I had no idea our refrigerator was so small.
Over the weekend, our Kenmore refrigerator died a sad death. Its compressor failed after 14 years of faithful service, and we woke up to room-temperature juices and soft ice cream in the freezer. The fridge’s death, sadly, was likely hastened by my failure to clean its coils regularly.
(Let this be your reminder: Coil cleaning is an unglamorous job, but it’s an important one. My dad asked me when the last time I cleaned the coils on this fridge, and I could not remember. Ugh. He reminded me it should be done every month. )
Now, while I was thrilled when our washing machine kicked the bucket this summer, I had no complaints about our refrigerator. It chilled things. It made ice. It dispensed cold water. I was quite surprised that it stopped doing all of these things overnight.
Now, we had to buy a new fridge.
When we moved into this house, we put our old refrigerator (a now 24-year-old GE) in the basement to use for secondary cold storage. Because of this, we had a place to quickly move our kitchen groceries to! The irony that our “old fridge” was now our only fridge did leave me pondering the old adage that they don’t make things like they used to.
Our current refrigerator was a traditional freezer-on-top style with an ice maker and a water dispenser inside the fridge compartment. I figured it would not be a problem to find these two features in our new fridge. Simple enough, right?
Thinking this would be an easy replacement, I first headed to Sears’ site and found what I believed to be the 2018 version of our old fridge:
- Icemaker? Check!
- Inside water dispenser? Check!
My husband and I planned to go to the store and fridge-shop in person, so I returned to our kitchen and dutifully measured our existing refrigerator. That’s when our appliance-shopping process was derailed.
Our refrigerator is 30″ wide. Due to our kitchen layout, there is no wiggle room for anything larger.
I re-sorted the available refrigerators on Sears’ site, figuring I would find a similarly-featured refrigerator in a slightly narrower width.
Nope.
Then we started looking at other retailers.
Until this weekend, I had no idea that a 30″ wide refrigerator is kind of an anomaly. While this size of refrigerator seemed to be no problem to find in the past, there just aren’t as many models or features available in a 30-inch width. The vast majority of models out there are 33″ or 36″ wide.
Some stores don’t offer fridges in 30″ width at all:
We spent the majority of Sunday’s daylight hours hopping from store to store taking photos and notes: Sears. Sears Outlet. Best Buy. JC Penney. Grand Appliance. Lowe’s. Home Depot. Menards — we visited them all in one day! Here’s what we learned.
30″ wide refrigerators are often marketed as compact or apartment sized. Many of them are basic, sold without an icemaker or water dispenser. We weren’t looking for a feature-rich smart fridge or anything — we just wanted the same features we had in our current refrigerator. Several store tags noted that the 30″ wide fridges are “great for the garage.” I was amused to learn we’ve been surviving with a “garage sized” fridge all these years!
I also learned that while internal water dispensers are standard on some larger refrigerator models, manufacturers’ identical models in the 30″ width eliminate the water dispenser entirely.
That water dispenser was so important that we were willing to spend more on a French-door refrigerator to get it, even though French door fridges are priced quite a bit higher than single-door models.
Here’s a photo of a 33″ wide Whirlpool refrigerator we found at Menards with the water dispenser inside. The tag said the same fridge was also available in 30″ and 36″ widths. Yes! We were so excited that we went over to the service counter to inquire about this refrigerator. The service rep pulled it up on screen and began looking up when it could be delivered, and then…
… we read the features’ fine print: The internal water dispenser on this Whirlpool, standard on the 33″ and 36″ models, is not available on the 30″ model. Bummer.
We did find a couple of refrigerator models that were 30″ wide with in-the-door water dispensers. Why didn’t we consider one of these?
Allow me to tell you how our basement refrigerator became our basement refrigerator. That one, our home’s original, first refrigerator, is a GE with a through-the-door dispenser. The dispenser began behaving erratically just a few years into its life (of course, past its warranty though.)
This fridge’s dispenser began spitting ice cubes out onto the floor through the door panel multiple times a day, on its own! We could not figure out why, and we were constantly finding melted puddles on the floor.
We ended up disconnecting the water line and icemaker, but of course, the rest of the fridge is still alive and kicking.
