Any recommendations for American style Fridge-freezers?

barginunter

Hi - I'm looking for one of the above without a water dispenser thingy - in stainless steel or silver. They all look similar and I've gleaned from these threads that those by Samsung (who seem to make most of them) have issues.
Has anybody had experience of a particularly reliable make/model? My budget could go up to £1500 but I'd rather it didn't.
I've seen some Fisher and Paykel ones which look really good but they are pricey.

Histemic

Hi, I've did some extensive research for a website on this a while ago. No side by side fridge has been rewarded a best buy from which? This is due to the increased running costs. If I were to buy one, I'd consider either the Beko's at around £600, basic design and solid reviews, or go for a Bosch at around £1000 strong reviews and Bosch reliability. If it's size your after check out the Electolux ERL6296kk, it's HUGE!

pimento

I love my LG. Have had it for five years and never had a problem with it.

googler

When we moved in to our house in 2001, the previous owner left us a White Westinghouse (American-made).

It looks as though it was made in the 60s or 70s, it's solid as a rock and still going strong. If they still make these new, and you can find someone who supplies them, I'd say buy one without hesitation.

Have you considered Maytag?

gas4you

pimento wrote: »

I love my LG. Have had it for five years and never had a problem with it.

Same here. My LG has been brilliant. I would certainly recommend it.

kwatt

Big turmoil in American fridge freezers for now.

I used to say that GE were a good bet but, they pulled out of Europe and have appointed Glen Dimplex as the distributor which, based on reports and experience, probably isn't good for after sales service. At all.

Beko's, unknown but they do seem to have a couple of issues with dispensers and TOCs. The Jury's out as they've not been around long enough or in that market long enough to form a decent opinion.

Samsung... just Google them.

LG, varying reports but, when they do break they tend to be complex and expensive to put right. So long as you're prepared to take a punt it may be an okay buy. Just do be aware that the company lies, lots, especially about energy use.

BSH (Bosch, Siemens and Neff) have had, err, "issues" reported with their SBS machines.

Smeg, Hotpoint, and a whole bunch of others are just Whirlpool clones from Italy. Just Google them as well.

Electrolux produced ones have, at this time, no known issues other than the enormous food store thing with more doors than you can shake a stick at, it appears to have a few problems.

If it has a water filter in the lower grill, it's a Whirlpool. I don't care what the badge on the front says, that's what it is.

The only one I'd buy now, other than the GE as I know how to fix them and can get spares for them, is the Liebherr. But, you're looking at the thick end of three grand to get one, brilliant machines though and worth the money IMO.

The old White Westinghouse machines are long gone, WW is now just an owned brand in the EU trading on it's reputation, not the products.

Amana, Maytag and Admiral are all now Whirlpool and the cheaper machines are the Italian ones, not American or, Mexican, Bolivian or wherever else they're throwing them together these days.

In short, there's not a lot that is a true bargain out there, you get what you pay for and live with the compromise/s you choose to make.

HTH

K.

googler

"The old White Westinghouse machines are long gone, WW is now just an owned brand in the EU trading on it's reputation, not the products."

...and do you know who owns them, and who would provide service if we ever needed it?

Welsh_Totster

pimento wrote: »

I love my LG. Have had it for five years and never had a problem with it.

Pimento, are you me?!

I too have had my fabulous LG with icemaker and water dispenser for just over 5 years and I love it, lots. Only thing to make sure of is changing the filter every 12 months or so because if it gets clogged up then it goes pop and you end up with water everywhere. So Id receommend LG as ours has been fab.:j

Becles

We've got an LG. I lost confidence in them as the first one was dead on arrival, but they swapped it for another model and it's been fine. It's over three years old now and we've never had a problem with it.

sandiep

I had a daewoo! Had it for 6 years and it was still working fine. Got included in the house sale, and was sorry to see it go. I'm back to ordinary under the counter fridges & freezer and have to say that I notice the difference. The Daewoo did work really really well, never had to defrost it and the fridge worked perfectly, best bit was the alarm that went off everytime my wee girlies raided it!! (Everything seems to go off now in the old style fridges).

Would go out tomorrow and buy exactly the same again without even thinking about it.

kwatt

googler wrote: »

...and do you know who owns them, and who would provide service if we ever needed it?

Hi googler,

The brand was used under license in many territories, just like the Kelvinator brand, so it depends on where it originally came from. But, most of the old WW stuff is difficult at best to get any service or spares for as there was never any official UK support or service, they were all imports.

The brand was being used by Premium Appliance Brands but they would not have supported that product. However, they went bust so as things stand at the moment there's no support really.

The only real replacements in terms of quality and availability now, in the UK at any rate, are the top end Maytags (which are now made in Mexico IIRC), the GE machines which I mentioned in my previous post and Liebherr. Pretty much, that's it.

There are loads of brands that have what we call SBS (side-by-side) machines on the market, few actually make them themselves.

HTH

K.