Most and Least Reliable Fridges per Consumer Reports

[DurhamAppliance]

From consumer reports 11/14...

After spending a couple thousand bucks on a new refrigerator—or more if you spring for a full-featured model—the last thing you want is to deal with repairs. Refrigerators are complex machines with lots of moving parts, especially those with ice and water dispensers. That's why they have some of the highest repair rates among major appliances, based on Consumer Reports’ surveys of almost 80,000 subscribers. But certain brands have a better track record, so you can help yourself by choosing wisely.

Bottom freezers. If you're shopping for a bottom-freezer with icemaker, whether conventional or French-door, think twice about models from the Sweden-based manufacturer Electrolux. Its repair rate of 45 percent was significantly higher than that of other brands. You might also want to avoid Frigidaire, owned by Electrolux, since its 35-percent repair rate also stands out for the wrong reasons. Whirlpool and KitchenAid are two more brands with higher-than-average repair rates.

Better bets in the bottom-freezer with icemaker category include GE, LG, Kenmore, and Samsung. Kenmore combines reliability with particularly strong performance among conventional bottom-freezers. The Kenmore Elite 79043, for example, is our top scorer in that category, offering superb temperature control, energy efficiency, and noise. Three models are tied for first in the French-door category: the $2,100 Samsung RF261BIAESR, the $2,600 GE Profile PWE23KMDES, and the $3,330 LG LFX32945ST. The LG is the only one with a through-the-door ice and water dispenser.

Side-by-side. When it comes to side-by-side refrigerators, KitchenAid is the one brand to avoid, given its 29-percent repair rate. Your best bet is GE, though no models from that brand make our current recommended list. Samsung earned pretty solid marks for reliability, and we recommend several of its models, including the top-rated Samsung RS25H5121SR, $1,900.

Top freezer. Shopping for a top freezer with an icemaker? GE and Whirlpool had the highest repair rates at 19 percent. Kenmore is the reliability leader in that category, with a repair rate of 13 percent. The $1,400 Kenmore 79433 and the $600 Kenmore 78892 make our recommended list, and both come with icemakers.

Regardless of the refrigerator you choose, a few simple maintenance steps will help keep it running. First, make sure air can circulate freely around the unit by leaving a few inches between it and the wall. Every few months, clean the unit's condenser coils (check the manual for their location) so that they can effectively disperse heat. And clean the refrigerator's door gaskets with mild detergent and water to ensure a good seal. For more choices, see our full refrigerator Ratings and recommendations.

—Daniel DiClerico (@dandiclerico on Twitter)

http://www.consumerreports.org/cro/news/2014/11/the-most-and-least-reliable-refrigerator-brands/index.htm

Edited November 24, 2014 by DurhamAppliance

[Scottthewolf]

Good ol Electrosux.

[Joney]

sounds like good old propaganda...

[DurhamAppliance]

Propaganda?

Propaganda :" information, especially of a biased or misleading nature, used to promote or publicize a particular political cause or point of view."

I may question Consumer Reports and their methods, but why would you call it propaganda? Maybe they are simply reporting repair percentages based upon their subscriber responses.

1) we know electrolux suck... that's truth in my book, not propaganda. From my perspective it adds a lot of credence to the article.

2) Latley, and in my and many other techs opinions, Whirlpool has sucked. If they have a problem with the figures, don't you think Whirlpool with all its money and power would challenge something as influential as Consumer reports??

3) So you believe ConsumerReports is spouting propaganda to support LG, Samsung, GE and kenmore Elites?

4) Why does it "sound" like propaganda? Because it doesn't support one or more companies you like if, in fact, they are simply reporting figures http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Consumer_Reports or are you saying I am spouting propaganda by linking a recently reported appliance related article? Now that would be funny.

