Do not get your fridge from Home Depot

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ghostjmf
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Do not get your fridge from Home Depot

#1 Post by ghostjmf » Mon Jun 19, 2017 3:06 pm

or Lowes, or any other "big box" store. According to the repairperson who is ordering a replacement fan & most importantly fan motor for my crap GE fridge, bought at HD because my landperson has a card from there that presumably gives a discount. I stupidly got the GE because it was the only 28" width model on floor. That's so it can fit through 29" door to kitchen.

I know fridge doors are take-offable, but the delivery people I've encountered on previous fridge deliveries are unlikely to help, or wait on me to do this. And I couldn't get fridge into kitchen w/out gear & help. Presumably I could have hired my own delivery crew, but that would require coordination w/ store. That's store, HD, which last time gave delivery date 3 weeks from purchase because "we're booked up".

And before anyone says anything, I know taking door off does nothing to width. But door-w/-hsnle represents around 4" of *depth*, turning, say, a 32" depth to 28" depth. I just need one dimension to be 28".

Repairperson says the models big box, high inventory stores provide are made w/ inferior, cheaper parts. This fan used to be made by Panasonic, then GE switched to cheaper brand. GE has had so many of these fans fail that they've switched back to Panasonic even for their crap fridges. Repairperson is ordering Panasonic. Presumably a better-name-brand fridge ordered via web from big-box site would also be made w/ crap parts.

Living through heat wave with fridge at 56 degrees has not been fun. Freezer *has* kept ice I loaded it up w/ frozen.

I wish they made fridges w/ completely seperate cooling systems & controls for freezer & fridge, but even most highest-priced models don't have that.
Last edited by ghostjmf on Thu Jun 22, 2017 8:34 am, edited 12 times in total.

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Bob Juch
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Re: Do not get your fridge from Home Depot

#2 Post by Bob Juch » Mon Jun 19, 2017 3:12 pm

ghostjmf wrote:or Lowes, or any other "big box" store. According to the repairperson who is ordering a replacement fan & most importantly fan motor for my crap GE fridge, bought at HD because my landperson has a card from there that presumably gives a discount. I stupidly got the GE because it was the only 28" width model on floor. That's so in it can fit through 29" door to kitchen. I know fridge doors are take-offable, but the delivery people I've encountered on previous fridge deliveries are unlikely to help, or wait on me to do this. And I couldn't get fridge into kitchen w/out gear & help. Presumably I could hire my own delivery crew, but that would require coordination w/ store.

Repairperson says the models big box, high inventory stores provide are made w/ inferior, cheaper parts. This fan used to be made by Panasonic, then GE switched to cheaper brand. Repairperson is ordering Panasonic. Presumably a better-name-brand ordered via web from big-box site would also be made w/ crap parts.
I doubt that's true. Compare the model numbers. The only place I know that sells models with inferior parts is Walmart. You'll see the model numbers of most of their TVs aren't available elsewhere.

GE does make crappy junk in general now (or has it made then slaps their logo on it).
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Re: Do not get your fridge from Home Depot

#3 Post by jaybee » Mon Jun 19, 2017 4:54 pm

Your repair guy is believing his own press.

Some appliance brands are better than others. Some appliance brands have lower end lines that have cheaper components. You can buy these at Lowe's, Home Depot or any appliance store. But no, just because it came from a big box store does not mean that it has cheap components.

I feel your pain about the door width thing. Even a large fridge will fit through most entry doors (sideways, with the doors and/or handles off). It's not that big of a deal provided you have tools as there are door removal instructions sent with the appliance. But if you don't have a few tools or don't feel comfortable taking your new refrigerator doors off or if the delivery guys who are needed to get it from the door to the kitchen will not wait you are screwed. Most places will offer in-place installation but there is an extra fee.

I know that on-line appliance purchases from Whirlpool have a mandatory $75 off the truck fee. But this includes setting the fridge up in the location that it will be in.
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Re: Do not get your fridge from Home Depot

#4 Post by BackInTex » Mon Jun 19, 2017 5:23 pm

We bought our new fridge in January. Our old one we'd had for 19 year, 4 months finally quite cooling.

We bought a LG French Door that has dual ice makers (1 in the upper door and 1 in the lower freezer compartment).

We bought it from Goedecker's online because there was no sales tax, free shipping (though I added on for $100 they would take it off the truck, unpack, and set down (not setup) in my kitchen. Our front doorway was very tight. They had to take the handles off. The $100 extra was worth it as the free shipping was to your curb.
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Re: Do not get your fridge from Home Depot

#5 Post by ghostjmf » Mon Jun 19, 2017 6:38 pm

Home Depot in Somerville offers free shipping, or at least used to. But then they threaten you with a clause that says they don't agree to deliver past the 2nd floor; I'm on 3rd.

They took it to 3rd but weren't inclined to do the door removal if I'd needed it. And I would find it hard to balance a fridge door on my own. They didn't even remove door of the fridge they removed, which would have made getting it downstairs easier.

Maybe someday I will be in a position to buy my own house, own refridge, & contract my own refridge-bringers.

