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Refrigerators
For about a week my 20+ year old refrigerator has been making strange noises, and I think its life is limited. Any recommendations for a new one?
The doorways are narrow so it would have to be on the small side and I would like an Energy Star. Stainless steel does not appeal to me because I do not want to be constantly cleaning up fingerprints.
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When I got my new fridge, I got a basic, very energy efficient small one. I do regret that I didn't buy the one with the freezer at the bottom though.
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I think Geila was our most recent refrigerator buyer, she may pipe in but I remember we had quite a long thread about refrigerators not long ago. I myself went for small, inexpensive, black, no ice/water.
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I would just like one with a freezer bigger than a breadbox. Next house will have one.
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Our fridge (which I dislike intensely) is about a year old, I think. The short course:
- The more parts, the more there is to break. if you can live without ice and water in the door, great. If you can live without an icemaker (buy your own bags), even better. Plus, on some models, ice and water through the door really chews up freezer space.
- Refrigerators are much bigger on the outside and smaller on the inside than they were 10-20 years ago. If you have something (favorite serving platter, frozen pizza box, etc.) you want to make sure will fit inside, take it to the store and test-fit it in the refrigerator you're looking for.
- Some manufacturers are using materials/coatings that look like stainless steel but don't show every single fingerprint. They also don't hold magnets. Your choice.
- They say now you should count on 8-10 years out of a new refrigerator. Even the $3000 ones. Anything beyond that is a bonus.
- Top-freezers seem to have been relegated to the bargain basement. There are no more nice top-freezers. (Pity.)
- There aren't that many appliance manufacturers anymore, so you'll see more models which are just different badges and features on the same box. The difference between, say, a bottom-freezer with the Roper name on it and one with the Maytag name on it will not be in the cabinet or the compressor (they'll be the same); it will be that the Maytag has LED lighting and rollers and gaskets on the crisper bins. Oh, and a longer warranty on parts, but you can get around that with an extended warranty if you don't want to pay $$$ for the other features.
- Doors come off easily. So if you find a fridge that's a little too deep, think about removing the door before it goes through your doorway. That might just make the difference.
We ended up with a Whirlpool bottom-freezer. At 22 cubic feet, it's as big as we could wedge into the alcove. I gave up smoothly operating controls for cheap plastic-on-plastic friction; anything I put in the freezer ends up in a pile I have to sort through; small items fall out of the mesh basket into a no-man's land in the back of the freezer compartment; and the new fridge takes twice the juice to operate that the old one did. I do not view this as progress. But I'd be dipped before I spent $2000 or more on a box that kept food cold for no more than 8 to 10 years. But that's just me. :~)
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I'm probably due for a new fridge soon myself. My neighborhood is mostly 50's houses with standard door opening and smaller kitchens which typically don't allow a lot of frig space. Even my smaller fridge would not fit through doorways without removing the refrigerator door. My neighbor had his delivered by one of the box stores and required the fridge door to be removed. The delivery men would not remove the door and left it outside. I don't have other recommendations, but would warn that if you have it delivered, some of the delivery men may not do anything out of the ordinary to get it into your kitchen space.
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We were told that the side by sides are going way down in price as everyone wants French door. Best fridge I ever had was a KitchenAid and it got left behind when we sold the house. We are getting by with a 19cf one that came with this house and it is proving to be too small to hold everything - or maybe it's just a bad design inside. Good reminder to consider the doorframe. We just went through that with a washing machine. It wouldn't fit through the doorway cause the previous owner had made the doorway smaller than standard so we had to take off the frame and door to get the washer in.
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Thank you everyone. If this one dies I will definitely measure it. Its door did not have to be removed to get it in the house, which was built in 1950.
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Steve, I did have a bottom freezer chosen but the energy efficiency was not a great as the top freezer plus the mesh basket of the bottom freezer was inch spacing which meant that things would fall through. I bought a Kenore basic top freezer and your experience is now making glad that I did change to the top freezer model. One always wonders after the fact/
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Ours died a year ago and we have freezer on the bottom. We had to get a 18 cf to fit in the small kitchen-1950's. WE got the freezer on the bottom and don;t have some of the other problems others mentioned. However, with the french doors if you only open and close the left side sometimes it does not close all the way and then after 5 min's a beeper alarm comes on. I guess it is a common problem. We don't have a problem with fingerprints on SS but our kids are all grown. WE got the ice and water inside the refrigerator. A lot less to go wrong. On our old one it was on the outside and when it died we did not fix it due to the price.