We had a GE French door fridge for exactly 7 years. The gasket on the doors ripped within the first couple of years. My husband hated that fridge. It didn’t stop working but the gasket needed to be replaced to the tune of about $300. I said NO to that.
We only got the GE because the first fridge in this house we had from 1995 to 2014. So…we figured GE was a good bet. I never would buy another GE fridge. They did redesign the interior of the counter depth French door, but we went with a whirlpool this time…and a side by side. We have an upright freezer in our basement so no real issues with the freezer width.
Just ran into this thread because we are replacing our old refrigerator. It’s a side-by-side that came with our house over nine years ago and I’ve never liked it. I’ve been suggesting we get a new one for a couple of years. So I was very happy when the ice maker motor died and the repairman said he would have to cut a hole in the top to make a replacement work - something to do with the old one being puttied in place perhaps? Something unusual, anyway, and a lot of $$ to fix.
Anyway, husband agreed to replace instead and after consideration agreed to a French door. Some reasons are: to more easily see everything, we won’t have to keep moving stuff around on the narrow shelves, and we won’t have to keep bending down to the produce drawers. About 2/3 of our freezer is just ice, and ice packs - not much food! So we don’t need it at eye level.
Our other appliances are white, husband wants in-door ice and water, and after much research, we really only had three reasonable choices, all standard depth: Frigidaire, Whirlpool, and GE. We both liked the Frigidaire best. A bonus is that if we want, we can later get a second ice maker for the freezer. (Husband is obsessed with making sure we have enough ice.)
So yesterday we went to Lowe’s where there was not only a sale (I suspect refrigerators are like mattresses, always on sale), but also a 10% Veterans Day Weekend sale. It’s 27.4 cu ft compared to our current 24. But even though there’s only two of us, it fills up a lot. I’m excited about the nice wide cheese/deli drawer, and the deep produce drawers for husband’s weekly farmers market hauls. Plus lots of nooks and crannies on the door for all sizes of containers.
Incidentally, all of our electronics and appliances for 40 years came from Abt. We always got frequent customer discounts. We’ve ordered some items online since, but a refrigerator would have required us to arrange our own installation.
And the good news…or bad news depending on your perspective, the new fridges really only last about 7 years or so.
My husband actually hated our French door and I kept reminding him of the year it would self district. In our case, the gasket just cracked, and would have been several hundred dollars to fix. And before you all tell me we could have done it ourselves…actually we didn’t want to.
So…you will have at least a 7 year trial of your new French door fridge, and if you don’t like it, you can just replace it.
FWIW, we’ve had several Frigidaire refrigerators (and other appliances) and were happy with them. Their performance and features seemed just as good as more expensive brands. I later noticed that they were still in use when the buyers of our homes put those houses on the market. The only one not seen in the MLS photos had been removed by the seller, so maybe they liked it well enough to take it with them.
It’s not just refrigerators…it’s all appliances. They just are not built to last 25 years or more like the older generation. There is a huge NPR broadcast about this…maybe someone else can find it.
But fridges are included. Dishwashers, stoves everything.
According to a number of sources, the average age of a refrigerator is 12 years, not seven. So still not forever. And smaller compact ones have a shorter life span.
Lowes: According to the U.S. Department of Energy, the average lifespan of a standard refrigerator is between 10 and 18 years, with the median being about 12 years.
Sears: On average, refrigerators last for about 12 to 15 years.
Forbes: The average life of a refrigerator is 12 years, according to the U.S. Department of Energy.
Bob Vila: The typical life expectancy of a refrigerator is 10 to 15 years, and the average fridge with a freezer on the bottom or top can reliably run for about 13 years.
Perhaps we’ve been lucky, but usually keep our French door refrigerator 15+ years. Agree about the point of failure, but think about it, even the single door has a magnet seal.
btw: I learned decades ago to avoid putting heavy items in the door. No one-gallon milk jugs. (just bad design) It’s that weight that eventually pulls on the seals. Reduce the stuff in teh door, and the seals will last a lot longer than 7 years.
btw: as we get older, those bottom freezers become a lot heavier to pull out. Not to mention the bending down to the floor to get stuff.
I used to love putting gallon milk jugs in a door bin on our 1993 side-by-side. Alas, over time things seemed to warp and bins would fall out despite my efforts with wedges etc.
On our 2010 side-by-side I kept the milk on the man shelves. With our new 2024 model, I am putting half gallons on door bin… but now realizing the glass jugs I buy now are really quite heavy. Fingers crossed.
Our home ref’g ( 25+ year old Maytag) is huge (and very deep), and we just lose whatever is in the back third. We did not want any water connection at all. We don’t need immediate cold water, ice-makers are usually the first to break, and take up far too much freezer space. We never missed not having a water connection. We just use the old-fashioned trays. If we have a party, we need to buy ice anyway. I also prefer the clean design.
We looked for a replacement a few years ago but decided to repair instead. At that time, we considered counter-depth, but most of those are designed for 36"(nom.) wide space. There are now more available for 33". I was surprised at how many were advertised as counter-depth, but were actually 30-31"deep (NIC handles) (PLUS adding an airspace at the back).
Our apartment ref’g is an inexpensive GE. I actually like it a lot. The door bins are deep, and numerous, and the shelves of the main section set slightly back. We don’t “lose” nearly as much food in the rear that way.
Family member has a bottom freezer, and likes that arrangement. Most of the daily needs are at eye-level with a bottom freezer.
If you have a kitchen open to family space, make sure to consider noise factor - of all appliances. it can make a significant difference.
Don’t buy a Kenmore. I bought one a few years ago and the compressor went out after 3 years. Evidently this model had a class action lawsuit over that. Too late to claim our $6.30 in damages. We got rid of that thing and bought a Whirlpool. It runs like a champ.
I loose stuff in the back of fridge shelves sometimes. Recently I added a pink basket I had around, to hold bag of shredded cheese. It makes a nice landing pad to store stuff up high and in view.
I just discovered this thread! I have a 4-door French door LG fridge that we bought in 2018. We have had to replace the top left door (the one with the ice and water dispenser) to the tune of over $800.
LG and Samsung are one and the same- Samsung owns LG, they just slap different labels on their products.
I have not had any other difficulties with the fridge but that was a biggie and it took several weeks for various technicians to figure out what the issue was (it wouldn’t make ice) and it’s been fine ever since, however, I would not buy either brand going forward.
The problem for me is that I really want two doors on the bottom. I do not like the pull our freezer door where everything is piled on top of each other and you can’t see what you have that is buried on the bottom.
4 door models are super rare- it’s LG/Samsung or a super duper expensive model from some “bespoke” appliance maker.
I’m just hoping this one lasts for a few more years until we sell and move homes.
We have a Miele french door refrigerator with two freezer drawers below. One thing I never thought about was the height of the unit. The top shelf of this refrigerator is too high for me to get anything that’s pushed back on that top shelf. (I’m 5’4”). My advice—when you are looking at models make sure you can reach everything.
This is the model we have (it’s in our vacation place).
Based on the placement of the cabinet doors above the fridge alcove, even at 5’2” I’m assured of being able to see stuff on the top shelf. But… that height and width of the alcove in this house (built 1993) do severely limit our choices. There was copious careful measurement when we bought a new fridge a few months ago.
I have a vague memory of a salesman saying that many of the french door repair complaints were on the models with ice/water on the door. Don’t think I ever was able to prove that via online research (but I didn’t try very hard…we opted to stick with side-by-side, our 3rd one in this house).
