Fridge shame - secret lives of refrigerators

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And yet we had GE fridge and range in our kitchen on the island, and have the same (different models) here in Colorado, and have never had a single thing fail. I've had issues with Whirlpool, Frigidaire, Amana and some lower brands.

Unless you buy top of the line Kenmore, they are rather poorly built too. We have a Kenmore dishwasher (it was in the house when we bought it), and it's so noisy that we don't run it until we go to bed with the door closed, because it's hard to hear the TV in the living room over the machine. I pray that it breaks so I can justify a new one, hopefully another KA like what we had in Denver. At least it will be high end, quiet running, with a stainless interior.

Today's appliances are all a lot quieter. And the makers have been listening to the public in what they want. Quiet is on the top of the list. You don't want to be in a screaming argument with your husband and the appliance is louder than the two of you. Even disposals have gotten quieter. My last one quit and it was so noisy. It was not a Disposal. This time maintenance installed a Disposal and it is so much quieter.

Parts made of plastic have to go. Even if it cost more in the long run. The public is sick of companies only looking at their bottom line and not caring about the customer. When you are shopping for an appliance, you have to ask about how much of the working parts are plastic. Ask to look at the parts manual. It will tell you what it is made of. :angel:
 
And yet we had GE fridge and range in our kitchen on the island, and have the same (different models) here in Colorado, and have never had a single thing fail. I've had issues with Whirlpool, Frigidaire, Amana and some lower brands.

Unless you buy top of the line Kenmore, they are rather poorly built too. We have a Kenmore dishwasher (it was in the house when we bought it), and it's so noisy that we don't run it until we go to bed with the door closed, because it's hard to hear the TV in the living room over the machine. I pray that it breaks so I can justify a new one, hopefully another KA like what we had in Denver. At least it will be high end, quiet running, with a stainless interior.

RP, your recommendation for our new GE gas stove couldn't have been better. I LOVE it! We also purchased the matching microwave and dishwasher by GE. The dishwasher is a quiet dream and I have to touch it to be sure it's running. It cleans the dishes perfectly and seems to hold far more than my old one because of better design. I say donate your old one and get the GE. ;) I'll be posting more after Thurs when we have our new refrigerator delivered.
BTW, kudo's to you for your good work for the family in need. That's close to my heart.
 
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I have been keeping house for more than fifty years. It has never been a secret that Whirlpool makes Kenmore products. So I have always gone for the Kenmore name. Washer, dryer, iron, fridge. The first washer, dryer lasted me more than 20 years. GE products are the last on my list. Having managed apartments, they have all been furnished with GE. (Hotpoint) I was beginning to think I should develop a love affair with the repair man. I have had tenants ask if they could replace the GE with their own. Fine by me. The GE will go into storage until you move out. And the majority had a Whirlpool. :angel:

My Kenmore dishwasher is a whirlpool. Actually many companies make Kenmore now. When I was stove shopping, their ranges were made by Frigidaire.

GE makes some great ranges now, even their lower end ones are rated well. Our washer dryer set is fairly low end and has worked great for 10 years.

On the other hand my friend has a whirlpool fridge (a quite fancy one) and after a year had a major failure, apparently a very common occurrence with this and similar models. It was a two month saga getting whirlpool to fix it. The part was also backordered because it was such a common problem. She bought a cheap used fridge off Craigslist to get her through a few months.

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My fridge.. always thought it was too big for one person.

Super tidy! Maybe you could store other stuff in there.... paper towels, cereal box, etc? I think that fridges are more efficient to run when they have less empty space to cool.
 
Super tidy! Maybe you could store other stuff in there.... paper towels, cereal box, etc? I think that fridges are more efficient to run when they have less empty space to cool.

When my freezer is pack like it is now, I have to turn it down about a half number. My whole fridge is much colder. Ice forms in the milk. :angel:
 
My Kenmore dishwasher is a whirlpool. Actually many companies make Kenmore now. When I was stove shopping, their ranges were made by Frigidaire...
We knew years ago that if we shopped at Sears, the first words out of our mouths were "who is currently making your __________". Our very first refrigerator, back in 1977, was a GE. Worked like a champ. The only reason we replaced it was we desperately needed more space because we had added two children and their increasing-larger appetites to its workload. The replacement was a GE-make Kenmore. It, too, ran just fine. My only complaint is that the support channels on the produce bins were too weak for the capacity. No fear, a bit of duct tape and *poof* good as new! That baby moved here with us, and ran until we bought our gorgeous LG. Lousy Garbage, it is. Hope we can move away from it before it needs replacing...

Sears, alas, isn't the reliable store it used to be. We never shop there anymore since our lawn mower incident...
 
We knew years ago that if we shopped at Sears, the first words out of our mouths were "who is currently making your __________". Our very first refrigerator, back in 1977, was a GE. Worked like a champ. The only reason we replaced it was we desperately needed more space because we had added two children and their increasing-larger appetites to its workload. The replacement was a GE-make Kenmore. It, too, ran just fine. My only complaint is that the support channels on the produce bins were too weak for the capacity. No fear, a bit of duct tape and *poof* good as new! That baby moved here with us, and ran until we bought our gorgeous LG. Lousy Garbage, it is. Hope we can move away from it before it needs replacing...

Sears, alas, isn't the reliable store it used to be. We never shop there anymore since our lawn mower incident...

It's too bad, I think that Sears used to be many people's go-to appliance store. I've just read too many horror stories about their incompetence as of late.
 
We have none of the above. The Community Center, which is where we had the dinner, has a single fridge smaller than the one in my kitchen. The only possible item there that you could call "commercial" is the grill, and they only have that because it used to be the VFW hall and they bought that for their pancake breakfasts. Even that hasn't been used in years, not since the VFW leased that half of the building to the town for a community center.

