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I'm looking to replace my 17 year old GE and it's not encouraging.
From my research it seems pretty much all of them are crap. Unreliable and noisy.
LG has good ratings from owners for sound. And bad ratings for reliability. Samsung is apparently made in China now and they last maybe 2-4 years. Whirlpool - hell, you can go to YOUTUBE and watch video's of peoples noisy Whirlpool fridges.
There just doesn't seem to be any good options.
Do side by sides make more noise than french doors? Some people seem to think so.
This is all very discouraging.
Follow Ups:
Yes, Whirlpool, 21.9 cf, Model GB2FHDXWB02, bottom freezer drawer. Ordered on-line from Costco, was delivered, installed four days later.
I got a slightly wide Miele fridge/freezer. Fairly quiet at 40 dB, low power consumption and totally reliable.
But it probably comes at thrice any normal price.
I've got the top of the line Samsung Quatro in our kitchen/greatroom where my second system is located (Magnepan 1.7s). I sit less than 10 feet from the fridge and cannot hear it except when the icemaker recycles once an hour for a few seconds. In fact all of our kitchen and laundry appliances are Samsung which are rated either the quietest or in the case of the front load washer second quietest on the market.
Aside from being quiet the Quatro distinguishes itself by it four compartments that can be set from light chill to deep freeze or anywhere in between. I reserve one of these for beer which I can chill to the exact degree I like.
Kenmore,what more do you need?Really
We're up to about 30 posts without a single model number listed!
Totally appreciate your 171st post in five years with no new information. But hey, I know, it's hard to be smarter than the rest of the inmates. What could you possibly say that we could learn from? It'd be like you explaining to an ant about SPLs.
Edits: 08/14/12
I have a 15 year old Frigidare, still going and very quiet. In my downstairs I have a "Magic Chef", it's as loud as a jackhammer so I wouldn't recommend "Magic Chef".
When I was looking for a small beer fridge for my basement I couldn't believe how much garbage is out there, it is very discouraging. And also in most cases you do not get what you pay for when it comes to refrigerators nowadays.
...put refig in the same room as your stereo.
And use power conditioning/filtering on your stereo components.
Have a 2-year-old Samsung, bottom freezer that is very quiet. From my listening position I can see it directly in the adjoining kitchen. Never hear it.
I do have to add that since I sold the 17-year-old fridge and the basement freezer my utility costs have been consistently lower, which is what I wanted. Blame the tree huggers if you like, but do you want to drive cars that get lousy mileage?
Propane/Battery/AC. No moving parts. I know the ones for home use must be kept level or they can get noisy.
Another vote for Liebherr. Mine is just around the corner from the listening area and I never hear the compressor. The ice maker is audible when it dumps a load of ice in the bucket, but that doesn't happen real often.
"From my research it seems pretty much all of them are crap. Unreliable and noisy. "
Thank all those tree huggers for our modern crappy 'high efficiency' appliances, toilets, and car AC that take forever to cool. I now have to triple flush my 1.6gpf toilet when in the past a single 3.4g flush would do.
Back to your frige question. Our two year old Kenmore Elite (I believe it's made by LG) is fairly quiet. Of course, it makes some noise when the compressor turns ON but overall not bad. I'm lucky though because my listening room is down in the basement far away from most household noises.
my 1.6gpf TOTO will flush a bowl of golf balls.
It has a 3" flush valve so it gets all 1.6 gallons NOW>
For my standard 3gal or so toilet in the master bath (used much less frequently) I put a plastic bottle of about 1/2 gallon in it which doesn't materially effect fllush-ability but does save some water.
Too much is never enough
"my 1.6gpf TOTO will flush a bowl of golf balls."This is the kind of reliable knowledge that a person can find on the internet.
"gpf", for folks who aren't toilet savvy, is short for "gallons per flush".
In their zeal to insist that we all "conserve", the nutjobs who mandated the 1.6 gpf inadvertenty left out language regarding how many times we can flush for one good dump and wipe.
I'm a three flush guy these days, pushing it to the street, and reducing the calls to the plumber.
Flush, poop, flush, wipe, flush. The heck with the plumbing lobby and their buddies in the environmental "movement". They ain't lookin' out for you or me.
:)
Edit: What the heck is a TOTO? In my next house, I want those "whoosh" toilets that can suck your balls off.
