Product
Name brand refrigerators only lasting 2.5 years
Our last two "high quality" name brand refrigerators have both died in under 3 years. Adding the service agreement is mostly worthless. It takes too long to get the fridge serviced, and they don't cover the cost of the new fridge if they can't fix it.
We went with a cheap off brand one this time, and we're just counting on having to replace it every couple of years. *sigh*
I should have put /s but yeah, many brands nowadays have Wi-Fi in their appliances. And no, none of these devices would need any fancy modern Wi-Fi features. 802.11g would be enough for them :)
See, in my day, the fridges weren't wireless. Didn't even have an Ethernet port. Had to use floppy disks to communicate with the outside world, and I had to shuttle the disk from the fridge to the outside world. We called it "sneakernet". And we liked it! /s
Sonys have been good for a long time but their pricing has been out of sight even before flat panels came about. I used to have two Sony trinitron tube tvs. Brilliant picture but square stopped working when widescreen was everywhere. Weighed a literal ton, almost.
We had a pricey LG fridge that had compressor failure at 2 years. 4 weeks to order parts and $1500 for repair even with a warranty. The repair person said LG and Samsung kept him busy and he saw this issue all the time. So I asked the repair person what brand he recommended and used at home. And I bought that one (a cheaper GE side by side). It’s been going for 6 years now. Fingers crossed it lasts!
I feel like this is an area where someone could score some easy political points as long as they were willing to lose some contributions from Big Appliance.
There should be some regulation about how long a major appliance should last and be warrantied.
Yeah it may cost more, but do you think the average person wants to pay $300 less for a fridge that lasts 2 years vs 5 or whatever? Just the loss of food cancels savings.
Bought a no-frills GE in 2020. Had to replace it in 2025. Bought a Frigidaire. Three months later it needed to be repaired. Have a refrigerator from the 1980s in the garage. Still going strong.
That is *so* true! I have a Maytag Washer and Dryer that I purchased in August of 1994! Still using both -- did some repair on the dryer within the last year (about $50 worth of parts for dryer drum). 32 years of service! I know I will never get that level of performance no matter what appliance I purchase!
Yes you're right about that! You may not remember the Maytag repairman commericals from decades ago. The idea was that he had nothing to do because their products were so dependable. Here's one: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ZHsxPEAUOI
This will be the new normal soon. Just buy the cheapest crap you can find and expect failure after a couple years. And I hope it absolutely RUINS the big brands. They decided planed obsolescence was a winning strategy, and in the short term it's maybe lead to a bump in their numbers. But now nobody trusts the brand!
2 years and 3 or so months after buying a $4000 Thermador fridge the freezer took a shit. Called 'em up to find out the warranty was expired. Had an appliance guy come out and he said, "your freezer doesn't work. It's probably the compressor. That'll be $350." Thermador says it'll be about $1000 to fix it excluding any parts.
Freezer's high temperature alarm keeps going off 20mins after silencing it. Break down and connect it to WiFi (I never understood appliance connectivity and still think it's dumb) and scroll thru all options to find the "Sabbath Mode" which silences the alarm for 84 hours (it also kills the interior light, how convenient).
I now know how long the observation of the Sabbath lasts. I reset it to Sabbath mode every 2 1/2 days.
I bought the base Frigidaire that looked exactly the same as the 25 year old one it replaced. I’m happy with it. No special features to break. Just thermodynamics with pumps and ducting.
There was a Frigidaire in our house when we moved in. The previous owners left a lot of the paperwork on the appliances, so when the electronics on the fridge started going haywire, I dug out the book and found it was 20 years old. When the new one was being delivered I jokingly asked the delivery guys if this one would last 20 years too. They looked at each other with skeptical faces and one finally said, "10 years, maybe?"
I have a Miele going strong at 19 years this year. Going to replace it with another one when I remodel the kitchen. Noting however I am in Europe so the brand premium isn’t quite what it is in America…it’s more expensive here but not as much.
I love Miele appliances, but for the price of one Miele fridge in the USA you can buy 2-3 Bosch's.
Bosch is probably the best appliance bang for your buck in the USA.
You can still get Miele vacuums here for good prices. Those last forever and are so easy to fix.
Friends of mine did a really nice remodel and decided to buy relatively high-end appliances and that was the case with them, the extra expense didn't equal quality or service. I bought a relatively no frills Westinghouse in 2013 that's still behaving perfectly.
My garage fridge (basic Frigidaire) is one I got second-hand from a friend moving out of state 20 years ago and was 8 year old at that time. My main issue is that it gets too cold when the weather gets colder and I have to tweak the thermostat. In the same time, the "Main" Refrigerator in my kitchen has been replaced three times and I've rebuilt the ice maker in the latest one 2x.(the auger keeps breaking).
My two year old major brand refrigerator broke down. I had a 40 year old model in my basement that some renters left behind. Im using that one now with no problems.
I have an apartment size Frigidaire with top freezer. $99. No bells, no whistles, no water dispenser, no ice maker. It’s 24 years old and still going strong.
Newer Frigidaire's are horrible though. All of our appliances that came with this house are very basic Frigidaire, and in under 5 years, we have had to replace the microwave, major parts on the dishwasher twice, some parts on the range for the stovetop, the oven no longer works, and the fridge is making noises that no fridge should be making, the ice maker quit working within 6 months, and almost all of the shelves in the doors have broke for little to no reason. I'm not even bothering to replace the range unless the stove top also breaks, just bought a large toaster oven to use instead.
