KitchenAid side by side, 16 years old, we all love it, never needed a new compressor, never moved it except to clean, icemaker quit last year so I took the timing mechanism apart and made it work, would buy one like it again.
If a cooling device of any type with a compressor is laid on the side while moving it may be important to place it upright for up to 24 hours before plugging it in, depending on how long it was not vertical.
On both that I moved they were running a lot to stay cold but not enough juice left to get cold from ambient. Ours is probably on its last leg but Wife thinks it will warn us before it quits kind of like cars often do. I said it’s going to die while we are out of town and lose everything. Worse yet, not much time to think about what to buy in a hurry. Our house is elevated on an above ground basement, you should see them bringing in a fridge.
Samsung, & LG, (Lousy Goods), both have a reputation for ice maker problems, also for difficulty in getting parts. My Whirlpool side by side was bought in 2006, & has not required any service since then, if it were to fail & require replacement would get another Whirlpool, my 2nd choice would have been GE but since they are now owned by Haier, that is out, with Haier, any day the appliance lasts past the warranty expiration date is a bonus day, & I stay away from most ChiCom owned companies, Frigidaire, does not have a reputation for quality either, a few months ago I asked a appliance repair tech as who was the least troublesome make, & he said they are all bad because they all buy their parts from the same sources.
Maytag from Home Depot, traditional top-freezer with icemaker inside the freezer. Works great, 10 years old, inexpensive, reliable, wife can't wait to replace it.
20 yr old Maytag French door with freezer drawer on the bottom. In the door water and ice.
No moves or compressor repairs, but the compressor does make an occasional popping noise as if there's a little hydro locking going on inside the compressor, but it still works fine. My biggest complaint is with the pullout deli drawer lid, folks pull on it instead of the drawer and it pops off, but it's easily put back on.
I'd probably get another Maytag or one of its sibling brands.
I suspect most of the guts are similar between siblings with most of the differences being shelf/drawer layout, shelf/drawer quality, and cosmetics
Regarding Samsung and LG, the way they handled the exploding washing machine problem makes me not inclined to buy their stuff. You might want to search on brands that seem to dent easily.
I once was chatting with someone from an appliance store about a particular service problem they once had. A customer had called about a puddle that would frequently appear on the floor below the refrigerators in-door cold water outlet. A service rep replaced the in-door water valve, but the problem happed again. Thinking that maybe the replacement valve was defective another valve was ordered and installed. The water appeared on the floor again, another service call and different part replaced. The water appeared yet again. A service rep began to ask more questions, and it seems the water leak only happened at night, so the tech set up a video camera.
The family dog would press the water dispense paddle on the door to get a drink at night
Last edited by Mike Soaper; 09-20-2020 at 1:11 PM.
You rally need to remove the back panel and look at the compressor plumbing. Lay it down so the plumbing off the can points up and oil will not drain out of the pump. This should keep the compressor from dying from lack of oil when it is restarted. I still allow at least 1/2 day after uprighting. I mark the back panel with a sharpie "this end up".If a cooling device of any type with a compressor is laid on the side while moving it may be important to place it upright for up to 24 hours before plugging it in, depending on how long it was not vertical.
After moving it the drain tube shifted so it dripped on the floor not into the drain pan to be evaporated away. They sell a upgraded drain tube that clips in so that will not happen. No need since it will not happen unless it gets tipped the wrong way which is how it was hauled to my house. 50/50 chance and I blew it. I let it sit upright 48+ hours and no problems.
Bil lD
Last edited by Jim Becker; 09-20-2020 at 6:48 PM. Reason: fixed quote tagging
Our Whirlpool is 23 years old. Works well. My wife uses ice, I seldom do. I like Diet Coke at room temp.
If you have an older refrigerator that you are happy with and it still works, repair it when things go wrong.
If you have a newer refrigerator, such as a Samsung, prepare yourself to repair the ice maker when it goes wrong, because it will. A steam jet is helpful. Parts should still be available. It’s not rocket science.
Or maybe fix it.
When the ice maker in my Kitchenaid fridge quit working after about 15 years I removed and disassembled it completely. This is not a task for the feint-hearted or mechanically challenged. The complex (and delicate) mechanical mechanism which controlled the timing of everything from the water entering the tray to the dumping of the cubes had degraded. The heart was multiple circular metallic tracks and spring loaded contact fingers with some delicate adjustments. There were a couple places where the electrical contact areas had degraded. I tested the timing motor, tested the heating element, cleaned and polished all the contact traces, tightened conductive rivets, bent a spring switch finger slightly to give it better contact, made adjustments after making sure I understand how it worked, cleaned the contacts to the heating element, applied a very thin film of dielectric grease to all contact traces, and carefully reassembled. This took a couple of hours. It has been working perfectly since.
It took me far longer to disassemble and draw a diagram and analyze the function of each piece than it did to fix it and reassemble. If it dies again someday I'll try that again and replace it only when I have to. The dealer told me a new one was close to $200 not counting the $65 service call. But he said after all that I could probably install a new one myself.
JKJ
We have a 17 year old Frigidaire Gallery Pro side by side with ice and water through the door. Bought it new from a local appliance dealer when we built the house. Never had a problem with the compressor. The only issue was about 7 or 8 years ago, the fan controller failed and the fan ran full blast, blowing too much air into the refrigerator side and freezing about half the contents. Called the appliance store, who sent a tech to diagnose the problem. He asked if we had ever had any issues with it previously, to which I answered no. They ordered the part and came back the next day to replace it. When I asked how much it would cost, he said it was under warranty. I asked how that was possible, and he said that they did not submit the warranty paperwork at the initial sale, so they submitted it and then filed a claim for this repair. Saved a couple hundred dollars that way.
My wife likes it fine, though she's always looking at new ones whenever we go to Home Depot or Lowe's.
41 years
SubZero 48" side by side with ice maker
Loves it
No
No
It is just now finally reaching the end of a very productive life and I am planning on replacing it with the current SubZero equivalent model. Original cost approx $5,000, replacement will be close to $11,000 delivered. Sound like alot of money? $5,000 amortized over 40 years is $125 per year, $11,000 now equals $275. Run that same calc on the less expensive units and it turns out to be a real value purchase. Of course, now that I've bragged about it, the new unit will last a month.
Supposedly you're supposed to unplug it before moving it and then wait a certain period of time, after moving it to replug it. I'm not sure how long that is or why the reason is, but it has something to do with the Freon in the compressor.