Buying new appliances...Looking for reviews

Kamel

Kamel

Well-Known Member
Joined
Aug 7, 2011
Location
Gladys, VA
So, like the title says, I am about to purchase a kitchen suite (Range, fridge, dishwasher, over the range micro). I have been studying reviews for too long. I want to hear from some real peeps, and from a crowd I mostly trust. To list the must haves:
1) Stainless
2) NO SIDE BY SIDE fridge
3) Fridge should have dual ice-maker (not a make or break yet)
4) Slide-in GAS range
5) Would rather they be same brand for color to match closer

I have narrowed it down to Samsung. But I am open to look at (almost) anything. Don't really care for Frigidaire, as my mom just had loads of trouble out of her 3-4 year old side by side.

Any horror stories that stand out.

Any hero's?
 
The big rage in fridges now is the bottom freezer w/ french doors for the fridge.

Personally I don't see what the big deal is w/ water/ice dispenser, but then again we have an extra dispenser on our sink for filtered water, so we just use that, and (gasp) open the door and get ice out of the bucket. I know - like living in a 3rd world country.

Do you have kids? Stainless = fingerprints galore, and shows smears etc really well - much harder to look nice. I wish we had not gotten it.

Here's what I'm wondering. W/ everybody going stainless, are we only a generation away from refrigerator magnets, calenders, notes etc... all stuck on w/ magnets... vanishing from society?
 
In the last six months, we have purchased a Bosch 800 series DW, and Whirlpool fridge (SxS), microwave, and electric range.

We love the Bosch DWs. We've bought two of them for our houses, and I just bought another last week for our new office at work.

Electric ranges are better than gas. Electrics heat faster, and their ovens are better. The reviews I read indicated that several burners on the gas ranges wouldn't even bring a pot to boil. Blame Obama, I guess. People are buying them and swapping out the jets in the burners to get ranges that work. But then the oven still sucks. We started out set on a gas range, briefly looked at inductions (great, but expensive), and settled on regular electric. Ours has two separate ovens, one over the other. Top oven is also a toaster oven. Works great.

Our fridge is already dented. Stainless seems thin. But it is magnetic.

You only said "no side by side", but didn't specify what you did want. If I could have found a single door fridge over a single door freezer that didn't come from Kitchen Aid or Sub Zero and list for $5k, I would have bought it. French door fridges kinda suck. The doors are so thick, you have to open both doors to do anything. You have to open both doors to open the drawers inside. If the fridge is in a corner, one or both of the doors won't open all the way. If you want one with ice and water in the door, that left hand door won't have any real storage space in it. And it takes so many little bitty pieces to make the door seals work, I don't have any confidence about them holding up long-term.

The one constant I found in the reviews is that if your refrigerator goes bad, you're screwed. Manufacturer warranty service is terrible, parts often aren't available, and the guy that comes out to work on it probably won't have the first clue what he's doing. On the other hand, if you buy a service plan (against my rules, generally speaking), then they reimburse for food spoilage, and will just bring you a new one. We already had an incident with the fridge where the ice maker was wonky, and Lowe's ordered in a replacement just in case we didn't get it worked out.
 
RatLabGuy said:
The big rage in fridges now is the bottom freezer w/ french doors for the fridge.

Do you have kids? Stainless = fingerprints galore, and shows smears etc really well - much harder to look nice. I wish we had not gotten it.

Here's what I'm wondering. W/ everybody going stainless, are we only a generation away from refrigerator magnets, calenders, notes etc... all stuck on w/ magnets... vanishing from society?
Click to expand...

I agree. But the boss wants the french door. They do have a better fridge side than standard top freezer, so I think that is the appeal. And we will have a deep freezer, for sure.

The kids are old enough to stop touching everything ( almost 15 and 12), and if not, I will put an electric fence pulser on it......
 
shawn said:
We love the Bosch DWs. We've bought two of them for our houses, and I just bought another last week for our new office at work.
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I had decided completely on Bosch all around, until I read the reviews on the fridge. You can barely find a good one. I may still go this route. I am in love with the whole 800 series.

shawn said:
Electric ranges are better than gas. Electrics heat faster, and their ovens are better. The reviews I read indicated that several burners on the gas ranges wouldn't even bring a pot to boil. Blame Obama, I guess. People are buying them and swapping out the jets in the burners to get ranges that work. But then the oven still sucks. We started out set on a gas range, briefly looked at inductions (great, but expensive), and settled on regular electric. Ours has two separate ovens, one over the other. Top oven is also a toaster oven. Works great.
Click to expand...

Wife can't use pressure canner on induction. Believe me, I've tried. I like the flat tops. But she HAS to have gas. Call her a propane Nazi???

shawn said:
You only said "no side by side", but didn't specify what you did want. If I could have found a single door fridge over a single door freezer that didn't come from Kitchen Aid or Sub Zero and list for $5k, I would have bought it. French door fridges kinda suck. The doors are so thick, you have to open both doors to do anything. You have to open both doors to open the drawers inside. If the fridge is in a corner, one or both of the doors won't open all the way. If you want one with ice and water in the door, that left hand door won't have any real storage space in it. And it takes so many little bitty pieces to make the door seals work, I don't have any confidence about them holding up long-term.
Click to expand...

