Refrigerator longevity

[NYEXPAT]

I have a LG in my condo in Peru, going on 17 years and nary a problem!

 

[Time2]

I have a Kenmore Side by Side with water and ice from the door.
We bought it in 1995, so 26 years old. A few minor repairs. I had to reinstall a pin in the ice maker that fell out making the crank in the ice bin inoperable. The defrost heater has failed twice, just recently replaced it for the second time. Cost was about $20 and an hour of time.

It seems ridiculous with the high cost of a new refrigerator that the companies have also reduced the life span. No reason they could not last longer, as historically they have, it's just a business plan.

Here's an interesting story about incandescent light bulbs and how they got to good and a plan was hatched to reduce life. With materials we have now, a much longer life incandescent bulb could be built.

Yes we are on to LED lights now and this is outdated.
With 50,000 hr life of an LED, it is not the LED that fails, but the electronics used to regulate the voltage that fail, usually a capacitor. Again for a slightly high price, this could be corrected, to give you a real 50,000 hr bulb.

 

[audreyh1]

Our LG counter depth refrig, purchased in 2013, recently failed and we lost most of our food, as it crept up on us with the ice maker going first, then the freezer and finally the refrigerator compartment. Had to wait 5 days till the factory LG repairman got to us. The unit carries a 10 year parts warranty on the compressor and sure enough it was the compressor that was bad. The reason I went with the factory technician is they usually carry the most common parts on their truck, so he was able to repair it in about 2.5 hours and seemed very thorough in checking out the entire system. I asked him how long should these units actually last and he said typically 8 years, and said I should get about that after the repair. I must be old school and out of touch as I always thought refrigerators should last more like 15-20 years, although I have heard reports about LG linear compressors failing prematurely and in some cases even after a couple of years. Believe LG got hit with a class action lawsuit over these failures.

What do you have and what type of longevity are you seeing from your refrigerator?

We had an LG. It lasted just over 10 years. Must have been the compressor. I guess it just passed the warranty. We didn’t try to have it repaired due to coronavirus and right before Christmas.

But yes, I was surprised. My prior fridge had lasted way longer - over twenty years?

 

[ERD50]

Fridge (basement beer fridge now), is ~ 28 YO, and runs just fine.

Upright Freezer (been in the garage since day one), is over 30 YO, and runs just fine (had to replace the thermostat, but that failed right after a defrost, I suspect water got in, froze and broke it).

Today's fridges have so many doo-dadds, yet, they don't seem to work well, and I'm hearing the reliability (even of the basic fridge components) is not good. I would think modern materials and engineering would mean that making a reliable compressor should be a walk in the park. Maybe it is just cost cutting, or changes to meet Energy Star requirements?

The house we moved into has a 2018 fridge. The darn ice-maker and water dispenser takes up precious space in the fridge and door shelf. I don't find making ice or pouring glass of water to be a chore. And I do fear a water leak. Not sure it can be removed, I think it is part of the design.

And it does a lousy job of maintaining temperatures. We kept bumping up the thermostat, because food in the back (where the vents are) would freeze, and some foods are no good once they are frozen (greens, etc). The shelves have a crack in them, and I doubt the previous owners treated them roughly.

-ERD50

 

[eytonxav]

I have an LG with the Linear Compressor and it went bad in about 5 years. I think it was just under 5 because it fell under the class action warranty and didn’t cost us anything to repair. I guess the technician should have known, but I thought they extended the warranty to a full ten years to include labor. I’d do some research if you haven’t already (call LG) and see if you can get a refund. Not sure how long the new compressor will last, but I’m happy with the refrigerator and will probably put one more compressor in it if it fails within the next 10 years.

When ours went bad, I looked at replacing it with a new unit and got sticker shock. These things are worth repairing especially if inventory doesn’t come back to normal (pre COVID) levels.

The compressor was covered under warranty, the labor was not, as I think this unit predated that period of time when all the compressor failures were occuring. We do like the unit overall and the ice maker which can causes issues for many models has been flawless. Before downsizing in 2013, we had a GE in our prior house that worked perfectly since the day it was installed back in 1993. We left it for the new homeowner who wanted it.

 

[mpeirce]

Maybe it is just cost cutting, or changes to meet Energy Star requirements?

There are lots of regulations aimed at the “simple” fridge.

After a series of refrigerant bans (CFCs, HFCs, etc.) each generation of refrigerants is more costly.

Then there is the step up in energy efficiency standards. Of course this is more expensive to accomplish using the new refrigerants.

And Chinese companies are taking over much of the manufacturing of these products.

We all want “better products” that don’t pollute, but it really does drive up the costs. The companies get price pressure and so quality gets squeezed.

