Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Refrigerators, fix them / buy new ?

My mom is 92 and still uses the chest freezer she had when I was a kid. It’s 55 plus years old.
And I’ve had two refrigerator/freezers go out the past five years. One five years ago was in basement and it was out days before we knew it, rotting meat really stinks. The other three months ago was fine at supper time. The next morning, the food in the freezer was hot, not sure how that happened.
I’d lean toward replacing if it’s more than 8-10 years old.

Get on amazon, get some $10 freezer alarms.

Stupidity is painful

Just went through the same thing. We paid to repair and it still wasn’t proper. I’d buy new and put the repair money towards new.

Modern appliances are garbage. If you got 15 years you're ahead of the game. My average on appliances has been about 8 years.
Get the fewest possible bells and whistles on the replacement. I don't even go for an ice-maker anymore. An ice maker is probably the number one refrigerator repair item.

I go to Lowes and get a scratch n dent

I buy the most extended warranty they offer, have them fixed under warranty till it runs out, then when they break after warranty expires, I buy a new one.

I have fixed ours 4 times. I've replaced defrost timers, thermostats, etc. It isn't that hard. If the coils get a leak, or the compressor dies, there's no fixing them for a homeowner, but "bolt on" stuff is available on the internet. I have nursed ours since 1999 and it's still going. I do believe I will think about getting another one soon because the drawers, shelves and door seals are getting rough around the edges.


I have a Coldspot in the basement that came with the house, and it has been running since the early 1970s and has never been touched. They made them to last back then.

Avoid Samsung

Agreed.

We have a 5 year old Samsung refrigerator.

It is a blessing and a curse.

A curse, because it is a giant piece of chit and had broke 3 times. I will never buy another Samsung. Literally, no one in Colorado will even roll a truck to look at it. When I call with a problem, they laugh at me, but with a sad pity. But no one would let me PAY THEM to look at it.

It's been a blessing, because I have learned that refrigerators are pretty simply devices, and I can download every last schematic and repair manual for free, buy parts on-line, troubleshoot with the help of helpful folks on-line, and fix the POS myself.

I am limping this POS along, having spent a few hours troubleshooting and $300 in parts, with food in ice chests more than once.

So for now, this $2000 POS is still not in my kitchen and not in a landfill.... And that beats $5,000 for the next POS my wife wants to buy.

But I 100% get the guy who pays someone to haul off a POS unit to bring in the next one because it is the path of least resistance...

times INFINITY. No one in Colorado will even LOOK at one, they laugh.

I like the little mini-fridges that cost around a C-note when they go on sale. They're just the right size to put a tap in the door and keep a pony keg cold.
Jerry

But that is the thing, you do not have to pay $3-4K for a decent fridge. We just put in a new GE 23 cu ft for about $850.

I would have purchased a 27 cu ft for less $, but the Missus did not like the way it pushed out past the counter depth. PSHAW!


Our last fridge is still running well in the old house after fifteen years. The door says Maytag. The serial # says GE, Ha. I paid $150 extra for it to get the one WITHOUT ice and water in the door. It has an ice maker in the freezer and there's water flowing from the kitchen tap.

We had a Samsung front load washer and dryer set. The washer quit draining The water. I removed the pump and verified it worked fine. The circuit board was broken and decided not to spend the money on replacing it due to its age and cost of repair. I was going to give the washer to any local repair shop so they could have the remaining good parts . No one would even work on Samsung thus no need for the free spare parts. It went to the dump.

Replace,don't bother with repair. If it's less than 10 years old, it's not worth fixing because something else will go bad on it soon. If it's older than that you may not be able to get parts. Labor is expensive. If the wife can live with it get a scratch and dent deal.