Then, when we built our current house, we moved the GE fridge to the basement and treated ourselves to a new Kenmore refrigerator for the kitchen — one with an internal water dispenser. There are far fewer parts to break when the dispenser isn’t constantly moving with the door, and we never had an issue with this dispenser not working – hey, it outlasted the compressor.
Here’s a funny thing: While we were browsing at Grand Appliance, we were talking about our old fridge spitting out ice cubes through its door dispenser, and a salesman overheard us. He came over and said, “It’s true. Unfortunately, no matter what you spend, an in-the-door dispenser will usually be the first thing to fail.”
We appreciated his honesty.
We returned home Sunday evening with a list of potential refrigerator candidates and began reading reviews of each one. Reviews, by the way, are great for pointing out things you may not have thought of. Many models we saw have built-in LED lighting along the front edges of the refrigerator — a selling point because you never have to change a lightbulb. However, we found that not all refrigerators have additional overhead light in addition to the sidelights.
Reviewers noted that on sidelight-only models, when the refrigerator is full, there’s no way to see what is in the back of the refrigerator because it’s dark! We made “interior overhead light” a priority and eliminated a few more refrigerators off our list. (This is also where taking lots of photos of what we saw in store helps you remember the features of each model too.)
I looked up the cost of aftermarket icemaker kits and how to install them, because two of our remaining refrigerator candidates did not come with icemakers.
I also called Abt, where we ordered our Speed Queen washing machine from earlier this month. “Do you happen to have any 30″ refrigerators, any brand, that have both an icemaker and an internal water dispenser?” I’d already searched their website, but I was hoping their staff could find something I didn’t. “No. They just don’t exist,” said the sales rep.
Can you tell just how bummed I was about losing the water dispenser? My mom said “Can’t you just put a pitcher of water in the door instead?” Perhaps… but in a house with five people, it is not likely the pitcher would be refilled all the time or would be ice cold when we wanted to drink it. We have all been spoiled by that darn cold water dispenser! Everyone in the house uses it daily.
Then, I had a random thought. How do all of the other people with skinny Ikea kitchen cabinet layouts like ours deal with this small-fridge-opening situation? We can’t be alone.
Oh yeah — Ikea sells appliances! We headed over to their website and did a little research.
Incredibly, in minutes, I located a 30″ refrigerator with an internal water dispenser on Ikea’s website! This was interesting. I knew nothing about Ikea appliances, so we started reading up.
I learned that Ikea’s refrigerators are all built by Whirlpool. Consumer Reports gave them very good ratings for performance, efficiency, and value.
For what it’s worth, our lengthy tour of appliance stores also taught us that many refrigerators are made either by Whirlpool or LG these days, regardless of whose brand name is on them. At Sears, we saw Kenmores with identical door, drawer and bin styles to the Whirlpool and LG refrigerators we saw elsewhere, and the sales rep confirmed their actual manufacturers for us. At Best Buy, we saw a pair of KitchenAid and Whirpool refrigerators side by side. Aside from the handle design, they were identical inside and out, yet hundreds of dollars apart in price. The salesman said they were both made by Whirlpool, but “people will pay more for the KitchenAid name.”
On Monday morning, I headed to Ikea, tape measure in hand, to see if we were finally going to welcome home a suitable replacement for our former fridge. This refrigerator looked nice, but of course, I was looking for one thing:
And there it was. YES! Isn’t it bizarre that Whirlpool does not include this water dispenser inside their own 30″ Whirlpool-branded models?
I spoke with an Ikea employee in the kitchen department who told me that Whirlpool builds these refrigerators specifically for them with the features Ikea wants. Because Ikea designs so many kitchens around this size of 30″ refrigerator, they want to offer “feature-rich” models that also fit their kitchen spaces. Who knew?
I told the employee that based on my research and discussions with many, many appliance stores over the weekend, I believe they have the only 30″ wide fridges with internal water dispensers in existence.
The Ikea Whirlpool refrigerators have no brand name whatsoever on the front. They also come in just one finish: Stainless steel. We were looking either for a black or stainless finish, so this was fine with us. They also have icemakers, and LED side and overhead lighting. We had finally found our new fridge!