Yep. I agree


shawn said:
The one constant I found in the reviews is that if your refrigerator goes bad, you're screwed. Manufacturer warranty service is terrible, parts often aren't available, and the guy that comes out to work on it probably won't have the first clue what he's doing. On the other hand, if you buy a service plan (against my rules, generally speaking), then they reimburse for food spoilage, and will just bring you a new one. We already had an incident with the fridge where the ice maker was wonky, and Lowe's ordered in a replacement just in case we didn't get it worked out.
Click to expand...

My mom just went through this.
 
Kamel said:
Wife can't use pressure canner on induction. Believe me, I've tried. I like the flat tops. But she HAS to have gas. Call her a propane Nazi???
Click to expand...

Show her the reviews where people talk about swapping jets or having to start dishes on the "super burner" to get them up to temp before moving them off to other eyes to simmer.

Most of our stuff was compatible with induction, but we would have lost one nice double boiler/pasta pot because it didn't have a magnetic bottom.

The Bosch matches the Whirlpool stuff just fine.
 
Take a good look at Ikea, too. It didn't work for us, but they had nice stuff for decent prices. Most of it is made by Whirlpool, I think.

Er.. nevermind. You're a long way from Fredericksburg.
 
We bought an LG fridge about a year ago and it's been great. Right now both LG and Samsung are the top sellers. Ours is a French door freezer bottom with ice maker in the door. The only fault I have found so far is you have to open the left door to open the right vegetable draweror both to get to the meat tray. We didn't pay near the msrp listed on the site.

LG LFX25974ST: Ultra-Large Capacity 3 Door French Door Refrigerator with Smart Cooling | LG USA


Our stove is a whirlpool smooth top, bought it a lil over a year ago can't say much about it. It heats food and cleans easy. Wanted a gas range but didn't have a gas line and the stove that came with our house crapped out after a month or so.
 
Stay away from Samsung. Bought all Samsung 6 years ago. Already had the fridge repaired (out of warranty) for condenser issues) and already replaced the POS dishwasher with a Bosch. Now the fridge makes ice only when it wants. My parents bought a newer Samsung fridge a couple of years ago and have the same ice maker problem now.

Samsung needs to stick with TVs.

Repair man that came to my place, and different one that came to my parents both said Samsung makes unreliable kitchen appliances.
 
We've got a Kenmore fridge, about 7 years old, no complaints. All other appliances are GE. The dishwasher is too loud and doesn't clean well enough, but otherwise everything is still good. Bought it all off craigslist for about $700, all stainless stuff.
 
I like my white french door fridge with freezer on bottom. We use a dry erase marker on one of the sides for grocery lists. Cant remember the brand, but we went to an appliance store (not lowes, HD, sears, etc) and bought a scrach and dent. There is one small scratch near the bottom. That scratch saved us almost $400.
 
We have all GE "Profile Platinum" Stainless appliances.

The ice makers are made by samsung. They go out. But they are plug and play and cost $65 on amazon.

The dishwasher started nice then brought the suck, its loud and half way cleans.

Nothing has "failed" yet but I wont buy GE again. Didnt want to this time but wife liked them and the french fridge was free.

We dont have gas at our place so it is a non issue, but you wont find a professional chef that will cook on an electric stove top. Simply cant get the precise temp control you can with gas. At least thats what my wife says they learned in culinary school..who the fawk knows. THen again she dropped out so wtf does she know.
 
Ron said:
We dont have gas at our place so it is a non issue, but you wont find a professional chef that will cook on an electric stove top.
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Nobody here is talking about buying a commercial gas cook top. Commercial units will do 25-35kbtu per element. The biggest element on a consumer range will be 15-20kbtu, with most of the elements more in the 5k range.

If you don't mind the appearance, you can buy a commercial cook top for about the same as a consumer version. It won't have a Sabbath mode or clock or anything like that, but you'll be able to heat your house with it on thanksgiving day.
 
I actually would prefer what a pro style unit would look like. As much as I hate to, it is starting to look as if I will have all sifferent brands.
 
Reading appliance reviews is a special kind of hell.

Unless the appliances are side by side, it really shouldn't make that much of a difference if they match. Use CRL glass cleaner and they'll all look great all the time. Bar Keepers Friend keeps our smooth cooktop looking great, too.

