What refrigerator to buy

My parents bought a Samsung fridge about 6 years ago from Lowes with the extended warranty. It was one of the fancier ones, and it had to be repaired 5+ times in less than 2 years. Eventually, my parents got fed up and demanded a refund. Somehow, they got one, and a little bit extra on top of that for their troubles. They ended up with either a Whirlpool afterwards, and it has been flawless since. 

This is also relevant to my interests, since we are potentially doing a house remodel later this year and we are buying all new appliances. We have a 20+ year old basic beige Whirlpool fridge we bought for $50 from someone used that will be relegated to a basement or garage fridge. 

What's the word on LG? Are they also garbage? 

I have bought my last Samsung appliance, which is a bummer because feature-wise I like them.

The dishwasher was super-cheap, but no cheap can validate a three-year lifespan.

The fridge, while I love the deli drawer and the double-sided French door, stopped dispensing ice after about 2.5 years. While there's a whole class-action suit around their icing issues, this wasn't that. This was a dead wire somewhere inaccessible in the cabinet. They sent a tech out four times, and then they gave up and said "Bummer your E36 M3's busted. Bye." After further hounding they gave us a prorated refund on the fridge, but they certainly didn't offer it when they summarily decided that the warranty didn't apply beyond "well, we tried."

At least the oven hasn't gone awry yet.

We had an LG that died an early death.  There was an 18 month parts warranty, but labor was going to be more than a new fridge.  

We ponied up for a Bosch and it's been fantastic so far.  

Consumer Reports usually rates Samsungs rather high.  On the other hand, my go to appliance  repair guy will not work on Samsung or LG appliances.  I have a 30 year old GE side-by-side refrigerator/freezer that I don't especially like but it's always chugged along with only a couple of minor repairs over the years.

This thread is a zombie revival, but since it's here...  

I'll add to the others that I'll buy anything EXCEPT a Samsung.  I've moved plenty over the years and therefore have lots of experience buying appliances.  Without fail, the only ones that do fail are Samsung.  Every. Single. One.  Microwave, fridge, oven.  Garbage.  Maybe the Jaguar of the appliance world.  Really pretty to look at and good experience to use, but have fun actually living with one...

SKJSS (formerly Klayfish) said:

This thread is a zombie revival, but since it's here...  

I'll add to the others that I'll buy anything EXCEPT a Samsung.  I've moved plenty over the years and therefore have lots of experience buying appliances.  Without fail, the only ones that do fail are Samsung.  Every. Single. One.  Microwave, fridge, oven.  Garbage.  Maybe the Jaguar of the appliance world.  Really pretty to look at and good experience to use, but have fun actually living with one...

Other than a phantom leak from the bottom on one load of laundry, our Samsung washer and dryers have been flawless. Sept will be 6 years. 

I've heard, I think on this forum, that there's a high-end brand called Viking that makes really high-quality and easily repairable fridges, and if you can score a used one for (relatively) cheap they'll last like they were made in 1979.

Just thought I'd add that since my post above the oven also had a major failure, completing the set.

A relay board failed rendering it stovetop only, and the board was on undefined back order. After a couple of months I had a third party repair the board for about the cost of a replacement, and the next day the back order was fulfilled. At least having a spare doesn't sound crazy except the odds of it failing differently.

I started this thread 2 years ago. Since then, I bought another house...that has all Samsung appliances.  Cue the "sad trombone"

I have already repaired the 2 yr old front load dryer. 

A wise man once told me don't buy appliances from guys who make TVs.

My next house will have a Sub Zero fridge and a Viking range.  

Since my last post, I renovated my house and had to get all new appliances. I did a ton of research, and ended up going with LG for the fridge, stove, microwave, and dishwasher (we had a pre-Haier buyout GE washer and dryer already). I found a local retailer that puts out a yearly report on the "repair rate" of all the stuff they sell that was pretty helpful: https://blog.yaleappliance.com/the-least-serviced-most-reliable-appliance-brands

In 2nd place was LG. After going to a few other stores, I got the same consensus that LG was not terrible. None of these stores carried Samsung anymore due to the high rate of repair; they were costing them more money to service than it was worth. 

So far, we like them, granted we have only been in the house since April. The fridge is cool because it has dual icemakers: one in the door and a bin in the freezer. The one in the door is simple to access and the mechanicals look pretty serviceable if something goes wrong. The ThinQ app can both be cool and annoying; I don't need a text from my brand new oven telling me to clean it every few days. But the added features are kinda nice. 

While construction was going on, we lived in an apartment. In that apartment, they had "new GE appliances". And oh man, were they AWFUL. The fridge had an icemaker in the freezer, and it would jam up regularly. Depending on where you put food, it would either freeze solid or not stay cold. And the inside-the-door water was the absolute worst; it was in an awkward place, and you had to press the ever-loving crap out of the button to get water to come out. The microwave liked to blow through light bulbs, and they would die spectacularly. The electric stove was impossible to modulate heat and a PITA to keep clean. But the worst was the dishwasher. The latch was a plastic thing that had a sensor on it to tell it when the door was closed and when to latch. Very soon after we moved in, it stopped working. The landlord didn't want to do anything about it, so I took a closer look. The entire door assembly had gotten loose and floppy, and you essentially had to almost pull it out of its hinges to get the latch sensor to do its thing. So yeah, I would steer clear of GE now as well, which is sad, because I liked their pre-Haier buyout stuff. 

In reply to Sonic :

This is the way.

I just had my Bosch front loading clothes washer refuse to drain. It's about 20 years old, and I figured it was worn out doing approximately 5-6 loads of laundry a week for 20 years, but I should at least check it out. I opened up the pump and there was a sock that had worked its way past the drum seals and into the sock inlet. Remove the sock and it's back to working as well as prior to sock ingestion. It's still noisy and thumps a lot but gets the clothes clean and it pleases me a lot to have something so long lived and effective.

Buddy works for a company that does washer/dryer install and maintenance for large apartment complexes, so he moves, sets up and deals with every failure mode you can think of. Usually they supply Whirlpool/Maytag, but have either inherited a contract with Samsung stuff, or more rarely had to supply them for a one off. 

He hates them. Hates. HATES. 

And he's not a Ford vs Chevy kinda guy. So I've taken his Samsung disdain as a sign to avoid them. He also bitches more broadly about how as things have gotten more expensive/fancier, they've simultaneously become less repairable. Said what used to be a $300 washer with a pump, timer switch, a few buttons, a few safety switches and some valves that were basically all economically replaceable has turned into a $1,000 washer with a $500 control board that's usually the first thing to fail. Who replaces a $500 part on a used washer?