I was also pleasantly surprised to learn that Ikea refrigerators carry a 5-year warranty with Whirlpool. Interesting, considering Whirlpool’s warranty on their own branded refrigerators is just one year. It reminded me of the years Chevrolet made a clone of my beloved TrailBlazer SUV for Isuzu and gave their Isuzu-branded truck a 7-year warranty instead of Chevy’s own three-year warranty. Strange but true!
Lastly, this Ikea refrigerator is an in-stock item, and they’ll deliver it this week. When we were taking notes on our other refrigerator candidates from a variety of stores, the soonest we could have gotten one delivered was three weeks from now. That Whirlpool we almost bought at Menards? Its delivery date would have been October 29th – over a month from now. Grand Appliance also told us that the lead time was 3-4 weeks for delivery of many of their refrigerator models. I am not sure if this is normal for all sizes or just because we were looking to order a smaller-sized refrigerator.
I thought I would share our experience, as up until this weekend, I truly had no idea what a “small” refrigerator we had. The new one is 20 cubic feet, just as our former Kenmore was, and that’s plenty for our needs. If we ever remodel our kitchen again, though, we may reconfigure things to make the fridge area a few inches wider — just in case the options for small refrigerators have further diminished a decade or two from now!
And now, after replacing two major appliances in a three-month timespan, I’m crossing my fingers that we’re done appliance shopping for a while.
You can bet I will be cleaning this new refrigerator’s coils much more regularly. I even bought a new Whirlpool coil cleaning brush!
UPDATE: Our IKEA refrigerator delivery took place on Friday, September 28th, 2018. The delivery did not go well, and it turned into quite a crazy saga. Read on…
UPDATE #2: On 4/20/20, reader Pamela reached out as she was in need of a 30″ width refrigerator and could no longer find these on IKEA’s website. Indeed, it appears they have discontinued this model..! She asked if I would share the model number info so she could try to track one down. For anyone else interested, here’s the label from the inside of my fridge:
The Whirlpool model is IX5BBEXDS01, and the IKEA part number is 602.887.58. I suggested she try to track down a floor model from the store, because my local Schaumburg store has (had, anyway) a bunch of these on display in many of the various kitchen setups.
J.R. says
Went through this last spring. Sadly most units aren’t built like they used to. A fridge used to last 30 years. The only stuff still built to last are the commercial grade units, which is what we got. The 2 deciding factors were their $1000 loyalty rebate, and that the new unit could re-use our wood panels with an adapter kit. A stainless front would have added 3X the cost of the adapter kit.
The best refrigerators, like the one we got, have the freezer on the bottom. Separate compressors for each, which means when our fridge failed, the freezer kept working. The cheap ones are top freezer, and then convection from the freezer compartment cools the refrigerator. But they never maintain temperature as well.
We got our new one at Abt, but they had to get it from the manufacturer, and it took a week. We got by with a daily trip to Meijer for a block of dry ice so we actually lost very little food in spite of a week outage.
BTW, there is a 30″ equivalent to our 36″ unit. Ice maker, but no water dispenser. And you don’t want to know the price.
Coupon Maven says
J.R., thanks for your input. I know that built-ins and commercial-grade units will cost far more than we spent. :) After going through this and learning that our fridge was no longer a standard size, we threw around lots of ideas. My dad, helpfully, was already discussing plans to move part of the wall between our kitchen and living room :D We also could have taken out some of our kitchen cabinets to make room, but then we would have large space gaps between the fridge and remaining cabinets.
We were not really considering doing anything on that level — the fridge dying was so unexpected. If we were looking to put in a commercial grade refrigerator, I would perhaps consider all that — but for now, and for whatever the new one’s lifespan is going to be, we just wanted to get something that will fit the space with minimal interruption around here. :)
Dry ice in the fridge is a GREAT idea. If we didn’t have the old basement fridge, we would have had to do something like that. We mainly used the downstairs fridge for things that did not always need to be refrigerated: Pop, juice boxes and pouches, etc. We took all of that out and moved everything from the kitchen downstairs. We are all getting a lot of exercise going up and downstairs for everything :)
Our new one has the freezer on the bottom. I wasn’t too keen on this initially, though I know they are much more efficient. I tend to be resistant to change, but if it means we can keep the cold water flowing around here, I will learn to like the bottom freezer. :)
My kids are VERY excited about the French doors. Right now, it is a tight squeeze between the kitchen table and the fridge door when someone has the door open. They’re going to gain a little more “sneak by” room when the new one arrives!