Edits: 08/14/12
You are a triple douche
Yes, my allusion to 'flush a bowl of golf balls' was pure exageration:
I'd suggest YOUR " I'm a three flush guy these days, pushing it to the street, and reducing the calls to the plumber." is, too.
You are, plumbingly speaking, quite the over achiever, if I may say so myself.
TOTO is a brand name and WAS sold only thru specialty plumbing stores, not Home Despot and its ilk.
The 3" flush valve is key, as is the glazed flushway.
Something from the link, provided, will get the job done in a single flush, unless you are as short of roughage as your note implies.
Hunter Thompson once said.....'When the going gets weird....The weird turn pro'.
Too much is never enough
"I'd suggest YOUR " I'm a three flush guy these days, pushing it to the street, and reducing the calls to the plumber." is, too.You are, plumbingly speaking, quite the over achiever, if I may say so myself. "
LOL! You crack you up. ;)
Seriously, I'm playing hard ball with the politicos and emotionalists. Flush, poop, flush, wipe, flush. That's my motto, and I'm stickin' to it. Ain't seen a plumbinger's butt crack in years, and don't want to.
Conserving water is over-rated. Well, except in this man-made drought we're in. Geez, can we get some of the excess rain to fall in our part of the world?! My god, we've got ethanol to produce!
:)
Edits: 08/14/12
Depending on the standard of living you expect, the world IS in a potable water shortage.
Out here on the left coast, Palm Springs grows green lawns in front of every house and has dozens of golf courses, watered several times daily. The water table is falling several feet per year.
So Cal is a desert receiving no more than 1' of water per year.
The Colorado river reaches the Sea Of Cortez less than 1 time per decade.
The Ogallala Aquifer is being depleted faster than replenishment....and this supplies much of the water for the US.
I'll post a photo of Hoover Dam....the upstream side is AT LEAST 100 feet low. And leaves a world class bathtub ring.
This is as much a population problem.....7 billion on the planet, give or take, as it is a political problem.
Too much is never enough
"Depending on the standard of living you expect"Ya know, the 7 billion people aren't all living on continental North America. Heck, just a week or two ago, I read that, get this... 600 million, yes, 600 million, people in India (that's ONE country, not a continent) were without electricity, due to a storm. Putting it into perspective, there are about 310 million people in the entire U.S.
The usage of water in the U.S. has ZERO effect on people in India, China, or the African continent, the three of which account for the large majority of people on the planet, and it doesn't even matter to Canada and Mexico.
Potable water is where there is water and water treatment plants and delivery infrastructure, and no amount of "saving water" is going to help anyone somewhere else.
What is so irritating is that governmental agencies and politicians in the U.S. have completely failed in their responsibility to plan and build robust water availability and delivery systems, and yet have allowed over-building of business and residential areas which clearly need the water. This isn't rocket science.
Back to the standard of living thingy... This is the United States in 2012. Why are we still talking about this?!! Water and electricity should be cheap and plentiful. But we have politicians and emotionalists who refuse to allow it.
:)
Edits: 08/15/12 08/15/12
Our master bath is on the opposite end of the house from the water heater. We keep a tall bucket (pool chlorine container) in the whirlpool tub (colossal waste of space IMO) and run the water into the bucket until the hot water arrives. Then turn on the shower and hop in. I then pour the water into the pool or onto plants.
Every little bit helps...
Good for you. My wife wastes more air-conditioning electricity taking one cereal box out to the recycling dumpster than that box will EVER return in environmental benefits. Why does she do it? Because she knows that I'll just throw it into the wastebasket and get on with things.
And don't even get me started on light bulbs. $20 for a stinkin' LED bulb? LEDs are a dime a dozen. I gotta get a piece of that action. Who in their right mind would spend $20 for a light bulb when 60 watt incandescent bulbs are 4 for two bucks?
"Under my plan, energy prices would necessarily skyrocket." Who said that?
:)
"Good for you. My wife wastes more air-conditioning electricity taking one cereal box out to the recycling dumpster than that box will EVER return in environmental benefits."When I hear environmental lobbyists going on about the wasteful ways I wonder about all those jetliner flights they take and wonder if their Prius's make-up for their 3800 square foot heated and cooled homes.
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More expensive doesn't necessarily mean better.
