Fridge Freezer Recommendation

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trig42

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#2176944 12-Feb-2019 09:48

We have the F&P E402B with Ice/Water plumbed in.

We bought it cheap second hand, so no idea how old it is, but we've had it for 5 years.

I had to rebuild the ice maker, and have replaced a couple of door shelves, but those items were broken when we got it (I got the parts from F&P - really easy to do, and not horridly expensive). I think the fridge had had a rough life in its previous home. It's also a bit noisy (but not annoyingly so).

I would replace with the same model (mainly because it fits, and I couldn't now be without the Ice/Water).

Willuknight

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#2177661 13-Feb-2019 14:06

I have a Haier fridge I bought new, and a freezer of the same brand bought 2nd hand.

Fridge - doesn't seem to have a drip tray to empty, so have to just vaccume water out of the bottom of the fridge - very messy. Currently has a massive ball of ice in the middle of the fridge. Seems to be either too cold or not cold enough - difficult to find a good temp setting.

Freezer - top of freezer keeps on frosting over, locking the top drawer in place.

jonathan18

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#2177682 13-Feb-2019 14:36

A number of the 'recommended' models in Consumer are French door style, and most have a quoted average price over $3k.

The top two units are LGs (one top/bottom, other French door); next two Westinghouse (both French door), then two F&P (again both French door).

At the most general level, these are Consumer's latest reliability and satisfaction stats for fridge/freezers by brand and type:

Blurtie

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#2177689 13-Feb-2019 14:51

Adding in my 5c, we purchased a Samsung SRS588DLS side by side fridge from Noels last July on special for a shade over 2k from memory and have been very happy with it. This is our first fridge with a water/ice dispenser and I think it's probably the main reason why we're so happy with it! Big fan of the convenience/novelty factor!

This fridge did replace an old, ridiculously small upright fridge, so that probably helps things too.

I guess only time will tell in regards to reliability, but certainly have not had any issues so far. Except maybe the ice dispenser taking a tad too long to spit out the ice!

StructureDr

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#2177694 13-Feb-2019 14:57

My only comment would be to avoid Bosch. We have had a side-by-side for about 6/7 years and it is terribly, terribly noisy. Customer service when attempting to get them to investigate the issue was awful as well.

Shanemc

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#2177710 13-Feb-2019 15:16

Blurtie:

Adding in my 5c, we purchased a Samsung SRS588DLS side by side fridge from Noels last July on special for a shade over 2k from memory and have been very happy with it. This is our first fridge with a water/ice dispenser and I think it's probably the main reason why we're so happy with it! Big fan of the convenience/novelty factor!

This fridge did replace an old, ridiculously small upright fridge, so that probably helps things too.

I guess only time will tell in regards to reliability, but certainly have not had any issues so far. Except maybe the ice dispenser taking a tad too long to spit out the ice!

Thanks for the comment. Yes another Samsung, the SRF533DLS, keeps coming up in my search at $1900. But It doesn't seemed plumbed in, and doesn't do ice. I think if we go for these feature, we might as well go all in.. Your prices seems really good, I see currently its over $3000. There are some impressive margins in these appliances. I have been a little shy on Samsung after buying one of their LED TVs and finding they only supported the OS for about 6 months, then moved onto an entirely different 'smart system'. Mind you the TV is still going. Looking at the Consumer ratings Jonathan helpfully posted - they're look down the field a bit. Looks like the french doors get a bit unreliable as well.

Anyway we have had a bit of a reprieve with our fault disappearing over the last 2 days - perhaps it is something hot weather related. I dont doubt it will return...

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Blurtie

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#2177730 13-Feb-2019 15:55

Yes, i think they were having one of their once in a lifetime "massive sell out" never to be repeated again sale at the time.... After thinking about it a bit more, I'm pretty sure Samsung was also running a promo where they were giving away pressie cards to certain appliances purchased. So the actual amount I paid Noels might have been more around 2300/2400, but with the Samsung promo it bought the price down...

farcus

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#2177734 13-Feb-2019 15:56

what are those Daewoo side by side refrigerators that The Warehouse sell like? Going for just under $2k but often discounted to under $1k.

raytaylor

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#2181040 15-Feb-2019 17:25

I like F&P but for my small flat i decided to get a mitsibushi which has a refillable water tank in the bottom of the fridge for the ice maker - means i didnt have to get it plumbed in.

