Hi lemmings!
Moving into a new flat soon and will need to buy both fridge and freezer preferably in one combined unit. Been looking at the side-by-side ones. Anyways Ive got little to no knowledge about fridges and freezers and was wondering if there are any typical “gotchas” to look out for?
I am based on the EU and would prefer to buy from an EU brand too. Any recommendations or tips are plenty welcome!
Thanks as always ☺️
Something that works without WiFi.
My washing machine has wifi and an app. I bought it because I read the manual and all networking is disabled by default.
Otherwise, for all appliances, get ones with the longest warranty, unless there is a significant difference in price.
A warranty is only as good as the company offering it. I’d opt for a shorter warranty with good customer service
Size: height depth width… Can be easy to miss one dimension. Energy rating - obvious reasons Noise depending on the room it’s in Ergonomics - can you reach all the bits you need to… Imagine filling it with your weekly shop. - better energy rating=more insulation=less space. Doors can generally be reversed, but check. Some FFs have two compressor circuits, others only one. Can be important if keeping it in a garage. Do you need a water cooler/ice maker thing? More to clean, more to go wrong. YOUR FRIDGE DOES NOT NEED AN INTERNET CONNECTION Nor does it need funky windows & stuff Self defrost is a must. We spent ages discussing colour, now you can barely see it behind pictures & papers etc.
Think " is this a useful feature for me, or is it marketing fluff? "
Finally, while a fridge should be a long term purchase, is just a box that gets cold. Don’t lose sleep over it.
U forgot the most important part. Is your door big enough to fit the fridge.
And the stairway, if there is one
Not a Samsung. My wife used to be a big fan, but the last two brand new Samsung fridges broke within weeks, and their product support was terrible.
(Our current fridge is LG and we haven’t had any problems with it. There are probably other brands that are also reliable and well built).
Just be aware, LG’s linear compressors (ie. the ones that claim a 10yr warranty) are prone to failure; ours crapped out after ~3 years and was deemed uneconomical to repair.
Thankfully we have pretty strong consumer protections in Australia (and I expect similar, or better in the EU for OP); so we ended up getting a full refund from the retailer which we ended up putting towards a Hitachi model, after way too much research.
We switched from side-by-side to a pullout drawer freezer on bottom and could not be happier. Side-by-side really limits your storage space, whereas top and bottom units allow you to store larger or unusually shaped things. And having the freezer in a drawer is clutch, way better than having it on top
Thats a very good point, thanks
Frost free freezer, it’s a pain in the arse defrosting. You do lose a tiny bit of capacity but it’s a trade off with making imo
Fridge ice machines always break first. Just don’t buy such a headache. Silicon ice cube trays are fine I don’t really get how the ice machine is all that much more convenient. You have to clean them too which IMO undoes the few seconds saved not filling an ice cube tray once a week. They can also jam with fused cubes, what a PITA!
Yeah staying far and wide away from those ones, thanks
Having spent a year selling appliances at Home Depot, I will rank the following brands of refrigerator in order of quality. Beyond that, it really just comes down to features.
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LG - they used to have a lot of problems with their compressors, but they solve that a couple of years ago. They make honestly the best refrigerators for the money. They come in some cool designs.
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GE - if LG is the “modern look”, then GE is the “traditional look“. That’s not to say that GE doesn’t make very lovely refrigerators – – they do. And they are very high-quality as well. However, unlike LG, the lower end GE refrigerators aren’t as high in quality as the lower and LG refrigerators.
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Samsung - some of the most pretty most expensive most feature filled refrigerators. And they’re absolute fucking garbage. You’ll own it for two or three years before something. Major goes wrong. Within five years you’ll have to replace it. And, again, they cost, hundreds, even thousands of dollars, more than their competitors. Avoid Samsung appliances at all costs.
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The classic ones with the freezer on top are the most reliable but the hardest to deal with as you age as youll have to squat. they will all fail though. if your flat has room get a chest freezer and use fridge separately do that. check out technology connections on YouTube for some good general advice.
