Advice on buying a new refrigerator?

July 18, 2013 2:50 AM

I can't really complain that my refrigerator has just died: as near as I can tell, the thing is somewhere between 32-35 years old. Okay, that's been good service, but it's dead and now I need to replace it. Any recommendations on brands (either to avoid or preferred), designs (top freezer or bottom?), recommended places to buy from (I'm in northern Virginia --- is Home Depot okay?) or anything else you can think of is deeply appreciated! I'm not looking for anything fancy --- no double doors, fancy finishes, or water spigots in the door. Just a good, solid, dependable refrigerator that will last.
posted by easily confused to Home & Garden (32 answers total)

I'm also in NoVA. We replaced ours last year with a French door/bottom freezer Whirlpool Gold. (We have black appliances - don't like stainless steel - so our choices were somewhat limited.) We got it from H.H. Gregg, which has a lot of sales, and deals like delivery rebates. Over the past few years, we've also bought a new range-top microwave and washing machine from them.

We are pretty happy with it - it's about the same size as our old side-by-side, but so much better laid out. The only thing we failed to consider is that our small children use the freezer to climb up into the refrigerator. Fortunately it has door alarms that ping if it's open for more than a couple of minutes.
posted by candyland at 3:10 AM on July 18, 2013

Figure out how big a fridge you need and then get something bigger. You especially need more freezer space than you probably think you need, because a freezer can hold weeks worth of stuff, months worth of stuff, depending on what stuff we're talking about. "Huge" is the size of the freezer compartment you ought to be looking for.

But if you truly buy into the philosophy of huge freezers, and if you have the budget and space, you might want to get a modest fridge with a modest freezer compartment, but then buy a large separate freezer for storing eight month's worth of peas, a year's worth of turkey, and the entire person you got the bath salts from.
posted by pracowity at 4:25 AM on July 18, 2013 [6 favorites]

Keep in min d that fridges with all the bells and whistles have more to go on them. New fridges have circuit boards on them that tend to go . My parents fridge had its circuit board die after only 2 years.
posted by majortom1981 at 4:39 AM on July 18, 2013 [1 favorite]

Energy efficiency would be one of my most important criteria for a new fridge. It runs 24/7.
posted by travelwithcats at 4:46 AM on July 18, 2013 [3 favorites]

When my GE Fridge was having problems a few years ago I asked the repair guy what brand he bought for his home. He told me nothing but Whirlpool crossed the threshold of his house. So I bought a Whirlpool fridge and it has been trouble free for 4 or 5 years now. I got it from Sears because they had the best deal that week that I bought. This is in NOVA, FWIW.
posted by COD at 4:47 AM on July 18, 2013 [2 favorites]

Consumer Reports has excellent detailed ratings of refrigerators, and last I checked you could subscribe to their site (required) for about $5/mo, cancelable at any time. Any time I buy any large appliance, I sub up for a month or two. The text (but not the ratings) is even free.

FWIW, and as majortom1981 mentions, the more complex and feature-rich a fridge is, the more likely it is to fail in some way or another. I tend to go for the cheapest model that has the minimum feature set I require (which in the past has been big enough and with-ice-cubes) and nothing else. This has served me reasonably well.
posted by contrarian at 5:00 AM on July 18, 2013 [1 favorite]

The most important point to me after the obvious cost to buy and cost to run was the refrigerator part. I wanted it on top because it was at eye level and I could more easily access it and see what was in the back waiting to die. The freezer size was a non issue in that I much prefer fresh food and my freezer is stocked with mostly perishable items like ice cream, ice, and a few products from Morningside Farms. You have to decide how you use each for your family.

