Refrigerator buying advice - what brands/models have been reliable for you ?

 We have a french door Amana that is six years old.  We didn't get the water and ice, just one more thing to break down. My favorite feature on ours is the big shelf at the bottom that will hold a giant party platter.  I also love the way the bottom freezer is designed, the baskets are perfectly positioned in my opinion.  I'm really happy with it and with the company, the compressor gave out 2 months after the warranty expired and Amana still replaced it for free!  And the repair guy did it that very day.  One thing he did tell me was that the life expectancy of a refrigerator is right around 12 years.  The downside of the energy efficiency is the big motors on our mom's refrigerators are no more.  The newer ones have smaller ones that use less electricity but also don't last nearly as long.

We have an Arctic Air glass front reach-in.  There is, I'm sure, some thermal loss with the glass door, but it makes the kitchen more efficient.

We bought a Kenmore Elite (it's actually made by LG) 25 cf fridge two years ago  and have nothing but good to say about it.

 

Everything you've described: French doors, large bottom freezer, fully adjustible shelves that slide out, etc. It's designed to provide outside water and has an automatic ice maker, but we never hooked those up.

Modern refrigerators suck.

 

It's only been the last 10-15 years or so that it's become economical to ship refrigerators over the oceans. You were essentially shipping big boxes of empty air which was not economical. Haier changed that. And everyone else had to compete in a new marketplace.

 

The lifespan of a good modern refrigerator is 7-9 years, a bit beyond what an extended warranty will get you. Sure, there are individual exceptions. Just budget it's replacement starting in about 7 years and the cost of the contents you'll lose. At that point, the necessary repairs are usually about the same as a new fridge.

 

All that said, LG gets pretty good reviews, particularly for their price.

I constantly ask my refrig repair guys at work. It changes once in a while but the last few times they have all reco LG as far as fridge and American Standard as far as A/C  Train and Ameriacan standard are mayfactured by same company and except for outside cover and label they all claim the same even though American Standard cost less(less Advertising Money Spent)