Edits: 08/16/12
"I wonder about all those jetliner flights they take"
Hey, at least they're tax-free.
;)
I view incandescent bulbs as heat sources. I loathe the idea of incandescent bulbs being used in the house during summer months. But, like you, I cannot justify LED's in every fixture. Even CFL's get very warm to the touch. During the winter months I say let those babies burn!
My wife is bad about walking out of a room and leaving the light(s) on. When the outside temp is 105 F, it chaps my behind to see a 4-bulb fixture fitted with 60W incandescents being left on while she heads to another part of the house. But in her defense, we have a 3500 sf house that she keeps clean, she works part-time, and we have 2 elementary-age boys who keep her on her toes while I am working.
As far as recycling, we keep a basket in the laundry room. Once the basket gets full it is taken out to the larger, curbside bin. Fewer trips to the garage.
I have purchased 2 LED floods so far. One over the front door and one over the kitchen sink. They were ~$45 each. I wanted a long-lasting bulb out front as the fixture is 15' overhead and gets left on on occasion. For ambient light after sundown I installed the other over the kitchen sink. My mind is eased knowing the light is not coming from a bulb that is, what, a couple hundred degrees F?
The fact that most things....from population to resource usage grow exponentially means that a wall will eventually be reached.
Doesn't matter what it is. Oil? Food? Pollution? Mineral Resources? Water? The fact is that Earth...and we ARE all in it together and continue to use more of everything while resources are typically finite. Even substitutes typically cost much more. A 60 watt CFL uses about 13 watts or maybe 17va. (power factor). Here in California, you'll eventually have to bootleg in regular incandescent lamps. I use CFL where they'll do the most good / cost effective. I have one as my garage light over the washer / drier. They last for 10 years and outlast well over their cost in 100 watt bulbs.
In my studio lights, I use REGULAR bulbs since I need to dim them and they are used sparingly.
10 months a year, I use less than 400kwh per month. Summer? more because of AC usage. The ceiling fan has paid for itself in other energy savings. If the Al Gore article is correct, he uses more power than 4 or 5 homes like mine. The point of the article is NOT that he uses so much power, but the fact that he lectures OTHERS to conserve. I wonder how many corporate jets he's ridden in his career? Than his son gets a ticket for > 100mph in a PRIUS of all things. Great.
As far as LED lights go.....and for that matter, the semiconductor part of CFLs, these are wafer fabrication produced devices. Very chemical intense. Hydrofluoric Acid, Hydrochloric Acid. Hydrogen Peroxide in the liquids. Boron, Arsenic and Phosphoris gasses. Countless compounds and proprietary chemicals. Not to mention the equipment used in the manufacture, and what it takes to make THAT. This industry is well and highly regulated. Even California still has a few fabs.....with 6 digit electric bills to boot.
We put out 3 different 'bins' each week. Garbage. Recyclables. Green. I spend some time each week making sure that aluminum, cardboard and plastics get recycled. Green is all garden while garbage is what's left. The trucks are highly motivated and Waste Management is making billions in profits. I can take my used motor oil and electronics and some other stuff to the recycler. The metal yard the next town over will buy aluminum cans and I recently got 10$ for a brass fauctet....@over 1$ per pound.
Too much is never enough
...in TI's RFAB in Richardson, TX. Been working in wafer fabs since '89. Litho, then Thinfilms, then Etch, now back to Thinfilms. Yes, it is crazy what goes into making chips. Even silicon is finite!
Speaking of water usage, fabs use tons of it. The helium supply is also on it's last leg. I read somewhere that there's about 16 years' worth left at current usage rates.
The fact that all resources are finite, and that population growth is and always will be exponential are scary thoughts. Love my boys, but kinda wish I hadn't brought kids into this unpredictable world. That's why I live for the day. No telling what tomorrow has in store.
Keep up the good work. Hopefully our efforts pay off for future generations.
Hey BS, we're neighbors! I wrote some data collection software for Dallas Semiconductor back about 15 years ago. Can you say "infant life" and "failure mode"? LOL
Edits: 08/16/12
I was working at National 15 yrs ago. Never saw the Dallas Semi site but knew a couple of people who had come from there. We're in Mckinney. You?
Helium in short supply? Their is an infinite supply only 93,000,000 miles away. If you land at night when it's cool, you can have all you want.
