American Style Fridges

LiamG

Hi Guys

Quick question(s) - anyone have experience of buying these? Why do they seem to be far more expensive than "normal" fridges and is it worth the extra cost?

Thanks

Dr.Feelgood

They are massive-
Some have ice-dispensers and filtered cooled water options-

Expense comes from the cost of manufacturing things-

Costs a lot more to put one of thos together than your regular daewoo fridge freezer-

Plus they sell less- and are seen as a wealthy persons fridge-

i'd love one- they are cool- my mate has one- you could live in it

prospect

They also use something like 5 times the electricity!!!

Dr.Feelgood

Thats outrageous

Alun

prospect wrote:

They also use something like 5 times the electricity!!!

Really? An American fridge might use much more juice than a European one, since the yanks aren't into all this A-energy rating stuff like we are.

I've done some comparisons of my own based on manufacturers' sppecifications and found that the size of the fridge doesn't have as much of an impact on energy consumption as you might think. Most of the table-height fridges I looked at had an energy consumption of about 150kWh per year, and the biggest full height ones around 190 kWh, so hardly five times as much!

lomb

buy an A rated LG or samsung american fridge and never look back. dont buy an amana, or any other american brand. they arent that dear tbh. alot cheaper now than before say 1000 euro for a nice one.

Rabies

We have one at our house. So much room. Two types of ice dispensed, cube or crushed. Chilled water dispenser. Huge fridge space and decent size frezzer space. Big machines, we needed to take the back door of it's hinges to get it in the house.
It is a Whirpool, cost about E2,000

lomb

Rabies wrote:

It is a Whirpool, cost about E2,000

good brand also 8 year full parts warranty. labour if called out is only 60 euro. the price has tumbled recently. that 2 grand one would cost u 1100 today......
still u need the space to put one in, and with the size of places these days..............

Rabies

It is about a year old at this stage. The warranty is very good with Whirlpool. We had a problem with the water dispenser soon after we got it, the ice maker was freezing the water going to the dispenser for some reason. Free unit was sent out once the tech checked it out. Very good service.

prospect

Alun wrote:

Really? An American fridge might use much more juice than a European one, since the yanks aren't into all this A-energy rating stuff like we are.

I've done some comparisons of my own based on manufacturers' sppecifications and found that the size of the fridge doesn't have as much of an impact on energy consumption as you might think. Most of the table-height fridges I looked at had an energy consumption of about 150kWh per year, and the biggest full height ones around 190 kWh, so hardly five times as much!

Dunno myself, but we enquired when buying our kitchen stuff and the sales guy warned us of that, which was weird as he could have made a much higher value sale.
He said he had too many customers come back complaining. I believe they have a motor (or whatever) for ach compartment, and extra lighting, and water pumps for the ice makers, and seperate motors for freezing ??
But this is just the info i kinda remember the salesman telling us.

Alun

prospect wrote:

Dunno myself, but we enquired when buying our kitchen stuff and the sales guy warned us of that, which was weird as he could have made a much higher value sale.
He said he had too many customers come back complaining. I believe they have a motor (or whatever) for ach compartment, and extra lighting, and water pumps for the ice makers, and seperate motors for freezing ??
But this is just the info i kinda remember the salesman telling us.

OK, the ones I looked into didn't have the water cooler or ice maker, they were just huge fridges without a freezer but I still doubt that these would contribute that much to the power usage. In any case, the freezer, whether combined into the same unit, or separate would still need its own compressor, so it's a bit unfair to compare a simple fridge to a fridge/freezer combo on that point.

Anyway, returning to the original question, one thing I'd be concerned about would be plumbing the thing in for the ice maker /water cooler. In our kitchen there's no water connection anywhere near the area where the current fridge and freezer are, so it could be a major job getting water there.

prospect

Alun wrote:

it's a bit unfair to compare a simple fridge to a fridge/freezer combo on that point

Woe there,
What?

The question is whether to get an American style fridge or a standard one? So this HAS to be taken into account.
American fridge = More expensive to run
Standard fridge = Less expensive to run (esp if you get an 'A' rated one)

Simple as that. (Fine I accept I don't understand the ins and outs of it, so 5 times is just a figure i got from a sales guy in the shop)

Alun

It all depends on what you define as a "standard" fridge, or an "American" fridge for that matter. It's quite possible to get a very large fridge (if that's what's meant by "American") without a freezer compartment at all. So it's important that we're comparing like with like when discussing energy usage.

yop

I see LG one in Currys for 799, not bad at all

prospect

Alun wrote:

It all depends on what you define as a "standard" fridge, or an "American" fridge for that matter. It's quite possible to get a very large fridge (if that's what's meant by "American") without a freezer compartment at all. So it's important that we're comparing like with like when discussing energy usage.