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Re: Do not get your fridge from Home Depot

#6 Post by mellytu74 » Mon Jun 19, 2017 6:39 pm

I sympathize. I went through something similar when I lived in D.C. I think the landlord had a deal and so HD it was.

We are very lucky that we still have local mom-and-pop stores for our appliances, both here and the shore.

In Wildwood, it's a two-store chain (one in OC). The sort of place where the salesforce knows to ask about taking off the refrigerator door because they are used to narrow-ish vintage shore bungalow front doors. And the salesforce always asks about that.

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Re: Do not get your fridge from Home Depot

#7 Post by ghostjmf » Tue Jun 20, 2017 7:15 am

If only companies that make refrigerators would realize that people who live in places with narrow doorways don't want low quality merchandise just because we can't get the the biggest box through our doors. If they'd advertise a "basic 28" wide box" "that's as good as our deluxe model" I'd go for it. My landperson kept picking deluxe models off the internet, probably thinking of future-rental ads, & I had to keep telling them "can't get it through the door".

I have friends who live in a place where they have a propane-driven fridge. Its tiny. They could have gotten a much bigger fridge through their door; house was designed by architect of the couple. But probably companies who make propane-driven fridges think they're all going into tiny cabins.

Couple recently had to get new fridge as previous was leaking refrigerant, a big health hazard. Obviously companies who make those fridges don't care about reliability either.

If I were this couple I'd have 2 or 3 tiny fridges. They've probably thought about it.

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Re: Do not get your fridge from Home Depot

#8 Post by ghostjmf » Tue Jun 20, 2017 7:40 am

BiT: I wish HD had offered "for $100.00 extra we take door off & put it back on". If they did, they didn't tell me, & I was buying fridge w/ landperson's HD card in store. They *did* warn me that only co they contracted w/ for deliveries reserved the right not to deliver above 2nd floor.

There are a lot of houses in Boston area where you'd never get fridge up stairs w/out taking door off. My apt is not in one such.

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Re: Do not get your fridge from Home Depot

#9 Post by Jeemie » Tue Jun 20, 2017 8:09 am

ghostjmf wrote:or Lowes, or any other "big box" store. According to the repairperson who is ordering a replacement fan & most importantly fan motor for my crap GE fridge, bought at HD because my landperson has a card from there that presumably gives a discount. I stupidly got the GE because it was the only 28" width model on floor. That's so it can fit through 29" door to kitchen.

I know fridge doors are take-offable, but the delivery people I've encountered on previous fridge deliveries are unlikely to help, or wait on me to do this. And I couldn't get fridge into kitchen w/out gear & help. Presumably I could havebhired my own delivery crew, but that would require coordination w/ store. That's store, HD, which last time gave delivery date 3 weeks from purchase because "we're booked up".

And before anyone says anything, I know taking door off does nothing to width. But door-w/-hsnle represents around 4" of *depth*, turning, say, a 32" depth to 28" depth. I just need one dimension to be 28".

Repairperson says the models big box, high inventory stores provide are made w/ inferior, cheaper parts. This fan used to be made by Panasonic, then GE switched to cheaper brand. GE has had so many of these fans fail that they've switched back to Panasonic even for their crap fridges. Repairperson is ordering Panasonic. Presumably a better-name-brand fridge ordered via web from big-box site would also be made w/ crap parts.

Living through heat wave with fridge at 56 degrees has not been fun. Freezer *has* kept ice I loaded it up w/ frozen.

I wish they made fridges w/ completely seperate cooling systems & controls for freezer & fridge, but even most highest-priced models don't have that.
I have separate controls for my freezer and fridge. Most fridges have that now.

How they work is the refrigerant first flows through the freezer, and then there is an air damper that opens and closes depending on the setting of the refrigerator thermostat control.

So the very design of such systems means if the fridge is cold enough, the freezer most certainly will be. Even with one controller, this would be so.

You absolutely would NOT want a completely separate cooling system for the fridge and the freezer. That's just more things to go wrong (and in a cramped space of a single unit, more would be LIKELY to go wrong).

If you want separate cooling for your refrigerator and freezer...buy separate units.
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Re: Do not get your fridge from Home Depot

#10 Post by SpacemanSpiff » Tue Jun 20, 2017 8:33 am

When we got our GE refrigerator 10 years ago for the house we had just bought. We bought it from a local appliance dealer (sadly gone now), and had to wait for a week for it because that model wasn't in stock. We had a stainless model and, unlike their painted bretheren, you can't just flip the handles from one side to another -- they are specifically left handed and right handed.

On the day they delivered it, I saw a problem immediately - two slits about eye level in the packing box, about the size of forklift forks.

We did open the box, and sure enough, a pair of forks had run through the back wall.

Not sure who was more steamed, me or the delivery guy.

In any case, they had to order a new one (another week), and they brought over an old junker refrigerator in three hours so I at least had a refrigerator in the interim. Give them credit for that.