SInce I was a CVD / tFilms / Diffusion guy, I'd forgotten about helium in dry etch. And in cryopumps. We even did a helium implant.....or was that hydrogen? Strip off the electron and you've got either an alpha particle or a simple proton to implant.
The number for population growth used in 'The Limits to Growth was 2.1% annually which means a doubling time of about 32 years...give or take a couple months. That is a 40 year old number which I hope has gone down.
I worked for Western Digital when they owned a fab.....Also, TRW and IR along with Statek, a very unusual fab making quartz (grown, not fused) tuning forks for precision time keeping.
When I worked litho, we had 'contact' aligners....later....'proximity'.....Projection? I saw the first Perkin Elmer.
I worked on an Extrion implante....sr# 86. Also, worked on Varian Sputterers ....3190s. later, 3290s. and Bruce and Thermco furnaces...The Thermco had 8" floppies...if that tells you anything! When I started, 3" wafers were the norm.
Too much is never enough
I worked on the model 100 projection aligners. Had to load them with tweezers. 3"/4" line at the time. We also had 200's and 300's. Litho has come a LONG way.
Currently working 300mm. RFAB is the world's first 300mm analog fab. Funny things about it is that the equipment in RFAB came from my previous job in Richmond, VA. I worked for Qimonda.
Q made DRAM, going bankrupt in early 2009. TI bought the contents of the entire site for $173M. Pennies on the dollar. They took everything except the hardware in the restrooms! Found my old toolbox the other day in a storage area.
A fully automated 300mm facility is a sight to see. 450mm is next!
Tried from sub zero to "quietest" GE and Samsung. What a joke. Best you can hope for is to have a closed-off separate room for kitchen as far from listening room as possible. Bane of audiophilia is modern home design with "great rooms" and "open floor" plans with living, dining and kitchen open/converging. A disaster and make that times two if you have tile floors to reflect the sound waves.
- - - - - - - - - - - -
More expensive doesn't necessarily mean better.
Edits: 08/12/12 08/12/12
Maybe you'll just have to move your beer fridge out of arms reach of the sweet spot.
but breaks ever 3 years. I did buy it because it claimed to be quiet and its in a open floor plan. My old one drove me nuts I would unplug to listen this one I never notice it running.
You couldn't pay me to own a side-by-side.They're less efficient than an equivalent regular design, and the doors are too narrow for comfort.
Also, who needs an icemaker, or those goofy front panel dispensers? More stuff to fail. I know how to make ice, and it's easy. I've got three ice cube trays in the freezer, and they take up less space that the icemaker and bin. 'Course, it's pretty hard to buy one without an icemaker, but still, just don't connect it. And if I want a glass of water, there's a sink in the same room and I know how to use a faucet.
I would suggest that you get one with a bottom freezer. Much more convenient to use the fridge portion.
Reliability... Without stats, it's all anecdotal. Our GE-made Hotpoint lasted over 15 years. Got a Whirlpool to replace it, only because it matches the new Whirlpool stove. It's kinda noisy, though.
Edits: 08/12/12
...the cavity the 'frig sits in. I put some insulation in the cavity to absorb some of the noise coming from our LG (purchased 2 yrs ago this summer). It's not that the unit is that noisy, in fact it's pretty quiet, but the cavity acts as a horn. With an open floor plan, and couch not far away, I wanted to limit as much as feasibly possible the amount of noise entering the family room.
The LG is definitely one of the quieter ones around based on my limited experience (cannot "audition" refrigerators). Apparently the linear compressor is the contributing factor. We have had no issues since purchasing it 2 yrs ago nearly to the day.
If at all possible, I would put some sort of insulation in the cavity prior to install of the replacement unit.
Putting anything in or around the fridge will void the warranty.
And, two years isn't long. After all, it's a "durable good". Give us an update in 8 years.
I'm not a fan of LG products.
;)
We were moving into our new residence in a new, unfamiliar town in a couple of days and had to make a decision. The wife went shopping while I worked. It had features she liked. I would have preferred to take our time but the moving truck was showing up on a Friday. We needed refrigeration and clothes-washing capabilities going into the weekend.
The 'frig has been trouble-free so far. Dryer - no problems, either. But the front-load washer rattles like a son of a gun when the load is not balanced during the spin cycle. I also don't like the way it fills with water. It opens the valve for one second several times before it finally opens and allows constant flow. Not quite sure why. But with a tankless water heater I told the wife not to use hot water if it's not necessary. The water heater will start/stop along with the water flow.
