Sunday (09/18) Joe said he thought there might be something wrong with the refrigerator and I might want to start looking at new ones in case it died and sure enough, it died the next day (Monday 09/19). We ordered a few replacement parts off Amazon, but the more research Joe did, the more he was worried there could be too many possible culprits. Not only that, but the fridge is original to the home so it was 31 years old. Reluctantly, we agreed it was time to replace it.
In the meantime we were able to store some food in our friends’ spare fridge in her garage. That saved us from losing a lot of expensive meats in the freezer. Our fridge was quite large (25 cubit feet) and we kept it well stocked. Even with our friend’s help we had to throw out some food, although we did our best to eat whatever we could.
After dropping our food off, we went to Menards, Home Depot, and Lowes looking at refrigerators. We settled on a Frigidaire side-by-side in white ($1200) from Lowes and were able to secure a delivery date for that Wednesday.
Tuesday (09/20) night we got an automated call letting us know our delivery window was 3-7 the following day.
Wednesday (09/21) morning I got a call from a person saying they’d actually be by between 2 and 2:30. I relayed this info to Joe as he planned on working until noon and then coming home so we could move furniture around and he could disconnect the water line from the old fridge and take the front door off the hinges (the fridges are too large to fit through the back door even though that’s closer to the kitchen).
Well, at 9:30 am I got a call from the delivery guy saying he’d be there in an hour. Joe had to leave work immediately and scramble to prepare for the delivery. The water shut-off to our sink and fridge would not actually shut off and water was getting all over the floor. Joe ended up having to shut off the main water to the house. Also, the delivery guys didn’t actually show up until 45 minutes past the time they said they would.
Everything else went smoothly, although I wasn’t happy there was a small dent in the top right side the fridge that we would see easily since it’s right by the door to the laundry room & garage, but figured I could cover it with a magnet. The front of the fridge had some scratches right at eye level on both doors which was more annoying, but again, I could use magnets. I don’t know why the entire thing was wrapped in thick plastic if it could still get scratched, but whatever. Apparently even white fridges are a smooth texture these days which I don’t love. Our old one was textured and I liked that better because it hides imperfections. Now they are only textured on the sides but not the front.
The bigger issue, however, is that I quickly noticed a fan in the fridge never stopped running and it was pretty loud/annoying. I thought maybe after the initial 24 hours of it trying to get to the proper temperature it would only cycle on and off when needed but that never happened. In fact, it ran 24/7 except for when it was in defrost mode for twenty minutes (which only happened twice since being installed) or when you’d open one of the doors. I could hear the damn thing everywhere, even upstairs in bed. It was making me so anxious I lost my appetite.
Thursday (09/22) I spent all day talking to the manufacturer, reading about refrigerators, and talking to repair people just to ascertain whether what I was hearing was normal. Frigidaire customer service was less helpful than two repair people who told me modern refrigerators tend to be louder because a) they aren’t insulated as much as older ones and b) many run continuously to take load off the compressor. In fact, a sales person at ABT told me not to get a fridge that is Energy Star rated if I didn’t want to hear it running 24/7. The one we picked out was in fact Energy Star rated. Ugh!
Lowes only gives you 48 hours to return an item you’re unhappy with, so I agonized all day whether I thought I could eventually get used to the racket of the fridge or if we should have them take it back and buy something else at ABT since they offer a 30 day guarantee which would give us more time to adjust to things. After a lot of back and forth, we decided to proceed with the latter, and went to Lowes that evening to look at fridges again and request our refund. We also stopped at Costco for some bottled water since we knew we’d be without filtered water for awhile.
Friday (09/23) we went to Home Depot again because they actually have some of their fridges plugged in and running so you can listen to them. By this point I had looked at refrigerators for two days and had a list of three top contenders – one Whirlpool and two GEs. We hadn’t considered GE initially because they don’t sell the size we want in white and both the stove and dishwasher are white. We decided maybe it was time to switch to stainless steel and that expanded our options. The ABT guy I spoke with cautioned against GE and suggested Whirlpool, but after listening to both at Home Depot, I found the GE to be quieter with a deeper (pitch wise) sounding fan that I didn’t find obnoxious, plus I was able to confirm it cycles on and off by looking at the user manual. Not only that, but the Whirlpool was considered special order which meant we’d be without a fridge for weeks and would have to pay a restocking fee if we didn’t like it.
Saturday (09/24) the same guys who had installed the fridge came back to pick it up. Just like before we were given a window of 3-7 and then that morning they called to say they would be by between 11-1. They arrived right around 11 and were in and out quickly. At this point I was feeling regretful that we gave up on the old fridge so quickly and was sad knowing it was probably sitting in a landfill somewhere.
We decided to go to a different Home Depot and look at the two GEs on the top of my list. Neither were actually running (they were on in what’s called demo mode so you could see the lighting inside) and we kept walking back and forth between the two trying to decide which we liked better. We hadn’t been able to listen to the one I preferred so we decided to drive up to ABT on Sunday to look at them in person.
