probably a mfg defect where the insulation inside the door was stuck to the stainless exterior and then contracted as it aged. I was quite busy with my job at the time and just kind of shrugged it off. It looks a bit odd, but the fridge otherwise works just fine.

Along the way I acquired a '48 single door GE fridge, which a neighbor was getting rid of as he was moving. He said it worked fine. It's probably showing somewhere here on AW. It needs a new door gasket and an exterior paint job. But those things are quite reliable, I gather, and eventually I'll probably get it running again.

 

[dustin92]

Oof. Now I'm considering just getting something cheap off marketplace to leave in this house and taking our GE. It still seems to work about as well as it ever has, we do have to adjust the temps colder in the summer, but it always stays cold. It did have an ice maker for the first 10 years of it's life, but we don't drink the tap water in this house so we don't want ice from it.. Pretty sure I still have the icemaker and bin somewhere. I always joke that they pump water out of the lake for our city water supply.. Nasty, nasty stuff.

I'd like to have a new refrigerator for the new house but not if it's only going to last a few years.. Family had a $2300 LG that lasted 7 years before the compressor gave out. Actually of the full appliance set, all that remains is the dishwasher- it's 8 or 9 years old now and has never worked well. Range went out at 6 years (oven control board) so LG is a definite NO.

 

[henene4]

Over here, I haven't heard anything bad about any fridge/freezer brand really.

There isn't really a way to go wrong for us.
Sure early failures happen - but extremely rarely.

I have a Samsung and had it since I moved here - so just over 2 years.
I really like it - the fresh drawer system for veg and meat is great. A low temp storage drawer apparently really makes a difference.

But I have heard bad things about Samsung aswell.
In particular, a customer at my old workplace had a 4 years old Side-by-side with a broken main control board that just simply wasn't available anymore as a replacement part. That was really disappointing.

If you are concerned about compressor failures - many manufacturers today have a 10 year warranty on the compressor itself as long as it is an inverter compressor.
With those though, it's usually the drive board going out.
But then again, replacing a board is way easier than replacing a compressor. So you might want to check which brand has acceptable prices for replacement parts.

I would usually agree to keep whatever you have as long as it works.
But at least over here, most fridges and freezers got SO much more efficient over the past 20 years that replacement actually makes both economical and ecological sense.

And given you DON'T want or need an ice maker, one of the big points of failure is already eliminated.

 

[datalady]

Not Happy with Frigidaire Side by Side

Hello! We purchased a Frigidaire side by side four years ago. It's a basic model and has an ice maker. I hate it. We've had nothing but trouble with it. Within one year, all of the drawers and door shelves were cracked and broken. The ice maker stopped working at about two or three years--pieces started breaking off the ice tray. Some Frigidaires have been recalled for this but ours is not one of them. Now, there is water leaking down to the bottom of the freezer and sometimes leaks on the floor. We've tried various repairs found online and some have helped, but not fixed, the problem. I've been doing research, and Whirlpool seems to be consistently good. We have a 2001 Whirlpool in the garage that keeps going. The only repair was a $16 DIY part. I'm almost positive, unless something changes, that our new fridge will be a Whirlpool, unless I can find a good vintage one. They're hard to find here.

 

[pumper]

My 2006 Whirlpool top freezer is still running strong. The only problem has been the frost-free drain clogged a few months ago. Just needed to take the panel off and blast it with a hair dryer.

 

[good-shepherd]

2001 Whirlpool in the garage that keeps going

Our 1990 or so (can't remember exactly it's been so long) GE side by side is still going strong with zero repairs other than a door hinge and the ice chute flapper.

I often see these models still running fine in people's garages after they've done some hideous kitchen reno and replaced their old reliable GE with a new POS french door stainless steel fridge.

 

[neptunebob]

Datalady, we have the Frigidaire like yours...

While we had no trouble with the shelves and ice maker, the whole unit just screams "Cheap!".  The inner liner is very thin plastic and has hairline cracks in the refrigerator and a huge crack in the middle in the freezer.  I would like to know if other brands are any better.

 

In my opinion...

 

The most reliable refrigerator will be a lower priced top freezer model with or without an ice maker.  If the ice maker fails, the cooling is not affected (as in all fridges).  Look for mechanical controls although they are probably all electronic now.  Maybe even look for one with coils on the back, with one less component to fail.

 

If you like the bottom freezer buy one with a single door for the refrigerator compartment, it must seal better.

 

If you must have the dispensers, go with a side by side refrigerator of a conventional size, not a counter depth, from one of the mainline manufacturers.  I don't know if GE or Whirlpool might be better put together than a Frigidaire.

 

Stay away from the all the rage bottom freezer with the "Saloon" doors, I hear nothing but woe about them and they are much more expensive than the other types.  

 

Also, from this forum, why are people spending as much as a used car on Sub zero, True, Miele, Monogram, Cafe and those built in models?