My friend is looking for an American fridge freezer but is can't see the difference between one large shiny box and another, but there is a hell of a difference in price.
Any recommendations on quality brands? Maytag? Siemens? Do they offer more features and reliability or just a big price tag.
I know there are a lot of Bosch fans out there. Any other recommended makes for general kitchen appliances?
TIA Suzanne.
I have a Maytag. It is very solidly made and does all that is billed. Mine came with a 10 year warranty.
One thing to look at carefully is dimensions. Products for the U.S. market are typically larger than European sizes.
I've got a Maytag, but it's the one made (smaller) for European kitchens.
In this smaller model. What with the icemaker and water dispenser gubbins and the extra thick doors the freezer capacity is disappointing. Because of the tall narrow format one ready meal we bought wouldn't physically go in.
It dispenses water at room temperature (that came as an unwelcome surprise). The water seems to be tainted, I think by bugs growing on the inside surface of the plastic water lines, there is no proceadure for sanitizing them AFAIK.
The icemaker is a bit temperamental as it's prone to making "hollow" ice cubes, the cure seems to be to fine tune the freezer temp to suit the icemaker, it once froze right up solid and stopped producing cubes.
The shelves can drop out of the extra thick doors, that happened to us and a 4 pint bottle of milk burst on the kitchen floor. :-(
DG
The U.S. one is reasonably wide - certainly for our needs. We don't buy ready meals and tend to avoid convenience foods as well.
Don't have that problem. There is a heat exchanger in the fridge and water to the dispenser goes through that and is chilled at the door of the freezer.
Don't have that problem either, although it is important to replace the filter at the 6 month recommended intervals. I buy those in the U.S. as they are cheaper than here, but even so not hugely expensive.
Sounds like you need a service call. I get the expected semicircular lumps quite consistently, or crushed ice with a different button. There are separate controls for freezer and fridge sections plus another for the bottle container in the door and for each of the cooling drawers.
Oh dear. Haven't seen that. For the inside of the fridge I have all shelves with adjusting handle - they normally supply one of these and the rest fixed.
Expelair, Vent Axia.
That's the sort of arrangement I was expecting
Mine doesn't have a filter. We don't use the water dispenser very much probably 'cos it's warmer than tapwater, so water could well stay stagnant in the lines for a day or three. S'pose we could run it off for a bit before we used any to drink.
Hardly an acme of convenience.
I think it is affected by the airflow and hence on how the food is stacked / degree of fullness. My freezer is just 12" side to side internally.
I've only got one button for "Dispense" and a slider to select ice or water, which reminds me I have had a dispenser flap solenoid burn out. The service engineer said condensation can get in and freeze the flap shut, apparently it's normal for the user then to just stand there with their finger on the button 'till the solenoid burns out. :-)
Guess what? No adjusting handle.
The shelves in my door are very loose / clumsy nearly a cm. of play side to side.
Looks like our friends at Maytag took a good product and wrecked it when they changed it for the European market cutting corners and not adequately testing the consequences of the changes.
Mine was £1550 from Allders with a 5 year warranty. :-(
DG
Maytag stuff is nothing special, despite Merkin protests to the contrary.
Their dishwashers are pretty good, by US standards. Almost as good as my UK Hotpoint.......
Is that "damning with faint praise"?
Owain
I suppose that they must have removed that piece.
No it isn't. I guess that the design changed for the European market.
Not that narrow, but the ducting is separate.
I have a stainless steel spiral that is motor driven and directs the cubes from the tray to the front. There is then a separate button to do the same and crush the ice if you want that.
It seems as though this is done to a price point which is a shame. The U.S. ones aren't fancy in the Italian sense, but quite solidly engineered and work.
Price point is £2000-2500
Yup.
Hardy har har.
My Mum has a Maytag dishwasher. It's cack compared to my Bosch.
I've come across this a great deal in my professional capacity with the Americans.
They see their gear being sold over here at about the same in GBP as in USD in the US (and then plus vat !). They think "they are all thieves" not realising we have shipping, import duties, and import vat to pay in advance, plus currency exchange costs, and UK customers will not accept a machine shipped to a loading bay, they want it placed on site, where they want it, installed and commissioned, up and running.
Not forgetting they have an export sales office which has to earn it's existence by generating export sales at a premium price.
I came across a "Kelvinator" blood bank fridge with an internal domestic quality "wall wart" power supply charging the alarm batteries, which had melted to a "Horror Movie" Blob because of the
50Hz in the UK.Implies about USD 1750 in the states.
:-(
DG
Yes, although US dishwashers work using the high temperature shot blast principle.
I've looked at Maytag dishwashers, washing machines and dryers in the US and wouldn't buy those in preference to European products like Miele.
Fridges and freezers I'd pitch vs. Liebherr and might buy a Liebherr rather than a Maytag fridge freezer next time, although it's not a "slam dunk" as the Americans say.
That principle hasn't changed for a generation.
By 'American' do you mean one with double doors and maybe an ice maker? - or one made in the US and maybe uses 110v?
If the former I suggest that your friend considers the Samsung products.
The exact dimensions, and how easily you can get in into a house maybe important considerations!
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