For many years I had a commercial refrigerator, a Traulsen, that was awesome except for the noise and the cost to run. But, I could drop 3 cases of water, a case of Gatorade and six 12-packs of seltzer on the bottom shelf without batting an eye. Full cakes and the Thanksgiving turkey were easily placed inside. If redoing my kitchen were in the plans for my current home, I would get another commercial frig although I would move the compressor to the basement to reduce the noise. If you go that route, we had DVorsons ship cross country.
posted by JohnnyGunn at 5:06 AM on July 18, 2013 [2 favorites]

I am going to go against the grain about the top refrigerators/bottom freezer. We have one that we bought when we redid the kitchen about 5 years ago. It's a GE Profile (from Home Depot). I hate it. We still have kids at home and our fridge is opened about 100x/day (and I am constantly at the store so it's pretty well stocked). The freezer while I thought it would be better to have on the bottom however small things get lost down there through the grid of the drawer. Also when we first got it, the kids were younger and if the freezer door was just ajar enough not to set off the alarm but still opened the motor burnt out. It happened twice. I asked the repair guy and he said it was a pretty common thing for families to have that problem. I also think it's not a good use for the size. We have biggest one I think, around 30 sq ft. However, there are so many little drawers and compartments that take up space. I ended up taking a lot of those out.

In our basement we have an Amana freezer top/fridge bottom that's about 17 yrs old and is chugging away. That thing I love. If I had to replace the upstairs fridge I'd go with the old fashioned freezer top/fridge bottom. I think it's a better design for home use.
posted by lasamana at 5:24 AM on July 18, 2013

I think Side by Side is the optimal fridge, with a fancy door dispenser and ice maker and a water filter.

I will say that you can get amazing deals at the Sears Outlet. Their site is fabulous, you can see exactly what they have in stock at locations near you. Their stuff is typically 75% off regular show room prices!

We bought our treadmill there and it was an amazing experience. One thing, get the one with the dent in it, it's there for cosmetic reasons, if you're lucky the dent will be on your wall side, so it won't even show. The pristine looking item, may be there because it's a lemon, or reconditioned. They do offer a 12-month waranty on their stuff though.

Also, they can arrange for very speedy delivery, or bring your U-haul and take it away yourself, it's right there.

Do MEASURE your space. When we remodeled our kitchen we planned to use the fridge that was already there. Turns out, after we re-did the flooring, it didn't fit. We had to buy the one and only fridge in the world that would fit. A Kitchen Aid, counter-depth. I like it fine, but I didn't love spending all that dough.

Whirlpool, Kitchen Aid and Kenmore are all made in the same factory. I've had great luck with these brands, and recommend them unreservedly.
posted by Ruthless Bunny at 5:50 AM on July 18, 2013 [1 favorite]

I will have to check the actual model when I get home, but I just moved into a place that has a GE fridge. It is full upright in size, but relatively narrow. And Brand Spanking New. Yay!

But. It. Is. Fucking. *AWFUL*.

I was all excited that there was a brand new fridge in the place, but lordy, it's like they designed it to be annoying. The freezer is on the bottom, which is well and good, but when you open the door (sideways opening door like the fridge part on top) there were three drawers in there! Drawers! So you can't see anything in there, you have to actually slide out the plastic, hard to slide drawers every single time. No ice maker, so making ice by putting them into drawers is pretty miserable. My solution was to spend about an hour trying to pry the front off the drawers without destroying them entirely so I can hopefully put them back on when I move out eventually. Partially successful. The front is off, but not sure if I'll be able to reattach without superglue or something.

The fridge is ok, but the layout is weird, and while changeable, if I make it so I can stand a bottle of wine or something inside, then above it there is barely room for anything. And the veggie drawer is another plastic thing that simply refuses to slide in and out easily. And there was this little flap over the top of the drawer that we also removed that did fuck-all, as far as I could tell, except to make the annoyingly difficult to pull out drawer even more annoyingly difficult to pull out. UGH.

And the front of the fridge isn't even magnetic! WTF???

So I guess my recommendation would be to avoid GE.
posted by Grither at 6:34 AM on July 18, 2013 [4 favorites]

One of the new features is a big full-width drawer at the bottom, below the veggie drawers. We got one in the fridge we bought earlier this year and it hasn't been too useful. There aren't many things that need that wide drawer, and it's easy to lose stuff in the back of it that goes bad.
posted by smackfu at 6:58 AM on July 18, 2013

I was going to mention what Grither says. If you go freezer on the bottom make sure it is a drawer NOT a door. My parents' is a door you open and then pull out the drawer. It is the most ridiculous / least user friendly design and every time I have to use it all I can think is, "Did NO ONE in the design phase of this EVER try to use this damn thing??? It should have been obvious from the beginning that this is TERRIBLE!"
posted by magnetsphere at 7:09 AM on July 18, 2013 [2 favorites]

Kenmore is solid, will last for years and years, and is not expensive. It's the Sears house brand, which I think is put onto appliances that are otherwise brand name (maybe they're really Whirlpools like Ruthless Bunny mentions above). In general, Sears is the place to go for appliances, and wait for a sale or buy the floor model if you can.