Speaking of rebates too, I forgot to note this above, but the Ikea sales rep reminded me that ComEd has a $50 appliance rebates on Energy Star rated refrigerators (other appliances as well) so I’ve got to mail that in too: http://www.comed.com/WaysToSave/ForYourHome/Pages/ApplianceRebates.aspx Every bit helps!
Diane says
Thank you for sharing your story. It’s very helpful as our refrigerator is also smaller and there is no wiggle room for anything bigger. In fact all of kitchen appliances are a lot smaller than what’s standard now. When our dishwasher went out, we had to trim down part of the cabinet next to it to make the new one fit. I am dreading when our refrigerator, double oven and/or stove go out as they are all right next to each other with no wiggle room.
Coupon Maven says
Diane, I feel your pain :( At least you are aware of what you’re going into. I honestly had no idea we had a smaller fridge until all of this happened. At the time we planned the layout for our current kitchen, we used Ikea’s kitchen planning tool, which we now know defaulted to a 30″ fridge opening. (This was 14 years ago, of course!) I do not recall them even asking if we wanted to plan for a 36″ fridge instead of a 30″. I think 30″ was just their standard then, and we never questioned it.
Being limited by size definitely narrows the appliance search process a lot. We saw plenty of refrigerators we liked, but when the #1 factor is “will it fit in the space,” you start making lists based around that. One of the things we did after we made our master list of possible models was to log onto Consumer Reports to read their test reviews. They have sections you can read based on appliance sizes and widths, and we found a whole section devoted to 30″ wide fridges. (You will need a subscription to read, but our local library provides an electronic login to their cardholders through their website, which was helpful. Yours may too.) That might be a resource you could use too whenever the day comes that you have to replace an appliance :(
Calibabydolly says
So glad you got the Ikea/Whirlpool that will fit your kitchen. Our fancy, counter depth Whirlpool fridge died this winter! I was in shock that it could not be fixed. We had it new with this new house 10 years ago and it was actually the upgrade the builder threw in to clench the deal on the house. They had a cheaper, HUGE one here which stuck out and was horrible in our tiny galley kitchen. I told the salesman if he would replace it with a counter depth one (both black Whirlpools) we would buy this place! I saw the price tag on the counter depth as it was delivered and it was $2,200! The one they had here was priced under $1000. We were in LOVE with this fridge! It looked great, it worked QUIETLY and it had the fancy in door crushed and cubed ice plus the filtered water. We never had any of that before. We use the ice all day long but the water comes out room temp (unlike yours!) which I always thought was odd. I assume this is because it comes right from the tube coming from the basement? If you want cold water, you either wait with your ice cubes in it OR I have a pitcher of Brita always cold in my fridge. We don’t have any kids, so just the 2 of us….I always keep it filled! :>)
Anyway, long story longer…The repairman told us the bad part on ours (circuit board) was no longer available to buy and any used part from ebay he could get was $500, and could not be guaranteed! I asked him what brand he finds less repairs on and his exact words were: “buy the cheapest you can find, none are built to last anymore!” He works for the local appliance store too! Geez. So we did exactly what you and your husband did and shopped at all the stores in town, including our local Sears store, which was going out of business in weeks. BIG MISTAKE. We should have bought at a local, family owned store we trust but NOOOOOOOOOOOO….I just had to get a “deal” on the one from Sears. My husband wanted a nice Kenmore which was almost exactly like the Whirlpool that died but I refused to pay that much. I feared Kenmore would be an issue down the road. I insisted we get this $800 Frigidaire. It is not fancy nor counter depth but it seemed like the smart choice after talking with the repairman. Big mistake. It has been a lemon from day one. They sent out 3 different guys to try to fix it and it cannot be done. It makes a terrible loud noise. It runs fine, yet sounds awful. It’s only when it first starts up, but it is right in our open great room so we hear it anywhere on main floor. Sears would not take it back either. After all attempts with Frigidaire, it was 1 day over their 30 day guarantee to exchange or return. I was mad to say the least. We are stuck with it now. I would never normally say this, but I cannot wait until it kicks the bucket (like your washer!) This one will probably last eons too.