That is absoloutly true, good point.
I was just warning the OP though, cause some places will try and sell this amazing stuff, "Loads of extras" etc. etc., without warning you of the long term cost.

LiamG

Thanks for the replies

It is absolutely amazing the price differences I am getting over the net - ranging from under 1k to 4.5k! Obviously the stainless steel looks cool but when you bring it down to brass tacks you are paying for (a) the look (b) an ice maker/cold water dispenser (c) potentially more space but not necessarily

4.5k is a lot to pay for that if you ask me

prospect

Do you have a big family, i.e. a real need for such a big fridge?
I have a whirlpool fridge, about 1400 high, and it always looks empty, even when we do our monthly 'big' shop!
(Just me and the wife)

Macy

Have an LG American Fridge/ Freezer. Not that long in the house, but have to say one of my favourite gadgets (until we got the Sony Wega tele yesterday, obviously!), the ice maker/dispenser is just the coolest ( ) esp for a Bulmers drinker

No idea on the energy efficiency (it's A rated anyway), but was never warned about that. It could be possible that the people warning you off have had loads of trouble with not being able to get them in the house. Every call we made or recieved about the delivery we were always asked about whether we'd get it in the house (we have patio doors in the kitchen, so not a problem).

prospect

Macy wrote:

had loads of trouble with not being able to get them in the house

Feck :eek: , I would never have considered that.
I am glad i didn't get one now

Good thinking Macy.

MooShop

my parents bought one recently, it has a water/ice despenser, filter, and freezer, its enormous, definitely doesnt use 5 times more electricity, they are a great fridge, i think the one we got was a whirlpool for about 1300 (though there was an offer on, think we got something like 500 off, but if you have the need for one i'd say go for it

garyh3

Just got our LG Americal style into the house two weeks ago cost 1100 euros. Had to take the Kitchen door off though. Also the instruction tell you how to take the fridge doors off.

As for the plumming for the water you can go to eight meters as long as you have the pressure. The LG came with a good lenght of pipe and the filter which should to be changed every 6 months or so.

Took about 5 mins to install including the external filter. I Just put a double connector on the dishwasher outlet or I have seen the self tapping pipe connector (dont know how good they are?)

Garyh3

Stoner

lomb wrote:

buy an A rated LG or samsung american fridge and never look back. dont buy an amana, or any other american brand. they arent that dear tbh. alot cheaper now than before say 1000 euro for a nice one.

I agree, I have one for about 18 months cost 1200 at the time cheaper now, cold filtered water or ice its the biz (Lg), not heavy on juice at all, have to say that I'm just back from the US now after being there for a month and there is a misconception about the USA ignoring the environemnt, apart from their big cars ( that we'd get if they were as cheap here) they have cleaner streets, are big into the environement etc, recycling bins for paper and glass in the most remote places.

david4791

Did anybody consider or experience issues with the large American Fridges and the motor?. I was told the same size motor is in the American fridge as a normal fridge which will give issues in time as its cooling a larger area? any advice?

reilig

david4791 wrote: »

Did anybody consider or experience issues with the large American Fridges and the motor?. I was told the same size motor is in the American fridge as a normal fridge which will give issues in time as its cooling a larger area? any advice?

Ours has 2 separate motors, one for the fridge and one for the freezer. To be honest, the fridge compartment isn't much bigger than that of a standard 5ft high fridge, so i can't see how its cooling a larger area. The freezer size is great too.

david4791

What brand have you got?, which is best?

reilig

david4791 wrote: »

What brand have you got?, which is best?

Its a samsung. I honestly don't know which is best. Mine was cheapest at the time. €600 in Northern ireland.

yllw.ldbttr

Have a Samsung myself, bought it about 5 years ago when everything was even more overpriced than it is today!

For anyone who bought one, I think the Samsung OEM filter replacements are arounf €50, and they should be changed every 6 months,
I use a crowd called Pozzani (in theU UK), they sell generic filters at a fraction of the price.

http://www.pozzani.co.uk/

No affiliation to them, just a handy saving.

tipperary

Had heard of a few people having problems with their american fridge freezers when we were buying, including one friend whose water pipe leaked, flooding the whole downstrairs of the house! We went with separate freestanding fridge and freezer. Gives way more freezer storage space, but you do have to make do with ice cube trays! Another option worth considering if you have the space.