Repair or Replace?

[John K Jordan]

...Any ideas on whether it is better to repair to see if a few more years can be coaxed out of the current unit or what brand would be better freezer?

jtk

I think it really depends on what's wrong with it. I faced the same problem today. My kitchen refrigerator, just 16 years old, quit last night. A bit of detective work by myself and free testing by my trusted appliance guy determined the compressor, in fact, was shot. Given the chance that the oil was burned meaning even replacing the compressor might not make the fridge as good as new and we wouldn't know until it was installed, I went shopping for a new one today.

(I had only three fridges and three freezers so I was in a bit of a panic. )

JKJ

[Brian Elfert]

The Maytag refrigerator I bought in September was made in Thailand. I always prefer made in USA, but I built my refrigerator opening around my previous Maytag and every other brand was too tall so I stuck with Maytag.

A friend is a commercial refrigeration tech and looked at it briefly. He said it probably lost the charge because compressor and fan were running, but coils never got warm. Even if could be fixed it didn't make sense for a $650 refrigerator.

[lowell holmes]

I would go buy a new one.

https://www.google.com/search?q=lowe...hrome&ie=UTF-8

[Jim Koepke]

I would go buy a new one.

https://www.google.com/search?q=lowe...hrome&ie=UTF-8

That looks like the plan though the Lowes close to us doesn't have any to sell. Home Depot has a batch coming in later in the month.

As it is now the freezer had a rise in temp and wasn't cooling. It smelled like it was over heating so it was unplugged. We are going into town today to see if we can find some dry ice and do what we have to do to reserve one of the Freezers coming to HD.

jtk

[Jim Becker]

Check with the local, independent dealers and "scratch and dent" folks to see if they have something that will work for you in addition to the box stores. The latter can often provide a higher level product at a better price than buying new from the 'borg...

[John K Jordan]

Check with the local, independent dealers and "scratch and dent" folks to see if they have something that will work for you in addition to the box stores. The latter can often provide a higher level product at a better price than buying new from the 'borg...

The dealer I went to yesterday had at least 50 or 60 "scratch & dent" fridges and freezers with significant markdowns.

[Jim Koepke]

We did check the locals, not that many around here.

One called back an hour ago and we are about to go take a look.

The door handle may be on the wrong side and unchangeable, SWMBO says we can live with that.

jtk

[Roger Feeley]

A few years ago my dryer stopped working, I called my repairman who also sold appliances. I had used him many times and trusted him. I suggested that maybe I should just get a new dryer. He said absolutely not, the newer ones quality was far below mine, remember he was recommending against my buying a new dryer from him. His last words were "keep fixing this until it can no longer be fixed". Now one problem with my suggestion is getting parts. We have been waiting 3 months for a part for our wine cooler which we really need since that's where we store all our bottled water☺

I got the same thing from my repairman back in Kansas City. Our washer and dryer were some of the last electro-mechanical ones made. Our guy said they would outlive us. When we moved, we let them go with the house. Our new washer/dryer/frig/range are all heavily electronic. We bought the longest extended warranties we could get which have already paid for themselves. We didn't get a warranty on the microwave because it was only about $300. Same story on our car. I used to avoid the extended warranties but I haven't lost money on one in 10 years.

[Jim Koepke]

We did purchase the used twenty cubic foot freezer. It is a couple cubic feet bigger than the old one.

Thanks for all the comments and suggestions.

jtk