I also have that coil cleaning brush you have pictured. I have 2 different sizes. Our counter depth could not be cleaned. It was a horrible design. I did the best I could EVERY MONTH like your dad said, yet you could not get the stuff way back. This new one is simple to clean. Hopefully your Ikea one will be easier to clean than our Whirlpool was. Is it “counter depth”? They pack them so tightly, you cannot get to the coils!
For what it’s worth, Consumer Reports rated Whirlpool and Frigidaire as the 2 top models in side by sides. I trusted that! So as the saying goes…..they sure don’t make stuff like they used to!
Coupon Maven says
No, this new one is not counter depth, but our old one wasn’t either. That really wasn’t a concern — I think that would have added even more un-achievable requirements to my list :)
See, I am a little concerned too that this Ikea/Whirlpool fridge has electronic temperature controls inside, and I wonder how long they will last. Our old one had no computer and just had a traditional thermostat. (And now I am concerned that the water dispenser in your Whirlpool isn’t dispensing COLD water?! I wonder why?! I sure hope ours is cold after all the trouble it was to find one with the water dispenser inside :)
With regard to Kenmore: My husband was very tempted by the $400 rebates on all the appliances right now at Sears. However, the rebate is $400 in POINTS, and you get $33 worth of Shop Your Way points that you have to use each month for 12 months. Honestly, I do not know if Sears will even be around a year from now, so that wasn’t a deciding factor for me.
Frigidaire: Our list of “fridge candidates” (before I found the Ikea Whirlpool) had an LG at the top and a Frigidaire as #2. There is actually a picture of the Frigidaire above — it was black stainless steel, nice looking, but no icemaker. I would have had to install that myself.
When I logged into Consumer Reports, they had the same LG and Frigidaire listed in their #1 and #2 positions for 30″ fridges! They did note that the Frigidaire ran more noisily than other models they tested, so we were leaning more toward the LG at that point until I discovered Ikea.
Maybe when it’s in your budget (and if you have the space?) the Frigidaire could become your garage/basement fridge someday and you can treat yourself to a new one! You know that I too have such a hard time getting rid of something that’s working.
Calibabydolly says
Both the old Whirlpool and new Frigidaire are water and ice on the OUTSIDE of the door, not inside like you are getting. Yours may have a holding tank to keep the water cooled in? I have actually never seen one on the inside. Neither of our side by sides dispensed cooled water, it just runs through the filter and is dispensed.
We looked in last years Consumer Reports, so they must be a bit different now. Also, Frigidaire is made by Electrolux. I will NEVER buy anything from them again. Horrible, incompetent customer service! The service guy actually admitted they know about this problem but since it still makes ice and cools there was nothing he can do about it! He told us this on the 3rd trip out to “try” to fix it. What a joke. Hopefully others on your blog read this and do not get one of their lemons like we did.
Good luck on that sharp looking Ikea fridge you are getting this week!
Coupon Maven says
You know, it’s funny — Consumer Reports noted in its review of the Frigidaire that it performed well in their tests, but that actual owners of the fridge rated it “Poor!” Between that and the noise issue, that was enough to cross it off the list!
>> The runner-up Frigidaire Gallery FGTR2037TF excels at our critical performance tests, receiving Excellent ratings for thermostat control and temperature uniformity, as well as for energy efficiency. But this model earns only a middling Good rating for noise (meaning it’s noisier than the competition) and a Poor for ease of use, in part because of its vague controls. In our surveys, Frigidaire top-freezers had a Very Good rating for predicted reliability but a Poor rating for owner satisfaction. << As far as the water, that's really interesting that it comes through the door dispenser unchilled..! I guess we will have to see what happens when ours arrives.