Absolutely. The short version: Chest freerzers are way more efficient because the cold air doesn’t “fall out” as soon as you open them.
most or should i rather say all of fridge nowadays has “auto defrost” systems that lets you forget about drain pans. Initially, most would think that it is a neat design in which the heated freon pipe passes over the drainpan and evaporates the defrosted liquid/water.
unfortunately, thats a very nasty design, its like a ticking timebomb that forces you to purchase a new fridge every <10 yrs
the copper freon pipe would go on a cycle of heating up, getting exposed to water, dries up and repeates the cycle over and over. Take note that metal + water + air = rust
and these rust can cause freon leaks and makes your fridge useless, also, these fixes costs like MF(almost half the price of a bnew fridge)
I would advise DIYing a flexible tube on its drain hole and routing it on a condensate pump, I would not advise routing it to a sewer line because nasty sewer gas will get in the fridge.
My auto defrost fridge celebrated his 17th anniversary the other day
A lot of units now a days have a plastic coating on the discharge gas pipe which mostly prevents the corrosion issue. I am a refrigeration mechanic and while the condensate pan is one of the first areas I check for leaks, it also isn’t the most common area. It probably ranks in third place for frequencybof leaks on reach in units. I probably get 10x more leaks right in the evap coils. People just tend to notice the condensate pan leaks more because they’re on the high pressure side of the system so they’re going to be quick and relatively dramatic. Evap leaks can fly under the radar for years because they’re usually small and only result in gradually worsening performance.
There are also alternative condensate pan designs which use sheets of a wicking felt like material standing up in the condensate pan to increase the surface area for evaporation. That plus the warm air from the condenser fan can often work just as well as the discharge gas heated pans without the corosion issues. The reason that more companies don’t do that is because using the discharge gas for evaporating condensation also means that you’re using the condensation to precool the discharge gas so it slightly boosts the efficiency of the unit.
In my experience side by sides are the least efficient use of their space. Its hard to stack most frozen foods up tall and narrow because they slide around and will slide out the front every time you open the door. Freezer top or freezer bottom units can be packed a lot more efficiently since it maximizes horizontal space and I vastly prefer them.
“Nothing smart” is the only other appliance rule.
Liebherr is European and good. Expensive though.
Depth is the measurement most forget, check it fits. A deeper one is a good way to get more capacity.
Make a decision on your fridge freezer split. I do a lot of batch cooking, so went for 50/50 to get more room in the freezer.
Look into the reviews to see if it cools evenly. I’ve seen surprisingly many fridges/freezers that have “hot spots” which is less than ideal
It’s worth it to pay extra for anything that doesn’t need an app or WiFi connectivity.
Those are huge red flags. Avoid anything “smart” like the plauge.
Appliances with “smart features” are simply scraping your whole home, not just your phone, for data to sell to advertisers. Very often the app or even the company won’t outlive the appliance itself, so as happens frequently, in 2 years you’ll be stuck with a perfectly workable appliance that refuses to work because some server in China went offline.
Don’t get an in-door ice maker. If you have to have an ice maker, have it internal to the unit.
Check out what maintenance you need to do before you buy it, and how easy the maintenance will be given the space you’re putting the unit into. Like, if it’s a tight fit and surrounded on three sides, cleaning the coils might be problematic, etc.
Second the door fridge. We got a Samsung, which everyone will tell you is shit but my wife needs her aesthetics and perfectly matching everything. But my requirement in return was we got an ice maker internal to the freezer that we connected to a reverse osmosis filter. It’s been great for us so far for 7 years.
Now, my Samsung dishwashers (yes, plural) have been hot garbage. Even paying for top of the line shit they both needed major work or repairman ~ once a year, and obviously a replacement.
This is not helpful but I just want to kvetch. It seems like any appliances you buy nowadays are just so shitty compared to even ten years ago. Even brands that have long been reliable are so hit or miss. I have a mini-fridge that’s almost 30 years old and still works fine. I keep being tempted to buy one with a better freezer or that’s more energy-efficient but I worry it would kick the bucket and be unrepairable within 5 years.