The only thing I would caution you not to do is get the very bottom-of-the-line fridge; we got one when we moved into our new place because we didn't have a lot to spend on a fridge, and though it works just fine, the wire shelves annoy me EVERY SINGLE DAY. So I guess my advice would be to make sure you have solid shelves and not wire, things don't fall over nearly as much with the solid shelves.
posted by rabbitrabbit at 7:31 AM on July 18, 2013

We remodeled five years ago and bought new appliances. We've already had to replace two Kenmore appliances (microwave and dishwasher). We've been very happy with our Whirlpool appliances, including our refrigerator. I got my refrigerator at Lowe's (do they have Lowe's on the EC? They are basically the same as Home Depot).

We have a pretty basic ($500 range) refrigerator, and an upright, stand-alone freezer out in the garage (full disclosure, the freezer is not new, it's like 20 years old. I think it is also a Whirlpool, but it might be a GE). Love having the independent freezer, we stock up on proteins when they're on sale, and we cook in large quantities and so we have plenty of prepared meals available for when we don't want to cook for some reason.

The last time I had an appliance repair guy at my place, he told me that appliances don't hold up anymore because they used to all come with 10-year warranties, and now they only come with 1-year warranties. I use that as my basis for only spending a moderate amount of money when I need to replace something.
posted by vignettist at 7:36 AM on July 18, 2013

Response by poster: I don't need (or want!) anything with lots of extra features: no timers, water faucets, ice crushers, whatever..... all it has to do is just keep the food cold or frozen, as appropriate, and we'll get along fine. I hate tons of specialized nooks and crannies: as so many of you mention, they're usually some combination of useless + annoying.

Because of the space it'll be going in (I have no intention of re-doing the cabinets, just haul out the old and stuff in the new fridge), I want one with a single door: the French doors are nice, but there's a wall on the left side of this space, which would make it awkward at best to open those double doors.

I was thinking about getting one with a bottom freezer though; but I've just assumed those bottom freezers are all drawers --- a sideways-opening door down there?!? Who in the world thought that was a good idea, someone who never steps into an actual kitchen?!? I see the point about kids using a bottom drawer for a step, but that's not a problem: I live alone, and promise not to do that. Are there other drawbacks to them, besides being more expensive?
posted by easily confused at 7:38 AM on July 18, 2013

but I've just assumed those bottom freezers are all drawers --- a sideways-opening door down there?!?

I think that was the older style, since it's basically the same design as a top freezer, just rearranged a bit. A drawer needs more work to create.

The only advantage I can think of to a bottom-door freezer is that it might be easier to open, since you don't need to pull out the whole weight of the door + drawer.
posted by smackfu at 7:53 AM on July 18, 2013

If it were me (and it will be, soon), I would be looking primarily at the cost-to-run. I've read that the refrigerator is the most expensive appliance in the house to use, since they are so large and run 24/7/365. My understanding is that the bottom-freezers take advantage of the heat-rises, cold-falls principle and therefore cost less to run.

For that reason, I would be inclined to buy exactly what I need -- especially having read from off-grid types about all the things 'we' refrigerate that actually don't need to be refrigerated or taste better at room temp. For me, it doesn't seem practical to buy a giant refrigerator to lessen a minor hassle that only happens 1-2 times a year (ie, one that fits a turkey easily).