Tracey says
COIL CLEANING?! WHAT IS THAT!? LOL… I just looked up a video, I better get going on that! I haven’t done it once since we got our fridge 17 years ago! Ugh…
Coupon Maven says
Right?! It is a thankless job and very grubby. I used to think vacuuming the vent with that brush tool on the vacuum cleaner would take care of it. And admittedly, coil cleaning has NOT been high on my list of chores around here. After the fridge died, my MacGyver-like father came up to look at it and see if it could be fixed. He popped the front vent cover off… and I was aghast and embarrassed at how much dirt was in there. YUCK.
Let me tell you, the guilt of having your parent look at you somewhat disapprovingly never goes away… even when you’re in your 40s!
I regret not taking better care of that fridge, especially since it was such an endeavour to find a similar replacement. Clean coils = compressor that doesn’t have to work so hard. When my dad opened our refrigerator up, the compressor was hot enough to fry an egg on it. It had overheated in a big way. Save your long-term money. Get a brush and clean those coils!
(I will also be cleaning my basement fridge’s coils more regularly now!)
I also believe this is a conspiracy on the part of refrigerator manufacturers. I have read many fridge manuals online over the past few days as we looked for a new candidate to join our kitchen. Not ONE of those manuals I read said anything about cleaning the coils! This is one of those maintenance jobs that you’re supposed to do, but even the manufacturer doesn’t tell you how often to do it (or in many cases, to do it at all.)
Calibabydolly says
Our last Whirlpool counter depth side by side was impossible to clean the coils. We tried everything, including taking back cover off and taking an air compressor to it from behind and having a box fan in the front (turned around to be SUCKING) with a taped on furnace filter to it, to catch the dust! You should have seen the stuff flying out! Too bad we couldn’t turn it to the back door to do this in the summer because I would NOT advise doing this in a closed house ever again. It was a terrible mess. We used to have a cat and blamed her for all the shedding, but I really think it is mostly just dust. It sucks in air and basically slowly vacuums the kitchen floor. That motor is running quite often if you think about it, so it really does need to be clear or dust and dirt to work properly.
I too watched videos online on how to clean the coils and it is disturbing how much gets in there! The old models of refrigerators had the coils right on the back of the fridge, instead of under them, and they never got this dirty. I am guessing this is one of the reasons they lasted so long? We met a couple here in town who showed us their kitchen and it still has the 1950’s GE built in fridge…..and it still works! It’s a turquoise color and I was shocked because that is older than me! Google it and you will be amazed! I wonder where those coils would be?
Coupon Maven says
Cali, I imagine the coils for that one are on the back too — but maybe not?! My parents have an old (1940s-1950s, no joke) Frigidaire in their basement that belonged to my great-grandmother. It is still working fine, but my dad cleans those coils -every- month. With a built-in like the GE you described, it would be much harder to get to them, obviously.
You should ask your couple friend how they clean them — IF they do. Maybe it’s just built like a tank! :)
wolverine70 says
I NEVER would’ve thought to look at IKEA! What a great idea that turned out to be! A shame you had to buy this quickly which prevented you from planning for a sale. Thanks for sharing your experience. It’ll help.
Coupon Maven says
Thank you. I was very excited and wish I would have thought of Ikea sooner for this size appliance.
Unfortunately, we are still waiting for our fridge. This was our first experience with Ikea’s appliance home delivery, and it has not gone well.
EDIT: I moved the discussion of my Ikea refrigerator delivery saga into its own post.
wolverine70 says
Wow, just wow. So you’re w/o a ‘fridge for longer and IKEA just had a subpar delivery made plain to thousands of your fans. No winners here. Since IKEA is generally a buy it and take it type of place, I can understand why they wouldn’t have a dedicated delivery fleet, but these subcontractors were AWFUL! And they scratched your floor?!? I really hope this gets resolved, and quick!
Meagan says
Sorry you had such a bad delivery experience! It’s a good thing you didn’t accept the fridge, as there are very clear instructions with refrigerators not to tip them horizontally-it causes some problem with the coolent which will cause the fridge not to work! Yikes.
Coupon Maven says
Meagan, I know — this one actually says it can be tipped on its back (and ONLY on its back) for a short period of time to remove the shipping bolts from the pallet wood secured to the bottom of the fridge. Still, what happened should not have happened.