You may or may not disagree with their report... that is fair game for discussion and the reason why I posted the article, but propangada? To what end? A well respected American company, that does not accept manufacturers advertising, has been taken over by two South Korean companies (who detest each other), GE and Sears To get consumers to forsake a rich, politically connected American Company so that they will, uh... no... no...makes no sense... okay I got it... they want us to buy GE's but not Electrolux, who now owns GE to... uh... lemme see...uh.. oh heck with logic... let's just say it "sounds" like propaganda... good ol scary word where logic need not apply.

But maybe, just maybe the author is trying to coerce us into buying foreign products. His name is Diclerico... sounds foreign to me, albeit not Korean. Let's take a look at this guy... here he is in a video rating Craft Beers

http://youtu.be/f6A5mosV3mM

Well, he seems to like IPA's... Indian pale Ales.... not American pale ales but Indian Pale Ales! ... and I dunno, his skin color is a bit brownish... yep, There you have it... he's a South Korean plant. Next time I post an article, I'll make sure to get the author's birth certificate... long form.

Edited November 24, 2014 by DurhamAppliance

[Samurai Appliance Repair Man]

I'm not a fan of CR so I'm surprised to find myself in substantial agreement with their recommendations.  

 

Their recommendation on Kenmore is interesting. Surely CR knows that Kenmore doesn't actually make anything. I wonder why they represent it as though it were, including it among other manufacturers and, in so doing, reinforcing that misconception that so many consumers have. The actual Kenmore model they promoted, the Elite 79043-- does anyone know who the actual manufacturer is? 

[DurhamAppliance]

CR ain't the brightest, that's for sure... it would have been funny if the Kenmore elite was a Frigidaire. I was actually hoping to find that out prior to posting the article. Then I would have blasted them for their inaccuracy... but I discovered it's an LG. I had to check since CR has, in the past, proven that stupidity still exisits without the need of ulterior motives.

Edited November 24, 2014 by DurhamAppliance

[Smashycomman]

Their recommendation on Kenmore is interesting. Surely CR knows that Kenmore doesn't actually make anything.

Heh, I was going to say something like this.

 

 

On a slightly different note, since I guess I can't post new topics in this area of the forums (though I'm subscribed, so... what?), I would like to know everyone's opinion on working on LG and Samsung appliances.

 

I work for an appliance store as the repair guy, and we don't sell any LG or Samsung appliances, since (from what I've heard), when they break, (and I guess they can break a lot?), you sometimes have to wait for weeks for the parts to fix them. My boss doesn't want to sell any appliances to anyone that he wouldn't have in his own home, so we just plain don't sell and LG or Samsung anything.

 

I've seen plenty of places on here where people are talking about working on LG or Samsung. What are your opinions on these brands? Personally, I'm not at all familiar with them, and when the delivery guys bring back an old LG or Samsung from a customer, 1st of all, I never fix them to sell them as used. They immidiately get scrapped. 2ndly, the designs of these things just seem....weird to me.The few times I've had to go on a delivery of a new french door fridge, and had to take out their old Samsung one (Which of course, we had to disassemble all the doors off the thing just to get it out), the disassembly itself was very confusing and just...odd. Very different from GE, Electrolux, Whirlpool, ect.

 

What's all of your opinions? Do LG and Samsung appliances seem to break down more often? Is it more difficult for you to get the parts? Any other observations? Thank you

[DurhamAppliance]

Well, they are weird but you can understand them with a bit of effort... but don't scrap all of them! They would make great training tools. Samsung, LG and GE Fridges, post mechanical timer era, are to me the easiest fridges to work on. They have gotten much better with regards to getting their parts in a timely manner. One reason I like the he three companies I mentioned is that once you work on a few of their models, you've pretty much got the rest down. Just like those Whirlpool Jazz board models, you fix one of em and the other models using that board pretty much fall in line. Now with Samsung, although their models use different boards, they pretty much work the same. Same thing with LG and GE PLUS, they make their documentation easy to obtaain... you give a good tech documentation and some time to check it out, he'll pretty much figure out the Appliance. Also LG and Samsung usually provide pretty pictures.

[Smashycomman]

Hmm... interesting! Good to know- I'll have to look into working on a few of them. Thank you!