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#2181150 16-Feb-2019 00:59

tdgeek:
My Samsung side by side failed https://www.geekzone.co.nz/forums.asp?forumid=141&topicid=243481&page_no=2

There are 3 issues these have, and each is expensive, so went LG

"Called one repair guy, cant come out till Monday, Samsung side by sides are a problem. The other guy cant come till Tuesday, but he was nice, upfront, and told me in detail the three things that go wrong with them. Gas leak in the coil, compressor, or the back insulated panels ice up internally and stop airflow. Cost for these was $700 to $900. He said Samsung are fine, but NOT for side by side fridges, they get so many calls about them. So we will go shopping tomorrow

Thanks very much for the replies"

On reflection it was Samsung fridge freezers not just side by sides

Lots of those problems are probably caused by people not cleaning the condenser coils at the back. As those Samsung fridges (as well as lots of other large fridges) use fan cooling of the condenser and compressor. 10 years of dust will easily kill the compressor due to overheating.

Each year in late spring, I remove the lower rear cover and clean out all of the dust with my air compressor. The fridge lives in an open plan kitchen, which easily gets to 40deg during summer, if the doors and Windows are left closed during the day. And the set temps are -18 and 1deg for the freezer and fridge. So it has to work really hard during summer. But the compressor still runs smoothly with hardly any noise.

Yes, I also had the fridge icing up problem. Fix was to remove 2x little disc thermostats that were wired in series with the defrost heater. As they were cutting power to the defrost element sooner than what the controller intended. And also relocated the evaporator temp sensor from the middle of the evaporator, to the refrigerant suction pipe, just before it leaves the fridge compartment. (further away from the defrost element) So the element will stay on for longer until the controller detects that defrost is complete. And it will also still be able to sense the refrigerant temperature in the suction pipe.

Material cost to fix was a small amount of solder and heatshrink tubing. And total cost is still way less than $700. Even when allowing $100 per hour for my time.

Sure, the above doesn't sound that great. But things like accurate temp regulation, the ice and water dispenser etc are worth it. And simple isn't always better. My mum's old Westinghouse fridge had the defrost element wired in parallel with the thermostat, and a PTC thermistor starter on the compressor. meaning that the defrost element ran whenever the compressor was off, wasting power. And if a brownout occurred while the compressor was on, the compressor would fail to restart. And then it would be a race to see if the compressors internal overheat cutout would activate before the motor windings burn out.

Its replacement was a cheap horrible thing, that only had an evaporator in the freezer compartment. And the fridge compartment was cooled by circulating a small amount of air between the two. This meant that everything in the fridge dried out badly. And a very small leak on the freezer door seals meant that cold air was constantly leaking out due to the fan, and getting replaced with outside air, probably via the condensate drain pipe. Again wasting power and meaning lots of condensate produced. The tray at the back kept on overflowing.

Meanwhile, my Samsung fridge has the freezer and fridge compartments sealed from eachover. And it is unusual to see any water in its condensate tray. At the time of purchase, the LG double door fridges were still using the circulate air between the fridge and freezer system. Despite Harvey Norman selling them for approx $2K more than the Samsung fridges at the time.

jonathan18

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#2181156 16-Feb-2019 06:23

There are some useful tips in your post, and I for one will look at what I can do about cleaning out dust in the back of my Samsung freezer. I wonder if this is even mentioned in the owners'manual?!

But the reality is most of the general public aren't plumbers or even semi-capable of contemplating more significant fixes. Nor should people be having to pay a professional to undertake such hacks, which, if necessary to stop something as fundamental as products freezing in a fridge, indicate a problem that should be solved in the design and manufacturing process.

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pctek

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#2181586 17-Feb-2019 18:00

Mitsubishi.
My brother gets consumer, on their good list, plus user reviews (of people who owned one for ages and ages) are all pretty much positive.

You can get the fancy pants ones, or the standard...whatever you want.

CokemonZ

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#2181911 18-Feb-2019 10:34

Super interesting reading all of these.

I have a 7/8ish year old side by side Haier, and it's been great. No issues at all.

Fred99

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#2185284 22-Feb-2019 10:43

Weirdly, after contributing to this thread, our 2YO F&P "french door" style fridge stopped working the other day - causing me some panic (the freezer was full and it started defrosting).

There's a small radiator and fan by the compressor on the back. The compressor wasn't running at all. Turned it off and on again and it still wouldn't work. Apparently a fault code could have been displayed on the display panel inside the door but I didn't look. Before calling for service, I pulled the fridge out to see behind, and a feather had been sucked into the fan - it wasn't turning. Blew out the radiator/fan with an electric blower, turned it off and on again, the compressor fired up but shut off within about 30 seconds. It was quite warm. Turned it off while I went looking for receipts etc, about to phone to get a serviceperson in ASAP, turned it back on again and it's been running fine ever since.

I assume some self-resetting thermal cutout triggered to protect the compressor motor from overheating, and I've solved that issue, but I don't trust it any more. The fridge beeps at you and shuts down the freezer or fridge compartment if you leave a door open. If it's vulnerable to shutting itself down in the above circumstance (if I'm correct about why it shut down), it'd be a nice touch if it would sound an alarm. Note to self to clean out behind the fridge once or twice a year.

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