I’ve written an updated post (we finally now, after four delivery attempts, have a new, working fridge) here: https://jillcataldo.com/our-experience-with-ikea-home-delivery/
Izetta says
I saw in a comment that it wasn’t on sale but it was a necessary purchase. Don’t forget the IKEA offers a 90 day price adjustment window so be watching.
wolverine70 says
Did a ‘fridge, competently delivered finally arrive at the Cataldo household?
Coupon Maven says
Honestly, I’m so drained from talking about it that I haven’t updated. It’s going to end up being a new blog post once we GET a refrigerator.
To recap: Bought new refrigerator at Ikea on 9/25. Fridge arrived 9/28 and was dropped on the ground & broken.
New fridge arrived on 10/1 with a different delivery team who did a great job getting it in the house safely. However, this fridge has two dents and scratches through the finish on the side. The delivery guys urged us to keep it and call Ikea for a discount, as they would “make it right.”
Ikea offered a 10% discount and a voided warranty as it would now be an as-is sale, unwarrantied. We said no — it was not worth losing the warranty to us. Ikea scheduled another delivery for Friday, 10/5 (yesterday.)
Yesterday morning, the delivery driver called. It was the same delivery team from 9/28. They said the lift gate on their truck is still not fixed and they feared they would drop this fridge too if they tried to deliver it and asked if I would decline delivery. I did.
I spent a great deal of time on the phone with Ikea again yesterday and today. They are going to try for a 4th delivery on Monday.
There’s more, but I’ll save all the frustrating details for a separate post. It is incredible to me that we are still without a refrigerator.
UPDATE: I moved the discussion of my Ikea appliance delivery into its own post, which is here.
wolverine70 says
You know, if you, of all people have had this many issues with an Ikea delivery, then I really think the rest of us need to really consider only buying appliances there if we can bring them home ourselves!
Coupon Maven says
Yes. FINALLY :) Here’s the update! https://jillcataldo.com/our-experience-with-ikea-home-delivery/
Shelly says
Thanks for great deals, I need to get a fridge with water dispenser outside, That’s the most important part for me. Please suggest the best one for my requirement.
Coupon Maven says
Shelly, there are dozens of models with the water dispenser outside the door — just visit any appliance store or outlet and take a look.
I can’t suggest any outside-dispenser models because I actively avoided buying anything with a dispenser on the outside (due to their high failure rate.) Only you know what width dimension your fridge space is and whether it fits a counter-depth or standard depth too.
Barbara johns says
How great this popped up. Our 26 year old GE Profile refrigerator has started making noises and I’m afraid about to die out on us. We are in the same situation that the opening is built for a smaller width. I took a photo of the tag and the size is 66 1/4 High, 31 1/2 wide and 32 3/4 deep. While I don’t care about water dispenser I absolutely want to keep the ice dispenser.
Coupon Maven says
If you don’t care about the water dispenser, there are definitely 30″ width options out there. :)
Good luck with your fridge shopping!
Calibabydolly says
Update: Jill- Our lemon Frigidaire died on Super bowl Sunday! I came downstairs and heard 4 (faint) beeps coming from somewhere in the house and after searching every room I realized it was the fridge. The alarm goes off to warn you the interiors temperature is too high. (Shocking since this is NOT the electronic model) It was exactly 2 years old! It was a sunny 57 degrees that day, so we had to bring meat and other expensive foods to 2 neighbors since we have no backup like you do. We lived out of a Rubbermaid tub on back porch as a make shift fridge/cooler out of desperation!
Anyway we called for a serviceman first thing Monday morning and the news was not good. The compressor was shot! I paid this guy $89.50 (would not even take a coupon I had because “work was not performed”!) to tell me it would cost $772 to repair our $800 Frigidaire! We knew it was a lemon, but this was unreal. We decided to junk it and take the $50 from Com Ed to recycle….which has now been reduced to only $35!
