Is there a twenty year fridge on the market?

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roger

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Well our 17 year old Kitchenaid fridge died, and we were quite bummed because we spent close to $3000 for it and expected it to last at least 20-25 years.

The general consensus at all the dealers we went to was that home fridges today, regardless of the price you pay, are made to last around 10 years. Price differences reflect "convenience options"...but don't make the thing run any longer.

Does this sound correct?

All we want is a basic, solid, white, medium sized(15 feet), quiet fridge...no electronic gadgets, no ice-maker, no water-dispenser, etc.

Is there a "Speed Queen" of fridges out there?
 
Roger, in what way did it "die"? Unless its a sealed system failure I'd think it is well worth repairing.

There are many complications in modern refrigerators that can and will cause failures to happen more frequently then in older models. Perhaps even the sealed systems will not have the l-o-n-g lifespans of of the vintage units. Still I think any reputable brand should be good for 20 years with proper care and the occasional repair.

I'd accuse the dealers of fear-mongering stating a 10 year lifespan. Of course with manufacturers offering less long term support I suppose parts availability could be a problem.
 
Dead KitchenAid

I would agree with kbOnes. First you need to know what has happened. Also am I mistaken that you said this was 15 cu ft and you paid $3K for it 17 years ago ?
I think you over paid. Ed
 
Well, most folks would consider 10 years to be a pretty good run. There's really no incentive for a manufacturer today to make a product that would last as long or longer, and certainly only us 'enthusiasts' would hold a grudge over a failure after a decade of service. Kitchen remodels are almost more frequent and appliance failure provides many the perfect excuse. No sir, if you want a 20 year fridge you'll need to go back a few decades, but I'm sorry to say, most of those will last far longer than that! -Cory
 
My primary fridge is a 1957 Philco.  I had to replace the cold control, because it was freezing things in the refrigerator... Otherwise, it appears to have never needed repair.  Crazy.

 

My secondary fridge came with the house new in 2007 (a GE).  While it is 50 years newer, I had no issues until 6 months ago.  The freezer started thawing out, turned out I needed a new cold control.  I replaced that.  Now the fan in the freezer's bearings have gone bad and I have another repair to do.

 

I spoke to Dave/Volvoguy87 about it, to see about the part, as he works in an appliance shop.  He said that average life expectancy of a new fridge is 5-7 years.  

 

Fix what you have, if possible.  If not, shop around.  Modern stuff is junk.

 
 
My lady at Sear's said

"I don't have an appliance on this floor designed to last longer than ten years."

"If it doesn't have a catastrophic failure, you can bet the mfg. has pulled back parts."

She said she learned this after Whirlpool bought Kitchenaid home div. There were too many 30 year old Hobart Kitchenaids out there, so they stopped making the parts.
 
Had an Amana top of the line s/s lasted 11 years. Private repair company that I used said I was lucky to get 11 instead of 10 out if. There was a leak in the cooling system not worth fixing. So I guess its true. No new appliances are going to go as long as the old timers.
Jon
 
10 Years

Seems that this is the sweet spot for any appliance.  As a matter of fact, I have an Amana French-Door refrigerator that is close to 10 years.  It hasn't required a repair that I couldn't perform myself, so I am grateful for that.  However, I expect to replace it within the next six months.  It will become the beverage fridge in the garage or be forwarded on to Goodwill.

 

Malcolm
 
kb0nes,

I will get the fridge checked as soon as our good repairman comes back from vacation, we are just preparing for the worst case scenario.

We found that our fridge(20 ft, side-by-side model, with water/ice dispeser)had stopped running and a huge icile had formed from the bottom of the ice-maker all the way down to the freezer floor.

I turned the unit off, unplugged it, and left the doors open for about a day and a half. Then I turned it back on. It sounded loud and tin-can-y, but I left it running and came back a few hours later to find that it was running fine.

Wondering what the repair guy will say.

Ed,

I never said what fridge we had, only the type we are now looking for.

Our current Kitchenaid is a 20ft side by side unit with water and ice dispenser. It is just too big for our needs, and we don't really use the ice.

I'm in Canada, and the fridge was purchased when our dollar was only worth about 70 cents to your dollar (i.e. everything was 30%-40% more expensive)plus there is a 15% combined sales tax.

foraloysius,

Thank-you for the suggestion.

I had never heard of them before.

According to their website, the closest store that carries them is about 100 km away, but I go in that area often...so we'll be taking a look at them.
 
I am kind of surprised, but the Kenmore (GE-Built) fridge we have in the apartment in Montreal just turned 12! I guess we lucked out!!

I was used to changing the appliances in a house I rent out every 7 or 8 years then I got fed up... I bought a late 70s Viking side-by-side and put that in the house 6 years ago and it's still running strong.

If you'd consider a vintage fridge, I have a 57 GE wall-mount one for sale...
smiley-laughing.gif
 
We have a 14 year old GE at one house, and a 24 year old Whirlpool at the other, both have run with absolutely no repairs, and no sign of stopping anytime soon. We do make sure to vacuum out the coils and fans regularly though.
 
I always like hearing blanket statements from salespeople like "The average life of a new appliance is 5-10 years". This very well may be true, but it may not really be totally the fault of the appliance or its maker. Its the fault of our society to just throw good stuff away!

Even going back to vintage appliances that were made of heavier parts (note not always better) their time before needing service probably wasn't any longer, and may well be shorter then modern appliances. The difference was that people FIXED them then. All these 50 year old machines we love here are just kept running by people that are willing to do so. Certainly it is true that modern appliances are being made with more cost consciousness and the manufacturers are supporting them for shorter periods. This will likely cause shorter life spans. Still except for rare instances I can't imagine a refrigerator not lasting 20 years.

As for the OP's refrigerator problem that created this thread, its surely a defrost system failure, the sealed system is still fine. Fix it and it may well run another 10 years.

As an aside, Just the other day a buddy of mine at a coffee gathering asked if anyone wanted a "non-working" DVD player he was going to scrap. His wife said it wouldn't play a burned disc she made so she bought a new one. I got a free 2 year old Sony DVD player that works just fine. At the following week gathering I gave him $20 and thanked him.
 
I'd go commercial...

a True or Traulsen or equivalent will be our next fridge, with matching freezer. No, no ice maker, but we know of several folks whose ice makers casued thousands of dollars of damage when they sprung a leak, we will never will have one again. The commercial jobs are truly made to last AND to repair if something goes wrong. Sub-Zero and other glitzy domestic jobs are overpriced and mediocre, imho, CU gives them a lackuster rating for reliability.
 
Lo and behold, when we purchased out pair of F&P refrigerators (freezer AND fridge) we were given the "You'll be lucky if you get 10 years out of them").
Well, unless the stars aligned or we were very lucky, Matsushita/Panasonic quality has come through. 14 years and still going strong, no defrost heaters, timers, thermostats. The fridge will blow light globes regularly, so we have basically given up on that.

On top of that, our two backup models (a mis-matched pair) from CHINA, with something like a 1 year warranty, are still going strong 4 years later. Cheap, and nasty (The fridge light flickers and dips when you knock the cabinet, and its back cabinet cover is cardboard), it still works. Amazing, really.
 

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