No way would I want to be in that business.

 

[tmm99]

Our LG counter depth refrig, purchased in 2013, recently failed and we lost most of our food, as it crept up on us with the ice maker going first, then the freezer and finally the refrigerator compartment. Had to wait 5 days till the factory LG repairman got to us. The unit carries a 10 year parts warranty on the compressor and sure enough it was the compressor that was bad. The reason I went with the factory technician is they usually carry the most common parts on their truck, so he was able to repair it in about 2.5 hours and seemed very thorough in checking out the entire system. I asked him how long should these units actually last and he said typically 8 years, and said I should get about that after the repair. I must be old school and out of touch as I always thought refrigerators should last more like 15-20 years, although I have heard reports about LG linear compressors failing prematurely and in some cases even after a couple of years. Believe LG got hit with a class action lawsuit over these failures.

What do you have and what type of longevity are you seeing from your refrigerator?

Damn, like you, we have a counter-depth LG fridge, but we bought it this year. I hope their compressor issues have been resolved and our compressor will last longer.

 

[JT90505]

GE Cafe Refrigerator and Dishwasher both died after ~8 years.
GE Cafe Gas grill still going strong after ~12 years.
Kitchenaid Refrigerator, ~25 years old, still going strong in garage.
Samsung Refrigerator and Bosch Dishwasher, both ~4 years old, no problems yet (including the icemaker).

Neighbor bought GE Cafe Dishwasher, Range, and Frig...all died at about 5 years.

We bought a Sony TV that died about 1.5 years, 6 months after warranty expired.

Sort of a crap shoot.

 

[ocean view]

This is a timely topic. Just yesterday I suggested to DH that we consider proactively replacing our 16 yo GE fridge (bottom freezer) since new refrigerators seem to take months for delivery these days and we don’t have a second fridge to rely on when this one dies. He was not warm to this idea. He believes that one shouldn’t replace anything until it cannot be revived.

While our fridge does still run, it has started to make more noise. We replaced the relay switch that starts the compressor a year ago. I think that was the second time we’ve had to do that. $30 part, fairly easy to change out ourselves thanks to YouTube. We also turned off the water and ice maker about 6 years ago after a pinhole leak developed in the water supply tubing. We think it leaked for a long time before we noticed it. We got lucky that we didn’t have much damage. I decided it wasn’t worth the risk to leave it on.

It’s interesting to hear that the LG brand fails after just a few years. I had a different impression of their quality. I may have to revisit my research.

 

[Walt34]

I share the opinion these are not well made but I suspect government changes in refrigerants and such have made them more costly to design and operate and less durable.

I wouldn't be so quick to blame government regulations for the shortened longevity. The manufacturers (collectively) have been making refrigerators for about a century - there is no excuse to not have reliability down pat by now, especially since the ones I worked on nearly 50 years ago were made better, lasted longer, and were more reliable. I'll grant that all the silly gewgaws that impress so many buyers add complexity and additional points of failure but the simple physics of refrigeration have not changed.

The GE refrigerator that came with the house 19 years ago is still working, although it did need a new motherboard two years in. If/when it dies we'll likely get a Whirlpool. The house came with all GE appliances and within six years we had to replace all but the refrigerator and the gas stove. I swore then that I'll never buy another GE product.

 

[JT90505]

The darn ice-maker and water dispenser takes up precious space in the fridge and door shelf. I don't find making ice or pouring glass of water to be a chore. And I do fear a water leak. Not sure it can be removed, I think it is part of the design.
-ERD50

You certainly can turn off the water supply and disconnect the pipe. We easily removed the icemaker from the Kitchen-aid, I suspect they are removable from all refrigerators...so new units can be swapped in when they break. Try a google search for a youtube video, good luck...

 

[mpeirce]

there is no excuse to not have reliability down pat by now, especially since the ones I worked on nearly 50 years ago were made better, lasted longer, and were more reliable.

And those reliable systems from yesteryear would be illegal to sell today.

 

[GalaxyBoy]

We bought a Samsung fridge when we moved into the current house 11 years ago. No functional problems and it still works as well today as the day we bought it. But from day one it has made a loud CRACK noise about once every few hours. Google said it wasn’t uncommon but that Samsung insisted to everyone who complained that it was normal ice maker noise. Of course it isn’t. Some folks online theorized it was some part experiencing thermal contraction and expansion. It’s just barely tolerable enough that we never replaced it. A part of me wishes it would crap out.

 

[jollystomper]

This is a timely topic.