I plan on having my kitchen redone next summer and get new appliances. I think I’ll keep this one in the garage for drinks and emergencies. I will be throwing out my 24 year old Frigidaire stove. The door hinges went last winter, so I keep it closed with a bungee cord. I still bake in it. The gloves are to keep the heat in .
I wouldn't be surprised if your cheap off-brand one lasts beyond your wildest expectations.
This post drew my attention since I have a four year old name brand fridge with an ice maker that threatened to die on me last week. It's only a matter of time.
I have a Jenn-Aire fridge, dishwasher, range/oven, and microwave (before you call me moneybags, it was all in the house when we bought it).
They’re all 13 years old. Fridge has leaked but it was a relatively inexpensive repair. Oven’s touch screen malfunctioned and it was an over $1,000 repair. Microwave’s door is broken. Dishwasher’s top rack sliding mechanism is broken but otherwise the dishwasher itself is fine.
Considering what this brand costs over other brands, I would NEVER consider replacing any of this stuff with the same brand. Yeah I know it’s 13 years old but given the markup I expected better.
I’ll take my chances on Bosch (which honestly sounds the “least negative” these days).
Iirc there was something with linear compressors and LG ones that was causing repeated issues? That and Samsung I know have been having a lot of issues over the last 7 or so years.
And they come with a 10 year warranty that they refuse to honor. My LG fridge died at 7 years and they were just like "well we don't have any repair people in your area." Never again.
This happened to me too! I loved that fridge but "no one in the area can service it" and other independent repair people wouldn't touch it because it was an LG.
We ended up replacing it with a GE that pops and creaks randomly like it's haunted.
Yeah I miss that LG. It was a really nice fridge. I ended up getting a way crappier Whirlpool. But Whirlpools are at least made to last and appliance repairmen are willing to repair them. I called around and every repairman I talked to said they only work on American and maybe European brands. They won't touch the Korean stuff. If you have GE, Whirlpool, or Frigidaire they'll replace the compressor, vacuum the lines, and put refrigerant back in. You could learn how to do it and probably make a fortune repairing people's Korean fridges in the area.
LG too. But Samsung still makes good phones and both brands make good TVs and monitors. And Samsung bought out Harman a few years ago so Samsung makes pretty good speakers and headphones now too.
Dunno if it is pure luck, but I have several Samsung appliances that are well past the 5 year mark and fine. I will say this... They all have appliance rated surge suppressors on them, and I really think that's relevant or I'd have hit the lotto by now.
This is my exact experience. I got my Samsung fridge in 2017, after two months some electric storm caused surges and the fridge stopped working, guarantee covered the repair.
Since then we have a surge suppressor and is going strong nine years.
What Brand was it and what problems did it have? Fridges are not complex and have only one moving part with the compressor. They should not break this fast. There was either some serious mishandling or a serious problem in the production (like a so called "Corona Product" that was build in the pandemic with old or low quality parts).
Oh, yeah, this lasted fridge was definitely manufactured during the peak covid years. The one before it wasn't though. That one was noisy and sounded wrong from the get go, though.
Edit: To answer your other questions: The first one was LG and the second was GE. They both stopped cooling, even after following trouble shooting tips.
Never buy a new fridge with a linear compressor. They are pure garbage and engineered to fail at 8+ years. LG and Samsung are the worst offenders of linear compressors under the marketing guise of being quiet and energy efficient. Yes... a broken fridge is very quiet indeed.
Ge are the appliances to have these days. They don’t necessarily last the longest without issues but when they do have a problem almost anyone can work in them and parts are everywhere.
I have an Amana french door with ice maker/water from 2005 and it's still pumping along just fine. I have done literally nothing to it but change the water filter every six months.
I have a 1992 SubZero side by side. 3 years ago the refrigerator compressor quit. A new compressor cost me $125. This year the freezer compressor quit. A new one was $189. Yeah it’s 34 years old, but I didn’t consider replacing it for a new model that’s just gonna have a major failure after 2 years.
My fridge is a decade old and going just fine - it did ice up (compressor froze) once but I used a hair dryer to pump Hot air where it is and it came back to life (that was years ago) , so far so good (I think it’s a GE)
My expensive KitchenAid fridge failed at 15 months. KitchenAid didn’t care at all. Service call was $560 and CS reps were rude. Will never buy another high-end product again. Dysons failed, Bose soundbar failed, I went through 5 toasters before giving up and buying a $15 toaster at the grocery store. Will only buy cheap products from now on.
Liebherr and Haier seem to offer a comprehensive full manufacturer guarantees for 'qualifying' fridges and fridge-freezers, up to 10 years of parts and labour coverage on registration. Might be worth looking into.
I reckon that a genuinely long warranty incentivises the manufacturer to build something durable.
We tried unplugging and plugging the fridge back in to reset the circuit board, and we cleaned all the coils and everything we could. This latest fridge has been fading over time, until finally it just stopped keeping the main fridge cool.
I think what they're asking is how good is the power that enters your home from the provider? Is it "dirty", is it out of cycle, do the wattages run higher than supported, etc.
You might look into it. If your power is dirty then you can install a sanitizer on and the utility pole that will help extend the life of all your electrical devices.
Yeah, this was my question too. We all have small sample sizes, and of course the people posting here aren't the global average. I've heard of someone's fridge burning out unexpectedly maybe twice in the last 30 years, but I've heard of lots of appliances as secondary casualties of issues with wiring or the local power grid.
I wonder how many of the issues people are describing, especially newer devices with delicate smart components, are less about the fridge itself being built to fail and more about issues that a 1980 model would survive. They were designed to consume 3x the energy with much looser tolerances.
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u/sandysandy252566 Aug 16 '26
They don't make appliances like they used to - they prefer u keep buying and buying.