Fridge Freezers - makes?

[Tim Watts]

Any of these worth avoiding?

Liebherr Candy Smeg

I have to help someone choose a new FF - and sadly it's integrated and with all the limitations (60/40 spilt, 545mm or less appliance width, door sliders coupling to cabinet door rather than door-on-door) there are it seems 3 choices from one particular seller.

The one I assume is best is Liebherr.

Smeg I've read is all form over function. Candy I assume is the cheap option...

Do I have that about right?

Myself - I have a Miele free standing FF which is great. However the Miele option (from another supplier) is so insanely expensive, it is not even funny.

On an aside - current unit is a door slider coupling (cabinet door is hinged normally, opening that pulls the fridge door open via a sliding bracket).

Can this be adapted to a door-on-door FF by simply removing the cabinet hinges or is it more subtle?

Cheers

Tim

[Broadback]

As I am in the process off fridge/freezer hunting I am also interested. It seems to me that the only retailer that still exists is Curry's, in this area (Stoke on Trent) at least, otherwise it means a trip to a larger conurbation where there are major stores like John Lewis.

[Tim Watts]

Our John Lewis do not have an integrated appliances to show - and as nothing on their website seems to fit the specific hold I have, I'm looking at:

who I've used before. They do have a human who asnwers the phone and a good parametric search.

Damn integrated appliances - exactly why I am designing the kitchen at the house I'm slowly fixing to have non of that nonsense - just makes buying and changing 10 times harder.

Washing machins and dishwashers probably not too bad - the former only has one size and the latter 2 sizes that I know off.

Fridges (at least more than 10 years old) and hobs have about 20 billionty size variations.

[Richard]

Have you looked at ao.com? Have not used them myself, no need yet, but have heard that they are quite good.

[Bob Eager]

I used them when we bought a freezer last month (a Bosch).

Ordered early one morning for delivery next morning (paid £19.99 to ensure that). Got email updates. Target 0700-1200 slot.

On the morning, text at 0620 giving me a 2 hour slot. Then an automated call at 0630 giving an overlapping 2 hour slot, reduicing it to 0700-0800.

Knock on door at 0700 - they had been waiting up the road for 20 minutes!

Unloaded and gone in 10 minutes having unpacked it and placed where i wanted (in the middle of the floor as I needed to reverse the door). Door reversed before 0800 and breakfast consumed. Job Done.

Follow up phone call from carriers at 1000.

[djc]

Liebherr is what I have. They manufacture them for Miele.

See above your Miele is actually made by Liebherr!

[Tim Watts]

Thanks :)

I wonder why the equivalent Miele model is so much more...

[John Rumm]

IIRC Miele FFs are made by Liebherr anyway...

[John Rumm]

I used them (in their AppliancesOnline.co.uk guise for Samsung FF - they seemed pretty good, and preferrable to any of the direct cowboys who are a tad lower than carpet underlay level in my book!

[John Rumm]

Same reason you pay more for a Audi than the VW or Skoda variant of the same platform.

[mike]

A relative's Liebherr FF was repaired four times in its first four years. Not what I'd expect for the price it cost.

[Richard]

Where did you find that information? Admittedly the stuff in my link is from wikipedia, but I cannot find (in the short time I've tried) a better source.

[The Natural Philosopher]

+1 for Liebherr. I have a builtin fridge with freezer comp at top.

10 years old now, not expensive at the outset, and I've broken (WE have broken...) three shelves on the door, and had spares off them first of all free, and subsequently at very low money with good customer service.

Only hassle was they didn't deliver the last set of shelves immediately. I emailed the girl back and said 'I hope you have a good excuse' she emailed back with a link saying 'is this good enough'

Fire had totally destroyed UK warehouse :-)

Notwithstanding she escalated the order to top priority and I got the parts ahead of everyone else a few days later.

Its not quite Miele quality of total bombproofness - its still a shade plasticky inside BUT the build quality is perceptibly higher than the average white goods.

>

[Tim Watts]

I went for a Liebherr in the end.

The choices were really limited (perhaps artificially - the parametric web search on the supplier's site was not perfect adn I might have missed a couple of other ones that would have fitted if I had known to look at the dimensions diagram.

On a +1 vote -

do have a good website

- many of the fridges have the manufacturer's dimensions diagram on the product page, zoomable enough to be readable.

[Peter Johnson]

Ref ao.com

I had two good experiences with their 'ordinary' next day delivery a couple of months ago. Both were Sunday deliveries, one on a bank holiday weekend. Delivery guys were helpful and friendly, put things where I wanted. Prices were good, I'd go back to them. (I looked at their site because I'd read that they are causing Currys some grief in attracting business from them.)

[Chris J Dixon]

Indeed, I used them recently for a freezer. They had demo videos of the ones I was interested in, which was quite useful.

Chris

[dennis]

The last one I bought was cheapest at tesco. They also were giving an extra £35 worth of clubcard points which I doubled in their event to get £70 off a sale priced TV.

[Chris French]

Yup, I had another good experience with them when I bought a dishwasher about a year ago.

Delivery (the deliver on a specified day did go as planned) all went smoothly.

Good CS as well. The day after I ordered, Bosch announced a cashback deal (£75 quid off) I rung them up expecting to have to cancel it and reorder to get the cashback. But they offered keep the existing order and to refund £75 back to my card, which suited me even more (and I got to also get the 6 months free dishwasher tabs from the previous promotion)

[djc]

I can't remember now. Before I bought the Liebherr I did a lot of research, sufficient to satisfy myself that it was true. I do remember comparing a Liebherr and Miele side by side in John Lewis and concluding that they certainly came out of the same factory.

[alan_m]

+1 Competitive pricing and they delivered within the agreed time slot with a text message first thing in the morning to say that the item was on the truck and another saying they were 30 minutes away.