Things been running fine since we got it.
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Re: Do not get your fridge from Home Depot

#11 Post by ghostjmf » Tue Jun 20, 2017 9:25 am

A lot of fridges I looked at 4 years ago, when this GE was the only 28" width one on the showroom floor at both HD & Sears (even though Sears now has a 28" width Kenmore on line I lust over; probably not in the showroom though), had a door or similar device you could slide to send more or less coolth to either compartment (my GE doesn't have that, but you can always block a vent with stuff). The various width fridges w/ dampers all had manually, not electronically operated dampers.


That's not what I mean; I mean seperate cooling systems. Yes, completely seperate systems would best be expressed by completely seperate boxes, but not in my tiny kitchen. Its a little bigger than some Boston-area apartment kitchens, but not *that* much bigger.

Because I had initially been trying the repair place's advice about a 24 hour defrost to remove an ice dam "so far down even a hairdryer won't thaw it", it took me a while, like *days* to realize that the fridge as well as its freezer was a good icebox if you put actual ice into it. The defrost attempt had required taking food *out* & putting it into ice chests, see.

But when the defrost didn't work its magic I loaded all the ice into freezer. I should have put some in fridge sooner. I was just hoping for "overnight miracle cure". Hey, that works on overheating Honda cars! Honda seems to have fixed the "overheats easily" w/ my 2002 Acura.

The 24-hour defrost worked on this unit back in March. What I should have asked then is *why* ice was building up in the 1st place. When fridge went into "rock hard ice cream in freezer, high temp in fridge" again, this time after a 2-hour power outage, I decided to do defrost again.

We have several mini-outages per week. Those that last minutes leave my VCRs blinking. Those that are smaller I previously thought scramble "only" converter boxes. Even though they are on surge protectors. And, it now appears, scramble, as well, fridge's electronic timers. Which I wish it didn't have. I prefer mechanical timers, the "this metal contracts when it gets cold enough" type. Which are not subject to power supply fluctuations.

The way we knew it wasn't "this refridge just can't cool any more" was the freezer freezing things rock solid. Can't do that w/out coolth. But with the fan out, I didn't even get that.
Last edited by ghostjmf on Wed Jun 21, 2017 8:30 am, edited 1 time in total.

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Re: Do not get your fridge from Home Depot

#12 Post by ghostjmf » Tue Jun 20, 2017 6:59 pm

Apparently what I really want is called a garage refrigerator, with completely separate controls for freezer & fridge. This because temp extremes in garages confuse temp sensors in regular fridges, which expect ambient temps to be what people can live in.

Frigidaire is the only familiar name among companies I've found that make them. Gotta look up width.

Checked: Would have to take door off. Also said to be loud. So what, they all are.

Both Frigidaire & Gladiator Chillerator are said to be loud. Also would need to take door off Chillerator.

Complaints section says Chillerator SUPER loud. And not really garage-ready (meaning freezer won't warm up nor fridge freeze out there) as advertised. But does have those separate controls (which turns out to be separate thermostats, not separate compressors). But is actually made by Electrolux, which gets bad reviews.
Last edited by ghostjmf on Thu Jun 22, 2017 10:54 am, edited 3 times in total.

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Re: Do not get your fridge from Home Depot

#13 Post by ghostjmf » Thu Jun 22, 2017 8:32 am

Even the Gladiator Chillerator, now discontinued, has by its own ads "dual tubes" , not separate compressors, it doesn't look like.

My mom had a "retired" house fridge in garage that didn't seem to give her the "confused; ambient temp not as expected" problems I'm reading about. Maybe it was from the era before frost-free freezers, which have introduced these confusing heat-cycles, meant to melt any frost, into refrigerator/freezer combos.

A lot of us don't have whole-house air conditioning that provides the temperate indoor-climate range modern fridges are built to work in (though in fairness to the industry, that range is *supposed* to be 50 -100 degrees F; still, there are a lot more failures in 90-degree heat waves). Even if I had an air conditioner I would put it in my bedroom, not the kitchen!

My new refridge-coolth-circulation-fan has arrived & is scheduled to be installed tomorrow.

Please wish it & the installer & me luck.

Landowner actually wanted to go for new fridge rather than repair; its because last time I had to wait 3 weeks for delivery that I begged for attempt at repair. If I owned living place *&* fridge I would opt for repair, to get me through the wait, *&* new fridge, because I no longer trust this one. And in that ideal world I'd get "take the door off/put it back on" service in order to get about 2 more cubic feet of internal space.

The people whose complaints I've been reading, on various makes of fridge, including Kenmores, flabbergast me. People, get real. Having your icemaker not work is not a calamity, though I understand you paid for that feature for some reason I can't fathom. Having no place to keep your food cold w/out frequent trips to the ice store is a calamity.

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Re: Do not get your fridge from Home Depot

#14 Post by ghostjmf » Fri Jun 30, 2017 4:53 pm

I am now getting ads for GE fridges in my facebook feed. I *had* been googling fridges, when I thought I might need a new one. I specifically had *not* been googling GE. I guess the reading of our messages by sponsorship spies has not been perfected yet; perusing this board or my e-mail should have discouraged GE. So they didn't get there. Yet.

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