For what it's worth, my 10 yr old fridge has a door on it's bottom freezer and it's never bothered me. My kids will sit on the floor in front of it to load it up after grocery shopping. By contrast, my BFF has one with a drawer & a shelf -- and pulling the drawer out means you have to step backwards away from the appliance -- making it very difficult for those with short arms to reach the back.
posted by MeiraV at 7:54 AM on July 18, 2013

There are free or cheap ($100) fridges on Craigslist all the time. Usually they work fine - their owners just want someone to take it out of their house for them. Even if you have to pay someone to move it for you, it's likely still far cheaper than buying a new one!
posted by danceswithlight at 7:59 AM on July 18, 2013

I came to mention measuring, but someone already has, so measure twice! It always pays to do so.
posted by Sunburnt at 8:08 AM on July 18, 2013

Small point, but top freezer models are generally more efficient. Oh, and I'm perfectly happy with my simple (but not el-cheapo) Kenmore after 5 years.
posted by that's candlepin at 8:12 AM on July 18, 2013

I have cabinets on either side of a fridge with double doors. It's really not that awkward. How often do you open the fridge door past 110-120 degrees or so anyway?

Either way, what I'd suggest is studying how the shelves are molded closely. Shelves with an oval shape--which can make an empty fridge look generously proportioned--can waste a lot of space
in the corners and along the front when you start trying to put circular jars in them.

The same thing with molded plastic lips that curve inwards. They waste space, and invite breakage from pressing against jars tightly fit.

Look to see how sturdy the attachments for shelves, drawer tracks etc are. Those are things that tend to be annoyances in aging fridges. And appliances are even less sturdily made now, if more efficient, than those they replace.

One thing you might consider if you crave simplicity and durability but don't want to spring for a commercial fridge, is buying a fridge-only for the kitchen space, if you can tuck a separate freezer, even a chest freezer, away somewhere close by (like a pantry or garage.)
posted by snuffleupagus at 8:23 AM on July 18, 2013 [1 favorite]

Kenmore used to be almost exclusively rebadged Whirlpool appliances, at least for major appliances (fridge, range, washer/dryer), but I think their fancy washer/dryer combos are made by LG now. According to this page you can decode who makes a particular Kenmore appliance by looking at the full model number, which is usually found only on the appliance itself.

Keep in mind that KitchenAid, Maytag, Jenn-Air and Amana are also Whirlpool. They differentiate these lines by feature set and appearance, but they're all made by the same company. KitchenAid and Jenn-Air are the higher-end lines. So if you find a Kenmore or whatever that is almost what you want, check the other brands to see if they have anything that fits the bill exactly.

We got a top-of-the-line KitchenAid French door bottom-freezer model when we moved in to our new house three years ago. It has a lot of bells and whistles you probably don't want (beyond the ice and water dispenser in the door, it has a touch screen to control the settings, and a USB port with which to upload your own photos to be displayed on the touch screen!) but I have to say, one particular feature is the whole reason we bought the fridge and has proven very useful: measured water dispenser. You tell the fridge you want a cup of water, it dispenses exactly a cup of water. It has three presets so you can save frequently-used sizes (0.85 liter is exactly perfect for a SodaStream bottle). We also find the fridge very nicely designed and able to hold a whole lot. The only downside is that it is pretty damn loud when the compressor kicks in at full power, but this doesn't actually happen very often when we're home; modern fridges are designed to run a lower speed pretty much continuously and only need full power occasionally (more energy efficient, apparently).
posted by kindall at 8:37 AM on July 18, 2013 [2 favorites]

You might want to look at Consumer Search, a site that aggregates product reviews and posts free summaries. Here is the Consumer Search page on fridges.
posted by medusa at 9:07 AM on July 18, 2013 [2 favorites]

I love the bottom freezer drawer on mine. It makes SO much more sense than a top freezer. I open my fridge about 10x a day, so it makes sense that its at eye level. I open the freezer maybe once a day, so it makes sense that its down in a slightly less accessible place. However, being a drawer, its still really easy to use and get at stuff. When we remodeled our kitchen I switched out all the lower cabinets for drawer cabinets, because it makes much more sense ergonomically. The same applies to the freezer drawer.

When we bought our fancy-schmancy french doors, water filter, icemaker, freezer on the bottom fridge, I did a bunch of research, and favored LG as a brand. There was another brand that rated equally well, but now I've forgotten what it is.