We ran over to Lowe’s and my husband picked out a counter depth, Whirlpool, stainless side by side loaded with all the features my husband wanted. I let him decide this time. They were able to deliver it on Tuesday for FREE and we were back to square one in just 2 days. I wanted to update you and all of your readers about the 2 years that this Frigidaire lasted! Sears closed our store 2 months after we bought it. Warranty was 1 year. I cleaned the coils regularly on it too, so there is nothing we could have done. This new one has the front vent screwed in, so you have to work to clean it. Also from the back as well. And like you said, nowhere in the manual does it even mention cleaning them! I think your Ikea looks like it also has a kick plate screwed on. Have you had trouble trying to use your brush to clean the coils? I am happy with this new Whirlpool so far, yet have no faith in any brand. Also the one that died was 25 cubic feet and this one is only 20.6 cubic feet. I think that’s smart….so we won’t lose as much food when this one kicks the bucket!
Coupon Maven says
Oh no! That is just a dismal outcome for that fridge – 2 years?! Even though they probably won’t do anything, I would write to Frigidaire and complain – furiously. Who buys a refrigerator with the expectation of it lasting just two years? I’m glad your neighbors were able to help you out – otherwise (as several readers emailed to me too when I went through this) you could get bags of ice and use coolers and totes if it’s only going to be a couple days.
With Sears closed too, it’s not like you can even go back and complain to them. What a mess. We had considered a Frigidaire in 2018 too when we were looking for our new one!
As far as cleaning the coils, what I did when they were moving the fridge in was take a photo of the bottom of it. It’s -very- hard to see the coils from the front, as there is a plastic kick plate there, but it doesn’t extend to the floor. The first few times, I looked at the photo so I knew which area to scoot the coil brush under. I can never -see- the coils to determine if they are clean, but I figure that brushing them every month is better than doing nothing.
I hope that your new one performs better than that Frigidaire – again, wow, I am just stunned at its bad performance.
Does your new fridge come with a 1-year warranty as well? That was the one unexpected but welcome surprise when we purchased our fridge through Ikea — while it is also a Whirlpool, Ikea has a 5-year warranty on all of the appliances they sell. Hopefully we don’t need it – we are already coming up on the 2-year mark with the new fridge.
Calibabydolly says
We have a total 1 year warranty and a limited 5 year warranty. I believe the 2-5 years cover the liner of any cracking plus all the sealed components’ compressor & condenser etc. parts and labor included!
If I were you, I’d roll your fridge out (as long as it won’t ruin the floor) just a few inches and vacuum behind it along the floor as well because if yours is anything like ours there was a TON of dust in the back my brush was missing. I plan on doing that with this one as long as I shine a flashlight there so I don’t hit anything with the brush or vacuum. This is the 3rd fridge we’ve had in this house in 12 years and I am amazed at how much dust get under these things!
I thought about contacting Frigidaire too but I almost want to forget about it now. I have a feeling they will make me more upset? Thanks for the advice though. I just had to vent!
Merida A Houser says
Hello! I was so thrilled to read of your hunt. I was really hoping to see something I had missed, as we are suddenly in need of replacing both stove/oven and refrigerator from about 1992.BUT…Our fridge is built in and we cannot go taller than 64 inches. The height is our major problem, though our width is 31 inches and so is our depth! So, I am pretty resigned to having to find a carpenter to cut our laminate cabinets down. It is going to be a complicated mess to get a really basic, “garage” refrigerator and it is really irritating. I am SO hoping at least the stove will fit its designated spot. I have spoken with our repair guy who has his own small appliance store. He knows my issues from his last visit helping fix the now beyond defunct stove. I am pretty sure I will try to get through this with his advice and their delivery guys work directly fo r the business. But this is going to also be boku-bucks. It just shouldn’t be this hard. Oh yes, I also have to have black appliances , replacing the famous almond color so I may have to hire someone after the purchase to PAINT THE NEW FRIDGE black.
Coupon Maven says
Merida, thanks for your post. I dread the day we have to replace this one again, as it will certainly mean either going with an even-more-basic fridge (as IKEA is apparently discontinuing the one we bought) or tearing out cabinets to make room for a wider one.
As a fellow lover of black appliances too, I hear you — our previous fridge was black, and while I like this one, it shows -every- single fingerprint and scratch. I have not ruled out painting it down the road :D
Ya says
So sad they discontinued this model it’s everything I want and need i for my new home. It’s so hard to find a fridge this size and has all the features that isn’t north of 2k