Can't say I'm NOT a fan, but have no reason to praise LG, either.
A couple sheet of OC703 should 'bout do it, don't you think?
I think the 1" would probably do the trick...but it is available in 2" and maybe thicker.
It comes in 2'x4' sheets.
It IS a fiberglass product, so be careful.
Too much is never enough
On the size of the cavity, the size of the refrigerator, whether or not the insulation will be visible by the significant other, etc...
A single 2x4 sheet behind my fridge would be invisible.
Would it do any good? I don't know.
The other factor in a well insulated cavety is that of heat retention.
Too much is never enough
We have a Liebherr fridge-freezer which I have never knowingly heard unless standing right next to it.
As important as the noise a fridge generates, is the amount of TIME it runs.
In addition to the db rating you should find a sticker which lists 'cost'. Well, since I live in an expensive electrical place and my brother lives in a cheap state, that is meaningless. What you really want is the KWH of the new unit. Do the math
My 20year old GE was not only fairly loud, but it ran 20 hours a day. The new Maytag is a larger fridge, French door with bottom freezer and NO thru door anything. I don't even have the ice maker hooked up. It runs MUCH less and is also much quieter.
Now, if it'll last the 20 years of the old one, I'll be way happy.
I think the same line that makes my Maytag also makes Whirlpool...is this correct?
Too much is never enough
nt
My fridge is in the same room as my Quads so I'd like to mention the new one doesn't screw up my sound system.
Lots of people have that same kind of setup - system close to kitchen. So yeah, this does belong on the general forum.
Our GE frig is 11 years old now.
Our new Kitchen Aide dishwasher seems quite nice.
The GE frig seemed quite noisy when we got it. Either we got use to it or it quieted down. I think audiophiles can judge noisy appliances very well and have very good auditory memories, don't you? I think the refrigerator quiets down after the first few months. (Probably just get clogged with dust though and that quiets it down, but don't know ;-)
no problems in 1.5 years (looking for wood to knock on).
We've had our KitchenAid French door bottom freezer counter-depth refrigerator going on two years with no problems so far - knock on wood. Very quiet, doesn't seem to lose its temperature. Very satisfied with its performance.
already had a problem right after the base warranty ended. But, as luck would have it, we bought a two year extended warranty on it at the end of the 1 yr period. I have no idea why I bought it, just got their offer in the mail, thought it was reasonable and wrote a check. I NEVER do that, LOL/
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Do I have to spell it out?
C----H----E----E----S----E
A---N---D
O---N---I---O---N---S
Oh no.....
I have a Samsung side-by-side that I bought almost exactly a year ago. It is quiet, except when the ice maker is dropping the cubes from the tray in which it makes them, down into the ice drawer. The ice maker can be disabled with a button on the front panel. I do this before my after-dinner listening sessions and turn it back on the next morning.
The ice maker is a PITA though.
I have a PDF of a Consumer Reports test of a large number of refrigerators from last year that I could email to you if you're interested. They have noise ratings of each one. That was how I narrowed down my choices. Some people poo-poo CR, but they did give this unit their quietest rating and it is indeed quiet. I can't speak for reliability though. I was cost-constrained, as this was my first house and I had to buy all sorts of stuff - washer, dryer, furniture etc. etc.
Please send me a PM and I'll give you my email address.
Thanks.
We've got an Electrolux side-by-side that's very quiet. Had it for six years now.
During the 5 years I sold Electrolux appliances we couldn't keep the lights on in the floor samples! A replacement circuit board (which had the cheapest capacitors in the Digikey catalog), was $800 bucks!
They also own Frigidaire, another brand to avoid. And don't get me started on Kitchen Aid.
LIBERTY ONCE LOST,
IS LOST FOREVER
-JOHN ADAMS
I have an Electrolux with bottom frezer also very quite.
Canada
I own a Kenmore Elite w/ bottom freezer- very quiet.
Ours has the bottom freezer and is pretty quiet. You do hear it though for the brief moments that the compressor comes ON, usually after leaving the doors upon for a long time from loading it up with groceries. But the compressor is not very loud.
You never hear it running. Our friends just got a Samsung and it has the drawer above the freezer which seems like a nice feature.
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