Same for us, but I am keeping my fingers crossed . We have a Whirlpool side-by-side that we bought in 2012 that started acting up this weekend. The freezer side seems fine, but the fridge side has gotten very cold and many things are freezing or starting to freeze. I have set the fridge side temperature to the highest setting (45 degrees) but the thermometer was reading in the 20s. The ice maker and water stopped, which I suspected was because the water line and filter in the fridge compartment froze.

I have been trying a few things. I have checked the air vents and all seems fine. I turned off cooling for several hours and turned it back on to see if it starts acting up again. The water and ice maker are working at the moment, so it is definitely a freezing problem. In the next day or two will pull it from its enclosure (which means filling up our coolers with ice to store the contents) and seeing if I can tell if anything is going on from the back.

At least our FIRE expense plan included replacing the refrigerator (and other appliances), so this is more of a "taking time away from fun things" than a problem .


We have been in the house 30+ years and this is the 3rd refrigerator. The first one was a subzero that was installed when the home was built (1978) and lasted until 1995. The second was from Montgomery Ward and lasted until 2012. We will see if we can get 10 years out of this one.

 

[RetiredHappy]

GE Cafe Refrigerator and Dishwasher both died after ~8 years.
GE Cafe Gas grill still going strong after ~12 years.

Neighbor bought GE Cafe Dishwasher, Range, and Frig...all died at about 5 years.

Sort of a crap shoot.

We bought our GE Cafe fridge because it dispenses hot water. We thought it was gimmicky and would be the first to fail. I used it everyday to make tea and it did not fail. It is now past 7 years and still the best refrigerator. We loved that the meat drawer is kept at 32 degrees and the rest of the fridge is so cold that everything is kept fresh for months. The new owners of that home love the fridge as well.

 

[Katsmeow]

That is shocking about 8 years and so many saying theirs failed before 10 years.

I have an LG (3 years old) that is large with a lot of bells and whistles. I really do like it. However, a few weeks ago there was a failure in the sealed cooling unit (which I think has a 5 year warranty). They did replace it at no charge. The repairman said that he was putting in the updated cooling unit as they had had problems with the one originally in my refrigerator and had since updated it.

The other day the icemaker quit cycling. It was making ice but I had to cycle the icemaker to get it to drop the ice and make new ice. This went on for 4 or 5 days and then it just started working again.

If this failed in another 5 years (which would make it 8 years old) on the one hand I would be upset since this one cost a little over $3000 and that seems like it should last longer. On the other hand, I while I enjoy the features of the refrigerator, it is way too large for us now (just the two of us) and I would get a counter depth if I could do it over again.

 

[njhowie]

Agree with the negative comment(s) on Samsung. We bought a nice model for about $1500 probably 18 or 19 years ago. It failed less than 2 years later. Nearest Samsung repairman said he didn't even want to come and look at it, told us to trash it and buy something else. Lesson learned. Bought a GE at that point and it's been working great ever since.

 

[Time2]

And those reliable systems from yesteryear would be illegal to sell today.

The same is true of a yesteryear automobiles that lasted 80,000 miles. Now you don't need plugs and points every 20,000 miles and they last 250,000 miles.
My opinion is that with the better machining practices, and better materials
available now, compressors could be made to have longer not shorter lives.
And all this going to electronic rather than mechanical is a turn in the wrong direction. A mechanical timer on a washer was very reliable, but now they use electronic PCBs and when they fail (to often) they cost so much, that it often forces a replacement rather than a repair.

 

[JT90505]

I used to buy 'stuff' that was expensive but was high quality (aka, lasted a long time and was reliable).

Now we buy the least expensive item that **meets our needs and wants** because we've been burned too many times paying up for items that failed. Am I the only one?

Interesting point about cars which are considerably more complex than refrigerators and last much longer (right now our cars are 13 and 19 years old and running well).

 

[ERD50]

.... Here's an interesting story about incandescent light bulbs and how they got to good and a plan was hatched to reduce life. With materials we have now, a much longer life incandescent bulb could be built.

...

Interesting video, thanks for posting, but... There's a lot less to that story than he makes of it (IOW, there's a lot of misdirection/hype).

The 100+ year light bulb in the fire station - it's only said at the end of that segment that it's been run at very low power (wiki says 4 watts, and design wattage was either 30 or 60). But he infers this is mostly due to better design for long life (they don't make them like they used to!). But if you did the same thing with a modern era incandescent bulb, you'd probably get better/equal life out of it. And I'm not even talking about your idea that it "could be built" with modern material - the regular off the shelf, less than $1 bulb that you could buy would last very long if run at a low power level. Did you notice the red, glow of that fire station bulb? Crank it up to a white light like a regular bulb, and it won't last even one second.