The largest church in town also only has a normal kitchen refrigerator. They have these sorts of events a few times each year, and the preparation is virtually always done in different homes, then brought together in a church or the community center for the meal. We served the hot food from electric roasters that were loaned to us by several residents.

This was a fairly typical event for this town. We simply don't have the resources to upgrade. That said, it's not like we set out to poison anyone. I was careful that the meat did not warm beyond a safe level, it wasn't fully thawed when it went back into the fridge overnight and after cooking each batch, it was bagged as soon as it was cool enough and immediately returned to the refrigerator. I'm not remotely as paranoid about food safety as you seem to be, but that doesn't mean that I ignore it either.
I work in a commercial kitchen off and on. I wouldn't want the company to have the health department on them for a case of e-coli or food poisoning. One of the things I have to do is make sure the kitchen helpers follow the food and safety regulations.
 
If you want to see the repairman a lot then buy a high end and trendy fridge like a Sub Zero. We install quite a few of these and the service guys always come right behind.

My fridge is kicking the bucket. I'll replace it with the cheapest one that fits the space when I can afford it. (Unless I'm lucky enough to find one in a demo to take home) Brand names are a crap shoot these days as far as appliances go. God only knows who and where the parts were made and where and who assembled them.

I'll also make sure it isn't a stainless steel front because if it can't hold a fridge magnet then it isn't right for me and my collection of them. :mrgreen:
 
If you want to see the repairman a lot then buy a high end and trendy fridge like a Sub Zero. We install quite a few of these and the service guys always come right behind.

My fridge is kicking the bucket. I'll replace it with the cheapest one that fits the space when I can afford it. (Unless I'm lucky enough to find one in a demo to take home) Brand names are a crap shoot these days as far as appliances go. God only knows who and where the parts were made and where and who assembled them.

I'll also make sure it isn't a stainless steel front because if it can't hold a fridge magnet then it isn't right for me and my collection of them. :mrgreen:

Exactly why the fridge that will be delivered Thursday is not stainless. What would become of our over 100 souvenir travel magnets? I don't like the look of stainless anyway and from what I've heard, it's a bear to keep free of smudges and fingerprints.
 
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Exactly why the fridge that will be delivered Thursday is not stainless. What would become of our over 100 souvenir travel magnets? I don't like the look of stainless anyway and from what I've heard, it's a bear to keep free of fingerprints.

Same here. I only have a health magnet on my fridge. It has the name of my doctor and that of Winthrop. I also have a pencil holder and a mirror that goes with it. I have a bunch of heavy duty magnets on the side. They are holding up nothing under them. Maybe some day I will find something important to put under a magnet on the fridge.

I have a number of permanent markers in the pencil holder. They are for marking the packages for the freezer. I don't know why I need so many. Every time I go into Dollar Tree, I pick up a couple. Is there a name for "fear of running out of permanent markers?" :angel:
 
Exactly why the fridge that will be delivered Thursday is not stainless. What would become of our over 100 souvenir travel magnets? I don't like the look of stainless anyway and from what I've heard, it's a bear to keep free of fingerprints.

Having installed many SS appliances I can say if you touch it you'll leave a mark. :(

Gloves are the only way to handle them and what happens in the future isn't my concern. ;)

And personally I believe fridge magnets express individuality about a person. To me they are fun and the older they are the better. The oldest I can date on mine is 1998 but I've got some from my mom (GRHS) much older that I could never live without.

Yes I check out your fridge magnets when I visit and I'll bet you that you have some I covet. :rolleyes:
 
We still have a couple in the city, but the one closest to me in an affluent suburb closed. If you can't make it in that mall, I don't see how you can make it anywhere!

There could be a couple of reasons BC...the rent was too high for Sears, or the "affluent" public didn't shop there. Sears and Kmart merged some time ago, and Sears products have steadily declined.
 
There could be a couple of reasons BC...the rent was too high for Sears, or the "affluent" public didn't shop there. Sears and Kmart merged some time ago, and Sears products have steadily declined.

Yeah, this was during their last wave of closings. If they were still a quality store with quality service, they would have continued to do well there.

I really liked the folks in their optical department, it was run by Luxotica as "Sears Optical" but they had better prices than other Luxotica outlets around town.

The one 15 minutes away is still opened, I'll have to check out their optical dept, and see how they do.
 
Yeah, this was during their last wave of closings. If they were still a quality store with quality service, they would have continued to do well there.

I really liked the folks in their optical department, it was run by Luxotica as "Sears Optical" but they had better prices than other Luxotica outlets around town.

The one 15 minutes away is still opened, I'll have to check out their optical dept, and see how they do.
I just look for an optometrist I like. I don't really care how much the glasses cost. I buy mine from Zenni Optical Instead of paying hundreds of dollars for one pair of glasses, I get two or three pairs for just over a hundred dollars, including shipping. They have loads of styles and you can upload a photo so you can get a good idea what the glasses look like on you.
 
I just look for an optometrist I like. I don't really care how much the glasses cost. I buy mine from Zenni Optical Instead of paying hundreds of dollars for one pair of glasses, I get two or three pairs for just over a hundred dollars, including shipping. They have loads of styles and you can upload a photo so you can get a good idea what the glasses look like on you.

I've been to their site, I just need to dig out my prescription and give them a shot.
 
I just look for an optometrist I like. I don't really care how much the glasses cost. I buy mine from Zenni Optical Instead of paying hundreds of dollars for one pair of glasses, I get two or three pairs for just over a hundred dollars, including shipping. They have loads of styles and you can upload a photo so you can get a good idea what the glasses look like on you.

Thanks for the link. I might try them for a spare pair, I spend a lot on Transitions lenses.
 
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