Refridgerator Run Down

It's been a month of refrigerator activity and learning for us. Our 7-yr-old Kenmore ice maker busted and started flooding our fridge a month ago. I tried everything I could to defrost and remedy the situation but was unsuccessful so we threw in the towel (and the mop) and purchased a new fridge. A Kenmore Elite 25.4 cu' Side-By-Side to be exact. (Oddly the Sears site doesn't pull up a large size photo of this model. hmmm) We thought Kenmore was a reputable brand and maybe we just had bad luck with our old traditional top/bot white model wearing out on us so we gave Kenmore another chance. oops.

I noticed the first day how the exterior edges of the fridge all around the doors were hot to the touch. I actually burned myself on the frame a couple times. After a few days I called Sears Home Repair national hot line and was told by the moron on the other end that it's 'normal for this type of fridge to run a little warm' and there is nothing they can do to help me. I explained it was more than a little warm and was a danger to my family. They said to call the store. Nice.

I did some research on-line to see if others had the same issue and found some similar complaints coupled with even more stories of the circuit board frying leaving the lights on inside and essentially cooking everything inside the unit. So I called my local Sears where we purchased the time bomb and they were much more helpful. They said to just call the delivery line and schedule a pickup and they'd refund my money (hopefully we won't encounter any issues on that side of the story...fingers crossed...).

After some smart consumer research and comparisons, we headed back out to the shops to find another new fridge. Best Buy had a couple but for some reason they don't stock anything and said it would be 2-3 MONTHS until they could deliver anything to us. Strange. Home Depot came through with a GE 25.4 cu' side-by-side that was on the list of excellent consumer ratings, looks almost identical but is so much better in terms of space and design and (here's the kicker) was $600 LESS than the Kenmore was. BONUS!!!


So today our new GE fridge was delivered and the Kenmore was hauled away. YAY! I'm already so much happier with this model and here's a little more detail as to why:

The Kenmore had this nifty easy-access hinged crisper in the door of the fridge. What a colossal waste of space! Not as useful as I thought it would be.


I'm so much happier with the extra shelf in the GE fridge door to access all those little bottles that seem to get lost in the back of the fridge.


The water and ice access panel on the front of the Kenmore was too short and shallow to set a cup inside (notice how the cup is tucked behind the lever or it would not stay on the ledge), the water shot out in a messy stream, the ice maker was very slow to produce anything and was messy when it finally shot something out.


To be fair, I haven't actually dispensed any ice from the GE yet but I'm already happier with the way the water flows and fact that you can set the cup inside and contain any liquid that does splash out. I was warned by the delivery guys to make sure I mop up any water in the collection pan regularly or rust may form beneath it down the front of the door. Nice tip.


The Kenmore's one feature that was more convenient was the fact that I could reach inside the ice bin in the door and easily access ice if necessary - which is what I normally did since the outside dispenser was so slow and messy.
The GE hides the ice behind a trap door so accessing it involves opening a flap. However after just 3 weeks of use as I was cleaning the Kenmore up for removal today, I found rust inside the frozen socket which the ice bin sat upon. One more reason I'm glad it's gone.

The space between the door handles on the GE is about a finger-width wider than Kenmore's. I frequently got my knuckles stuck between the handles on the Kenmore. Also the Kenmore door requires some serious muscle to open. There's a strong vacuum effect involved with prying the door open. The GE doors seem much easier to open so far. Hopefully that won't change once it's completely cooled off for a day or more. The GE has just as much space in the freezer despite the arrangement of the ice maker which makes it look like there's less space in the door of the freezer but the shelves are better distributed on the GE.

The one thing I have found on the GE that may give me frustration is the deli drawer which doesn't slide very easily but the other drawers, as well as all the sliding shelves in both the ref & freezer, work great. When looking for pictures of the GE online, I could not find one with the freezer open so despite it being totally full of food already, I hope this is useful for anyone shopping around for a fridge who wanted to know what this one looks like inside.