For an incandescent bulb, wiki says that a 5% reduction in the applied voltage doubles the life. It's just the physics of the materials. You could buy "long life" bulbs - they were designed by the same rules, but the design target was for a 5% higher voltage than the standard line voltage in use, therefore they gave the double the life when used on the standard voltage. IIRC, some of them were even labeled as "130V" bulbs.

He infers this is all about designing for a shorter life, but he doesn't mention the other engineering trade-offs. Do you remember using those "long life" bulbs? They gave off an orange glow rather than a bright white. Again, this is physics, it's not something the engineer can tweak. Lower energy means a shift to the red spectrum of visible light (and lower efficiency!). Take that to the extreme - a heavy heater filament (like on an electric stove top) gets very hot, but gives off very little visible light. And can last a long long time at lower power levels.

While that cartel may have indeed been motivated by planned obsolescence, I think there is also some merit to the 'standardization' aspect. Again, bulb life is largely a function of how hard you run the bulb (and that will change the color output as well). By standardizing on 1,000 hour life, those bulbs would have comparable color spectrum, and comparable efficiency (long life bulbs have lower efficiency). You knew what you were buying.

On the flip side, they could have standardized the labels, and offered 1,000, and 2,000 and 3,000 hour bulbs, marked as such. This might have been viewed as too confusing to an unsophisticated public, but I imagine the planned obsolescence did play a major role in the 1,000 hour standard.

.... Yes we are on to LED lights now and this is outdated.
With 50,000 hr life of an LED, it is not the LED that fails, but the electronics used to regulate the voltage that fail, usually a capacitor. Again for a slightly high price, this could be corrected, to give you a real 50,000 hr bulb.

In my view, this is worse than this incandescent conspiracy theory. At least those manufacturers told you the life was an average 1,000 hours, and they kept verifying it. It was "truth in advertising". Very few LED bulbs are going to be working at the 50,000 hour mark, mostly for the reasons you state (it's a little more complex than that) - it's a rating on the rate the LED output dims (both the LED and the electronics - capacitor value shifts due to aging can dim the output in addition to LED aging), and the 50,000 is a projection of when the LED will be at 70% of its initial output. But it isn't a rating of the darn thing just failing - which is commonly due to the capacitors failing due to heat, and yes, the life of the circuit could be improved by better rated parts and a better design to deal with the heat.

-ERD50

 

[ERD50]

I used to buy 'stuff' that was expensive but was high quality (aka, lasted a long time and was reliable).

Now we buy the least expensive item that **meets our needs and wants** because we've been burned too many times paying up for items that failed. Am I the only one?

Interesting point about cars which are considerably more complex than refrigerators and last much longer (right now our cars are 13 and 19 years old and running well).

No, but it depends. I cringe when I hear someone say "You get what you pay for!" - if only it were that simple. Unfortunately, price doesn't always relate to quality, and it does seem today, a higher price is just buying more bells/whistles, not anything of higher quality at all.

Some of these planned obsolescence theories just don't hold up. As you mention, cars are far more reliable today. Hard drives, flash drives, versus floppy disks, or (horrors!) cassette tape data storage! It's a long list.

-ERD50

 

[Scuba]

Timely thread for me. Our tenant in our beach condo texted me today and said he had been away for the weekend and came home to a hot LG freezer and fridge. It was the top of the line French door counter depth model. This is the third failure in 6 years so we bought a Whirlpool replacement today. Will never again buy an LG appliance!

 

[tmm99]

Timely thread for me. Our tenant in our beach condo texted me today and said he had been away for the weekend and came home to a hot LG freezer and fridge. It was the top of the line French door counter depth model. This is the third failure in 6 years so we bought a Whirlpool replacement today. Will never again buy an LG appliance!

Were they all LG models? I'm only asking because we have one of those counter-depth french-door wide fridges (bought this year)...

 

[REWahoo]

Reading this thread got me to look at Consumer Reports ratings on refrigerator reliability. They break it down by type and every brand's top freezer and bottom freezer models show to be considerably more reliable than their side by side or French door models. That's almost certainly due to the latter being more complex as virtually all those models come with through-the-door water and/or ice dispensers.

 

[RetiredHappy]

Reading this thread got me to look at Consumer Reports ratings on refrigerator reliability. They break it down by type and every brand's top freezer and bottom freezer models show to be considerably more reliable than their side by side or French door models. That's almost certainly due to the latter being more complex as virtually all those models come with through-the-door water and/or ice dispensers.

All our fridges have been either side by side or French door models and they all dispense water and ice from the outside, including the Whirlpool which lasted forever.

I have always resisted buying LG and Samsung appliances because of my personal bias that they could not have been well made. Reading this thread, I am glad I have stuck to my belief because my husband had always wanted to buy LG and Samsung as he thought they were the best.