Sunday (09/25) morning we arrived at ABT before their official opening time of 10:30 but they were already open so we headed inside and went straight to the fridges. We saw the one GE we had heard before but it wasn’t fully running. We asked the sales guy who approached us if it was possible to turn it on and he went to find out. While he did that, we kept looking for the other model GE and lo and behold it was sitting all by itself in the next row, on and fully running so we could put our ear next to it.
It did seem kinda loud when you opened the freezer door, but not once you closed it, which was just like our old fridge so I was ok with that. That cemented our decision to get that model. Bonus – it was cheaper by $179 than the other one we didn’t like as much. We tracked down our sales person and ordered it. I also mentioned the guy I spoke to on the phone so he’d get sales credit too. They said because we were without a fridge and didn’t need one hauled away, or the water to be hooked up (Joe will do it), they could bump us up in the queue and get it delivered on Wednesday (09/28). Initially they were going to charge us $79 for delivery but when I mentioned the guy on the phone told me it was free they immediately waived that fee.
Wednesday (09/28) the new fridge was delivered.
I was concerned when they didn’t remove the doors from the fridge, or take the front door off the hinges (Joe was at work), but it fit and everything was fine. Whew! The guys were nice and took their time. They even put booties on their feet (the guys from Lowes didn’t) and made sure to level out the fridge. I didn’t see any dents or scratches on it which was a relief.
I immediately like the fridge more than the one we returned. For one, it’s brighter inside. The other one only had a single light in the middle top whereas this one has two at the top plus one on the side near the bottom. Also the fan noise is more soothing.
Can we talk about how ABT handles deliveries? They send a text in the morning with a link that updates where you are in the delivery queue which includes a live map of the truck’s whereabouts. The driver also called me around the same time I got the text, and then he called again when they were 20 minutes away. I love that! I think we’ll be using ABT for all our future appliance orders.
This morning (Thursday 09/29) I went shopping at Aldi to pick a few things and then to our friend’s house to collect our food. Holy crap, we have waaayyy too many chicken breasts! Gonna have to make some crockpot meals to use some up. The bins I was using in the old freezer don’t fit in this new one (they did in the Frigidaire, sigh) due to how GE designed the ability to adjust shelving. Why they didn’t use little holes in the side instead of making the internal molding stick out into the space, I don’t know. It’s a bit annoying, but I guess that’s the tradeoff to having more options for shelve placement. As a result, we aren’t going to be able to fit as much in this new fridge in either compartments. Oh yea, and the bins on the fridge door don’t hold as much. It’s funny, because all three fridges are 25 cubit feet but it’s all about usable space, and that varies. We were spoiled with the old fridge and will have to adjust our expectations, and buying habits, moving forward. Not the end of the world.
That being said, this new fridge, while quieter fan-wise (which doesn’t run 24/7), is making a high pitch noise which I can only assume has to do with the refrigerant inside. I’m hoping once it’s broken in it might get quieter. It’s not as annoying as the Frigidaire, but I don’t love it. Unfortunately from everything I’ve read there’s little chance any new fridge will be as quiet as I would prefer. I think we might put some noise absorbing panels on the wall behind the unit to see if that helps.
Speaking of the wall, Joe had to rip out the cabinet above the old fridge because all the new fridges were too tall to fit in the space with it there. It was scraping the top of the old fridge as it was. Not a big deal since we didn’t keep much in it due to how inconvenient it was to access it. He was pissed when he took it down, though, because the contractors who built this place punched holes in the drywall looking for the studs.
So he had to patch that, and we were left with this crazy wall of colors – the bare white drywall, the backsplash extending onto the wall, the painted over blue the former owners didn’t put enough coats of paint on, and the green we chose but didn’t put on the entire wall because we didn’t move the old fridge as it was heavy.
He patches the holes and we decided to extend the color from the backsplash onto the wall, except they don’t make that paint anymore. So we found a close match at Home Depot by the same name – Queen Anne’s Lace, and he took care of that yesterday morning so the wall would be ready when the new fridge came.
Now we plan to use that color to paint over the green above as well to help brighten up the space.
What a fiasco! It was only a week and a half but it felt much longer. You don’t realize how much you depend on having a working refrigerator until you don’t have one. I’m glad that’s over.
Interesting observation – the Frigidaire we ended up returning was plugged in and running at both Home Depots we visited. In one it was so loud you could hear it down the aisle and in the other it was actually quiet. So I’m not sure if there’s a quality control issue with them or what. Reading reviews of all refrigerators is so frustrating because for every model you have some people saying it’s so quiet they can barely hear it while you have others complaining how loud it is. I can’t help but wonder how much perception factors in, or maybe even location. My friend’s main fridge is in an alcove so that might sound proof it more than ours which is free-standing, although we could build around it if we really wanted to. I can’t help but think it’s a crap shoot on whether you get a loud or quiet model. Such a stressful experience!