<p>The repairman gave me the bad news this afternoon. Our 12 year old refrigerator’s compressor is dying. We have a side by side right now. I know I want a water/ice maker in the door. But does anyone have any opinions on brand or on French door style fridges? It is a good thing it is cold outside right now but that frigeration is not going to last!</p>
<p>A Subzero is hard to beat, the only one of my appliances I’ve never had trouble with. I have 2 that are over 10 years old and they look and perform as good as new. Food truly stays fresher longer.</p>
<p>They’re not cheap, but my sister recently bought one on Craig’slist that someone sold from a house being foreclosed on. Got to think that’s happening all over.</p>
<p>i personally like the fridges with the freezer on the bottom and the french door fridges on top. my parents have an LG and theirs seems really nice. (it’s similar to this one - <a href=“Bathroom, Kitchen - Faucets, Sinks, Hardware - Build with Ferguson”>Bathroom, Kitchen - Faucets, Sinks, Hardware - Build with Ferguson)</p>
<p>i have a ‘regular’ fridge with one freezer door and one refrigerator door and the freezer on the top… it’s brand new and came with my house, so i can’t complain. ;)</p>
<p>What does he say is wrong with the compressor? Is your fridge totally dead? Sometimes the problems aren’t the compressor but rather, the fan for the compressor, switches/relays for the compressor, the thermostats, very dirty coils, etc. It also seems that repairmen have a propensity to say it’s the compressor with a potential big repair bill or sale of a new fridge (perhaps through their company) as a result. It wasn’t a Sears repair person was it?</p>
<p>It could also be the seals in the compressor leaking but compressors can often go much longer than 12 years.</p>
<p>My fridge is a Kitchenaid stainless front side-side with the water/ice in the door. It had one problem witch was a relay for the compressor which I fixed myself for < $30. Otherwise, it’s been okay. It’s some years old but I can’t remember how many.</p>
<p>Most really fancy fridges do not have french doors, just freezer on the bottom and a single door on the fridge compartment. I wonder why…
I agree, if you can afford to get a fridge with dual compressors (like Subzero), your food will stay fresh longer and the stuff in the freezer will not absorb any food odors coming from the fridge. My advice is to stay away from Jennair (grrr, stupid Jennair).</p>
<p>This could be me except H fixed the darn thing twice for $100 or less (not counting two $200 loads of food):</p>
<p>
[Consumer</a> complaints about Jenn-Air Refrigerators](<a href=“http://www.consumeraffairs.com/homeowners/jenn-air_refrigerator.html]Consumer”>Compare 221 Jenn-Air Refrigerators Reviews From Homeowners | ConsumerAffairs)</p>
<p>ucsd<em>ucla</em>dad, I had an independent repairman come out, so he didn’t stand to profit from me buying a new refrigerator. He said he could fix it for about $600 but he didn’t recommend it. So I guess, I’ll be out stimulating the economy…</p>
<p>I will second Bunsen Burner. I had to have my Jennair’s side by side ( with ice and water in the door ) repaired. It was only a few years old and I got it repaired under warranty , but going without a fridge for two weeks in a warm September was a drag.
Also , the repairman mentioned that Jennair has been taken over by Maytag and then Whirlpool, so I would be hesitant to deal with either of them either…apparently many of the appliance companies get compressors from Brazil and they are not well made</p>
<p>Have you had a water in door w/ice maker before? I ask this because I have had two of these, and I would not seek one out again. The first was a GE (bad bad don’t buy one) and some part broke for the ice maker after a couple of years for a $200+ repair years ago. The next was a GE side by side with ice/water (I know… .why didn’t I learn), and it had a few problems, the most annoying being the gizmo (I know… so technical) that the fridge side door swings on broke, and we had to keep the doors tied together until we got the gizmo replaced. This also was not cheap. </p>
<p>I never really used the ice maker or water, since we are not big ice users, and if you don’t use it up fast it starts to taste funny. I would rather have a sink water dispenser with filtration for drinking water.</p>
<p>If you are a lover of water/ice dispenser then go for it, but if you haven’t tried it, you can save yourself a lot of money forgoing these options, which you may find are not that great.</p>
<p>I hope that my GE does better then the ones anothermom just had! It’s brand new, just bought within the past year… same with the matching stove and microwave.</p>
<p>The other issue with water/ice in the door is that it significantly reduces refrigerator capacity as it takes up lots of space. You also need to run plumbing for it. In NYC, where space is a premium, I gave up the water and ice and it’s no big deal with a good ice maker in the freezer.</p>
<p>We actually love our ice/water dispenser. It broke in the fall and my husband was able to fix it thanks to the help of an ice maker guru on ebay. So, our model has to have that, even though I hate the space that it takes up.</p>
<p>We just bought a bottom-freezer, French door fridge at Sears - a Kenmore Elite, and so far we’re delighted with it. It was on sale, plus we got another 20% off that day, plus there’s a rebate for the delivery charge, which you get back after 30 days (I hope, anyway!)</p>
<p>For the reasons anothermom states, we didn’t get one with water in the door, and don’t even have the icemaker hooked up, as we rarely use ice cubes. We keep a jug of filtered water in the fridge.</p>
<p>We had a GE fridge before this one, and it lasted a very long time, but it was a pretty basic freezer-on-top model with no bells and whistles. We liked the style and size of the Kenmore better this time around, it got good ratings, and the price was right. It’s a pleasure to have a light in the freezer, and about 50% more room than our old one had!</p>
<p>Don’t go with GE. My old one was great, but my new one also had the problems with the ice -maker, and that was within the first 3 months. It’s now 12 months old and makes all kinds of noises. The ice- maker seems to get jammed a lot, too.</p>
<p>We have the Kenmore Elite trio…in black. I love it.</p>
<ol>
<li> It has an alarm, so if the door remains a jar for a few minutes it will beep to tell you.</li>
<li> The French doors are great because they don’t land up hitting the wall or other cabinets. We use to have the big door on top and I always had to grab it because it would swing and hit the molding (it was SS and eventually got a dent in it)</li>
