Which brand of fridge freezer to buy? (now bought)

Andrea15

Hi,

I am planning to replace my perfectly functioning, but expensive to run fridge freezer (I am going to give it to the British Heart Foundation - if anything it is free to get rid of it)
I currently have a 50/50 Bosch which is about 185 cm in height and 60 wide and I am looking for something similar.

The options are:

1) HiSense (cheapest - chinese) - never heard of it
2) Bosch/Sharp/Beko (middle of the road)
3) Liebherr (most expensive) - never heard of it, but it seems it is the same a Miele

The variation in price is not huge... say it goes from £430 for a hisense to 730 for a Liebherr.
I am discounting an F rated, so it is a matter of choosing between D and E (there doesn't seem to be anything better).

At the moment this is probably the best (NO affiliation), but I have to pay at least £20 for delivery as they have done away with free delivery   Taking all the discounts into account, it would cost me about £595 all in. 202 kWh/yr

This is an E, but it is just slightly less performing compared to the one above. 237kWh/yr, £529.

Any ideas?

Thanks

SandyShores

We had a liebherr in our last place, bought from friends second hand. It got slightly noisy  after a couple of years, and when I looked it up on the website it was one of the few fridge freezers where it's worth repairing them.  It wasn't broken though, just needed a major defrost and was fine again.  I would have brought it with us if I could, it was such a lovely size, but we came to a new home with a built in fridge freezer so I sold it on.  My daughter has just had fun with buying new fridge-freezers, the first one (can't remember the make) was really noisy and then broke down, and it was very stressful to try and get it repaired - they didn't turn up, brought the wrong part etc. so in the end she got them to take it away and she replaced it with something more expensive - I think with a Bosch and its lovely and quiet and works well.

CSI_Yorkshire

Don't be too scared by 'F', things with that rating were 'A++' until not very long ago.  They changed the system, that's why you will find it difficult to get anything better than 'D'.

Andrea15

CSI_Yorkshire said:

Don't be too scared by 'F', things with that rating were 'A++' until not very long ago.  They changed the system, that's why you will find it difficult to get anything better than 'D'.

Yes, I know. But if I am doing this, might as well try to get something that is worth it.

Bigphil1474

Hisense are a well known Chinese brand - to me they are more known for their TV's, didn't know they did fridge/freezers. I'd say that their TV's tend to be high spec but Ok quality i.e. not great quality. I've known someone had a great Hisense TV that lasted about 5 years, but then had an unrepairable fault. My LG TV has done me 10 years faultlessly. As with most tech though, that doesn't really tell you much as some quality brands can go bang in a few years anyway.
We've had a Samsung FF in the past and it was great. Lasted about 10 years but then packed up. We've currently got a Hotpoint one, and it's okay. Top of fridge isn't cool enough and bottom is too cold, when set at 5C, so we have to think where we put stuff.  
We have got a Bosch washing machine that works great. It was the highest rated machine available at the time for our price range. 
My honest advice is to go on some reputable website and see what reviews are available. 'Which' maybe or 'expert reviews' I think was one i looked at, get the best rated one in your price range. You won't get the same level of useful help on here (IMO). Personally, I'd always go mid range - an expectation that it will last a decent while, will do what it's supposed to, but not so expensive as to be a real pain if it blows up a few weeks after warranty has run out. I am tight though.

You may already know this, but you should - do your research on independent review sites, fine the model you like that ticks your boxes and is in your price range, find the cheapest place to buy it. If you want to see it in the flesh, see if somewhere like Currys has it or a similar model in stock and go take a look, just don't buy it from there unless it's the best price. Places like John Lewis offer great warranties usually.  It's worth spending the time doing your research.

victor2

Our American (not just American style but really American made) fridge/freezer was new in 1995 and finally died in 2019. It is a bit bigger than the OP's and we replaced it with an F rated LG, which uses about 1/3 of the electricity the old one did. We had a minor problem with the water dispenser dripping, but they sent an engineer out to sort it out under warranty. We love it, especially the door-in-door feature it has. It has a 10 year warranty on the motor. Don't expect it to last as long as the one it replaced, but very happy with it.

Cisco001

Bosch Series 4 60/40 is rate D
Saw a refurb one at elekdirect for £470 

P.S. Watched some reviews on youtube saying samsung/ LG fridge freeze are no good. But those video are from US, no idea about our model.

housebuyer143

Beko. I love them. I have a washing machine going 13 years, a dryer going 10 and just bought a dishwasher and a fridge freezer which is wonderful quality.

I would say look at the litreage of the fridge freezers as they maybe the same size but they vary quite a bit with how much they can hold with the cheapest ones probably having less space.

Money_Grabber13579

Perhaps an obvious question but how much do you expect to save in running costs compared to your perfectly functioning fridge freezer and how long will it take you to recoup the outlay for a brand new model?

CSI_Yorkshire

Money_Grabber13579 said:

Perhaps an obvious question but how much do you expect to save in running costs compared to your perfectly functioning fridge freezer and how long will it take you to recoup the outlay for a brand new model?

Discussion already happened:

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6464258/fridge-freezer-working-fine-is-it-worth-replacing-it-though#latest

Andrea15

Money_Grabber13579 said:

Perhaps an obvious question but how much do you expect to save in running costs compared to your perfectly functioning fridge freezer and how long will it take you to recoup the outlay for a brand new model?

By my maths, 5 years to recoup the costs at today's prices.