We narrowed it down to Whirlpool and LG for the range, went with Whirlpool for the double oven and the price. Went with electric for all the reasons Shawn mentioned, plus we have very curious small people. I liked the WP microwave (we built it into the island, under the counter). I loved our white WP sxs fridge we had at the old house (used dry erase markers on it, too), so decided to get the same basic thing in SS.
 
we have a Samsung fridge, stove, and dishwasher. they are all stainless, but stove is electric not gas. fridge is alright, French door and bottom freezer. makes a little noise, but nothing to loud, when making ice. I just don't like the fact of the freezer door, if not shut properly (kids don't shut all the way), will cause the items in freezer to sweat and then refreeze when you shut the door. after a few months will cause a layer under the door/freezer tray to get a layer of ice. it will keep on building till it is hard to open or close. wife gets in there and chunks out the ice and it is like new. the stove is nice and never has been an issue. wife loves it. the dishwasher is alright, not as much space as it looked like it had. wife just dropped a dish on the door, while it was open and she was unloading. it dented the inside of the door pretty easily. doesn't bother me but it does her. just don't think it should have dented as bad as it did (thin material)? the fridge is the oldest at 3 years and all were bought on sale. jesse :beer:
 
Samsung DW blows…looks cool, not noisy, doesn't clean well at all. GE monogram is what all the rest of our stuff is…holy cow you could buy lots of nice used cars for what monogram series stuff cost and the fridge sux, been repaired 3 times in 5 years. We've got the double convection oven and it is absolute tits for anything that needs to go in an oven. When this fridge dies again I got a hand me down Subzero from pops that will be going in. Again…much like all new diesel trucks..most new appliances I've had experience with suck. It also seem the more I spend on them (bells and whistles) the more they suck. I put brand name, base model, stuff in my rentals and NEVER have issues…it's crazy.
 
I have a Kenmore Elite French Door/Bottom Freezer, love it. The rest of the appliances are GE with handles and trim that closely match the fridge (above range micro, glass-top electric range, dishwasher). All stainless. Prints and smudges are annoying and hard to clean. The dishwasher is small on the inside which means smaller loads and more hand washing. The fridge is about seven years old now and the rest of the appliances are about five years old. Everything works like a champ.
 
Also, you didn't ask for opinions on this, but since we're on the subject:

Microwaves suck when mounted over the range. They're easy to see, and it's easy to get things in and out, but they make shitty range hoods, and they're in the way of everything that you might want to do on the cooktop. Hate 'em. Best option is mounted at ~4'-0" AFF in a full height cabinet. Second best is undercounter.
 
Woody brought up a good point.
Spend the extra money and buy a microwave that doubles as a convection oven. Worth every penny.
We got a GE one a couple years ago on end-of-year clearance and it is the tits.
In case you ever host large meals, like Thanksgiving or something, this gives you the option of having a second oven available w/o taking up any extra space.
And for cooking small meals, its more energy efficient and faster than using the main oven.
 
shawn said:
Also, you didn't ask for opinions on this, but since we're on the subject:

Microwaves suck when mounted over the range. They're easy to see, and it's easy to get things in and out, but they make shitty range hoods, and they're in the way of everything that you might want to do on the cooktop. Hate 'em. Best option is mounted at ~4'-0" AFF in a full height cabinet. Second best is undercounter.
Click to expand...

This is a good point, at least as a range hood. Also they end up getting all nasty from stuff on the stove steaming all over them.
However the height thing really depends on your cabinet height. We have a rather larger one and it has never been a height issue, even w/ pretty large pots. Meanwhile I have a buddy who can't lean his head over to look into a pot b/c the microwave is so low.

One other "in the way" thing to think about to though is that if you have a pretty "busy" kitchen, if you have something cooking on teh stovetop, or even better a person there cooking, and need to use the mirowave it sucks having to lean over it.
 
Our last house we refinished our kitchen and had all Samsung appliances. We put the black ones in and LOVED them. Had the flat top oven, microwave, fridge, etc. Absolutely loved them.

Then we moved to our new house that has GE Adora stainless appliances. They are ok. Don't like them nearly as much as the Samsung, but they are ok. They keep things cold and the range heats shit up. It is a gas range vs our previous electric, but it works well. My main complaint is the dishwasher. The Samsung one cleaned the dishes better and dried them better. I am not happy with the GE one, and am considering replacing it with a Samsung one.

And I HATE the stainless steel. With the young sons we can't keep that shit clean. The black appliances we would just spray with Windex once a week and they shined like new. If I had the money I would swap our the appliances just for that reason. But yeah, I don't so I'll deal with grubby stainless. :lol:
 
RatLabGuy said:
This is a good point, at least as a range hood. Also they end up getting all nasty from stuff on the stove steaming all over them.
However the height thing really depends on your cabinet height. We have a rather larger one and it has never been a height issue, even w/ pretty large pots. Meanwhile I have a buddy who can't lean his head over to look into a pot b/c the microwave is so low.

One other "in the way" thing to think about to though is that if you have a pretty "busy" kitchen, if you have something cooking on teh stovetop, or even better a person there cooking, and need to use the mirowave it sucks having to lean over it.
Click to expand...

I'd much rather have the counter space that my microwave takes up vs the vertical space loss over the stove.
 
shawn said:
Also, you didn't ask for opinions on this, but since we're on the subject:

Microwaves suck when mounted over the range. They're easy to see, and it's easy to get things in and out, but they make shitty range hoods, and they're in the way of everything that you might want to do on the cooktop. Hate 'em. Best option is mounted at ~4'-0" AFF in a full height cabinet. Second best is undercounter.
Click to expand...

It's funny you mentioned this. We actually talked about it today. The design of the cabinets do not allow for a conventional vented (to outside) hood, so we are contemplating not having one. I think we've pretty much decided on Samsung. Best Buy has a killer sale right now, and Amex will double the warranty.
 
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