Small point, but top freezer models are generally more efficient.
Do you have a cite for that? Because that seems counter-intuitive to me. Heat rises, therefore the freezer would have to do slightly more work if it is on top of the fridge. To me, the freezer should be on the bottom because physics and convenience.
posted by Joh at 9:36 AM on July 18, 2013

Best answer: Here's a listing of fridge/freezers ranked by net efficiency criteria at TopTen. They get their numbers from the Energy Star program and rank according to calculated efficiency criteria (energy use per cubic foot, etc..).

The top five most efficient models are all freezer top in the large category, with only two freezer bottom types in ten best. In the x-large, best is a bottom freezer, with only one top freezer on the list. In the medium size, the best six are all top freezers, the remaining four bottom freezers. The differences from best to worst is about 60 to 70 kWh in and average of 400 kWh or so.

There are no side-by-side fridges on any of their lists.

Evidence top-freezers being better than bottom-freezers based on current available models seems to be mixed. The real lesson appear to be that you need to read the energy stickers to find out. 350 kWh/yr is an amazingly good number, 450 kWh/yr is quite high, with lots of even the largest fridges doing better. The best on the market seem to do about 400 kWh or a bit less, mostly depending on the size you want.
posted by bonehead at 10:28 AM on July 18, 2013

Your library probably has a subscription to Consumer Reports - this is exactly the sort of question they answer really well.
posted by theora55 at 10:31 AM on July 18, 2013

Read online reviews to see if anyone comments on excessive noise from the fridge or lack thereof. You can hear my mom's fridge all the way down the hall and it drives me nuts.
posted by fozzie_bear at 11:37 AM on July 18, 2013 [1 favorite]

You have a bunch of specific recommendations and several pointers to Consumer Reports. I've grown to really dislike the Consumer Reports recommendations on some items - they seem to be based on slavish checklists (check off all boxes? 97/100! Clever design that doesn't need those features? Bzzzt, missing features...). Instead, I was going to suggest that you check out Sweet Home, sister site to the Wirecutter. They try to give you just two or three suggestions (best, best alternative pick, best on a budget) for all sorts of things.

(So having written this far, I decided to check out which refrigerator they recommend, and @#^$%^$%#!! - they don't have a suggestion in that category? Can this be right, or am I really losing it?)

I also strongly endorse the idea of a separate stand-alone freezer if you can swing it: it really makes a great addition.
posted by RedOrGreen at 12:38 PM on July 18, 2013

>> Small point, but top freezer models are generally more efficient.
> Do you have a cite for that? Because that seems counter-intuitive to me. Heat rises [...]

Older-style fridges used to have cooling tubes around the freezer, with the rest of the fridge cooled by convection. So the freezer would be actively cooled, and then the cold air surrounding it would sink and cool the rest of the shelves. Having a freezer on the bottom would obviously not work well for those designs.

Modern freezers actively circulate chilled air through the shelves to achieve much finer-grained thermal control, so as far as I know, the efficiency arguments no longer apply. Just don't block the vents inside the fridge.
posted by RedOrGreen at 12:43 PM on July 18, 2013 [1 favorite]

I love my freezer drawer on bottom. What we think is great about it is that my over 6 foot tall husband has no trouble seeing into the fridge -- doesn't have to squat down to get anything out of the fridge, ever. In our house, that is way more convenient than a freezer at eye-level.
posted by freezer cake at 9:04 PM on July 18, 2013

By the way, you can buy a refrigerator with no freezer compartment at all. That reduces the complexity and increases the reliability and capacity of the fridge, but then you need a separate freezer.
posted by pracowity at 11:28 PM on July 18, 2013

Response by poster: Well, after a quick stroll through the refrigerators on sale, I'm going to get something of the basic, freezer-over-fridge variety. Those bottom-freezer sections seem to all be bigger than the top-freezer models, which means the fridge portion of the thing is smaller..... not acceptable. And yes, unbelieveably enough, there are several models that still have doors on those bottom freezers..... not acceptable. And the ones with freezer drawers on bottom? I see just what you mean about losing stuff in there!

(And I don't have some philosophical objection to the ones with ice-water spigots: it's just that, because of how my kitchen is laid out, those would require the floor being dug up to lay a water line across the room from the sink.... not acceptable!)

Thanks all!
posted by easily confused at 10:07 AM on July 20, 2013