<li> I love the size of the interior, and the deli tray. I also like how it has roll up and down shelves instead of pulling them out and trying to resize. The door shelfs are large enough to fit gallon size milk jugs and since it is side by side the kids only open 1 side instead of the entire fridge</li>
<li> The bottom freezer is a nice size and I like having the drawers, but I must admit I have a spare in the garage so I don’t overcrowd the inside one.</li>
</ol>
<p>I will never own stainless again, it shows every fingerprint imaginable.</p>
<p>I might be wrong, but I believe Kenmore makes KitchenAid and Maytag, so if you are looking for either of those brands check out the Kenmore. </p>
<p>One warning about the ice tray on the bottom, they do break easily…be very careful when you slide out the shelf, if the arm is down you can break it by jamming it in the tray…all it takes is a little patience and a gentle hand to put it back in…if you get frustrated and try to force it…call it a day and call the servicemen to order a new one.</p>
<p>As far as GE, my last house we did the profiles and I was very disappointed in both the stove (smooth top) and the dishwasher (intermittently it would not run water with the cycle and I would only find out later…it is very quiet). My smooth top stove was stainless and I had to have the cooktop replaced because it cracked. Also the little black heating decals started to peel away very quickly without me every using anything abrasive on it.</p>
<p>Another vote against GE. But, that said, I would be lost without the ice and water in the door. We use it all the time, and it is great. I do wish my dispenser had a taller opening to hold ice tea size glasses.
Be sure your model comes with a water filter for better taste. (I rather think that is standard). Good luck!</p>
<p>I second hmom5 recommending a SubZero. I would never buy any other brand. The fact that the refrigerator and freezer each have their own compressor allows food in both sections to stay much fresher, much longer, as the frig is not constantly “borrowing” air from the freezer section to stay cold. Therefore, no real freezer burn either. I also love the lesser depth since it makes it easier to see what’s there and less stuff gets lost in the back. That being said, they are expensive and need to be built in, so one may not fit in your current space.
I’m not sure if Amana is still around, but my parents had one for 25 years and replaced it with another that lasted about 15 years.</p>
<p>I am a realtor and I laughed a couple of weeks ago when I went into a foreclosed home…it was obvious by the size of the opening that the fridge was a sub zero typpe…they took it with them…all I kept thinking is where are they going to put this thing…you can’t afford the house, and you actually believe this will fit in another home?</p>
<p>A few years ago I bought a side-by-side with water and ice in the door. I love the water and ice part, especially in the summer, but the side-by-side part not so much. We have a Sam’s Club nearby but many of the boxed items don’t fit in the freezer. I can’t even fit a frozen pizza in it. A limiting factor was the small opening in our kitchen for a refrigerator. I guess refrigerators were much smaller when they built the house. When the kids leave I plan to downsize to a smaller house or condo but I’m hoping for a bigger fridge that isn’t a side-by-side model.</p>
<p>I don’t know if they still make the side by side modl that had a zig-zag door, but I always thought it was a great idea. The doors on the top side of the freezer were the normal size, but when you got to the bottom after the handles it was larger to put in a frozen pizza.</p>
<p>I had a side by side with water…the pizza wasn’t so much an issue for me, but the frozen turkey or ham for the holidays. I will never own a side by side again…just too frustrating when you have kids.</p>
<p>We recently built a new home and extensively shopped built in refrigerators and other appliances. The Sub Zero has many attributes (including dual compressors) that make it score very highly but it comes with a very hefty price tag.</p>
<p>One of my good friends is the attorney for the biggest appliance distributor here in Dallas and he introduced me to the owner who gave me very unbiased information to help us in our quest.</p>
<p>He too really liked Sub Zero, he advised us to stay away from Viking saying that they had been a source of many problems for them in the past several years. He was ambivalent about JennAir saying that the higher price tag didn’t deliver better features or more performance. He was very high on both the new GE Monogram and Kitchenaid models but cautioned about the models with the ice maker and water in the doors. Apparently, the biggest single issue with refrigerators these days is with the ice makers especially those in door units. He essentially said his recommendation was any model without the ice in door feature if we wanted trouble free ownership.</p>
<p>He said that the old fashioned in-freezer ice makers are tried and true and cause very few, if any problems.</p>
<p>We ended up going with the Kitchenaid French Door built in model that has the old fashioned ice maker in the bottom drawer freezer. We have a separate built in ice maker that makes clear ice in the bar so the icemaker is not the issue she thought it might be.</p>
<p>My wife really likes the extra wide shelves that it offers which have come in handy at several parties we’ve had. You can put a big party tray in there with no difficulty.</p>
<p>Amazingly, The Great Indoors (owned by Sears) had the very best pricing. We were able to wait for one of their “Friends and Family” events that offered 15% off their normal prices. Their day-in-day-out pricing for major appliances is quite good; better in fact than some distributors and with the extra 15% the savings was huge. Some of the appliances we bought were on sale and we got 15 % off the sale prices as well.</p>
<p>If you don’t have one of these stores, check with Sears and watch for their appliance sales.</p>
<p>It really does help to comparison shop (not just Best Buy or Lowe’s but with appliance specialty stores or distributors) because things like delivery and installation on built in appliances can be very costly at some stores while others offer free delivery and minimal installation. You can often get price matching and sometimes they will even match plus an additional 10% off with written offers from the competition.</p>